UTC Portsmouth

Today marked a big moment for our Year 11 students: their final GCSE exam and their final day at UTC Portsmouth as Year 11s.

It has been an incredible two years, packed with hard work, determination, shared experiences, and plenty of memories along the way. To send them off into their well-earned summer break, we celebrated with a fizz and cake reception, giving students the chance to sign shirts, enjoy time together and mark everything they have achieved.

For some, this is goodbye. For many others, we are excited to welcome them back in September as Sixth Form students, ready to continue their journey with us.

We also look forward to seeing a number of our students again very soon at our Sixth Form Games Social and Taster Day over the next few weeks, alongside others joining us from different schools.

Well done for all you’ve achieved this far Year 11! There is an exciting future ahead.

Today we welcomed one of our Employer Partners, QinetiQ, to UTC Portsmouth to deliver a one-off virtual reality experience for students who signed up to take part.

The session placed students in a mission inspired by HMS Dragon, a Royal Navy Type 45 Daring Class Destroyer preparing for deployment. Students were tasked with thinking through how they would respond to a critical steering gear pump fault, with the ship unable to set sail until the issue was resolved.

Before they even put the VR headsets on, students had to work together to plan their approach, discuss the challenge and decide how they would tackle the task.

It was a strong example of our curiosity and communication values in action, as students used teamwork, problem solving and STEM thinking in a realistic engineering scenario.

A huge thank you to QinetiQ for bringing this exciting experience into college and helping our students connect classroom learning with real-world careers.

Our Board Games enrichment took creativity to another level last term, with students designing and creating their own fully playable games.

After exploring a variety of classic and modern board games, students looked at the systems, strategies and tactics behind successful gameplay before developing their own ideas. This is what enrichment is all about: giving students opportunities beyond the main curriculum to think creatively, work collaboratively and build confidence in new areas.

Enrichment is built into the timetable for all students, with a wide range of sessions available throughout the year. These experiences help students develop the employability skills that support future success, both in education and beyond.

We are delighted to announce our UTC Portsmouth Comic Con winners!

Last term, we ran two competitions open to school and college aged students: our Creature Creation competition and Short Story competition.

We were so impressed by the quality of the entries, with students from a range of schools and year groups taking part. Choosing our winners was incredibly tough.

🏆 Winner of the Creature Creation competition: Ruby, Year 10

🏆 Winner of the Short Story competition: Emilia, Year 10

We also had some fantastic runners-up in each competition, who have won books featuring either their creatures or short stories.

In this post, we are sharing our winner and runners-up from the Creature Creation competition. Congratulations to everyone who took part!

We had such a brilliant time celebrating all things fandom and cannot wait to bring these competitions back next year.

In UTC Beyond this week, students have been reflecting on why there can be so much bad news around us, and choosing to focus instead on what makes us cheerful.

Students were invited to share what makes them feel cheerful, and this poem has been created using their comments.

The UTC Beyond team hope it brings a smile to your day.

It’s been a busy week at UTC Portsmouth, with three visits from local primary schools!

Pupils enjoyed a tour of our facilities and had the chance to see both Engineering and Science in action. This forms part of our wider outreach work with schools across the local area, helping to make STEM more accessible to young people across our region.

We also had the pleasure of presenting Rey, our winner of the Engineering Week Primary Challenge, with her trophy and certificate. We received a number of incredible entries, but were particularly impressed by Rey’s inventive design.

Take a look at her fantastic work below 👇

Our Italy Turing Scheme students have settled into their work experience placements, where they will spend the next couple of weeks developing new skills in a completely different environment.

Students are taking part in a range of placements, including an ambulance service garage, a tourist centre and a mechanic’s workshop.

This trip gives them the opportunity to learn beyond the core curriculum, build confidence and develop valuable independence as they manage their time abroad.

We hear they have also had the chance to visit some of the incredible tourist destinations Italy has to offer.

Looking forward to hearing all about their experiences when they return!

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, and today was our "wear it green" day and cake sale.

Staff and students were encouraged to come wearing green to help raise awareness for mental health.

We were also able to raise an impressive £60 for the Mental Health Foundation - thanks to all who donated!

This week has been a great opportunity to open conversations around mental health - supported also by our lunchtime dances and the mental health café which takes place tomorrow.

Great timing as well with the start of exam season - looking after our mental health is particularly important during this time.

Thanks to everyone who got involved!

Today we began Mental Health Awareness Week with our “Dance in the Dark” lunchtime, bringing movement, music and glow sticks together as part of this year’s theme of ‘Action’.

Students can get involved throughout the week with the lunchtime Wii Dance, and on Thursday with our Wear it Green Day, and a cake and keyring sale in the Atrium to support mental health awareness.

A great start to an important week 💚

Good luck to our students as they enter the exam season - this is where all of the hard work pays off.

We wish you all the very best!