WHAT? WHERE?

Mayville High School is an independent day school just minutes from the seafront in Southsea, Portsmouth, with 500 pupils aged 2 – 16. Girls-only until 1994, today the school is fully co-educational.

The site is split between the main building, a combination of Victorian and Edwardian houses converted in the 1940s and 50s, and a Nursery, Pre-Prep and Junior school campus housed in a combination of Victorian buildings and purpose-built modern extensions.

There are also separate Victorian buildings including an office further along the otherwise residential road and a brand new Specialist Learning Support and Wellbeing Centre – Wyvern House – opening in September 2023.

Founded in 1897 by Miss Lottie West, Mayville’s near 125-year history has seen several moves and a few near-catastrophic moments: it was one of only a few schools in Portsmouth to survive two World Wars, including an extremely close call in a devastating WW2 Blitz on the city, and it endured a devastating flood in 2000.

FACILITIES

Mayville School Southsea Seniors seafront

As with so many residential buildings that have been converted into schools, the conversion from residential buildings means the cohort are carefully timetabled to make full use of the space, which doesn’t appear to faze the kids or impact the quality of the teaching.

In the main building, Seniors thunder up and down narrow staircases to reach classrooms of varying sizes spread over several floors. There’s a purpose-built hall equipped with performance lighting, sound equipment and retractable theatre-style seating, and several well-stocked libraries.

Ten minutes’ walk away there’s Southsea seafront for cross-country running and general exploring, which Mayville makes good use of. And fear not if you’re imagining your city teens under-exercised and over-familiar with lunchtime devices – there are 23 acres of playing fields five minutes’ drive away by school minibus in Eastney, with football and rugby pitches, all-weather netball and tennis courts, a full-size cricket pitch and rounders pitches.

As well the Eastney sports ground, Mayville also uses specialist sports facilities around the city for Badminton, athletics and hockey, regularly competing in academy, county and school tournaments and fixtures. While it’s not in the elite for team sports, Mayville does punch above its weight in ISA National Swimming and Athletics competitions: a number of swimmers belong to the Portsmouth Northsea Swimming Club, competing at regional and county levels. The school also has national champion in synchro swimming.

A number of Mayville’s footballers are part of Academies with professional clubs and there are cricketers competing at county level.

Performing arts like dance and drama are big calling cards for Mayville and very popular. A number of ex-pupils have gone on to Ballet and Dance Schools and performed in the West End, while others have forged successful acting careers, appearing in TV shows and commercials.

Along with the usual extra-curricular offer and regular school productions at The Kings Theatre, unusually, Mayville offers Technical Theatre as a GCSE option and vocational Performing Arts BTEC qualifications in Dance, Drama & Music. Mayville is also part of the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, with confidence-building programmes designed to support academic attainment and the chance to perform the Bard on a professional stage as part of the world’s largest youth drama festival.

THE HEAD

Appointed as Headteacher in 2014, Rebecca Parkyn is a former pupil at Mayville and remains firmly committed to the guiding principles set out by her predecessors.

An Oxford graduate, Parkyn began her teaching career at St. Benedict’s School in Ealing and held various roles with Bedales School in Petersfield before moving to King Edwards School in Southampton as Head of Faculty. Confident and business-minded in her approach, she is a big advocate of a wide curriculum including modern and classical languages, both of which are taught at Mayville.

LITTLIES

Mayville’s tots have the run of a good-sized zoned space, with the usual array of toys, tuff-tuff tables and outdoor play area.

The new must-have nursery activity of baby yoga is enthusiastically taken up here and not surprisingly given the school’s position, the little ones step out for regular beach walks. Reception is just along the corridor – not far for nursery graduates to go. Distracting the teacher from refereeing a fierce competition involving counting pegs, she tells me about specialist classes on the daily curriculum including French, football and dance.

ACADEMICS

Rather than academic streaming, regular Cognitive Abilities Testing (CAT) is used as part of a closely tutored approach to teaching, enabling kids of different abilities to sit and learn together, in a fully-inclusive setting.

Sitting in its own space in the Junior campus, Mayville’s well-established Harden Davies Dyslexia Unit is a major calling card for the school, with specialist support for dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and mild speech and language disorders attracting movers from other schools and drawing in pupils from around the county.

One Junior proudly showed me her new coloured glasses that had been recommended to her by learning support unit. Another said her older sister had thrived at Mayville having failed to keep pace at her previous school where her dyslexia had been missed, with the inclusive teaching approach and regular testing enabling SEND pupils to sit alongside peers that don’t have additional needs.

The dedicated 1:1 support was reflected in the school’s ISI report, highlighting test data that shows SEND pupils at Mayville made excellent progress from their individual stating points compared to national outcomes. In 2020 average Value-Added Scores were 7.25 (based on CAT expected and actual grades). In their report, CReSTeD (the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils) inspectors rated the level of support from the learning support team and from mainstream teachers as outstanding.

