Hi, all. I think I have gone as far as I can go!

My son's school recently changed its number from 526 2711, to 0844 4773438.

I have tried putting in the full address, (Maghull High School, Ormond Drive, Maghull, Merseyside), also Sefton Council, all to no avail. Any help would be appreciated, especially as the school prefers you to phone up for the least thing.

~ Edit by Dave: Thread title amended

That number prefix 0844 477 looks sooo familiar. It's the same as many doctor's surgeries now used having been sold NEG's Surgery Line system. I am assuming that your son's school must have been 'sold' another 'product' by NEG, School Line, and is billed as a way to "defeat the bullies".

Anyway, to cut to the chase, there is very little chance of finding the new proper number for this. I would make a formal complaint to the school's governors explaining that this now costs more than a geographical call and calls from BT Payphones and mobile phones now cost far more than they used to.

Just to correct some info & to make it easier for anyone looking to help on this.

Maghull High School. Ormonde Drive, Maghull, Liverpool L31 7AW

Tel: 0151 526 2711   Fax: 0151 526 7619

Now try looking at their Website & make sense of it to find their email from the ?#*+ on there. After getting weird results from nearly every link there I clicked on, I gave up with it. Is it just me or is there definitely something wrong on there. Also, what is there on it to do with the School ?? I could find NOTHING !!

To complain about the 0844 change, go to the OFSTED website.

See:

http://www.sefton.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=6102&schoolid=2594&type=Secondary%20School    and:

www.maghullhigh.co.uk

Thank you Dave, DaveM and Acezing. That was my first post on this forum, with a positive result.
Armed with your collective info, I will follow it up on principal. Thanks again.

I have just started a new thread here to discuss this as it's based on well-known NEG's stealth premium rate 0844 numbers.  In this case, it's called School Line.

Please continue any discussions not related to geographical request in the above linked thread.

Thanks.

Big Penny wrote on Dec 16^th, 2006 at 9:25am:

Thank you collective info, I will follow it up on principal.

Should the headteacher be warned about your impending action?!

The school was easy to find on Google - search Maghull High School 0151 and it brings up a few numbers but I haven't tried them!

~ Edit by Dave: Quoted box corrected

As expected the old geographical number, 0151 526 2711, no longer works and redirects you to the 0844 number.

NEG, the rip-off company behind SchoolLine use Opal Telecom (owned by Carphone Warehouse) for their 0844 477 numbers.  So assuming that this is still true for the school's new geographical number that means it now begins with 0151 345 xxxx.

As we're only looking at a few numbers being used by the school (instead of hundreds, etc used by call centres) then I'm afraid it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Thanks for your time and effort,bbb_uK.

I've just noticed that Maghull High School here have a geographical number along with their 0844 number.


Quote:

Main school 0151 527 3955 Sixth Form 0151 527 3975

Can anyone remember if those two geographicals were already there?  I don't remember them being there!

Either this was a result of my FoI (I've still heard nothing back yet) which states that Ofcom recommend listing a geographical number alongside an 0844... or that it was there before but I never noticed it!

I guess I'll have to wait until they reply to my FoI!  ;)

You could always try ringing it  ;)

Received a response from my FoI - see here.

Prompted by this topic I decided to send Maghull High School an email requesting information about its use of an 0844 telephone number.  Today I received the following reply:

“Dear ...

Freedom of Information Act 2000

I am writing in response to your e.mail dated 17hDecember in which you requested information regarding the installation of a new telephone system at the school.

The school decided to update the telephone system for operational (the previous system did not meet the needs of a school), rather than financial reasons and therefore did not make a decision to use 0844 numbers. The new telephone number arose as a result of the change in system and was allocated by the telephone company.

The system was installed in August 2006 and we have just been made aware that there is a question about the level of call cost.

The school did not make the decision to install the new system based upon any income that may be received from call users, although the telephone company has confirmed that a reduction in the overall cost of the system is allocated as a result of a minor call charge being applied.

I can inform you that the school website maghullhigh.com now incorporates [bold by me] two direct dial numbers, one for main school and one for the sixth form.

Yours sincerely
M R Anderson
Headteacher    END QUOTE

The reply did not disclose fully the information I requested and is crafted in typicaly enigmatic way.