Mostyn House School - dropping like flies

[yoyo123]

I've a friend whose daughter went to Highfield.
When that closed she moved to Birkenhead High School.
When that became an Academy tried and failed to get her into Birkenhead School.
So she moved her to Mostyn House!

Like Mr Yoyo's family who were slung out of Uganda and went back home to to Belfast in the early Seventies..cause or effect hmmmmm

[kelannhugh]

It's hard starting a new school as it is...

Think your friend would of been better off leaving her daughter at BHSA, she'll have a job to get her back in there. What will she do now??

Alot of my daughters friends transfered from Heswall Prep to Mostyn with the promise it was the best option and was not in difficulty. It's really sad for them as they have only just started to feel like they belong only to be having to look around again for another school...

With the new goverment fixed on turning schools into Academys could Mostyn not apply??

[guest43]

There are two main problems.

Firstly there are far far too many school places on Wirral. We are nowhere near the end of the pain (although maybe in the private sector as there is so little left)

Secondly small schools may be better but they are usually much more expensive per head. Given that the country is essentially bankrupt I am not sure that state funding of Mostyn House could be justified.

Regarding my friend's daughter I guess it will be Kingsmead (When Highfield closed all were offered the first year at Kingsmead free as an incentive-pity she didn't take it!)

[mumto2]

Just wanted to add our best wishes to Johnny and all his friends at Mostyn. It must be super stressful for pupils and parents alike. xx

[3pink]

I can honestly say if the state had funded Mostyn House I would have chained myself to the railings in protest.
I'd advised everyone I came across to avoid the place like the plague, most of the children who started in 2005 with my daughter were long gone (we left in 2006).
Kingsmead was really the only viable alternative if you compared the two schools.

[kelannhugh]

So you would rather them close the school down then ask for help from the state??

I'm sorry but I disagree.

It's a sad affair that it has to close but if the state helped and Mostyn became an Academy like BHS then it can only be a benefit for the area.

BHSA is still a good school regardless of the Academy status!!

To say otherwise is just snobbery!

[johnny]

I can honestly say if the state had funded Mostyn House I would have chained myself to the railings in protest.
I'd advised everyone I came across to avoid the place like the plague, most of the children who started in 2005 with my daughter were long gone (we left in 2006).
Kingsmead was really the only viable alternative if you compared the two schools.

how old was your daughter when she started mhs and what did you find so bad about the school?

[guest43]

But the plan for BHSA sees numbers increasing from 700 to 1000 (that is 3 through to 18)-and even that is small and hence expensive for a state funded school.

Mostyn House numbers stand at around 100!!!!!!! I would suggest it would need to be at the very least 5 times larger to be even on the cusp of being viable as a state funded school.

[3pink]

My main gripe with Mostyn was the fact that the buildings were given higher priority than equipment for the children, for a private school demanding the most fee's in the area it was very poor value for money but the solution to falling numbers was to increase fee's for existing parents rather than look to spend money marketing the school and attract new parents. The property was repainted every year without fail and yet the text books were older than me.
Once Unilever staff started to leave there were 7 children left in my daughters class, 2 of which had English as their first language, you couldn't imagine it being that bad a situation in inner city Liverpool without uproar.

As for the state funding private education, it really could only happen on the Wirral couldn't it ? Anywhere else again there would be an outcry but no we will countinue to take council tax from those who can least afford it to support the education that their children can only dream of

[tearingmyhairout]

my child has attended mostyn house since year 7 and is now one of the very unfortunate year 10's

i can't believe this has happened at such an important point in his school life. i would never have imagined that the school would just drop pupils half way thruogh GCSE's without making any provision for them whatsoever!

they should still be working on their courses now but with that many children off trying to find new schools they are just watching dvd's, therefore falling further behind.

i think there should be a law that does not allow closure of a school without 18 months notice so children are not let down half way through a course ever again because believe me it is very difficult trying to find a school with a place in year 10, spaces in the options taken and matching exam boards in each subject. in fact it is impossible so some compromises are going to have to be made.

can anybody offer any advice or suggest which schools to try? the exam boards mainly used by my child are AQA