The Belvedere Academy is an all-ability state-funded girls’ Academy secondary- formerly independent- school in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Its predecessor, The Belvedere School, was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School. It is non-denominational, non-feepaying, and one of the 29 schools of the

Girls' Day School Trust The Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) is a group of 25 independent schools, including two academies, in England and Wales, catering for girls aged 3 to 18. It is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, and educates 20,000 girls each yea ...

. In September 2007 it became an

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, as one of the first two

private schools A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their financial endowme ...

in the UK to do so.

Academic achievement

As of the 2011/12 academic year, the school educates over 730 pupils between the ages of 11 and 18. Following the 2010/11 academic year, 96% of the pupils left the school having achieved five GCSEs, with a grade of A* to C, including both English language and mathematics. This places the non-selective Belvedere Academy in second place in the Liverpool schools' league tables, second only to Liverpool's only remaining selective

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

History

The school was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School, by the then Girls' Public Day School Company (which became the

). The first building was at 17 Belvidere Road, and the school gradually acquired other premises in the road. The name was changed to The Belvedere School in 1911. The school was a

direct grant grammar school A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in the United Kingdom that existed between 1945 and 1976. One quarter of the places in these schools were directly funded by central government, while the remainder attracted ...

while this scheme existed (1946 to 1976), and later took part in the

Assisted Places The Assisted Places Scheme was established in the UK by the Conservative government in 1980. Children who were eligible were provided with free or subsidised places to fee-charging independent schools - based on the child's results in the schoo ...

scheme. From 2000 onwards an "Open Access" scheme was set up by the

Sutton Trust The Sutton Trust is an educational Charitable organization, charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist, Sir Peter Lampl in 1997. ...

in partnership with the Girls' Day School Trust, to fund girls who would otherwise not be able to attend the school due to financial circumstances. This meant that girls admitted into the school were admitted solely on academic potential. In the first three years of the scheme 71% of the entrants had all or part of their fees paid, of whom 32% had their fees fully paid through the Open Access Scheme. The first "access girls" entered the school in September 2000 and achieved record results in their GCSEs, taken Summer 2005. The school's buildings comprise five Victorian villas and some more recent buildings. There is a new three-storey teaching block which includes science laboratories, dance and drama studios and ICT facilities. The name of the school is spelt differently from that of the road because of a mistake made by the council when the school was first opened.

The Belvedere School GDST

The academy's predecessor, The Belvedere School, was rated the best school in Liverpool in the official league tables, having gained 100% 5 A-C passes at GCSE in 2006. In 2008, 98% of all A-Level exams taken got A-C passes, and 74% of exams received A/B passes, a record for the school.

Changes

The change to an academy resulted in the abolition of school fees, as well as a change in the way in which the school selects its pupils. Unlike grammar and other selective schools, the Belvedere Academy may select only 10% of its pupils by academic potential and fair banding is now employed to ensure intake of the full breadth of academic ability. At the same time that the senior school became an academy, the junior school was established as a stand-alone non-state funded preparatory school for girls aged three to 11, The Hamlets. This was subsequently sold in 2010 out of GDST ownership, renamed Belvedere Preparatory School and became co-educational.

Notable former pupils

* Alyson J K Bailes (CMG) (1949–2016), diplomat, political scientist, academic and

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

. * Dorothy Gradden OBE, leading

nuclear engineer Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide ...

* Linda Grant (b. 1951),

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

. *Dame

Rose Heilbron Dame Rose Heilbron, DBE (19 August 1914 – 8 December 2005) was a British barrister who served later as a High Court judge. Her career included many "firsts" for a woman – she was the first woman to achieve a first class honours degree in ...

(1914–2006),

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

. * Jane Lightfoot (b. 1969), classical scholar *

Liz McClarnon Elizabeth Margaret McClarnon-Cho (born 10 April 1981) is an English singer, songwriter and actress, who is the longest serving member of the girl group Atomic Kitten, with whom she has scored three number-one singles and two number-one albums. M ...

(b. 1981), member of pop group

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten were an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose original lineup comprised Kerry Katona, Liz McClarnon, and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey an ...

, winner of

Celebrity Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a British competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as ''MasterChef Goes Large' ...

2008, and

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people ...

. *

Esther McVey Esther Louise, Lady Davies (born 24 October 1967), styled as Esther McVey, is a British Conservative Party politician and television presenter who has been serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton since 2017, and served as the M ...

(b. 1967),

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and Member of Parliament. *

Anne Ziegler Anne Ziegler (born Irené Frances Eastwood; 22 June 1910 – 13 October 2003) was an English singer, known for her light operatic duets with her husband Webster Booth. The pair were known as the "Sweethearts in Song" and were among the most famo ...

(1910–2003),

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

and popular singer-actress. *

Darci Shaw Darci Louise Shaw (born 17 April 2002) is an English actress. She is popular for playing American entertainer Judy Garland in the biographical drama film Judy. Early life Shaw was born to Peter and Louise Shaw in Liverpool. She grew up in the s ...

, Actress

References

External links

Official website

GDST website

Sutton Trust

BBC Education League Tables listingSchool listing on Edubase
from

Department for Children, Schools and Families Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was repl ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Belvedere Academy Educational institutions established in 1880 Girls' schools in Merseyside Schools of the Girls' Day School Trust 1880 establishments in England * Secondary schools in Liverpool Academies in Liverpool