AIDAN O’ROURKE Writer Photographer Coach

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The Leaving of Liverpool due to Brexit – Music video and interview with Zinney Sonnenberg

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Music slide show video and musician interview

In July 2020 I made a slide show for a video by the singer Zinney Sonnenberg. The video was showcased on 04.07.2020 in the Global Liverpool Facebook Event. The song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ is about the songwriter’s love for his adoptive home city of Liverpool and the pain of having to leave it. For this feature I present the slide show video featuring my photos and the transcript of the interview.

Written by Aidan O’Rourke | Sunday the 12th of July 2020

ENGLISH VERSION | GERMAN VERSION .

For the music slide show video I chose around fifty of my photos of Liverpool. I wanted to find out more about Zinney Sonnenberg, so I did an Interview with him via Zoom. The Audio and the transcript appear here in English as well as German.

Interview transcript

First I want to ask: What is your name? Where are you from and where do you live now?
My name is Gerd Zinsmeister. My artist name is Zinney Sonnenberg. I’m originally from Saarland. It’s on the border triangle of Germany, Luxembourg and France. I’ve been living in Bavaria, Dachau, for a year, known for the concentration camp in Dachau.

What is your profession?
I’m a musician by profession and work at the Dachau Music School as a music teacher and teach guitar, piano and singing. Otherwise I record and play live in Germany, England and Holland.

What kind of music do you play?
My music could be described as folk music with influences from pop and rock and world music.

How long were you in Liverpool?
I lived in Liverpool for 21 years.

When and why did you move to Liverpool?
I moved to Liverpool on the 10th of August, 1998 with my wife and three year old daughter to do a course at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

What were your early impressions of Liverpool?
I immediately fell in love with Liverpool, a fantastic city with friendly, open-minded people, a very special light, a lively nightlife and a very special accent that I had to get used to.

Where did you live?
For the first three years we lived in Toxteth on Pengwern Street, behind Saint Silas School in the Welsh Streets area. Our home was the second to last house at the end of the street, with a view of the schoolyard of Saint Silas school. Later, we lived in Aigburth for fourteen years.

Why did you stay in Liverpool?
After my course at LIPA was over, we had acclimatised ourselves well to Liverpool. I worked as a nurse in a nursing home on Mill Street in Toxteth. My wife took a course at Arts College on Myrtle Street. Our daughter Zoe had already made a lot of friends at Windsor School.

How is Liverpool different from other cities?
As a port city, Liverpool is home to people from many cultural backgrounds. In my daughter’s class at primary school, there were children from thirteen different countries.

Architecturally, the centre of Liverpool is very compact. The River Mersey, which has been the main artery of Liverpool for decades, dominates the city. But the the most striking peculiarity is the humorous, friendly and open-minded mentality of the Scousers.

What are your top 10 recommendations for visitors?
There are many interesting attractions in Liverpool and many things to do. Be sure to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo. In addition, the two cathedrals, connected by Hope Street, are well worth seeing.

All the museums in Liverpool are free, and above all the Maritime Museum, with its Slavery section, is an absolute must for every visitor.

The new museum in the docks is interactive and describes the history of Liverpool. On the second floor you have a wonderful view of the Liver Building and the mouth of the Mersey.

You should definitely dive into the nightlife of Liverpool. Just go along to the various restaurants, pubs, clubs, live music venues or comedy clubs.

For those interested in art, there is the Walker Art Gallery and the Tate at the Albert Dock. You can combine a visit to the Palm House in Sefton Park with a glass of wine in Lark Lane or Penny Lane. For football fans it’s an absolute must, once in your life, to hear ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in Anfield.

The sunsets in Liverpool are unique and so I would highly recommend a walk between Aigburth and Liverpool city centre.

What is your personal favourite place?
My favourite place in Liverpool is Otterspool Park. The walk that leads through the park and ends at the Mersey is a wonderful walk and means a lot to me personally because I used to take the dog for a walk there every day.

Describe your career on the Liverpool music scene.
After studying at LIPA, I worked at first in order to buy more recording equipment. I was able to buy an analogue tape machine from The Christians and later a computer that I could use to record.

In between times, I regularly went to open mike events and played two or three songs there. In 2004 I met Jeff Davis from Probe Plus Records in Berlin at a music fair.

