CURRICULUM
Our own innovative Explorer Curriculum
To give your daughter the best prep school experience possible, and tap into her unique potential for discovery and learning, we have created our own innovative Explorer Curriculum.
Years in development, our approach incorporates the core academic subjects blended with a host of new experiences, from the performing arts to sport and to foreign languages and gardening, in a range of diverse settings – from beach visit sessions to traditional school sports, theatre, studio and classroom facilities.
Thriving through accomplishment
We will see to it that your daughter thrives through accomplishment. She will achieve high level skills in English, reading, mathematics, science, computing, PE, music and languages. We introduce outdoor learning from the start incorporating it into all teaching areas. The explorers approach supports the curriculum, which will give your daughter a balanced and confident approach to school life, and enable a seamless transition into our senior school
“The impression I got was very favourable. The girls were all so well behaved and working well. I thought the school was excellent. Staff were very passionate about what they do.”
Performing Arts
Music and drama play a very important part in life at Portsmouth High School, for their own sakes, and for the purpose of developing self-confidence, public speaking and presentation skills in our girls.
All our girls sing with enthusiasm, and this is always a focus of our assemblies and drama performances. We also host a chamber choir and orchestra. Our girls can access co-curricular lessons in voice, piano, violin, brass, ‘cello, clarinet and flute just to name a few.
In drama, each class produces a performance annually. There are also set piece performances throughout the school, such as the Year 5 play: most recently, Shakespeare on Trial and the Year 6 presentation of, The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse.
Sport
Sport is an integral part of the curriculum, and physical activities are scheduled throughout the week for all girls. We play games with a healthy, competitive spirit and an emphasis on enjoyment and opportunity. Our sports programme is well balanced, with activities such as tennis, gymnastics and swimming alongside athletics, netball, hockey, rounders and cricket all part of the mix.
We encourage sport for all, and our House competitions in athletics, netball, hockey and cricket are enjoyed by all of the girls. We also like to give as many as possible the opportunity to represent the school in sport: we have a busy external fixtures programme and also send teams to Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) competitions in netball, cross-country and cricket.
