Secondary schools in Portsmouth?

[solatedo]

Hello

I wonder if any one has any general feedback on secondary schools in Portsmouth - the good, the bad, the exceptional?

We are due to move to Portsmouth over the summer ready for my daughter to start in year 6. We have been allocated a junior school which we are happy with but will be selecting a secondary school soon after we arrive.

We will be living in the Southsea area and are generally very positive about the move; we have visited Southsea a few times over the past few months and really like the vibe.

But we havent really picked up anything about the possible secondary school choices. So mumsnet people what is your general impression?

We would prefer state secondary rather than private but could I think stretch to private if necessary. Daughter is a bit 'bookish' not really into sport (but doesnt detest it) and I would like to think reasonably bright

So whats your impression of Priory School or Milton Cross? Or the Charter Academy? Is there any chance of getting in to the Catholic school (lapsed CofE that we are)

And if we were to go private is Portsmouth Grammar School the best choice or the High School? My inclination is PGS but I would be worried about the smaller number of girls and general girls fitting in to a boys school thing but maybe its not like that (thats my prejudice - I attended a similar school 20 years ago!)

Of course we will go to the open days next term and hopefully pick up feedback from people around but I wondered if there is any advice you could offer?

OK here are my general impressions (Live in Southsea; mother of a daughter in year 10 at Portsmouth Grammar, also have DS in year 5 at primary so we will be going through this again shortly)

We are generally happy with Portmouth Grammar - DD seems to be happy at school and achieving. (whether this is worth £16000 a year is a different question!)

As a girl DD is in a minority in her class which doesnt seem to bother her but I do wonder sometimes whether she would have been better at the High School. She does have opportunities to get involved in the arts and other non sporty things but the culture can be sports led.

I think PGS has gone down hill a bit in recent years and rested on its laurels. There is a new headteacher arriving in the autumn which I think everyone is looking forward to - current head just doesnt seem to have it and you need to be a 'big' personality to carry and promote a large school like PGS in the local area so that it attracts the brightest of the children. For us PGS is well located and DD can walk to school in 20 minutes. People in her class seem to come from a fairly wide area - as far away as Chichester, Havant, even Petersfield - I'm not sure I would go for PGS if it involved much travel to the school; speaking to a colleague who works in Petersfield she said that Churchers seems to have overtaken PGS as preferred in that area.

Not sure whether DD will attend sixth form at PGS as they still have to wear school uniform which does not impress her, however its probably the best in the local area for straight academic A levels.

When we were considering secondary schools we looked at Priory and St Edmunds as well - both were good and we would have been fine with her going to either. Former junior school friends seem to enjoy and do well at Priory. St Edmunds (catholic) I think you need to either live close by or be an active member of the church to be in with a chance.

So I am mother of a daughter year 10 at Portsmouth high school. Generally this school is fine. Too much focus on sports in clubs and could benefit from some real imagination with tech particularly extracurricular tech. With a daughter who has been programming since 6 years old (previous school) we found the offering here lacking - despite promoting its STEM credentials. So as said it’s fine, it has all the usual challenges like bullying and favouritism but anywhere you go I suspect you’ll find that and our one encounter with bullying was dealt with effectively, less so the favouritism but that, I think, is a parental pressure teacher servant issue.. My one frustration is the lack of openness in the leadership, any challenge is treated as attack and defended vehemently without any apparent willingness to listen and learn. I hope that doesn’t pervade to infect the culture but I fear it may. They have lost some excellent teaching staff in recent years though some good ones still remain. The things I wish I’d had known at the outset:- suboptimal tech offering, closed to feedback and challenge, limited gcse subjects and restricted to 3 a levels - we will probably move at 6th form because of the latter point as our daughter wants to start with 4 so she can drop one, she is lucky as she has a breadth of choices and doesn’t want to decide too early. I hope that helps - good luck!!