Hi - Has anyone got boys who go to these schools? I am at a total loss as to which one I should send my son to next Sept!

I went to St Anselms 15 years ago. Not a bad school and lots of investment

from personal, family, experience, if your son is into rugby/cross country running,can 'fight' his corner then St Anselms will be a good choice. However if her errs on the acedamic side, and you think there is the REMOTEST chance that he may be singled out and bullied then avoid the place like the plague!
our grandson was the victim of his peer group, this went on for four years,lost count of the numbers of meetings, letters, phone calls, each time assured everything was resolved. However by mid 4th form, events had escalated, resulting in him being removed and sent to a local comprehensive.
Same thing is now happening again to a new entry pupil, no lessons learned by the powers that be at St Anselms. Their policy seems to be remove the bullied child and let him 'work/help in the libraray, thereby 'singling' out the victim. which flys in the face of any bullying strategy that I have read. Still saves them dealing with the bullies. All they will say is that it has been 'resolved',won't tell you what action has been taken, only 'trust us'! then deny that they have a problem with bullying.
Sorry to have gone on so long, but if it makes your decision easier then I hope it has been of use.

St Anselm's is on my doorstep which means it would be far easier for my son to go there ESP since a boy he knows will be going however, you are not the first person to say that my son has to be a 'boys boy' and like sports to fit in, also he is academic and although popular can be quite sensitive at times. I did hear that if he went in with a gang of friends he would be ok, so I guess the biggest thing for me is that he is happy and I'm not sure he would be at SA. I must admit on the opening evening they had me sold, just not anyone I speak to

Katiechops I was a member of the board of governors at a school in Wallasey you could be describing a number of schools, each school has its own issues.

As a parent of three children and grandmother of six, I completly agree that all schools will sadly have issues with bullying. What I have found with St Anselms is their complete arogance in shifting the 'problem' onto the victim.

I have had children in st Mary's, Wetherhead and Mosslands so i am able to compare the various policies.

And BridgetMoans, they will certainly 'sell' their school well, pity that they can't admit to what seems to me an endemic culture of 'toughening' up the boys, sadly doesn't fit well with me. Hope wherever you Son goes he will settle in well.

My two boys go to Wirral Grammar. They are both very happy. The school is very academically minded and they get lots of homework. My boys have friends at St. Anselms and they also seem to be happy in their school, although from listening to their conversations, WGS is a more disciplined environment than St. Anselms and gives out a lot more homework. I know of children that have failed the 11+ but passed the St. Anselms entrance exam so if you are not confident that yor son will pass the 11+ it might be best to put St. Anselms as your first option. Personally, I would highly recommend Wirral Grammar.

I went to St Anselm's, have no idea what it is like now, but a lot of rich daddy's boys went when I was there. Loved the last two years there tbh, my form 'teacher' was Mr Hollifield, great teacher.

Is he suitable for that kind of a school?

I went to Grammar but always wonder what would I be now if I went to comprehensive? Better of worse I don't know..

He is very academic and got almost full marks in both exams, so a academically I have no concerns but he could be a target because of his ways. A 10 year old vegetarian, loves animals, won't play games or watch DVDs above his age and can be a somewhat more immature than boys his own age, he is quite sensitive and can cry if someone is nasty to him I know in the next year he will mature but I fear the 'school bus journey' to WG and the things people have said re SA re not dealing with bullying, I know this could be said of many schools but I have asked many people I have only heard of the two cases but everyone implies its a 'boys boy' school, toughen up and get in with the sports, if you are popular you are fine but if not them it's grim - I guess the negatives will always get spoken out before the positives!

My eldest son was picked on in his first year on the WG school bus (he gets on in Oxton) but this seems to be the norm with most school bus runs. This stopped in the second year We did go into the school about it and they were very helpful and put actions in place to stop it My second son is fine as he has his big brother on the bus so has not had to suffer the same fate. Where will your son get the bus if he goes to WG? Do you know any other children that get that bus that he could go with? Just for interest my eldest son gets the school bus every day now without any problems and even if we offer him a lift, he prefers the bus - all our sleepness nights - if only we had known eh!

We are in Claughton so St James's church is the nearest, I don't know any other boys (poss 1 from his school) and he is an only child so no big brother. I am gonna sit down today and go through each website marking the pro's and cons. I was all set to send him to SA till I listened to people's views on the school, more so that he didn't have to do the bus journey.

Wondering how this panned out??

i am a student at St Anselms on my nan's account and i have to say that some of these issues that have been raised could happen in a number of schools not just St Anselms. For example there are many groups in my year (10) which include vegetarians, people who are more sensitive than others and a large amount of people who are not very sporty. People will eventually fit in to their own groups in the school and in any cases i have known of bullys are in fact despised by other pupils who will stand up for other people, although this can not be relied upon if a child is making himself an easy target or will not stand up for themselves

Have you considered Caldy ? It has special discreet support for children who may find it difficult to cope with the rough and tumble of school life.
However you may be surprised how well your son copes where ever he goes.A year is a long time in a boys life.

This thread and some of its concerns is from 2012.