School tours/visits? Schools in Liverpool?

[MyJollyOtter]

Hello! We are moving from abroad to Liverpool, and struggling to sort out schools for our child. She is currently primary school age. In the US, visiting/touring a school before signing up for it is common-- is this the case in the UK as well? She is older than Reception age. It would be great to visit a school before selecting it, but understand if schools are chosen more via word of mouth, reviews, reputation, location, etc instead.
Additionally, if anyone has any rave reviews (or the opposite!) of schools in Liverpool (either city centre or South Liverpool), I would love to hear to them!
Thank you so much!!!!

You mean St Nicholas formally ELSA? That school has a terrible reputation!

Not anymore. Flying high.

Good luck on your search OP!

I really liked LIPA primary when we viewed it. Again it has a small catchment but my friends have kids there and rate it highly. I think they keep stalling on LIPA secondary but this may have resolved now.

What put me off the primary was that the playground is essentially a former underground carpark that runs parallel to a very busy main road. I think the air quality must be absolutely appalling for the kids playing out.

Everywhere in town is commutable by bus and train so you don’t need to be close to the centre to get to places. Same for north Wirral (which has more green space and arguably better school options).

Popular places to live are Aigburth, Allerton, Garston is on the up, Woolton is very nice but super high crime rate as lots of things to rob there. We avoided it as not keen on home invasion. Nice Sainsbury’s though. Baltic Triangle is great fun of a weekend but less than ideal for raising a family I’d say. Sefton Park/Lark Lane is gorgeous and St Michaels is a great primary in the heart of it. You’d need to check the Calderstones catchment very carefully of considering this option as it’s moving increasingly out of Aigburth Vale.

I’ll stop now. I feel like Liverpool admissions could be my specialist topic for mastermind.

@Redlarge oh thank you for these post codes! Super helpful. We would really love to be in an area with things going on.

@Upinthenightagain Thank you so much! Wirral seems to be highly recommended. We'll check it out for sure. I haven't looked at Allerton or Woolton at all, so I'll definitely add these to the list to investigate.

Seriously, this thread has been massively helpful! Thank you so, so much to everyone. I've been so stressed about figuring out a school for my daughter, and a neighborhood for us to live in, and you have all saved me from staring blankly at my out of control spreadsheet of schools!

Calderstones school has been in needs improvement status for years. Its absolutely huge too 2700 pupils.

@Redlarge St Nicks is a shithole!

And yes Calderstones is massive and has its issues but the choices are limited for Agnostics and Athiests whose kids aren’t destined for bluecoat.

Another vote for St. Michael's in the Hamlet in Aigburth here. Both my dds went there. Sudley is also a good school.

When looking at secondaries, Arch Bishop Blanch and St Hilda's are good.

I dont think it is. Nor does ofsted. Its got good accross the board which is more than childwall, sfx, st margarets, st hildas and calderstones Very small school with excellent pastoral care and out of school links and activities. But everyone has their own criteria.

St Michael's and sudley are great schools.

@RoadToPlants I'm so thrilled Liverpool admissions could be your specialist topic for mastermind, because this is such incredibly helpful info. Thank you!! This playground situation sounds rather bleak, and not something I knew about. The one parent we spoke to with a kid at LIPA also rated it highly, so it's been on our list for awhile, but I'll have to think about that playground situation.

Everywhere in town being commutable by bus and train sounds like an absolute dream. Thank you so much for this neighborhood list!!! St Michals has seemed like a pretty solid option in our research from afar; sounds like we have some Calderstones catchment research to do. We will definitely be checking out these other neighborhoods as well!! Thank you again!!

@MyJollyOtter I went to a good secondary ( one of the church ones) and I seem to remember that a lot of the ‘nice kids’ went to Sudley. I’ve just checked the ofsted and looks like they’re outstanding. It’s in Aigburth which also had some nice parts. Rudston primary might be worth looking at as well.

@Redlarge thank you for this Calderstones info!! This is good to be aware of.

@DetOliviaBenson St Michael in the Hamlet looks pretty great on paper, so thank you for confirming this!! Sudley hasn't been on my radar, I'll check it out. Thank you so much! I'll check out both these secondaries as well.

@Upinthenightagain Aigburth is absolutely going on the neighborhoods to check out list. Thank you so much for this info!! Definitely going to check out Sudley and Rudston Primary!!

Thank you again SO much everyone!!

If you manage to get her King David primary (it's a Jewish school but accept kids of all faiths that live within catchment area) then she will automatically get into the secondary school which is one of the best in the city. It's in Childwall. You would need a baptism certificate and reference from a religious leader. In terms of non religious secondary schools Gateacre Comp has really improved the last few years and has excellent pastoral care and SEN provision. Other areas you may not have looked at are Prescot or St Helens - not sure on the schools there but they are still close to Liverpool with good public transport links.

St Mary's is definitely a better shout these days. Has a good rep. Some great schools in Sefton if you're prepared to cast your net wider.

My ds attends Lipa Sixth Form college . A tiny percentage of applicants are given places each year, the standard is very high and you have to be extremely talented in your craft. Is Lipa Primary not the same ir can any go?

I love Liverpool, but be warned the accent is pretty hard to understand until you get used to it.

I hope you manage to find the right school, it's so difficult to choose.

@Bbq1 This is really good information about Lipa Sixth Form college! Thank you! Lipa primary is open to anyone, based on what I've heard, though I know the catchment area is rather small.

@SunsetFire oh that's so kind. Thank you :) It is so difficult to choose!

@thecrispfiend oh this is such good intel! Thank you so much for this. We will absolutely look into King David. And new areas to check out as well! Adding them to the list. Thank you!!

@Bbq1 Thank you for this St Mary's info! Sounds like a lot of people are recommending Sefton. Seems like we should definitely cast a wider net than anticipated. Thank you!

How did you get on, @MyJollyOtter ? I grew up in Sefton and moved back here a couple of years ago - the schools were a big pull for us!

@CakeIsNotAvailable thank you so much for asking!! We really loved Liverpool when we visited a couple weeks ago. So that was great since we had already committed to the move. We unfortunately were unable to visit any schools (looking for housing ended up taking over basically the entire trip), but I wrote down pretty much every school mentioned on this thread, and contacted all of them. So thank you Mumsnet!! Sudley Primary and Lipa Primary frontrunners at the moment; no idea how to pick between them.

When we moved to Liverpool we hired relocation person who looked for us a house and school in good area. University of Liverpool paid the service. We looked houses around Sudley and Rudston . We decided the latter. Rudston's is a nice school and dc did well there. No problems. Childwall is nice area with good bus connection to city centre.

Lots of nice primary schools but agree secondary is a different kettle of fish.

Some nice south Liverpool primary schools to look into but no idea on the likelihood of them having space in yr 3:

• Mosspits
• Gilmore
• Springwood
• Dovedale
• Greenbank
• Our Lady of Good Help
• Wavertree C of E

The last two are Christian schools but usually undersubscribed so don't think a church background is necessary in that case.

Would you look as far as Chester? Great and easy commute into Liverpool by train or car, a lovely Roman city and lots of great schools. Are you looking at private (fee paying) or state schools (paid by the government which is the vast majority).

@popoti wow that's amazing! We'll look into a relocation person. Thanks for this info!

@WeightoftheWorld oooo thank you for this list of schools! Some of these I have not contacted yet, so I'll check these out.

@Neveragainisaid haven't looked as far as Chester yet (though it sounds lovely). We're hoping to do a state school, but are open to private.