In 2007 we released my first album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ on the Probe Plus label with my band called Sonnenberg.

Then we released two more albums, ‘The End of the Rain’ and ‘Into The Light’.

Between 2004 and 2018 I went on tour with the band or solo in Scandinavia, the UK, Germany and Holland and as a supporting act for Half Man Half Biscuit, I played mainly in larger venues in the UK, such as the Shepherds Bush Theatre or the Liverpool Academy

Why did you decide to leave Liverpool?
The sole reason for leaving Liverpool was Brexit. We didn’t want to live outside of the EU as second class citizens in Britain without the right to vote.

When did you leave Liverpool and where did you go in Germany?
We left Liverpool on the 19th of July, 2019. We then moved to Bavaria, to Dachau.

When and why did you write the song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ ?
I wrote the song ‘Liverhearts Another River’ in 2018. It’s intended to reflect my love for Liverpool, as well as the pain and sadness of having to leave my adopted home because of social or political circumstances.

In general, as a songwriter, you try to express your feelings or create some breathing space for yourself. In this case, it was the frustration with the political change in 2016 that influenced some of my songs between 2016 and 2019

Thank you very much! I’m sorry about Brexit. I hope that you can come back to Liverpool some time.

I will do.

Der Abschied von Liverpool aufgrund des Brexits – Musikvideo und Interview mit Zinney Sonnenberg

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Im Juli 2020 habe ich eine Dia-Show für ein Video des Sängers Zinney Sonnenberg gemacht. Das Video erschien am 04.07.2020 im Global-Liverpool-Facebook-Event. Der Song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ handelt von der Liebe des Künstlers zu seiner Wahlheimat Liverpool und den Schmerz, sie verlassen zu müssen. Hier präsentiere ich das Slide-Show-Video mit meinen Fotos sowie das Transkript des Interviews.

Geschrieben von Aidan O’Rourke | Sonntag den zwölften Juli 2020

ENGLISCHE VERSION | DEUTSCHE VERSION.

Für das Video habe ich ungefähr fünfzig meiner Fotos von Liverpool ausgewählt. Ich wollte mehr über Zinney Sonnenberg herausfinden, also habe ich mit ihm ein Interview per Zoom geführt. Das Audio und das Transkript erscheinen hier auf Deutsch sowie auf Englisch.

Interview-Transkript

Guten Tag! Zuerst möchte ich fragen: Wie ist dein Name? Woher kommst du und wo wohnst du jetzt?

Mein Name ist Gerd Zinsmeister. Mein Künstlername ist Zinney Sonnenberg. Ich komme ursprünglich aus dem Saarland. Es ist an der Dreiländerecke Deutschland, Luxemburg und Frankreich. Seit einem Jahr wohne ich in Bayern, in Dachau, bekannt durch das Konzentrationslager in Dachau.

Okay, und was machst du von Beruf?
Ich bin Musiker von Beruf und arbeite in der Dachauer Musikschule als Musiklehrer und unterrichte Gitarre, Klavier und Gesang. Ansonsten nehme ich Platten auf und spiele live in Deutschland, England und Holland.

Was für Musik spielst du?

Meine Musik könnte man als Folk-Musik mit Einflüssen von Pop und Rock und Worldmusic beschreiben.

Und wie lange warst du in Liverpool?
Ich habe 21 Jahre in Liverpool gewohnt.

Wann und warum bist du nach Liverpool gezogen?
Ich bin am 10. August 1998 mit meiner Frau und meiner dreijährigen Tochter nach Liverpool gezogen, um einen Kurs an dem Liverpool Institut für Performing Arts zu machen.

Was waren deine frühen Eindrücke von Liverpool?
Ich hatte mich sofort in Liverpool verliebt, eine tolle Stadt mit netten, weltoffenen Menschen, ein ganz besonderes Licht, ein reges Nachtleben und ein ganz besonderer Dialekt, an den ich mich erst gewöhnen musste.

Wo habt ihr gewohnt?
In den ersten drei Jahren wohnten wir in Toxteth in der Pengwern Street, hinter der Saint-Silas-Schule in dem Walisischen Viertel. Unser Haus war das zweitletzte Hause am Ende der Straße mit Blick auf den Schulhof von der Saint-Silas-Schule. Später haben wir vierzehn Jahre lang in Aigburth gewohnt.

