Portchester School, or Portchester Sports College, is a specialist sports secondary school

Sports College

Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, PE, sports and dance. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Sports...

 in Bournemouth

Bournemouth

Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, for boys aged 11–16. The school was located on Portchester Road but was knocked down and moved to a new site in Harewood Avenue. Portchester school's motto is "Labour Omnia Vincit"

Facilities

In the School there are five Technology rooms,five English rooms, seven science rooms, five IT rooms, three MFL rooms, five humanities rooms, five maths rooms and two music rooms, amongst many others. The school has also two drama studios, two halls, a library, sports lab, science lab,a fully equipped gym, sports hall and music studio. There are outdoor tennis and basketball courts.

The school has a brand new sports hall entitled the Roy Moore Sports Hall. The hall has seven badminton courts and a brilliant rock climbing wall. The school is one of the few schools in the country who have these sorts of facilities.

Staff

The current Head of School is Jon Willcox and the Executive Head is Debbie Godfrey-Phaure. The former headteacher Chris Brady retired July 2010, he ran the scholl for over ten years. The school has four assistant heads: Mike Winkworth, Paul Pearce, Laura Downton and John Greetham.

House system

The school has a house system based on sports personalities: Pelé

Pelé

However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...

, Redgrave

Steve Redgrave

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave CBE is an English rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships gold medals...

, MacArthur

Ellen MacArthur

Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, DBE is an English sailor, up until 2009, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in West Cowes, on the Isle of Wight. She is best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman. On 7 February 2005 she broke the world record for the fastest solo...

 and Moore

Bobby Moore

Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...

. Each year group is split between the houses.

Uniform

All boys must wear black trousers, light blue shirt, school tie, dark blue school jumper, black shoes. Boys are not allowed to wear any jewellery including rings, piercings or necklaces. Trainers, outside coats, hats, or 'hoodies' are not to be worn inside the school building.

School history

The school opened in January 1940 in the building previously used by Bournemouth School

Bournemouth School

Bournemouth School , is a boys' grammar school and sixth-form college occupying a site in Charminster, Bournemouth, Dorset, England and teaching children from years 7 to 13...

 which had been built in 1901. The school took its name from the site's address along Portchester Road and has always been a boys-only school. It would later become a secondary modern school

Secondary modern school

A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed in most of the United Kingdom from 1944 until the early 1970s, under the Tripartite System, and was designed for the majority of pupils - those who do not achieve scores in the top 25% of the eleven plus examination...

 and moved to the present site along Harewood Avenue at Littledown

Littledown

Littledown is a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset. Originally it was a small settlement to the south of the much more important Holdenhurst Village, and for centuries it existed as a huddle of farm buildings clinging on to the edge of the heathland....

 in 1975 next the sister school, Avonbourne

Avonbourne School

Avonbourne School or Avonbourne Business and Enterprise College is a secondary school in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is a single-sex all-girls school for 11-16 year olds and is a foundation school. It is a Business and Enterprise College....

, although the Portchester Road building was also used until 1989. Fenwick Court is now on the site and is named after Dr Fenwick who was the first headmaster of Bournemouth School. Additions have been added to Portchester in recent years and it shares a sports hall with Avonbourne. Also recently, student Tom Clark became a Guinness world record holder for rowing.

Relationship with Avonbourne

Avonbourne is the school right next to Portchester, the schools don't normally interact with each other. From the start of the 2011/12 academic year the schools are working more closely together. The Headteacher of Avonbourne Debbie Godfrey-Phaure became the new Executive Head for both schools. The schools now are part of The Avonbourne International Business and Enterprise Trust.

Peer Mediation

The school has a Peer Mediation Scheme, in which students are trained to resolve arguments between other pupils. Other schools around the country are now looking to introduce the scheme.

Future

The trust are now erecting a new 6th form in which pupils from Portchester, Avonbourne and other school across the borough can join. The building is being built on the school grounds and should be complete for opening in the next two years.