BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL

Registered charity 1093419 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

We are an independent, co-educational school which admits girls and boys from 3 months to 18 years. The School comprises of a Nursery, Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior elements (including 6th Form).

Objects

A) THE ACQUISITION OF THE PROPERTY AND ASSETS OF THE BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL LIMITED, THE TRUST KNOWN AS THE MCALLESTER TRUST (CONSTITUTED BY TRUST DEED DATED 18 NOVEMBER 1952) AND THE TRUST KNOWN AS THE JUBILEE TRUST (CONSTITUTED BY TRUST DEED DATED 30 MARCH 1911) AND THE CARRYING ON, AS SUCCESSORS TO THE SAID COMPANY AND TRUSTS OF THEIR CHARITABLE OBJECTS AND THE ADOPTION AND DISCHARGE OF THEIR LIABILITIES AND ENGAGEMENTS.B) TO FURTHER THE EDUCATION (ACADEMIC, SOCIAL, MORAL AND PHYSICAL) OF PUPILS ATTENDING THE BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL (INCLUDING THE BIRKENHEAD PREPARATORY SCHOOL) IN ACCORDANCE WITH CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Wirral, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the School's financial position remains strong, with a cash surplus from operations of just over 5% of net fee income achieved. Total funds across the School Group amounted to £22,798,128 as at 31 August 2025, with free reserves of £9,105,128. The capital investment programme is currently funded without external borrowing.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Jolliffe & Co LLP. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In its annual return the charity told the Commission it is also regulated by: Ofsted (Office For Standards In Education). This is the charity’s own declaration; it is not a rating and has not been verified by the Commission or by this site.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 31/08/2022 (received 14/07/2023, 14 days after the 30/06/2023 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 04492250
• Trading subsidiary: NOVITAS SERVICES LIMITED Companies House 04501547 · Financial health read from its filings

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Tom Whitworth — Head of Seniors (source)
• Danny Byrne — Clerk (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

• GOULD, Michael Anthony — director, appointed 14/08/2026on trustee list
• SOWERBY, Julian — director, appointed 27/04/2026on trustee list
• STIRRETT, Josh Patrick — director, appointed 23/06/2025on trustee list
• ARMSTRONG, Andrew Earnshaw — director, appointed 23/06/2025on trustee list
• ADAMS, Phillip James — director, appointed 16/09/2024not on trustee list
• ATKINSON HOWARD, Christine Alison — director, appointed 21/08/2024not on trustee list
• THORP, Nicola Jayne, Dr — director, appointed 18/09/2023not on trustee list
• FURNISS, Michael Stuart — director, appointed 25/06/2018on trustee list
• CASHIN, Mark Richard — director, appointed 20/06/2016not on trustee list
• BYRNE, Daniel John — secretary, appointed 27/08/2024

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

1 registered title in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/08/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~9.1 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (95% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 2.6% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Armstrong
• Christine Atkinson Howard
• Josh Stirrett
• Julian Sowerby
• MR M R CASHIN MA · trustee of 1 other charity
• Michael Anthony Gould
• Michael Stuart Furniss
• Philip Adams
• dr Nicola Jayne Thorp MRCP, FRCR

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Wirral

Income and spending

Common questions

Shared trustees with funders

Register facts shown side by side: a person serves as trustee of both this charity and a funder whose accounts record grants to it. Shared trusteeship is lawful and common; well-run charities manage it through declared-interest procedures.

• Mr M R Cashin — trustee here and at BIRKENHEAD SCHOOL FOUNDATION TRUST

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Grants marked “Unverified read” were flagged by automated checks as possibly misread from the funder’s filed accounts. They are listed, but left out of the totals, counts and funder relationships this site computes.

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with BERKHAMSTED SCHOOLS GROUP.

• BERKHAMSTED SCHOOLS GROUP income £49.9m
• BURGESS HILL SCHOOL FOR GIRLS COMPANY income £9.5m
• BIRCH HILL PRE-SCHOOL income £211k
• BICKNACRE PRE-SCHOOL income £129k
• BIDEFORD BAPTIST PRESCHOOL income £198k
• COXHEATH PRESCHOOL GROUP income £144k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.