Park High School, Birkenhead

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Park High School
Motto	Lux et Robur "Light and Strength"
Established	20th century
Type	Comprehensive
Headteacher	Mr Steve McMahon
Specialism	Sports College
Location	Park Road South Birkenhead Wirral Merseyside CH43 4UY England
LEA	Metropolitan Borough of Wirral
Ofsted number	105096
Students	1033
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	11 to 16
Houses	Beech, Cedar, Maple, Oak, Rowan
Website	http://parkhigh.contentman.co.uk/
Coordinates: 53°23′26″N 3°02′34″W / 53.39063, -3.04270

Park High School is a co-educational secondary school in Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, Merseyside, England. The school is located near Birkenhead Park. Previously existing across two sites, following the amalgamation of two separate schools, it consists of an Upper School and a Lower School (although only one site is currently used), and is a specialist Sports College administered by the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

[edit] Appearance

The school consists of 4 floors with up to 30 rooms on the first 3 floors with the top floor only having 3 rooms.the old building looks similar to a Victorian doll house with red brickwork. The school also has a glass walled canteen and state of the art sports hall which its height extending 3 floors. The school is built on a hill with the first floor going underground. The theatre on the 3rd floor has tudor style decoration around its curtains. Some of the older areas have been sealed off for health and safety reasons.

Since being granted specialist Sports College status in 2001, Park High received positive comments from Ofsted on their last inspection. As well as this, it has attained a significant level of good GCSE results, ranking within England's top 10%.^{[citation needed]} Park High has substantial sports facilities; such as a new climbing wall in the gym, a fitness suite, a large sports hall and a dance studio along with basketball courts and has recently set up basketball nets in the schoolyard, among other things.

[edit] History

Park High School for Girls opened in Park Road South in 1926 and Park High School for Boys was established in 1925 at a site on Park Road North (which is now the Joseph Paxton Building). Both schools were amalgamated in 1972, with Park High School becoming an 11-18 co-educational comprehensive school. Following the establishment of Birkenhead Sixth Form College in 1988, the upper age of students is now 16.

In June 2001, work began to bring the school onto one site. An extensive building programme involved demolishing the boys gym, the caretakers house, the old canteen and fourteen mobile classrooms to construct a circular canteen, a large sports hall and dance studioas well as building extensions to older parts of the main building When the new school year began in September 2003, Park High School was opened on one site for the first time.^[1]