Park House School is a secondary school in Newbury, Berkshire in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It accepts students aged 11–18 and currently has approximately 1,300 students on roll including a

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

of around 300. On 1 May 2011, Park House School became an independently run

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 ...

. It was formerly a comprehensive school run by the

West Berkshire West Berkshire is a local government district in Berkshire, England, administered from Newbury by West Berkshire Council. History The district of Newbury was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the borough of Newbury, Bradfield Rural Dist ...

Education Authority. The schools latest Ofsted inspection (Apr 2022) rated PHS as ‘Inadequate’

House system

The school operates a house system, whereby students are divided up into four houses (each of which are in turn split into two), which are named after notable sporting alumni, which are then broken down into 2 tutor groups for each house per year. The tutor groups are named after An Olympian. Each House is led by a member of staff and run by Year 12 and 13 House Presidents & Vice Presidents. They are supported by House Captains from Years 10 and 11. All staff members belong to a house, as do all Sixth Formers: The houses are named after former sporting alumni that went there: Tom Croft, Toby Albert, Anabelle Chaffey, and Jonathan Joseph

Facilities

The main library and sixth form

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

are situated together in a central area of the school (the main building). Both include private study areas. The school has a book stock of over 12,000 items. The library is currently run by the school librarian and 4-6 students who have been picked to be library monitors. Inside the library there are computers for educational uses. Often students use these during lessons and break times. The school is also a member of Newbury Library which facilitates inter-library loaning. There is also a wide range of periodicals and multimedia facilities. There are about 500 computers situated in different areas all with internet access. One of the newest additions to the school is the Wellness Centre. The aim of this is teach students to live healthy lives. The centre includes a modern gym equipped with

Technogym Technogym is a company selling equipment and digital technologies for fitness, sport and health based in Cesena, Italy. Technogym has been Official Supplier to eight Olympic Games including the Tokyo 2020 games. The company was founded in 1983 by ...

equipment, a cooking area to teach students to eat healthily, and an additional ICT classroom. The school is site to many buildings, with quite a few of them being

modular building A modular building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated ...

s. Blocks include- The Main Building, Art, Science, Mini Science Block, The 2 Maths Blocks, Music, Vocational/Learning Support, Design & Technology, Wellness Centre (as mentioned before), Sports Hall, Humanities, Modern Languages and The House. Modular Buildings include- Vocational/Learning Support, Wellness Centre, Music, Mini Science, Humanities and Modern Languages. The Main Building holds the whole English and History departments and part of the Computer Science departments. In the main Maths block, there are a mix of lessons held on there. Classrooms including Maths- Food Technology, Textiles, Business Studies and Computer Science. The House was/is a house come administrative building, with Reception, Repro-Graphics, Various Offices (including the headteachers and deputy-head teachers), Administration, Student Services, The Staff Room and Conference Centre. Due to the nearby planned Sandleford Park development, the school is set to expand by around 300 students in the future. This also increases the chances of the rumour that the school is soon to be rebuilt like the nearby schools St. Bartholomews and

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

Location

The school site is situated on an extensive area of former parkland on the Andover Road, a residential area of Newbury in

Sports College Status

The school was designated as a Specialist

Sports College Sports Colleges are senior secondary schools which promote sports alongside secondary education. United Kingdom Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The programme enabled seco ...

in 1998 – one of the first wave of schools to achieve this status, and the only Sports College in the Local Education Authority. As part of the government push to fund facilities of Sports Colleges, Park House received funding for an AstroTurf pitch and

floodlights A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...

Notable alumni

Brett Angell Brett Ashley Mark Angell (born 20 August 1968) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was striker and although notably spending time in the Premier League with Everton and Sunderland, he spent the ...

, Footballer * Martyn Ashton, Mountain cyclist * Lawrence Chaney, Drag personality *

O. G. S. Crawford Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford (28 October 1886 – 28 November 1957) was a British archaeologist who specialised in the archaeology of prehistoric Britain and Sudan. A keen proponent of aerial archaeology, he spent most of his career as th ...

(1886–1957), Archaeologist * Tom Croft, Rugby Union player for England and the British Lions * Safeen Dizayee, Kurdish Minister for Education * Richard Houlston, Fellow of the Royal Society * Jonathan Joseph, Rugby Union Player for Bath, London Irish and England * Toby Radford, Cricketer, Cricket coach *

Garry Richardson Garry Richardson (born 1956/1957) is a British radio presenter. He presented the Sunday morning sports programme '' Sportsweek'' on BBC Radio 5 Live until 15 September 2019, and remains a sports presenter on the weekday morning ''Today'' show o ...

, Radio presenter for BBC 5Live * Joe Tillen, Footballer * Sam Tillen, Footballer * Toby Albert, Cricketer for Hampshire

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Park House School Schools in Newbury, Berkshire Academies in West Berkshire District Secondary schools in West Berkshire District Specialist sports colleges in England