History of the School and Site

1890

The original building on this site was St Mary's School shown below - circa 1890. It first became a school for girls in 1930 as the Junior Girls Department of the nearby Penhale Road Board School. The building became one of the early casualties of bombing during World War 2 and was subsequently demolished.

1949

With post-war reorganisation resulting from the 1944 Education Act, the Kingston Modern School for Girls was created in 1949. This was initially based at the Penhale Road site rather than ours and had 250 girls on roll. This figure soon increased until it became impossible to accommodate the number of students. By 1954, with numbers still increasing, it became clear that a new building would be necessary.

1957

The new Kingston Modern School for Girls building (below) opened on this site in 1957. It cost £105,821 to build and consisted of a main three-story block with 20 classrooms including specialist rooms for science, art, craft and domestic science and a library. There was also a Hall & Stage (still in use today), Dining Area (now our foyer), and a gymnasium (now our Dining Hall). The site was much smaller then, being surrounded to the North and West by houses that no longer exist today. Numbers of pupils continued to grow and a new building which is now our Science & Technology block was added in the 1960's.

1975

In 1975 education in Portsmouth was again reorganised resulting in the creation of the City of Portsmouth Girls' School as a comprehensive school for girls between the ages of 12 to 16. As a result the site became much as we know it today with a field (where the houses used to be), Sports Hall, and another new building which is our Maths Block of today.

1994

In 1994 education was once again reorganised in Portsmouth and the school became an 11 - 16 comprehensive school, taking girls from age 11. To accommodate the additional numbers another new block for teaching Modern Foreign Languages & Technology was added which, together with the all weather multi-sport pitch which was completed in 1998, resulted in the campus as we know it today.

2001

Building work to provide three more music practice rooms, additional office space and a new changing room for the dance studio was completed by February 2001.

2006

Teaching and Learning Centre