Warum bist du in Liverpool geblieben?
Nachdem mein Studium an der LIPA war beendet war, hatten wir uns gut akklimatisiert in Liverpool. Ich arbeitete als Krankenpfleger in einem Pflegeheim in der Mill Street in Toxteth.

Meine Frau machte einen Kurs am Arts College in der Myrtle Street. Unsere Tochter Zoe hatte an der Windsor School schon viele Freunde gemacht.

Wie ist Liverpool anders als andere Städte?
Als Hafenstadt beherbergt Liverpool Menschen aus vielen kulturellen Hintergründen. So waren in der Grundschulklasse meiner Tochter Kinder aus dreizehn verschiedenen Ländern.

Architektonisch ist die Innenstadt von Liverpool sehr kompakt. Der Fluss Mersey, der über Jahrzehnte die Lebensader von Liverpool war, prägt das Stadtbild.

Aber die herausragende Besonderheit ist die humorvolle, freundliche und weltoffene Mentalität der Scouser.

Was sind deine Top-10 Empfehlungen für Besucher?
Es gibt viele interessante Sehenswürdigkeiten in Liverpool und viele Dinge, die man tun kann.

Auf jeden Fall sollte man die Anthony-Gormley-Ausstellung ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo besuchen. Der Philharmonic ist der größte und prächtigste Pub in Liverpool. Außerdem sind die beiden Kathedralen, die von der Hope Street verbunden werden, sehr sehenswert.

Alle Museen in Liverpool sind kostenlos, und vor allem das Maritime Museum mit seiner Sklaverei-Abteilung, ist ein absolutes Muss für jeden Besucher. Das neue Museum an den Docks ist interaktiv und beschreibt die Geschichte von Liverpool. Im zweiten Stock hat man einen herrlichen Blick auf das Liver Building und die Flussmündung des Mersey.

Auf jeden Fall sollte man sich in das Nachtleben von Liverpool stürzen. Man sollte die verschiedenen Restaurants, Pubs, Clubs, Live-Music-Venues oder Comedy Clubs ein einfach mal besuchen.

Für Kunstinteressierte gibt es die Walker Art Gallery und die Tate am Albert Dock. Den Besuch des Palm Houses in Sefton Park kann man mit einem Glas Wein in der Lark Lane oder in der Penny Lane verbinden.

Für Fußballfans ist es ein absolutes Muss, einmal im Leben in Anfield You’ll Never Walk Alone zu hören.

Die Sonnenuntergänge in Liverpool sind einzigartig und so kann ich einen Spaziergang zwischen Aigburth und dem City Centre in Liverpool nur wärmstens empfehlen.

Was ist dein persönlicher Lieblingsort?
Mein Lieblingsort in Liverpool ist Otterspool Park. Der Spaziergang, der durch den Park führt und am Mersey endet ist ein wundervoller Spaziergang und ist deshalb sehr bedeutungsvoll für mich, weil ich da jeden Tag mit dem Hund spazieren war.

Kannst du deine Karriere auf der Musikszene in Liverpool beschreiben?
Ja, nach meinem Studium an der LIPA habe ich erst einmal gearbeitet, um mehr Aufnahmegeräte zu kaufen. So habe ich eine analoge Bandmaschine von den Christians gekauft und später einen Computer, mit dem ich aufnehmen konnte.

Zwischendurch bin ich immer wieder zu Open-Mike-Events gegangen, um dort zwei bis drei Lieder zu spielen. 2004 habe ich Jeff Davis von Probe Plus Records in Berlin auf einer Musikmesse kennengelernt.

2007 haben wir dann mit meiner Band unter dem Namen Sonnenberg mein erstes Album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ unter dem Probe-Plus-Label veröffentlicht.

Dann haben wir noch zwei weitere Alben ‘The End of the Rain’ und ‘Into The Light’ veröffentlicht.

Zwischen 2004 und 2018 war ich mit meiner Band oder auch solo in Skandinavien, Großbritannien, Deutschland und Holland auf Tour und habe als Vorgruppe von Half Man Half Biscuit in vor allem größere Venues in Großbritannien gespielt, wie zum Beispiel, das Shepherds Bush Theatre in London oder auch die Liverpool Academy.