Academic results also highlight strong outcomes – in 2020, 83% of Mayville pupils with dyslexia achieved five or more GCSEs and grade 4 or above, including English and maths, compared to 30.4% of pupils nationally [2018/19 gov.uk statistics].

Building on nearly 30 years of its strong dyslexia unit, Mayville School opened a new Specialist Learning Support and Wellbeing Centre in September 2023.

Wyvern House is open to pupils with a variety of additional needs, which prevent them from accessing mainstream education. Designed to be a calm ‘home-from-home’ environment with a resident therapy dog, the Centre caters for a range of neurodiversity including Autistic Spectrum Conditions. It runs alongside the school’s established Dyslexia Learning Unit.

REMOTE LEARNING

In January 2021 Mayville launched a standalone virtual school, ‘Mayville Online.’ Separate from the remote learning offer for existing pupils, the virtual school has a full curriculum offer and is open to pupils in Hampshire and elsewhere in the UK who are taught in small remote classes with the same allocated tutors. There’s also an international offer, operating on a different timeline, which is already proving popular with Chinese schools.

Pupils access and complete assignments using Google Classroom with online tutors specifically for remote learners. Live lessons that are recorded so they can be revisited or accessed if missed. Time is set aside for pastoral support and supported by the school’s successful Dyslexia & Learning Extension Unit.

QUIRKS

Not many schools are spread along residential roads – or close to a city beach – but with its fleet of vans and strong programme of enrichment Mayville manages to create a close-knit community feel that’s tricky to achieve in city schools. Part of a ‘whole child’ ethos here, there’s a strong focus on enrichment within the curriculum, from music, dance, drama and sport to a dedicated Junior School ‘Shine’ programme giving pupils the chance to take part in digital filmmaking, Japanese, Beach School, Mayville at Marwell Zoo and more.

WRAPAROUND CARE

Morning sessions (at an extra cost) run from 8am – 8.30am, after school sessions run until 6pm for Years R – 6 and up to 5pm for Seniors in Years 7 – 11. Extra-curricular clubs during lunchtimes and after school cover a range of interests from the usual arts, crafts, debate club and Duke of Edinburgh to more niche comic book characters, LEGO and Latin interest.

ISI REPORT

Read the latest ISI repo rt here.

TRANSPORT

Many Mayville students coming in to the school from outside Southsea get here by school mini bus, with routes covering Petersfield, Chichester, Fareham, Whiteley, Horndean, Hayling Island (the Hayling Ferry), Gosport Ferry, the Hovercraft and the Harbour Station. A number of pupils travel to the school from the Isle of Wight using the Hovercraft from Ryde. Pupils living outside the city can also travel to and from Mayville on Luckett’s Student City Link coaches.

FEES + SCHOLARSHIPS

Good value. Pre-school sessions cost from £17.25 for a three-hour morning or afternoon session to £50 for an extended day (8am – 6pm). In the Junior School, Reception up to Year 2 is £2770 per term; Years 3 & 4 is £3100 per term and Years 5 & 6 is £3350. Senior School fees for Years 7-9 are £4350 per term; Years 10 & 11 are £4400.

There’s a sibling discount of 10% for a second child in full time education in the school, rising to a 50% fee reduction for a third or fourth child. Mayville offers two academic scholarships worth up to 50% of fees in the Junior School (Year 3 – 6). Academic scholarships for the duration of the Senior School are based on entry assessment for Year 7 and excellence in Creative Arts and Sport.

WORD ON THE GROUND

One ex-pupil’s parent tells me that, in a city setting, Mayville’s size, small class sizes and “village mentality” proved a good fit for his child. Chatting to current juniors, they insist every kid has a chance to shine and no-one is put under pressure, enthusing about after-school dance club as their absolute favourite activity. Seniors rate the small class sizes, supportive teachers, extra-curricular Duke of Edinburgh activities and STEM Club. Mayville’s small class sizes and tailored curriculum is ideal for performers or sporty-types with outside interests, allowing flexibility around rehearsal, performing or training commitments.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Budding performers, kids with SEN (especially dyslexia) and pupils that risk getting lost in schools with a larger cohort and larger class sizes. The new Specialist Learning Support and Wellbeing Centre will open the door to neurodiverse pupils that may otherwise struggle to find a place in mainstream education. For parents considering home-schooling, the Mayville Online virtual offer is certainly worth a look.

Not for: The residential location and slightly later 8am drop-off in the morning for wraparound care won’t be for everyone.

Dare to disagree?! Be my guest! Take a virtual tour now via the school website. Book for the next whole school open events on Saturday 22 March and Saturday 17 May. For more about Mayville Online, visit www.mayvillehighschool.com/online.

Mayville High School, 35 – 37 St. Simon’s Road, Southsea, Hampshire, PO5 2PE. Tel: 023 9273 4847. www.mayvillehighschool.com.

Mayville High School, Southsea, Portsmouth

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