Winterdyne inspection reports

Extracts from Inspection Reports for Winterdyne School in the National Archives

ED 109/3237

Report of Inspection of Winterdyne School, Birkdale, Southport. March 1943

The school was started in about 1860 and moved to its present premises during the last war. The present headmaster took over in 1926 when there were 35 boys. Pre-war numbers were 70; they are now just over 100, of whom 22 are Boarders.

A majority of boys go to Dean Close, Glenalmond, Sedbergh, Merchant Taylors’ (Crosby), Liverpool College, Trent. One scholarship (Liverpool College) has been won in the past two years.

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Equipment is poor on the whole. Most of the furniture is old-fashioned and some the wrong size.

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The Head Master is an M.A. (Cantab). L.R.A.M. And M.R.S.T. He has had considerable Preparatory School experience and one term in a grant-aided school. He is a religious man, a good musician, placid yet over-anxious to please, very keen on his job and sincerely devoted to the welfare of his boys, but rather under the thumb of his old mother who has always helped him run the place and who still plays her part efficiently. He is quite a good teacher.

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ED 172/301

Report by H.M. Inspectors on Winterdyne School, Birkdale, Southport. May 1957

The complete document as a set of images can be found at http://michaelandjane.org.uk/inspection-report-1957/

This school, founded originally in about 1860, was recognised as an efficient preparatory school in 1943. The head master, who has been in charge since he acquired the school in 1926, now runs it with his wife, who supervises all the domestic arrangements. There are 90 boys aged from 4 and 13 years, 20 of whom are boarders between the ages of 7 and 13. The majority of the day boys come from Southport and district; most of the boarders come from northern counties, but some have parents living abroad. … In recent years the school has had to adapt itself to changing conditions by preparing boys for local authorities’ transfer examinations at 11 and providing at the same time for the common entrance examination to public schools. In the past boys have gone to a wide variety of well-known public schools; now more and more are passing on to local maintained and direct-grant grammar schools at 11 or 13 years of age. Perhaps because of this change there have recently been no scholarships to public schools.

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The ratio of staff to boys is approximately 1 to 13. … Of the full-time staff two are graduates (one of them the head master), two are certificated teachers and three are unqualified.

Staff list

Mr. E G S Everard (Head Master) French, Scripture, Music
Mr. H F Cockill (House Master) English, Scripture, Games
Mr. C R A McDiarmid General Subjects
Mr. R Storey General Subjects
Miss D I Lee General Subjects
Miss B Gill Kindergarten
Miss G A Watts Form 1

 

Part-time

Miss M Greenwood Music
Mr. W M Shaw Mathematics
Miss P Stone Latin
Mrs. M A Wason Art

[Note that the same file contains an inspection of the Convent of Notre Dame High School, Birkdale, Southport