Pupils will be spending the night at School on Friday 29th February all in aid of raising money for charity. The Leap Year Lock-In organised by Year 11 pupils at Portsmouth High School will see the girls spend an extra 16 hours in School.

The pupils will be ‘officially’ locked in by BBC Radio Solent Presenter Alina Jenkins at 7.15pm, and they will stay inside the Bannell Centre, the School’s Sports Hall until11:30am on Saturday morning.

The event is designed to raise funds for Barnardo’s and the pupils have planned and co-ordinated the event themselves as part of the Barnardo’s Business Incentive Scheme. The girls take part in the scheme during their lunch break, which allows them to gain some real life experience of business and enterprise whilst raising money for children across the UK at the same time.

The event is being sponsored by the Portsmouth and Southsea Cooperative Society and during the evening the girls will have a delivery of Pizza courtesy of Perfect Pizza in Elm Grove and will be entertained by a pupil rock band, as well as indoor sports, party games and films. All of course under the watchful eye of some very supportive teachers and Mr Paul Evelyn, South of England schools liaison and fundraiser for Barnardo’s who will be locked in too!

Maddie Price, one of the Year 11 pupils who has organised the event said; “We have really enjoyed planning the event and thought it was a wonderful idea to raise money for Bardardo’s but also for all our Year group to get together in a social activity. We are really grateful to the companies who have agreed to sponsor the event and to Alina Jenkins for locking us in!”

Roy Brammall, Head of Social Sciences at the school, and who co-ordinates the schools extra curricular activities programme said; “The Barnardo’s Business Incentive Scheme is a great way for the pupils to gain some hands-on experience of business, I am always amazed by the creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm in which the girls take on these challenges, in the past we have seen groups organise masked balls, spring flings, a student magazine, Christmas shopping trips to London, a school calendar and Year 10 are planning a Red Carpet Disco in April, also to raise funds for Barnardo’s ; this is the first school lock-in we have had though!