Priory School is a secondary school in

Southsea Southsea is a seaside resort and a geographic area of Portsmouth, Portsea Island in England. Southsea is located 1.8 miles (2.8 km) to the south of Portsmouth's inner city-centre. Southsea is not a separate town as all of Portsea Island's s ...

, Hampshire, England. It is situated in the northern area of Southsea bordering Fratton, and lies close to

Fratton railway station Fratton railway station is a railway station in the city of Portsmouth, on Portsea Island in the United Kingdom. It was opened in the Fratton area of Portsmouth on 1 July 1885 as an interchange station between the London, Brighton and South Coas ...

on the A2047. Stewart Vaughan is the Headteacher at the school. Priory school is an academy and part of the Bohunt Education Trust.

History

The current site was originally purchased by the Portsmouth School Board in May 1890 for £3000, at the time the area was known as "The Wilderness" due to the lack of development activity. On the site were several buildings in a heavy state of disrepair, among the buildings were ''Howard's Cottage'' reputedly the oldest building in Portsmouth and home to the ghost of Lady Temple. The construction of the school cost £9,704 and took two years, the buildings were completed in May 1892. Later extensions of the school site led it to cover the site of an old priory and a farm called ''Priory Farm''. In 1905 it was decided that the Francis Avenue School for girls should move to a building next to the boys school. This school, which cost £25,000 to build, was opened on 4 November 1907. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the building was requisitioned by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

to create the 5th Southern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. During the 1920s the school became heavily over-crowded and an extension to the girls school was completed in 1934. Portsmouth was considered a high-risk target during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and the girls school moved to

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

. On 10 January 1941, German bombing led to the destruction of the boys school and the extension at the girls school. The boys moved to the St Ronan's Road School, with the old boys school being left as a bombed out wreck for the next twenty years. In 1946 the girls school became the Portsmouth Southern Grammar School for Girls. The Southern Grammar School for Boys was on Eastern Road and went on to be part of

Portsmouth College Portsmouth College is a sixth form college on Tangier Road, Baffins, in the city of Portsmouth, England. Admissions The principal at Portsmouth College is Simon Barrable. The college ilocatedjust off the ''Eastern Road'' which provides an easy ...

. In the late 1950s the boys school was demolished and replaced with a gymnasium for the girls school. A lecture theatre was completed in the 1960s. In 1974 the boys school returned to the site, this time merging with the girls school to form Priory comprehensive school. The school became a specialist sports college with the opening of the Priory Tennis Centre in 2006 and it became an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

, sponsored by the Bohunt Education Trust, in September 2014.

Notable former pupils

* Prof

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili ( ar, جميل صادق الخليلي; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in scien ...

OBE, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Surrey * Ben Close, professional footballer who currently plays for

Doncaster Rovers FC Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in Football League Two, League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play ...

* Tommy Leigh, professional footballer who currently plays for Accrington Stanley FC * Stephen Morgan, MP For Portsmouth South * Dan Nlundulu, professional footballer who currently plays for

Southampton FC Southampton Football Club () is an English professional football club based in Southampton, Hampshire, which competes in the . Their home ground since 2001 has been St Mary's Stadium, before which they were based at The Dell. The club play in ...

Jake Thomson Jake Samuel Thomson (born 12 May 1989) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for AFC Stoneham. Before playing in non-league football, Thomson played in the Championship for Southampton. A youth international footballer for Engla ...

, former professional footballer

Portsmouth Southern Grammar School for Girls

Marilyn Cole Marilyn Cole (born 7 May 1949) is ''Playboy'' magazine's January 1972 Playmate of the Month. She was the magazine's first full-frontal nude centerfold. She also became 1973's Playmate of the Year – the only Briton to hold that title. Her orig ...

, January 1972 Playmate of the Month, and Playmate of the Year 1973

Notable former teachers

* Mary James (educator), 1970-4 (at the girls' school)

References

External links