Warum hast du dich entschieden, Liverpool zu verlassen?
Der Grund, Liverpool zu verlassen, war eindeutig der Brexit. Wir wollten nicht außerhalb der EU leben und in Großbritannien Bürger zweiter Klasse ohne Wahlrecht sein.

Wann hast du Liverpool verlassen und wohin in Deutschland bist du gegangen?
Wir haben Liverpool am 19. Juli, 2019 verlassen. Dann sind wir nach Bayern, nach Dachau gezogen.

Wann und warum hast du den Song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ geschrieben?
Das Lied ‘Liverhearts Another River’ habe ich 2018 geschrieben. Er soll meine Liebe zu Liverpool reflektieren, sowie den Schmerz und die Trauer, seine Wahlheimat verlassen zu müssen, weil es gesellschaftliche oder politische Umstände erforderlich machen.

Generell versucht man als Liedermacher oder Musiker seine Gefühle auszudrücken oder sich Luft zu verschaffen. In diesem Fall war es die Frustration über die politische Wende 2016, die einige meiner Lieder zwischen 2016 und 2019 beeinflussten

Vielen Dank! Es tut mir leid wegen dem Brexit, aber ich hoffe, du kannst irgendwann zurück nach Liverpool kommen.

Das hoffe ich auch!

Interview with Brother Cyril former headmaster of Xaverian College Manchester

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Brother Cyril 18 July 2007 photo by Aidan O'Rourke

Brother Cyril photographed on 18 July 2007 photo by Aidan O’Rourke on Brantingham Road, Manchester

I went to Xaverian College, Manchester, UK, when it was a boys’ grammar school.

It was a direct grant grammar school. It received funding from central government and the local authority and so it was possible to go there without having to pay fees, but you had to pass an entrance exam called the 11+. Later it became a sixth form college. I explain more at the end of this piece.

Xaverian College, Manchester has a long tradition going back to the 19th century. The Xaverian Brothers have origins in the north eastern United States. The Xaverian Brothers’ residence is located in Danvers, Massachusetts, north of Boston. They run 13 schools in five states.

We often forget that in the past, many schools were grim places, more like prisons than places of education. Just watch the film ‘Kes’ to see what many schools were like. But Xaverian was different.

Brother Cyril was a man of few words but had huge presence and authority. He commanded deep respect amongst students, parents and staff.

Teachers I remember included music teachers Mr Sellers, and his successor, Mr Challinger, Mr Lackey, who suggested I should learn German, Mr Halstead, the French and German teacher, Mr Underwood, who taught me A level English, Mr MacEvoy the French teacher and Mr Connolly, the English teacher. They all had a big effect on me and set high standards that, at times, I felt I couldn’t live up to. Their influence is still with me today.

For me the most interesting thing about Xaverian College is the number of people who became successful as creative artists or were creatively talented in some way.

  • Martin Hannett producer of Buzzcocks, Joy Division, New Order, Durutti Column, the Stone Roses and others, went to Xaverian College.
  • Tim Willocks, who was in the same year as me, is an internationally successful novelist and famously was a companion of pop singer Madonna.
  • Len Grant, who as in the year above me, is a well known photographer of Manchester who has also developed a successful career in sketching.
  • Jan Chlebik, who was in the same class as me, has achieved success and recognition as a leading photographer in Manchester.
  • Chris Ofili, who won the Turner Prize in 1998 for his paintings which included elephant dung, is a graduate of Xaverian Sixth Form College.
  • Andrew Newton, the controversial stage hypnotist, was a contemporary of mine, and was in the same A Level music class as me with teacher Mr Challinger.
  • Julian Evans the concert pianist was born in Romiley, attended Xaverian College and went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music.
  • Anthony Burgess, author of  ‘A Clockwork Orange’, was a student at Xaverian College during the 1930s.
  • Bernard Hill actor famous for role of Yosser Hughes in ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ went to Xaverian in the mid-50s.
  • Gary Mounfield (b.1962) of the Stone Roses and Primal Scream is an ex-Xaverian grammar school boy.
  • Mark Collins of the Charlatans was a student at Xaverian College.
  • Andy Quinn, musician who helped to produce Thin Lizzy co-founder Eric Bell’s, solo albums and autobigraphy, was in the same class as me.
  • Rick Turner, musician, producer and entrepreneur was in the year below me at Xavs.
  • Liam Grundy has built a successful career as a musician, playing Rocking Country and Americana with a Rockabilly Edge. I studied French in the same class as him with Mr MacEvoy.
  • Most Rev Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham since 2009, was three years above me at Xaverian College and was a talented singer. I once saw him performing Fauré’s Requiem at the Friend’s Meeting House in Manchester.

