John Pounds, “The Man of the Millennium”, as voted for by readers of The News, will be brought to life in a lively musical production by pupils at Portsmouth High School.

OnThursday 28th and Friday 29th June the cast of Year 7 and 8 pupils will perform the musical entitled “All for the Children”, which charts the life of this Portsmouth-born man.

Shoppers at Gunwharf Quays have already seen edited highlights of the production as the girls performed them as part of The Portsmouth Festivities on Saturday 23rd June. On Tuesday over 150 pupils from 4 local primary schools watched the performance at the John Pounds Centre and later took part in a workshop led by staff and Sixth Form pupils.

Angela Blackwell, Director of Music, said, “After the success of our school musical ‘Nelson – the hero’ two years ago I started looking around for another character from local history on which to base a work.  John Pounds seemed the ideal person, particularly given his link with education.”

Michelle Hainsworth, Drama teacher and Director of the production, said, “The musical is special as it has been written by staff at the school. The more we found out about the man and his influence, the more we found to write about. We have had a huge amount of interest from local primary schools and it is great that we will get the opportunity to perform our work to pupils from 3 local schools. We are delighted that the children of today are still learning from him and about him.”

Since researching for the production, Year 7 pupil Grace Newcombe has discovered she is related to John Pounds. The 12 year old has been able to trace her family tree back to Thomas Pounds, born in 1771, the brother of John Pounds.