John Port School

John Port School
Motto Big Smiles, Exciting Challenges, Bright Futures
Established 1956
Type Academy
Head-teacher Karen Squire
Location Main Street
Etwall
Derbyshire
DE65 6LU
England
52°53′04″N 1°36′10″W / 52.88443°N 1.60266°W / 52.88443; -1.60266Coordinates: 52°53′04″N 1°36′10″W / 52.88443°N 1.60266°W / 52.88443; -1.60266
DfE URN 136591 Tables
Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports
Students 2100
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–18
Colours Oxford Blue
Website www.johnport.org.uk

John Port School is an academy in the village of Etwall, Derbyshire, England.[1]

Admissions

With the current number of students around the 2100 mark[2] it puts John Port as the largest secondary school in Derbyshire, and one of the largest nationally.[3] The current head-teacher is Karen Squire.

John Port is a mixed school, with the student age range between 11 and 18, and with the 6th Form taking students from the ages of 16 to 18. There are approximately 141 full-time and temporary members of the teaching staff.

History

The school is on the site of a demolished country manor, Etwall Hall, Etwall, situated just outside Derby, traditionally of the Port family who were the wealthy landowners/farmers of the parish.[4] In 1952, the Derbyshire County Council bought Etwall Hall from Reg Parnell, the famous racing car driver. The hall had been used during the Second World War by the Army, first as a petrol depot and later as an equipment supply centre and been left in a somewhat dilapidated state. After its demolition a secondary modern, Etwall Secondary School, and a secondary grammar school, John Port Grammar School, were built on the site. In 1965 they were amalgamated to form the John Port School that occupies the site today.

The name of the Port family, who lived at the hall, has been associated with Etwall since the 15th century. The family’s most famous son, Sir John Port, was the founder of the nearby Repton School and committed to the furthering of education for young men in the village. It therefore seemed entirely appropriate that the new school was named after him.

School site

A green site

The large site[5] has an open feel, being a 'green' campus with plenty of open spaces between the individual teaching facilities. The centre of the site is focussed around the lake, one of the original fishing ponds that were in the grounds of the Etwall Hall.

Teaching facilities are spread across the site, with each faculty having a separate building. The buildings are mostly named after settlements and features in Derbyshire and the Peak District, with the exceptions to this being Flamsteed, named after a famous local scientist John Flamsteed, and the Jubilee Centre, named to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

The Learning Resources Centre is situated centrally on the site, occupying most of the ground floor of 'B' block.

The site is also home to the Etwall Leisure Centre, with public access from Hilton Road. This new centre was officially opened on 17 July 2009, although it didn't open to the public till 5 August 2009. The new facilities include a six-lane 25 m swimming pool, squash courts, fitness suite and large sports hall.

Academic performance

The school gets well-above-average results at GCSE, and standards at both GCE AS and A level are above average according to Ofsted.[6] The school is twinned with the Gymnasium Melle,[7] and there are annual joint exchanges with their windband, with a bi-annual concert being held at John Port School.[8] The friendship of the schools arose out of the twinning arranged by the mayor of Osnabruck.[9]

Notable students

John Port Grammar School

  • Sir Howard Newby (1959–66) - Sociologist, former head of the Economic and Social Research Council [10] University Vice-Chancellor at Southampton, UWE and currently Liverpool
  • Mark Sharman (1961-8), Head of News and Sport at ITV.

Catchment area

The size of the school means that it has a very large catchment area, covering 31 parishes of South Derbyshire.

Ash | Barton Blount | Bearwardcote | Boylestone | Burnaston | Church Broughton | Dalbury Lees | Egginton | Etwall | Findern | Foremark | Foston | Hatton | Hilton | Hoon | Marston on Dove | Mickleover | Newton Solney | Osleston | Radbourne | Repton | Rolleston on Dove | Scropton | Stenson | Stretton | Sutton on the Hill | Thurvaston | Trusley | Twyford | Tutbury | Willington

And includes the following primary schools:[11]

  1. Church Broughton Primary School
  2. Egginton Primary School
  3. Etwall Primary School
  4. Heathfields Primary School
  5. Findern Primary School
  6. Hilton Primary School
  7. Longford Primary School
  8. Long Lane Primary School
  9. Mickleover Primary School
  10. Ravensdale Primary School
  11. Repton Primary School
  12. Silverhill Primary School
  13. Sudbury Primary School
  14. St Clare Special Needs School
  15. Willington Primary School

References

the school crest
  1. ↑ John Port site accessed May 16, 2009
  2. ↑ About Us page
  3. ↑ List of Large Secondary Schools, WhatDoTheyKnow.com
  4. ↑ Etwall at Derbyshire-PeakDistrict.co.uk accessed August 2007
  5. ↑ Site plan Archived 2014-06-06 at the Wayback Machine., Johnport.org
  6. ↑ Ofsted Report Archived 2011-10-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Gymnasium Melle in Osnabrück
  8. ↑ windband in Osnabruck Archived 2006-05-13 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ The Germans We Trusted: Stories of Friendship Resulting from the Second World War, Pamela Howe Taylor, p148, 2003, ISBN 0-7188-3034-2, accessed ay 2009
  10. ↑ Higher Education in the 21st Century (Conference), Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland, 25-27 June 2007 (Speaker Biographies) retrieved 17 August 2008
  11. ↑ John Port School parents Accessed 2014_01_26
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