Adele O’Rourke, my daughter, who is highly creative in music and art, went to Xaverian sixth form college until the Corona lockdown shut down the college midway through her second and final year.

I met Brother Cyril on the 18th of July 2007, while he was on his annual visit to Manchester to visit his sister and some of ex-colleagues from Xaverian.

Click ‘Play’ to listen to the recording of the interview I did with him. The transcript is below.

I am brother Cyril, a Xaverian brother. I was born in June 1925 and I ended my career as headmaster of Xaverian College from 1962 to 1989. Now I am living in retirement.

What was the date on which you were born?

Third of June, 1925.

Can you tell us a little bit about the background to Xaverian College from when it started up to the present day?

Well, it was founded in 1862. It would be a small school. It was charging fees of about 2d a week I think, and it was quite close to Saint Bede’s. Saint Bede’s was founded in the same area. And then the school moved to Victoria Park site in 1907 and became known as Xaverian College at that point and it’s still there.

And the original location was at All Saints, next to the present Saint Augustine’s church?

That’s right, well it was in All Saints in the building which later became, when we moved out, it later became the Ear Nose and Throat Hospital.

What was the main reason for moving to Victoria Park?

Well, in order to expand and there were problems arising in that area, and it was better for the school to move out a little way, and in Victoria Park there were properties becoming available, probably through impoverishment of the owners. They had gone there, bought a house there, a property there in more splendid times for themselves and then found a need to sell, and we bought the property, as I say, in 1907.

So how did the school develop than from 1907 and up to the present day?

Well, I suppose it would be classed as a private school, but some places were given to the local authority, but it was a small school and I think that at the time the War came, it had it had probably something like 350 students.

And then the big development came after the War, when it became a direct grant grammar school, and that meant that the students who came didn’t have to pay any fees at all. There were fees, but they were paid by the local authority. And also because we got a grant from the central government for each student and that gave us sufficient income on which to live, and provide, as well as we could anyway, for the education of the boys who came to us.

And of course I came in 1969 and I was there until 1976.

Yes.

And then after that then came the big change.

The big change came of course. The school had grown to about 700 by 1977 and then the Catholic schools developed a system for going comprehensive. It was rather later than the authority schools had gone, and that involved Loreto and Xaverian becoming six form colleges and others becoming high schools. And there were to be no academic requirements required for entry. But of course to develop that, all the courses required to cater for people who were not looking for Advanced level subjects, it.  took time to develop those but they are now fully developed. And they are now 1500 students in the college.

Where did you do your training and how did you become a teacher and then headmaster of Xaverian?

Well, I went to Xaverian College as a boy and I joined the brothers, and in order to join the brothers, you had to do what was called six months postulancy and two years of novitiate. And in that time you studied Theology and Philosophy and you led a disciplined life involving regular community prayer.

And you found out whether you liked the life or whether you didn’t and then after two and a half years you could take temporary vows for a period of three years. And after that if you still wanted to go on, you could take final vows.

After I’d completed the novitiate, I went to Manchester University and I came out qualified to teach English. But I never did teach English, as things turned out, and I taught Maths, because there was a great shortage of Mathematics teachers in those days and to satisfy that need… I always liked Maths and I always did well at it and in school. It was not part of my degree course, but I enjoyed it, and I hope the kids did not suffer because of my lack of qualification in that subject.

So you taught at Xaverian College?

So I taught at Xaverian College. I have never taught anywhere else.

What part of Manchester did you grow up in?

I started off, I was born on the Anson estate and then we moved into Levenshulme and then I joined the brothers while we were still in Levenshulme. And then, no I’m sorry we, we moved out to Marple just before I joined the brothers, and then, since that time of course I have lived with the brothers

And so when did you become headmaster and until when did you…?

