Birkdale School Sheffield

[Kevinthechristmascarrot]

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of Birkdale senior school now there is a new headteacher? Experiences either good or bad be welcomed. We are looking for boys rather than girls but understand it is now mixed.

The thing is we don’t live in the catchment for those schools. Most important for me is some confidence building, no bullying, decent teaching.

What stands out really, is that Birkdale isn't really matching the local state schools, even with a larger budget, smaller class sizes and far fewer EAL, social, behavioural and emotional issues.

Have you found the teaching ok? / any bullying? Do the other kids come from all over or mainly near the school?

Teaching has been great, haven’t had any issues with bullying. Kids mainly localish, but spread over Sheffield. I’m not sure what others have seen but I just had a look at the 2025 results for A-level etc and they were good, seemed higher than Tapton from what I could tell but as our little one is only small I haven’t put as much research into that as I’m sure others have

Tapton, a state school usually outstrips Birkdale, a private school.

I live in Sheffield, and in S11.
People with money and high hopes for their children move into the catchment of High Storrs, Silverdale or Tapton, which are all better than the private schools. You then can sell your house and make your money back.

Mercia is a bit marmite, get results by overly strict and harsh conditions and stripping out the middle class bits of an education, the arts, sport etc. it's popular with families who feel their children need a lot of discipline, and has a high school refusal rate. I would avoid.

The private schools aren't very good as, IMO, the talented hard working children you would expect to go are at the local state schools, so they are full of out of area and children who have struggled elsewhere. I would save your money and focus on buying in s11 or s10

https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/the-best-state-secondary-school-in-england-according-to-gcse-results-090325

High Storrs also voted best state schools in the country by Time out recently

I always think for the kids at High Storrs the walk to school must be lovely. I see them walking through Forge Dam and Whitley Woods.

Indeed. That's significant, bearing in mind that Tapton don't have as much money as Birkdale, have larger class sizes, integrate the visually impaired, integrate asylum seekers, support looked after children and children on managed moves, and integrate and support children with significant emotional, social and behavioural problems. (Same with every other non selective state school).
That Birkdale is outshone by the local state schools speaks volumes.

It’s the same head at High Storrs who got Tapton the same thing about 10 years ago.

She is absolutely brilliant.

Watching with interest! You weren't by any chance originally planning to send to MSM were you? If so we are in a similar boat but have a DD. We have looked around Sheffield Girls (which i appreciate isn't an option for you) but we are now considering Spinkhill primary with the hope of getting into St Mary's. Which is state but ofsted outstanding and Spinkhill is a parish school. Catholic though so might not be what you're looking for.

Do you mean Mount St Mary's College, Spinkhill?
Didn't that recently close?

You're right MSM closed which was our original plan, but my latter reference was to St Mary's Catholic High School in Chesterfield which is still open and doing amazingly well. I think it was named best comprehensive in the East Midlands.

Ok. I don't know if the OP is RC.

Hi, no we are not catholic (or religious at all!) so I think we would be unlikely to get into st Mary’s but could try I suppose.

Which results are you looking at?

Just lifted this off birkdale’s website (GCSEs). They don’t have attainment 8/ progress 8 etc but I would be suprised if those results are ‘outstripped’ by Tapton etc. A level is a bit different as that is a selective intake in state schools too,

‘Birkdale School has recorded its best GCSE results in a decade with a quarter of results at the highest possible grade 9 and a third of students achieving 8 or more of the very top grades, 8 or 9.
Among the other highlights from this year’s results:

• 47% of all grades awarded in all subjects to all pupils were at the top grades, 8 or 9’

No Progress 8? That's a pity, because it's such a good indicator of the school's ability to enable students to progress. Always look at the P8 scores.

Private schools aren’t judged by the same criteria. But it doesn’t look to me that those results can be worse than a state school if 47% of grades are an 8 or 9.

No indeed. There's no way it should be worse than a stare school with their money and resources, that would be very poor.

If you think it looks good, and would suit your children, then go for it.

I used to work at Tapton. It regularly outstripped Birkdale at A level.

I’m looking for y7 not A level though. A level is selective everywhere. GCSE wise looks ok though?

Could Westbourne be an option?

Yes it could. I had heard that it was less academic than Birkdale though. Do you think otherwise?