Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request Who remembers the 11+?

St Anselm's was and still is a grammar school, in spite of being called a College, and now an Academy.
I don't recall any of my era, the late '40s, being 'fee-paying'. We got free-place scholarships from Cheshire County Education, after passing the equivalent of the 11+. Parents needed to buy uniform and books and there were no free buses in those days.
A damned good way to educate a lorry driver's son!!

St Anselm's College (and Holt Hill Convent) were Direct Grant grammar schools from the 1940s until 1976.

A direct grant school had both state funded (direct from government) and fee paying pupils, the fee paying pupils could be funded either by a local authority or by private means.
In St Anselm's, the fee paying pupils were funded by Birkenhead, Wallasey and Cheshire councils, and there were a few privately funded pupils.

Following the abolition of Direct Grant schools in 1976, St Anselm's became fully fee paying until 1988 when Grant Maintained schools were introduced. St Anselm's became one of the first schools to become Grant Maintained, and no fee paying pupils were accepted after this.

Birkenhead School was direct grant too.