The Blue Coat School

Welcome to The Blue Coat School. Blue Coat is a selective state school which for over 300 years has played a vital role in shaping the lives of Liverpool boys and girls. We are proud to provide a free education which ensures our students aspire to and realise their academic potential whilst developing the skills and values they need for life’s journey.

We are extremely proud of our history, our heritage and our ability to respond positively to change. Informed by the past, we maintain a modern outlook in all that we do today.

From 2017, we will welcome 180 students into Year 7. After their GCSE’s, the vast majority of our Year 11 students enjoy Sixth Form study at Blue Coat where they are joined by new applicants to the Sixth Form from many local schools. The school’s history, reputation and provision make it an extremely popular choice where Year 7 and Year 12 applicants thrive.

Our students’ outcomes speak for themselves. In 2016, all of our students achieved 5 or more A*-C (including English and Mathematics) in their GCSE’s with over 80% achieving 7 or more A*-A grades. At A level, nearly three-quarters of our students achieved 3 or more A*-B grades and about a half of all grades where A*-A.

Beyond our outstanding academic education, we provide our students with the means to be successful and fulfilled. We develop them into active and responsible citizens who make a positive and valuable contribution to the wider community. We pride ourselves not only on the provision we offer but the impact it has on our students and this was recognised by Ofsted in 2012 when they judged Blue Coat to be outstanding in all areas.

We believe that The Blue Coat School is a learning community committed to academic excellence and guided by principles of justice and compassion. We aim to foster intellectual, physical, moral, cultural and spiritual development. We expect everyone to demonstrate qualities of courtesy, honesty, diligence and enterprise. We believe education to be an undertaking of supreme importance, enabling all to become responsible citizens and active participants and leaders in the wider community.

Religious Studies at The Blue Coat School enables pupils to engage with relevant, contemporary and challenging questions that impact on all of our lives questions about spirituality, meaning and purpose, the self and the nature of reality, right and wrong, equality and diversity, authority, global citizenship, and what it means to be human.

At all Key Stages we aim to foster a love of literature, writing and oracy. We seek to encourage the individual student to take responsibility for his or her work and progress.

A level English Language and Literature involves the study, spoken and written texts which offer candidates the opportunity to consider the three major literary genres and a range of non-literary texts. The syllabus has a strong creative writing element which asks students to re-cast aspects of the set texts in different forms. The ways in which meaning is conveyed in spoken language and how power is displayed through language are also considered.

At Key Stage 5, students are given a strong intellectual lead, and then are encouraged to become increasingly discerning, increasingly independent readers. They learn, in line with current tendencies in scholarship, to appreciate literature in the context of social and historical change, and in the process understanding, and critically evaluating, literary conventions and theories.

The original Liverpool Blue Coat School was founded in 1708 by master mariner Bryan Blundell and the Reverend Robert Styth, the then rector of Liverpool. Reverend Styth took it upon himself to administer the first Blue Coat School, organising a place where poor children could be accommodated, cared for and learn to “read, write and cast accounts”.

In September 2002 – the first time in more than fifty years – girls were admitted into the school alongside boys following an entrance examination. Two splendid statuettes, different but complementary, standing to this day in the School’s Boardroom, clearly reveal the original inspiration of The Liverpool Blue Coat School: it was thoroughly co-educational before the word was coined.

History has given us both a strong sense of identity and a clear sense of direction. As we embark on a new phase of our story as an Academy, we remain faithful to the pioneering principles of our founders.

Our Mission
Some time ago, we started a process to look at our aims and aspirations as a school.Clearly academic success has always been central to all that we do, but what was heartening is that through the feedback that came from our students, alumni, parents and staff it was clear that our community is seen as being much more than just about outcomes.  This is something that we all want to build on as we look at how we continue to prepare our students, our school and our community for the future that awaits us.

Based on staff, student and parental feedback the Trust Board spent time considering the renewed focus and direction of the school.  This work has formed our vision for The Blue Coat School.  This is not something that we have written and want to simply sit on a notice board somewhere in our school – it will help shape the education and opportunities that we offer and the way we recognise the talents and attributes of our students.