MARK Partridge is a great advertisement for Poole Grammar School.

Not only has he taught at the school for 26 years but he has four sons well on their way to hugely successful careers thanks in no small part to their attendance there.

With one son working in Japan, a Cambridge graduate, a student at a top London theatre school and a budding accountant, Mr Partridge is proud when he says: “It’s been a privilege.”

And it’s a privilege available to students from all walks of life with one of the most diverse set of students at any grammar school in the country.

Most of the boys come from the borough of Poole, which has areas awash with multi-million pounds homes and also pockets of extreme deprivation.

“This is one of the things we are most proud of” said head teacher Ian Carter. “The children come from a range of backgrounds but this school is as good as anything the independent sector can offer.”

Exam results at Poole Grammar are consistently high and there are always at least two applicants for each place available.

The selection process this year will see boys from current Year 6 and Year 7 classes tested for places as the age of transfer changes in Poole.

Mr Carter and his colleagues are looking forward to the double intake and are particularly pleased that boys will be starting at the school a year earlier from September 2013.

And facilities have been upgraded to cater for the extra classes with a new music school, library, performance theatre and greatly enhanced IT facilities.

Staff at the school regularly travel worldwide to learn from the very best educational practice with the aim of “getting the very best out of the pupils.”

The school is a specialist maths and computing college and shares a sixth form with nearby girls’ school Parkstone Grammar .

Situated on a leafy site in Gravel Hill, it has a peaceful learning with the quiet and purposeful study only interrupted by the sound of excited and eager chat during breaks.

“They’re good fun aren’t they?” said a passing member of staff as I waited for photographs to be taken during morning break. “They’re all so enthusiastic and full of beans – it’s a lovely place to be.”