Everyone remembers their school days and making memories that will stick with us forever.
Many of us took our last exams and walked out the school gates for one last time years ago, whereas others have revisited the schools from time to time for reunions or to pick up their own kids who are now pupils there. But as time goes on, many of our Merseyside schools have closed, demolished and even amalgamated on a new site.
Across the region, new houses, supermarkets or empty fields now stand in place of the buildings. And all that is left our photos, Facebook groups dedicated to them and how we remember them.
Read More:
Demolished hotel where generations tied the knot had its own nightclub
Funfair rides and beach days take us back to childhood in the 80s
Here, we take a look back at a number of lost Merseyside schools that have been reduced to rubble. Some have been gone for some time and others we only recently said goodbye to.
This list is not intended to be comprehensive, we've included a number of demolished schools from across Merseyside. But if you have a school you'd like to be included, let us know in the comments section.
1. St Thomas Becket Catholic School, Huyton
St Thomas Becket Catholic High School was formed after a merge between local secondaries St Augustine of Canterbury Secondary School and Gonzaga Comprehensive School. In 2005, the schools closure was approved and was to close with effect the following year.
The school site was later demolished - but fond memories remain. Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park complex was built on the former St Thomas Becket School site on Longview Drive, Huyton and opened in 2011.
2. Poulton Primary, Wallasey
The primary school on Alderley Road became a victim of Wirral Council's primary places review and closed in 2008. Nearby Park Primary relocated temporarily to the school building during major rebuilding works on its site.
The school building was later demolished. In 2013 councillors approved plans to replace it with 33 affordable houses and apartments, which now stand on the site.
3. Gateacre Comprehensive, Gateacre
Gateacre School is located on Hedgefield Road in Belle Vale, but many will remember the days of the original building that was Liverpool's "first comprehensive school." Opening in 1957, the secondary school opened its own swimming pool years later and throughout the decades, thousands of students passed through its doors.
The former Gateacre Comprehensive moved sites in 2011, when it relocated from Gateacre to Belle Vale, close to the shopping centre. But many former pupils will remember it as it looks here.
4. Oldershaw Lower School, Liscard
Oldershaw's Lower School opened in 1982 on the site of St Hilda's, just off Ormond Street in Liscard. The whole school moved in 2000 to what was formerly Oldershaw's upper school on Valkyrie Road. The building was demolished and replaced with housing.
5. Notre Dame, Everton Valley
The original Notre Dame Catholic High school was founded by the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1869. It originally provided education for disadvantaged girls in the city of Liverpool.
In September 2013, Notre Dame Catholic High school moved to a new state-of-the-art building next to Everton Park sports centre on Great Homer Street as part of the wider £150m Project Jennifer scheme. Soon after, part of the site began to get demolished.
6. Ruffwood and 7. Brookfield, Kirkby
In 2008, Ruffwood School in Kirkby merged with Brookfield High School to form Kirkby Sports College Centre for Learning, on the site of Brookfield. The school on Bracknell Avenue was officially opened October 2, 2009.
The old school was completely rebuilt under the Rebuilding Schools for the Future Programme and in 2013 later converted to academy status, the school was renamed Kirkby High School.
8. Birchfield, Fairfield
Birchfield Primary School on Birchfield Road, just off Edge Lane, officially closed in 2002. By 2004, a new community park was unveiled as part of a project linking past and present generations of school pupils.
Birchfield community park in Kensington was opened on the site where Birchfield school used to stand. It lies alongside Phoenix primary school, which was built to replace Birchfield school.
9. Maris Stella RC High School, New Brighton
The school opened in the former Convalescent Home on Rowson Street in the 1920s. It later closed in 1972.
The building was later demolished and Nelson Court and Rodney Court flats now stand on the site.
10. St Malachy's, Dingle
In July 20120, caretaker John Hutchinson shut the gates for the last time at a Liverpool primary school consigned to history after nearly 100 years. At the time it was reported that in September that year, the school and nearby Catholic primary Our Lady of Mount Carmel – with whom it is already federated – would become Holy Family Catholic Primary School in the modern building occupied by nearby Beaufort Park primary which has closed.
The historic building was later demolished. Today, houses stand on the former school site.
11. Speke Comprehensive
Speke Comprehensive School on Central Avenue was demolished in 2002. That year, the Liverpool ECHO reported how the former Speke comprehensive had a new name and new home.
Part of a £27m regeneration project for the heart of Speke, Parklands High school in Ganworth Road later opened. Now laying empty, in January this year the ECHO reported how the school could be part of plans to tackle demand in Liverpool for special educational.
12. Queen Mary High School, Aintree
The school, on Long Lane, Aintree was condemned in 2004 and bulldozed three years later. In 2015, the ECHO reported how the site was being given a £26m new lease of life with dozens of houses due to be built on it.
For more nostalgia stories, sign up to our Liverpool Echo newsletter here.
13. Knowsley Hey and 14. Bowring, Huyton
In 2009, Huyton secondaries Knowsley Hey on Seel Road and Bowring Comprehensive on Western Avenue merged to form Huyton Arts and Sports Centre for Learning. Both schools were demolished and the new school was rebuilt under the Rebuilding Schools for the Future Programme on the Knowsley Hey site.
The school was first known as Huyton Arts and Sports Centre for Learning. The school later became Lord Derby Academy in 2014 when the Dean Trust took over.
15. Ryebank Prep School, Broadgreen
Ryebank High School was situated in Broadgreen, near the end of Rocky Lane, now under the M62. The school is said to have closed and been demolished to make way for the M62.
Was your school in Merseyside closed and demolished? Let us know in the comments section below.
16. Prescot Grammar School, Prescot
After previously being based on High street throughout the 1800s, in 1924 Prescot and Huyton Grammar School for Girls moved to a site on St Helens Road.
In 1975, the school joined with Prescot Grammar School for Girls. In 2009, the school, now known as Prescot School, was rebuilt with funding from a Labour government initiative, merging with Higher Side School in Whiston.
17. Breckfield Community Comprehensive and 18. Anfield Community Comprehensive, Anfield
Breckfield Community Comprehensive School merged with Anfield Community Comprehensive in the early noughties. Both sites were demolished and a new school was opened named North Liverpool Academy.
Join our Liverpool memories and history Facebook group here.
19. Wirral Met College, Withens Lane campus, Wallasey
Wirral Met College had a presence in Wallasey for many years on Withens Lane. There was a huge outcry when the closure of the college was proposed in 1996.
Despite calls by Wallasey MP Angela Eagle and campaigners for a ministerial review, it closed in 1997 and the building was later demolished. The land is now a housing estate.
The ECHO previously reported how another campus on Borough Road, Birkenhead, including the Glenda Jackson Theatre, was also demolished and housing built on the site.
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
Read Next:
- Liverpool restaurants you could visit in the 00s that you can't now
- Lost Liverpool shop where women 'spent all their wages' every month
Demolished Liverpool nightclub that clubbers were 'never out of'
Famous Birkenhead department store we remember from childhood
13 of Merseyside's favourite pubs from the 80s that are now gone
