BLUECOAT OR OTHER OPTIONS

[Lockdownmum21]

We are in knowsley and whilst our son has a few years to go we are not confident in secondary schools within knowsley. Doing some research shows bluecoats being an obvious one although what are people's experience as some chat seems quite negative. I see on some threads that other schools are mentioned in Liverpool for exams but can only see girls schools are there any for cooed or boys. Also can anyone recommend schools of a good standard should exam route not be an option that would be within knowsley catchment as listening to some families they are not even getting any of their third choices.
Apologies for the long post or ignorance but obviously just trying to get a feel for things as we don't know the areas. any advice gratefully received. Tia

It’s been a few years now so not sure if I’ve missed the boat but you said your son had a few years to go. I’d just like to share some information on the school as a fairly recent ex student of the school. If you want your child to go to a school with a nice environment, do not send them to Blue Coat. The atmosphere is horrible - the kids are all competitive to the point of bullying anyone for getting something wrong in class. The SLT don’t care about anything or anyone. They bully the staff (just look at recent news, literally the police being called to union/SLT meetings because of violence). They see the kids as grade numbers and nothing more. The teachers are fed up and this rightly so affects their teaching. The students have reported “relations” going on in school hours between staff members, visibly - and there have been relationships between students and teachers before too. A caretaker killed themselves on school grounds. A teacher admitted during an assembly to killing someone when drunk driving. The school is an absolute mess. I became a shell of who I was while I was there and the best thing I did was leave and go to a different place for sixth form (and no I wasn’t one of the students who was “encouraged” to leave because I got bad GCSE grades - yes that does happen). I really urge you to consider other schools.