History of Portland School

This page will tell of the history of Portland School, which was first known as the Winnifred Portland........

School Year 1956-1957
School Year 1957-1958

School Year 1956-1957

10th September 1956

The Winnifred Portland Technical Grammar School opened it's doors to pupils for the first time today. The building work wasn't complete and only 7 classrooms were available to use. There was the Headmaster, 11 staff and 218 pupils attending that first day. The pupils were split up into forms:

Year		Form
1st Year	1A		16 boys
				15 girls
		1X		15 boys
				15 girls
3rd Year	3A		17 boys
				15 girls
		3X		16boys
				16 girls
4th Year	4A		31 boys
		4C		31 girls
		4x		31 boys

The first year was comprised of those pupils passing 11+, the third from the technical school and the fourth from the Junior Technical School.
There was 12 staff at that time, including the headmaster. They were:


Headmaster		Mr E M Spelman BSc MA
English & History	Mr T D Philips BA
Maths			Mr H Booth BA
Grography		Mr A E Clarke BA
Needlecraft		Miss D Lambert
Arts & Crafts		Mrs G Baker
Woodwork		Mr K Barker
Music			Mrs S Martin
Commercial subjects	Miss W E Andrews BA
Engineering subjects	Mr A Hall
Physical Education	Mrs M Fricker
Physical Education	Mr W Arkinson

Also on the staff were Mr Bickerstaff (caretaker) and Mrs Adwick (secretary).

11th September 1956: Another pupil joined the school, which brings the total up to 219!

19th September 1956: Mr E Mason, Director of Education, visits school.

21th September 1956

The Winnifred Portland was divided into 4 houses. These were:

House		Colour		
Gainsborough	Green		Mr Barker		Miss Baker
Rutherford	Yellow		Mr Clarke		Miss Lambert
Shaftesbury	White		Mr Hall	Miss Andrews
Trevelyan	Blue		Mr Phillips	Mrs Martin

10th October 1956: Telephones installed, No. 3656

25th October 1956: New history teacher appointed - Mr R S Higginson BA

9th January 1957: The school reopened after the Christmas Holidays with 311 pupils. Mrs Cox and Mr Higginson were official appointed at the school to teach homecraft and history, respectively.

April 10th 1957: The school held their cross country race, and the winners were Maurice Bawbridge (1st year), Kenneth Siddall (3rd year) and Brian Argyle (4th year).

9th May 1957: New appointments: Mr Nicholls, Mr Else and Mrs Milnes.

11th July 1957: Official School Opening

School Year 1957-1958

10th September 1957

School reopens for the next academic year with 19 staff, 430 pupils and the headmaster. The new staff were:

Mr L Noskiewiez BSc
Mr K Sykes BSc
Miss A Wychadley BA

Mrs S Martin left the school.

2nd December 1957: Mrs Firth took over secretarial duties.

15th February 1958: Winnifred Portland came 5th out of 18 in the Notts AAA Cross Country. This was aided by Michael Spencer coming 20th and Robin Day 22nd.

16th March 1958