The principal at City of Portsmouth College is Simon Barrable. The college is located just off the Eastern Road which provides an easy way to get to the college from inside and outside the city. This is near the A2030 east of Baffins, south of Great Salterns lake and golf course. It is one of two post-16 colleges in Portsmouth, the other being Highbury College. Comprehensive schools in Portsmouth do not have sixth forms.
History
The site of what is now Portsmouth College started out as marsh land on the edge of Portsmouth and was reclaimed in 1705. [citation needed] One name for the area, Salterns, reflects its past use for salt pans, evaporating salt water to make salt. In 1884, there was approximately 4 salt.
In November 1888 Portsmouth Higher Grade School was formed. It was later to become a boys' grammar school before becoming a comprehensive and then becoming a college.
Grammar school
It became the Southern Grammar School for Boys after moving from Highland Road in 1956.
Comprehensive school
Great Salterns Secondary School was formed in 1975, a coeducational comprehensive school
Sixth form college
In 1984 secondary education in Portsmouth was reorganised. All the existing comprehensive schools lost their sixth forms, which were combined into a new sixth form college in the buildings previously belonging to Great Salterns School.
Portsmouth College provides a variety of courses from GCSEs, A – Levels, and BTECs in a wide range of subjects. The college has a new Computing and Library facility which has got a high speed network with Internet connections. There are a wide range of computer facilities available to students.
The college has a good drama section which has its own studio theatre which has sound and light systems, along with a full sized dance studio with mirrors.
The college provides education for anyone of any age and there are many subjects taught at the college including Physics, Art, Graphic Design, Chemistry, Sport, Biology, Geography, Leisure, Travel and Tourism, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts and many others.[citation needed]
Former teachers
Anthony Tuckwell, Headmaster from 1984 to 1999 of King Edward VI Grammar School (taught history from 1966 to 1969 at the boys' school)
Academic results
The College has just won the 2009 Beacon Award by the AoC for the College School Partnerships. [citation needed] It gets A-level results under the England average.
The most recent Ofsted inspection graded the college as 'satisfactory' and noted that "success rates are rising but they are still below national averages for sixth form colleges".[1]
Roy Koerner (Fritz) MBE, PhD Scientist and explorer (with Wally Herbert) and glaciologist, worked with the Polar Continental Shelf Project, and of worldwide importance for his 'ice core' data (oxygen isotope ratio cycle) that dated back over 11,000 years, to show summer-melt layers with relevant carbon dioxide content in the air. Ice thickness Data gathered during PolaR expeditions is still used as calibration for global warming survey
