Durrington High School


Durrington High School is a Coeducational secondary school located in Worthing, West Sussex. The school operated as a high school between 1973 and 2015 as part of Worthing's three-tier provision. From September 2015 the school became a standard secondary for 11 – 16-year-olds. The school converted to academy status on 1 April 2014.

History

This senior school is the product of a merger in 1973 of two neighbouring schools, with their playing fields divided by a single white line: Worthing County Secondary School for Girls and Worthing Technical High School.
The County Secondary School for Girls moved to the new brick-built Rodmell Road building in 1953 from the Sussex Road school with Miss Lilian Belchamber continuing as the head mistress until the creation of Durrington High School in 1973.
The Technical High moved to the Boulevard location in 1955 from Union Place Worthing and was renamed Worthing Technical High School.
The school building has been rebuilt and extended considerably with the Technical High building demolished some years ago and sections of the Rodmell Road building still standing and extended.
Durrington High School continues to have the seahorse as their school crest which was the emblem of the County Secondary school.

Campus

The school shares a campus with Oak Grove College Special School. The building is purpose-built, offering facilities for all subjects, including science labs, technology suites and a music department. There is also a large field in which cricket pitches and goal posts are set up, and a MUGA for 6 a-side leagues etc.
In 2020 the school is currently undergoing new building work for a new sports hall as well as a update to the MUGA.

Theatre and Performing Arts

Durrington High School was represented in the West End with pupils performing in the production of "Fire Costs" at the Lyric Theatre, London, October 1993 – a performance that was produced by the Home Office. The production was originally presented at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing in the Autumn of 1991 and was the result of a competition run by West Sussex Fire Brigade in which local schoolchildren were encouraged to submit stories based on the subject of fire.
During the course of the 1994/5 re-build, two high-quality Shakespearian productions were presented at the Barn Theatre, Field Place – including an open air Summer production of "The Tempest" and the pre-Christmas production of "Macbeth". The newly opened school included a purpose built drama studio, amphitheatre and overhaul of the existing Rodmell Hall stage. The exterior of the new drama studio includes stone heads representing Shakespearean characters that were designed by pupils who appeared in many of the productions during the 1994/5 school year.

Companies

Durrington High School pupils are divided into seven companies: Roddick, Shelley, Franklin, Mercator, Coubertin, Da Vinci and Hawking. All of these are named after famous people devoted to a certain subject or subjects, e.g. Franklin: Science and Music. The purpose of the companies is to allow the younger and older students to bond together. The weekly company assembles include pupils from all years; replacing the traditional year group meetings, although sometimes there are year group meetings.

Notable former pupils