My eldest son goes to Portchester School. It was the only secondary school that had the space to take him when we registered in September, and as he's a resilient and sensible boy, I ignored friends' advice to "Oh, NO! You have to get him into a private school!" I sent him off to Portchester, and crossed my fingers.

The boy has absolutely thrived so far at Portchester School. He has lovely friends and dedicated teachers. He gushes about the recording studio and adores his music teacher, who he says was brought in from one of the grammar schools when Ofsted went into Portchester and stirred things up. When Ofsted went in last term for a "visit", we got a letter from them gushing about improvements and general amazingness. I'm pretty impressed. Improvement is good.

Which brings me to the point of this article.

Portchester School was unlucky in their planning application to build a Sports Hall, which would mean large indoor sports facilities, a climbing wall, and a large enough assembly hall for the whole school. They have re-applied, and hope for public help in getting this new application passed.

The plans are lodged at Bournemouth Planning Office, and are available to view on their website: click here

Portchester is a Sports Specialist College, and obviously a large sports hall would enhance their current sports curriculum. The school also hopes that the local community would use the facilities after school hours, and that the school would become a sporting hub for school sports in Bournemouth.

Please visit the Planning website, and show your support by clicking on "Comments" and ticking "Support". The Application Number is: 7-2010-3749-B1 The more local support this application receives, the more likely planning will be approved. Good luck, Portchester! Click here to see the plans.