- Mayfield School (Portsmouth)
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Mayfield School 
Established 1921 Type Comprehensive, community school Religion Non-denominational Headteacher Mr David Jeapes Chair of Governors Bruce Marr Specialism Performing Arts Location Mayfield Road
North End, Portsmouth
Hampshire
PO2 0RH
England
Local authority Portsmouth DfE number ???/4303 DfE URN 116463 Ofsted Reports Students 1163 Gender Co-educational Ages 11–16 Colours Year 7-10 (11-15)
Year 11 (15-16)
Prefect (15-16)
Arts Captain (15-16)
Dance Captain (15-16)Former name Portsmouth Northern Grammar School Website Mayfield School Coordinates: 50°49′15″N 1°04′12″W / 50.82082°N 1.06997°W
Mayfield School is a mixed comprehensive school in Mayfield Road, North End, Portsmouth.
Contents
Admissions
The School are currently Employing a new Headteacher. This is after former headteacher Derek Trimmer has taken up the heads job at Hove Park School in Brighton and Hove. The school is now an Arts College after being lifted out of Special Measures; it now has specialist status. Mayfield is also the largest state school in Portsmouth. The school is undersubscribed.
It is situated in North End, halfway between the A288 and A2047, and one mile south of the M27/A27.
History
Grammar school
The school is located in the buildings of the former Portsmouth Northern Grammar School for Boys and Portsmouth Northern Grammar School for Girls, which were opened in 1932. (The boys school had begun as the Northern Secondary School in Kingston in 1921). After wartime evacuation, the two secondary schools were re-established in 1946 as a result of the 1944 Education Act. The boys' school had arounf 550 boys in 1970 and was run by the City of Portsmouth Education Committee.
Comprehensive
In 1975 the two schools were amalgamated with Brunel School (boys) and North End Modern Girls' School to form the largest comprehensive school in Portsmouth, with approximately 1800 pupils. The roll was later reduced by the setting up of Portsmouth's Sixth Form College with the school losing its sixth form.
Special measures
In 1999, the school was failing academically and was placed in "special measures" after an Ofsted inspection said it was failing to provide an acceptable standard of education.[1] By 2001 the school was facing another crisis—this time a staff problem, as the school had 12 vacancies due to long-term sickness and unfilled positions. Training new teachers became a priority and the school introduced a new graduate teacher programme and created a new teacher training room. With a series of new teachers and new coaching programmes the school has experienced a slight increase in academic achievement, with a 4% rise in GCSE achievement in 2004, compared with 2003.[1][2]
In 2005, 150 students of the school launched a protest against the deportation of a fellow student, Lorin Sulaiman, who had previously immigrated from Syria in 2003 after fearing for her safety.[3][4]
Specialist status
In 2007, the school received the Special Performing Arts Status after raising £50,000. The school spent the money on a brand new state-of-the-art Dance/Drama Studio. The director of this status is Mr Gary Appleton who coincidentally is the Head of Drama and Director of School Productions. During the summer of 2008 a brand new modern Dance Studio was built under the specialist status, replacing the schools old 'small gym'.
Since 2005, the school reintroduced the prefect system with Deputy and Head Boy and Girl. Since becoming a Specialist Arts college, the school has also introduced Arts Captains, who support the arts status.
School productions
- 2003 Oh What a Lovely War
- 2004 A Midsummer Nights Dream
- 2005 Romeo and Juliet
- 2006 Oliver!
- 2007 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- 2008 The Boy Friend
- 2009 Sweet Charity
- 2010 Sweeney Todd
- 2011 We Will Rock You (Casting)
Studio 1 productions
Studio 1 productions are a new type of production within Mayfield School. Since becoming an arts college, the Drama Studio 1 has become renowned as an auditorium for smaller scale productions other than the main ones. So far these have been:
- 2007 Find Me!
- 2008 Piano Recital
- 2008 Macbeth
- 2009 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
- 2010 The Tempest
School uniforms
The school has a compulsory school uniform policy. The uniform includes a white crew neck shirt for years 7 to 10, a blue one for year 11s, red for prefects, pink for Dance Captains and purple for Arts Captains, all of which must have the school logo, with the exception of Arts Captains who have the Performing Arts logo. From the years 2008-09 there were consuls which wore bottle green shirts. Prefects and captains wear their coloured polo shirts as opposed to the normal white and blue. [5] Black trousers or skirts must also be worn.
Alumni
Northern Grammar School for Boys
- John Armitt CBE, Chief Executive from 1997-2001 of Costain Group, from 2001-2 of Railtrack, and from 2002-7 of Network Rail, and Chairman since 2007 of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Olympic Delivery Authority
- Rear-Admiral Gordon Bridle CB MBE, Project Manager of the Sea Dart and Sea Slug (the Navy's first surface-to-air missile - SAM)
- James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, the UK Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979, completed his secondary education at the former (now Mayfield) Northern Secondary School in 1926.
- Sir Barry Cunliffe CBE, an eminent archaeologist, Professor of European Archaeology from 1972-2007 at the University of Oxford, and President from 1976-9 of the Council for British Archaeology and from 1991-5 of the Society of Antiquaries of London
- Mike Donkin, former BBC world affairs correspondent
- Maj-Gen Brian Pennicott CVO, Colonel Commandant from 1991-6 of the Royal Artillery
- Sir John Pestell, Chief Adjudicator on Immigration Appeals from 1970-87 at Heathrow Airport
- Prof Kenneth Rawson, Professor and Head of Department of Design and Technology from 1983-9 at Brunel University, Professor of Naval Architecture from 1972-77 at University College London, and Chief Naval Architect from 1979-83 at the MoD
- Harold Robinson OBE, aeronautical engineer, Head of the Avionics Department from 1965-9 of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, President from 1982-3 of the Whitworth Society, and Project Leader of Hawker Siddeley Dynamics' Blue Streak ballistic missile and showed how the Black Knight (rocket) could be converted into the Black Arrow in 1963
- Brian Slade, President since 2002 of the Shipbuilders and Shiprepairers Association, and Director General from 1986-91 of Defence Contracts at the MoD
- David Tuffin, President from 2007-8 of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
See also
- Mayfield High School (London) in Dagenham
- The Portsmouth Grammar School - independent school, and former direct grant grammar school
References
- The Times 21st Febriary 1995, page 17, Harold Robinson obituary
External links
- Mayfield School Website
- Mayfield School League Tables, BBC News
- Mayfield School Student Council Website
- MFLMayfield Website
- EduBase
News items
Categories:- Educational institutions established in 1932
- Arts Colleges in England
- Comprehensive schools in Hampshire
- Portsmouth
- School buildings completed in 1932
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