Type Academy DfE URN 138193 Tables Number of students 1,069 | DfE number 837/5404 Phone +44 1202 398451 | |
Executive Head Debbie Godfrey-Phaure (Executive Head) Location Harewood Avenue
Bournemouth
Dorset
BH7 6NY
England Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports Address Harewood Ave, Bournemouth BH7 6NY, UK Motto " Inspiring 21st Century Thinkers" Houses Charlotte Brontë, Edith Cavell, Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale | ||
Avonbourne School (formerly Avonbourne Business and Enterprise College) is a secondary school with academy status located in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It is a single-sex all-girls school for 11- to 16-year-olds and is a foundation school.
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It is part of the Bournemouth Network for 'English' Teachers, is working with Earth Charter UK and has ICT Mark accreditation. It also has partnerships with the University of Exeter, Sport England, Bournemouth and Poole College, and the Richard Language College. It is working with the latter two carrying out research as part of the Comenius 'MILE' Project and British Council backed 'Shadows' scheme to create a European-wide strategy to help migrant children avoid NEET.
At the end of 2010, a group of year 9 pupils – otherwise known as the Internet Rangers – were awarded the Diana Certificate of Excellence. This accolade and others recognises the work of these students running weekly training sessions for OAP 'silver surfers' in their Bournemouth community. These girls also won the national Enterprise UK competition 'Make your Mark with a Tenner', beating more than 28,000 entrants, and were invited to the House of Commons to tell MPs about their work. Their Internet Rangers image has also been projected against the National Theatre in London as part of the Big Society project, which praises inter-generational schemes such as theirs.
History
The school was originally located in a building on Lowther Road. The old building was used by Bournemouth School and as a hospital until 1939. In 1940 the main building was taken over by the new Portchester School, an all-boys senior school. The nearby Alma Road Boys School became an infant and junior school and the Alma Road Girls School became a senior school for girls in the local area. The Alma Road schools were bombed in an air raid in 1940 and the girls senior school moved into the Lowther Road building.
The school changed its name to Avonbourne in 1948 and remained at Lowther Road until 1970. New buildings for Portchester School were built next to Avonbourne in 1975 and both schools now share sports facilities and playing fields. The site of the school at Lowther Road is now used by Malmsbury Park Primary School who moved into a new building there in 1972.
The school converted to academy status in June 2012.
Location
Avonbourne is located in Harewood Avenue, next to Porchester School and nearby The Bicknell School and St Peter's Lower School.
The catchment area of Avonbourne and Portchester schools is from many parts of Bournemouth, mostly the Iford area, where the school is located, and Boscombe, Springbourne, Pokesdown, Southbourne, Charminster and Bournemouth centre. Being popular, many out-of-catchment-area pupils come to the school.
House system
When students enroll to the school they are divided into one of the four houses which are named after prominent females in history. The houses are called by the female's surname and are associated with a colour.
The school logo is a combination of the four houses. It is in a shield shape divided into four with the background of each section using one of the house colours. Each section has a symbol of the house:
There are two forms in each house for each of the five years. Many of the teachers in the school belong to a house. During the course of the academic year, sporting competitions are held between the houses, called inter-house. In July, the annual Sports day is held where many students support their house. It is a very competitive day with non-competitors dressing in their house colours. Each year, there is the popular teacher relay, with four teachers representing a house trying to win for the students.