Talk:Metropolitan Borough of Wirral

The Wirral or Wirral Metropolitan Council ?
This is very confusing as this combines information about the council and its area, which is only the top half of the Wirral peninsular, with other information which covers the whole of the Wirral. I would propose that this article resticts itself to the council and its attributes and that information relating to the The Wirral Peninsula be contained in the article of that name. Velela 21:38, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I agree makes sense.--Jirate 00:44, 2005 Mar 7 (UTC)

Education
"Part of Wirral retains a selective education system" - this is an over simplification: When the Borough was created in 1974, it inherited comprehensive systems from the former County Boroughs of Birkenhead and Wallasey. In the part of the Wirral previously administered by Cheshire County Council, it inherited a selective "system" of grammar and secondary modern non-Roman Catholic schools and a comprehensive Roman Catholic school (Plessington).

Until the implementation of the Education Reform Act 1988, education in Wirral continued to be organised in four areas; Birkenhead, Wallasey and the former parts of Cheshire known for education purposes as "Bebington" and "Deeside". However this Act introduced "open enrolment", allowing parents from anywhere in the borough, and outside it, to apply for a place for their child at any secondary school. As a result significant numbers of pupils from the former "comprehensive areas" attend schools in the former "selective areas" and vice versa. The distinction between different types of school was to an extent masked, as all secondary modern and comprehensive schools were named "High School". As a further result of this Act, St Anselm's College and Upton Hall Convent School, both within the Birkenhead education area, became the first and only independent schools in the country to become state funded Grant Maintained schools, retaining selective admissions policies to become Roman Catholic grammar schools.

A further change came as a result of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, which effectively changed secondary modern schools into comprehensives as schools were no longer permitted to select by examination failure. In summary, Wirral now has a state secondary sector made up of 16 comprehensive schools (of which two are Roman Catholic) and 6 grammar schools (of which two are Roman Catholic).

"and has a number of highly-regarded grammar and independent schools including Calday Grange Grammar School, Wirral Grammar School for boys and girls, West Kirby Grammar School, Birkenhead School and St. Anselm's College." - this would not seem to meet the criterion that content should be verifiable. By whom are these schools highly regarded? (and incidentally Wirral Grammar for Boys and Wirral Grammar for Girls are separate schools).

If judgments of schools are to be given I would suggest reference to DfES value added performance tables, or to Ofsted's list of schools that they have judged "particularly successful", see http://snipurl.com/l3zd. Wirral secondary schools in that list are: Pensby High School for Girls (2000/1), Plessington Catholic Technology College (1997/8), Ridgeway High School (2000/1), St Anselm's College (1999/2000 and 2004/5), St Mary's Catholic College (2001/2), West Kirby Grammar School (1994/5), Wirral Grammar School for Girls (1997/8 and 2003/4) and Woodchurch High School Engineering College (1998/9 and 2004/5). Ofsted has not inspected any of Wirral's independent schools.

--Faddyw 12:58, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Name in infobox
I've reverted this change to the name of the area shown in the infobox. The authority is commonly known as the "Metropolitan Borough of Wirral", "Wirral Borough Council", or simply "Wirral", but in my experience not "Borough of Wirral". Ghmyrtle (talk) 07:29, 14 September 2013 (UTC)