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Peter Symonds College

Motto	Counting in Ones
Established	1897
Type	Sixth form college
Principal	Neil Hopkins
Location	Owens Road Winchester Hampshire SO22 6RX England
Local authority	Hampshire
DfE number	850/8609
DfE URN	130708
Ofsted	Reports
Students	c.2700
Ages	16–18
Publication	The Buzz
Website	PSC

Coordinates: 51°04′12″N 1°19′12″W / 51.0701°N 1.3201°W / 51.0701; -1.3201

Peter Symonds College is a sixth form college in Winchester, Hampshire, in the south of England. It is one of the largest sixth form colleges in Britain.

  Admissions

It has some 3250 students aged 16–18 mainly from central Hampshire but also teenagers from the British Forces who live on campus in one of the two boarding houses and mostly come from Germany, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands. The College also has a separate site in Winchester where it provides courses for some 2000 adult students.

  History

  Grammar school

The college was founded as a boys' grammar school in 1897 and became a coeducational 16-19 college in 1974, although its roots go back to charities established in the 16th century at the bequest of Peter Symonds, a wealthy merchant. From 1944 it was a voluntary controlled grammar school.

  Sixth form college

The school, along with the Winchester County Girls' High School, also a grammar school, became a comprehensive in 1974, taking until 1978.

  Apostrophe

In the late 1990s or early 2000s, for reasons unknown (but possibly because of the difficulty students and correspondents had in spelling the College's name correctly), the College dropped the possessive apostrophe from its founder's name in its official title, and is now known as Peter Symonds College.

  New buildings

In 2004, the John Shields Building was unveiled, providing classrooms for the computing, psychology and environmental science departments. Also in that year the Varley Sports Café was rebuilt.

The £4.2M Ashurst Learning Resources Centre was completed in the spring of 2007. Ashurst contains five computer suites, housing over 170 computers (three suites double as classrooms, but remain open access when not in use), a vast library and large silent study areas.

The present principal, Neil Hopkins is now the only principal not to have a building in the college named after him, and instead the landfill site in front of the Northbrook building which was demolished has been affectionately called Hopkins' Hump.^{[citation needed]}

  Boarding

The school previously operated a number of boarding houses. The houses (School House, Wyke Lodge and Kelso) brought in a welcome variety of boys from far-flung corners of the world (outposts of Empire and Armed Forces bases) to spice up the – largely insular – intake of 11+ pupils from Winchester.

Wyke Lodge is now the Environmental Studies block and Kelso is now the Music department. School House is still used for boarding (30 students), along with the newly built Falkland Lodge (47 students). Both male and female students are accommodated. The construction of Falkland Lodge was funded by the government of the Falkland Islands as a boarding house so that students from the islands can study at the college.

  Academic achievement

In 2009 Peter Symonds was placed sixth in The Times top 50 state sixth forms. In the same year the college was ranked 85th in the country (only including institutions with at least 30 exam entrants) based on Average Points Score. And in 2011 the college was placed 4th top 50 state sixth forms in the country ^[1]

  Extra-curricular activities

The college produces an online magazine named "The BUZZ", written and edited by students, which replaced "Converse" in 2008.^[2] There is also a student produced college radio station, 7Radio, founded by James Silsbury and Josh Lewkowicz on the 14th Feb 2007. The '7' or 'Seven' of 7Radio, as well as relating to broadcasting 7 days a week when first set up, refers to Symonds Events and Entertainment Network radio ^[3]

All students study A-Level General Studies. All students also partake in one extra curricular activity per term (societies, sports, arts).^{[citation needed]}

  Headmasters and principals

• Revd Telford Varley III, 1897 to 1926
• Dr Percy Tom Freeman, 1926 to 1956
• Charles Simpson (acting), 1956 to 1957
• John Shields, 1957 to 1963
• John Ashurst, 1963 to 1973
• Stuart Nicholls, 1973 to 1993
• Neil Hopkins, 1993 to present

  Notable alumni

• Ben Ainslie^[4] - British sailor and three-times Olympic gold medalist.
• Gina Beck^[5] - actress, singer, currently starring as Christine in the London production of The Phantom of the Opera
• Andy Burrows^[6] - former drummer in the band Razorlight.
• Will Champion^[7] - drummer in the band Coldplay.
• Alexa Chung^[8] - TV presenter, model and fashionista.
• Jack Dee^[9] - Stand up comedian and actor.
• Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick "Paddy" Bardon Hine GCB, GBE^[10] - Senior Royal Air Force commander. Commander of all British forces during the first Gulf War.
• Phil Hughes (born 1991), cricketer^[11]
• Alice Kettle^[12] - Textile artist
• Caroline Nokes^[13] - Conservative MP since 2010 for Romsey and Southampton North
• Iain Percy^[14] - British sailor and double Olympic champion.
• Lucy Pinder^[15] - Glamour Model and Celebrity Big Brother housemate.
• Joanna Yeates^[16] - Highly Publicised Murder Victim
• Anish Panchmatia^[17] - A Gay Indian Student.

  Peter Symonds College entrance

  References

  External links

• Peter Symonds College website
• 7Radio website
• Old Symondians' Society
• EduBase
• Weeke history