Carleton House v/s Merchant Taylors v/s Liverpool College

[Rozendeva]

Hi Everyone,

I had no idea before this how much of a hard work it is to select a school for kids! But am in a bit of a fix regarding LO's schooling. Its a tough call between the three schools mentioned above. All of them have Nursery and I really need to make up my mind in the next few days on which one to go with. Will also be visiting them shortly.

I am wondering if anyone here has had any experience with any of the three schools mentioned above? thoughts please? it will just help me see them in perspective , particularly thoughts from people who have lived in merseyside for a while and know the school's reputation as well .

Please help this lost soul out :)

Liverpool College is no longer private & unless your LO already has a sibling there, is looked after (or previously looked after) or has a letter from God herself they won't get in.
Carelton House has good reports & is well thought of locally with a significant number of children going on to Blue Coat etc but Merchants has the benefit of being a 3-18 setting which means that they have continuity of education.
There are rumours afoot about Merchants going academy though.
TBH primary education in Liverpool is all very good (with a few notable exceptions) - its just secondaries that are an issue here.
PM me if you want more advice, I'm very good on primary education in Liverpool

Merchants is the more academic, although since my DCs were there it has gone to 3 form entry. Liverpool College was posh but not very selective academically. My DCs got places there but I chose Merchants simply on A level results. Carlton house is prep only and posh but I am not sure how academic it is. Carlton House and Liverpool College are in the south end of the city whereas Merchants is in the north...in Crosby.
Merchants is single sex they have a boys school and a girls school very close to each other. Both have good facilities and a good record for games. The girls gets better results at A level. They co operate for the likes of drama productions and in the 6th form. Liverpool College is now mixed.

Hi

Name changed to post. I know the feeling, it was the hardest decision we ever had to make and such a huge one!

Our daughter ended up at Merchants. We looked at Liverpool College, but didn't like the nursery as it was cluttered and seemed to have lots of worksheets, just felt uncared for, but we loved the Junior School. This was three years ago, so it my have changed. However, since then it is an academy, so glad really we didn't go there. Never looked at Carleton House, so can't comment.

Merchants has been fantastic, I can't tell you how impressed we have been. They have grown substantially in the last couple of years and quite a few children have come in from the adjacent St Mary's, which has applied for Free School status, although there is some conflict between the school and archdiocese on this. They have also taken from two other independents in the area that have closed, but this has reassured us for the future.

I would be interested to know where the rumour of MTGS becoming an academy is from, as I have been told my the Head herself, this was not in their future and that the schools plan going forward is to continue with the refurb and remain as they are.

Stanfield (junior and mixed infants) has recently undergone a huge refurbishment and all the reception classes are brand new spaces and very impressive. However, a second part of the refurb has started and will be finished at Christmas. This will mean a couple of months of disruption, but the first part was fine, the children have been involved and the school used it as a big learning experience and if that was anything to go by, it won't really impact too much.

The structure of the learning, the ethos of encouraging and empowering is brilliant, any problems we have had have been addressed immediately.

Not sure if you have a boy or girl, but girls stay at Stanfield until Yr6, but boys go to the Boys School in Yr3, we were happy our dd was staying, although they do a lot of preparation for the boys going down the road.

I have been surprised by the parents too, I thought they may all be a bit too 'posh' for us, but not at all, we have made some lovely friends.

Go see it, meet Miss Yardley, she is wonderful and her appetitive for fun and learning is infectious!

Sorry, that all sounds a bit gushing - I am not on the payroll honestly!

I also realise I haven't even mentioned about academic results, probably because we want our dd to enjoy school and try her best. But I believe the results are excellent!

Thanks everyone , really appreciate all the detailed info shared here and will certainly help me make up my mind.

Why is it that Carleton isnt much popular amongst the masses ? despite them being able to send more kids to Blue Coat, is there a reason other then them being classed as a hot house?

I think for us it was the fact that we could progress onto the Senior School without a change and go right through to A Levels. Also the reputation that MTGS has.

To be honest, I hadn't heard of Carleton House until we moved schools and a couple of people mentioned it. I knew Liverpool College because DP had been there and MTGS through reputation of being very good in the area.

We also looked at Tower College near St Helens, but they didn't go right through to A's either and the head was a little snooty for us!

Best of luck, I don't envy you, one of the hardest decisions we had to make, but we were moving from a local state so probably more stressful.

By the way, Merchants don't have a nursery, they start at reception. I know most of DD's class went to St Mary's nursery next door and then moved, so lots of them knew each other already.

Thanks so much again Fairy , really appreciate all your time and help.

I looked at the website again and yes you are right they dont do nursery , so basically they start with reception?

How does Merchant Taylors score nationally reputation wise ? is it considered a good school just in the area , merseyside or is it recognized so nationally as well?

Carleton house , use to be known as beechenhurst when my child went there for nursery and was a lovely warm friendly environment. The then owner was very supportive of our child helping with us applying for statement for child's needs at that time . They where happy to allow physio and speech therapist into school and even continued the work program's that where set up with different groups of other children.

The owner has since died , and school sold by his family to another which is now Carleton house . I don't know if they kept any of the teachers on , but there was a few very good teachers back them , although things change a lot over time .

There still no harm in looking at it as a school , and to get a large proportion of there kids into blue coat , there doing something's well.
The schools also in a lovely area , has nice building , next to park , so can have bit down time with friends after school in the summer. They also use to have a before and after school club for working parents .

We have a child at Merchants and can't fault it.

I am not from the area, but had heard of it before we moved. I am not sure where they are in the league tables, but they do get excellent results.

The children all seem to be full of confidence too!