St Vincent College
Coordinates: 50°48′00″N 1°08′10″W / 50.800°N 1.136°W
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| Motto | Your college of choice |
|---|---|
| Established | 1987 |
| Type | Sixth Form College |
| Principal | Matt Atkinson |
| Location |
Mill Lane Gosport Hampshire PO12 4QA  |
| Local authority | Hampshire County Council |
| DfE URN | 130705 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | c.1200 full time |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 16–18 |
| Publication | Clocktower |
| Website |
www |
St Vincent College is a co-educational sixth form (16-18) college located in Gosport, Hampshire, England. The majority of students come from the surrounding towns including Gosport, Fareham, Stubbington and Winchester. The nearby Gosport Ferry link with Portsmouth also allows students from that city to attend. The college has around 1,200 full-time students;[1] it also caters for older "Access" students.
History
Forton Barracks was built 1848-1923 as the home of the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines Light Infantry. In 1927 the Barracks were recommissioned as HMS St. Vincent, as a Royal Naval training establishment for boy seamen and juniors. In the Second World War, with the evacuation of the boys away from Gosport, the establishment was used, in part, to train officers of the Fleet Air Arm. At the end of the war the establishment reverted to training boys and juniors until 1968 and the site was decommissioned from the Royal Navy in 1969.
St Vincent Secondary School opened in 1975 on the site, with most of the historic buildings of its former Naval existence having been demolished. In 1987 Gosport Sixth Form College opened as part of the re-organisation of secondary education in the town. Initially the college shared the site with St Vincent Secondary School, but when the school's final Year 11 left in 1990, the present title was adopted.
There is a small museum on the site that has a number of artefacts and pictures of the site's time as a naval establishment, although this has only limited opening hours, and only at the weekend.
Sports
The college is represented by a hockey team, football team, netball team and an ultimate team named ThunderSnatch.[2] Sports facilities include a full sized Astro turf based pitch. The campus hosts a gym for the use of the students and local community.
Proposed merger with Fareham College
It was announced in November 2008 in the local press that St Vincent will remain an independent sixth form college.[3] The Gosport community and Principal, staff and students of the college fought hard to keep the college open. The initial Learning and Skills Council (LSC - Government Quango) proposal was on the basis of a consensual merger between the two insititutions. Merger talks broke down in the late summer of 2007 when significant differences of opinion over the suitability of the former HMS Daedalus site for a £40 million 'super college' for the Gosport and Fareham area emerged. Consequently, St Vincent pulled out of the proposed merger, but the local LSC decided to pursue a forced merger between the two colleges. St Vincent fought a high-profile local and national campaign to fight this. By the early summer of 2008 it became apparent that the LSC did not have the necessary powers required to secure a forced merger and the plan was scrapped in the autumn. In November 2008 both colleges were inspected by Ofsted and each was given an overall 'good' grade.[4]
St. Vincent Tradition
Every year St. Vincent college has a boat race in the lake that is situated to the rear of the grounds, it is usually between members of the engineering courses and does not always go to plan.
In the Summer of 2010, St. Vincent College opened its doors to the public to show off the musical talent from students past and present featuring the headline act of Throw Back. The event was called the "St. Vincent Gig on the Grass Festival" and it even pulled in crowds of around 500 people and was shown to be a huge success with many of the acts being asked to return for 2011.
The festival line up for 2011 rumoured the return of Throw Back and Tj Stickland with the introduction of indie/acoustic three piece May-Day. The festival is due to take place on June 29, 2011, with Tj Stickland returning with new band "The Bridge" and Martin Williams' return with "MayDay" has been anticipated with a lot of excitement.
Unfortunately with new developments, a rule change, announced on 21 June 2011, could see MayDay and The Bridge kicked off the line up because the students are past, not present. The removal of past students is not confirmed but is in the pipeline, causing financial damage to both acts.
References
- ↑ St Vincent College information
- ↑ St Vincent College links
- ↑ Donovan, Sion (November 19, 2008). "College merger plan crashes into buffers". Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Portsmouth Today. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
- ↑ Donovan, Sion (February 6, 2009). "Threatened colleges wow the inspectors". Johnston Press Digital Publishing. Portsmouth Today. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
External links
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