Schools in focus
A new feature celebrating the great work in our classrooms
MAYVILLE High School has been at the heart of Southsea life since 1897 and, to this day, we continue to follow our founding philosophy of educating the ‘whole child’ – ‘The head. The hands. The heart’.
Our ethos serves to instil a life-long love of learning in every pupil. Throughout our Nursery, Junior & Senior Schools, studies and activities are inclusive and structured to meet the needs, challenge the expectations and exceed the goals of each individual.
THE MAYVILLE DIFFERENCE: We have high academic standards and strive to achieve the best outcomes for our pupils.
We also believe learning should be fun and that happy children flourish in an environment which values and promotes inclusivity, community and a sense of belonging.
This is the balance at the heart of our ‘ whole child’ approach and we deliver this, in practice, through our independent curriculum, small class sizes and first-rate pastoral provision.
At Mayville, we believe that pupils learn best when they have self-esteem, self-confidence and self-knowledge and we are dedicated to nurturing pupils who will leave us as talented, confident and empathetic members of our community.
EXCELLENT PASTORAL CARE: We are very proud of the reputation and high quality of our pastoral care. Our belief is that in ‘excellence through nurture’, teachers and pupils alike share a commitment to care for one another.
The pastoral system embodies this instinct for care and support, embedded within a school that sees itself as a family. Our care grows from a belief in the potential of every child and a sense of ourselves as a happy community, which knows and supports its members well.
TAILORED LEARNING: Small class sizes and tutor groups enable us to know each pupil and tailor their individual development, throughout all stages of their school life.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to education at Mayville.
We value every child’s unique talents and interests and provide a bespoke educational programme for each pupil, that acknowledges the importance of developing personal character alongside academic achievement.
Our small class sizes ensure that all pupils receive additional support or extension, as appropriate, in order to help them achieve their own personal best.
We pride ourselves on being renowned as a creative school. Our independent curriculum allows us to timetable lessons in dance, music, drama and visual arts, alongside regular performance opportunities.
Our pupils also benefit from flexibility and invaluable support when auditioning, performing or competing outside of school.
However, it is our firm belief that creativity in learning is central to the development of essential problem-solving and lateral thinking skills in all children and this underpins our whole ethos.
LEARN TO SHINE AT MAYVILLE: New for this academic year, our Junior School Enrichment
Programme, ‘Shine’ offers even greater curriculum breadth for pupils.
The programme introduces pupils to a wide range of opportunities for learning and personal growth, such as digital filmmaking in ‘Making Movies at Mayville’, Japanese in our ‘Multilingual Mayville’ module, Beach School in ‘Making Waves at Mayville’, ‘Mayville masters STEM’ and ‘Mayville at Marwell’ to name but a few.
LEARNING DIFFERENCES: At Mayville, we have been renowned for our expertise in the specialist tuition of dyslexic pupils for over 20 years, running the wellestablished Harden-Davies Dyslexia Unit, catering for a variety of academic needs that can also be associated with a dyslexic profile, including dyscalculia, mild dyspraxic-type difficulties and mild speech and language disorders.
Our overall aim is to encourage confident and independent learners, who have an awareness of how their individual difficulties affect them directly and therefore have a better ability to overcome those difficulties.
The teaching methods we use are centred on a structured, cumulative, multi-sensory approach to learning – a systematic teaching of written language, using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic sensory channels.
These methods have spoken for themselves, as our pupils enjoy success in their GCSEs, consistently achieving grades above predicted expectations.