I became head in 1962 and I finished at the end of 1989, so I’m not sure how many years that is.

So you were trying to achieve a certain ethos in the school. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Well I can tell you what I was trying to do and what the staff were helping me to do.

We wanted it above all to be a place where people could come and feel wanted and respected and cared for, and we wanted staff to feel that and students, and to follow the command of Jesus Christ that we should love God and love our neighbour, and of course loving our neighbour means everybody and being concerned and caring about them. And so that everybody who comes, who is involved in the school, will feel wanted and will feel happy and will not have to worry about maltreatment or anything like that. And if you get that right, if you get all that right, examinations will look after themselves, you don’t need to make examination success a major criterion in what your objectives are.

But I think that the ethos, whatever effect it had, it brought forth quite a few creative people, creatively successful people like Tim Willocks the author and Len Grant the photographer, Jan Chlebik and others and I’ve also done my particular thing and was quite inspired by some of the teachers at Xaverian, so perhaps that ethos had a positive effect and before i went to Xaverian, my teacher at my primary school, Our Lady’s, Sister Esther, recommended that I only put Xaverian on the application. This was after I passed my 11-plus that she said Xaverian was the only school that I should go to, and I got the place.

Well, I’m glad to hear that. But I can’t measure the success. It’s not measurable, what we were really trying to do, and I am not the one to comment on it, but other people, people who went through the school can speak best about its influence upon them. I just hope that it had a good influence and  did help creative people to develop themselves, and if it did that, then I’m very happy.

Yes, well I’d like to place on record that certainly, people like Mr Sellars, the Music teacher and then Mr Challinger, and Mr Lackey, who recommended I do German, Mr Halstead, the French and German teacher, they all had a big effect on me, I’m certainly grateful to them.

So how have you been enjoying your retirement?

Very much, very quietly. I haven’t undertaken any kind of part-time work. I remained on the Board of Governors at Xaverian College until 2002 and that was when the brothers gave the school to the diocese and it now runs under the auspices of the diocese, but it keeps the name Xaverian College.

And finally do you have any special message to any ex-Xaverian College boys or girls, who are, maybe, listening to this?

Well, only to say that, I hope the school was influential in helping you to become responsible people, people who realised, that they not only have rights, but they also have responsibilities and in that way I hope you’ve developed it that way so you are now in a position to make your own decisions about your life and those decisions will be such that they will make you very acceptable to your neighbour and to God.

Brother Cyril died on the eighth on the 17th of April 2014 at the age of 88. His final resting place is the Xaverian Brothers’ Cemetery, close their residence in Danvers, Massachussets.

At Xaverian College, people still speak in reverential terms about brother Cyril and his presence can still be felt on the campus.

If you go into the building which bears his family name – Birtles – just to the left of the main entrance, there is a marvellous portrait painting of him sitting in his office. It perfectly captures his quiet, pensive manner, just as I remember him.

During the Corona lockdown in 2020, I was riding past Xaverian and went to the front of the Birtles building. It was locked and deserted, but I could see the painting through the glass window and I photographed it using my iPhone. I’m sure all will agree, the spirit of Brother Cyril magically shines through out of this painting.

Portrait painting of Brother Cyril, Xaverian College

Portrait painting of Brother Cyril, Xaverian College, photographed through the window next to the main entrance to Birtles.

For those people who are not familiar with the UK’s educational system, present and past, here are a few explanations:

  • A sixth form college is a type of educational institution found in the UK. It’s for young people aged 16 to 19 who study for exams such as A-levels. Most continue to university.
  • A grammar school is a school for pupils aged 11-18, where studies are academically orientated. Entry to a grammar school is by selection, either by an entrance exam or an exam such as the 11 Plus
  • The 11 plus is an exam which is used to test young people in order to select which ones will go to a grammar school. The exam has been mostly phased out in the UK.
  • A direct grant grammar school was a type of selective secondary school in England and Wales. A quarter of the places were funded by central government, the rest were funded through fees. Some fees were paid by the Local Education Authority, some by the parents of pupils.
  • St Bede’s College is an independent Roman Catholic school for children from 3-18 years. It used to be a direct grant grammar school for boys.
  • Xaverian College Manchester is a sixth form college and used to be a direct grant grammar school for boys.