Delight as girls' school wins prestige academy status; Bid to attract pupils from deprived areas.

Byline: BY LIAM MURPHY Daily Post Staff

WIRRAL'S last independent allgirls school has been given the goahead to become one of the Government's flagship academies.

The move has been welcomed by Wirral Council's cabinet member for education, Phil Davies, who said he looked forward to Birkenhead High School attracting children from deprived areas of the borough.

Following the announcement, Mrs Carole Evans, headmistress and principal designate, said: "We are all delighted at this news.

"Our first year as an independent academy will be an exciting year for all involved, and we are looking forward to building on our traditional ethos and aspirational culture to remain a centre of excellence for many years to come."

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced last Friday it had formally approved the arrangements for Birkenhead High School (BHS) to make the transition to independent academy status.

This means the school is on target to open as an Academy in September.

In the meantime. the school will begin to look at what improvements will be made to its facilities, with an initial allocation for this of around pounds 11m.

Cllr Davies said he looked forward to Birkenhead High "becoming part of the family of schools in Wirral".

There have been concerns about the impact of the school joining the state sector at a time when Wirral Council is examining the viability of schools as pupils numbers fall. Cllr Davies said: "We have always said we need to make sure we sit down with them and plan how this will impact on neighbouring schools.

"But I am in no way seeking to diminish the importance of this announcement.

"I welcome a prestigious independent school coming into the state sector.

"I hope children from the more deprived areas of Birkenhead and Wirral will be able to take advantage of this." Birkenhead High School Independent Academy will be a nondenominational, all-through (3-19) girls' school, located at the current site of Birkenhead High School.

It will admit its first pupils in September, 2009, to Nursery, Reception, Year 7 and Sixth Form, as part of a phased process.

The school is part of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) - one of the largest, longest-established, and most successful groups of independent schools in the UK, with 4,000 staff and 20,000 students - and the GDST will continue as a sponsor of the Academy.

As a charity that owns and runs a family of 29 schools in England and Wales, the GDST reinvests all its income in its schools.

Another Merseyside GDST school, The Belvedere, in Liverpool, was the very first independent school in the UK to join the Government's Academies programme, and it admitted its first group of students as an Academy in September, 2007.

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Carole Evans