West Kirby Grammar School

Very good school, and amazing thing to do there

i wouldn't say there's anything exciting abt it, it's really boring. someone poured a whole pot noodle in one of the toilets the other day, most teachers are annoying and boring. there's only a handful of nice ones. when you join in year 7, you don't get to pick what languages you do, you just get assigned with 2 and then everyone does latin. i was assigned german and french but wish i could've gotten german and spanish instead as now im stuck doing latin because i dropped french in year 8. there are literally no nice subs other than one and like i said before toilets are minging. canteen food is good, year 11s always push in the queue though and teachers do nothing abt it. they're really unorganised when it comes to end of year exams, mine are in 2 weeks and we've only been given 5 revision lists out of 14 exams. so all in all, school is average, boring, minging, and teachers are annoying. but what can you expect from a british secondary school 🤷🤷

Headteacher is well receptive and totally on it with student views, all round great guy not going to lie. Most teachers will set homework which they failed to get through in the lesson- whether it be because they planned too much or they didn't properly control student and decided to take it out on the class. This added so much more pressure oh my god. They think that our school lives revolve around that subject, but when we say we prioritise other subjects more, they throw a fit, which is not helpful in the slightest. The mental health support system is the worst. The school enforces is ridiculous and stupid rules on us way too harshly, which can lead to effects on learning. The pressure of having to do at least 9 gcses in a grammar school is really quite terrifying (although I believe that's changed for younger years now, as I am in yr 11).

There are a wide range of extra curricular activities and house events. Some teachers are wonderful and really engage with you, some are just plain horrible and nasty and just cannot teach us.

The curriculum is lowkey very sexist, as we go into so much depth in textiles and food and nutrition, however we don't go into nearly enough detail in DT, or not to the same extent as the boys grammar school does. In PE, we do netball and trampolining, however not basketball or rugby. Don't even get me started on the own clothes day restrictions. (Expressing yourself in a way that makes you gain self confidence within school? Nope, that will cause the grown adult sixth form males on the school premises to lose concentration.)

Not enough revision support as the teachers just assume everyone revises in the same way.

This was meant to be a pros and cons review, but I've just realised how terrible my school is lol.

Mental health stuff isn't great, the mental health worker is known to be bad at her job and I have also experienced this but overall a pretty good school, the headteacher and head team are amazing and really supportive too

It’s not bad overall, but because they expect everyone to be well behaved those who aren’t aren’t monitored very well so bathrooms etc are always a state; new stalls were recently added though which are nice at least for now. Teachers are on a whole amazing though, but because the school is a grammar they expect everyone to achieve high so they give little help, making many struggle.

The more I reflect on the school in comparison to the school I moved to, the worse I realise it is. The teachers leave students to do the work as they know that they are high achievers and will do double to work if needed to get a high grade, making them lazy and rude. Many teachers raise hopes and fail to achieve them, not just a few subjects but multiple. The mental health work there is inadequate, with 2 assembly’s a year on what to do to if stressed with the same information every year, which yet to their belief is pure and utter nonsense. Many teachers have been there for many years as well, causing them to teach in an outdated method and causing higher stress among students. As it is a grammar school also, many people are high achievers and want to do particularly well, making classes have high pressures and a support system not designed to manage this. Some teachers are great bear in mind, but predominantly I have been disappointed over the years. The headteacher is great and as he is new to the position I hope he does more about changing staffing. Sport and PE is also particularly awful, obviously favouring about 20 people a year and the rest are useless at sport. Sixth formers are treated as year 7s and patronised at every turn.

it's alright, if you go there there's a lot of pressure to be good as it's a grammar school. as you might expect, some lessons are good, some are bad (this includes the teachers). the headteacher is great, but the support system for those with learning support needs or mental health issues isn't very good, for example the weekly appointment I attended at the LSC (Learning Support Centre) wasn't much help, and as we were in a group it was a bit awkward. Also the mental health specialist is well known for being bad at her job.

the food is good, but the cookies are overpriced. £1.35 for a cookie.