Education and training factsheet

Schools

Currently, nearly 40,000 young people, from the youngest nursery pupils to sixth form students, are supported by the City's Education Service.

For nursery pupils, All Children First works in partnership with the City Council to ensure that the needs of parents and carers living in the area are met, and is developing plans to increase the number of child care places available in Plymouth.

Within Plymouth's boundary are 75 primary schools, and the majority of towns and villages in the surrounding countryside have their own primary school.

There are 17 state secondary schools in the city and six independent private schools (primary and secondary). There are also eight schools for children with disabilities and special needs.

All of the secondary schools in Plymouth have specialist status, making Plymouth one of only two local educational authorities to receive this accolade. Three secondary schools in the city are selective grammar, and there are also a number of Catholic and Church of England schools at both primary and secondary school level.

Educational achievement

For the year 2005, the GCSE results for Plymouth showed 55.1% of pupils achieving the five or more A* - C benchmark.

Devonport High School for Boys and Devonport High School for Girls were both in the top 200 schools for GCSE results, achieving 99% and 100% five or more A* - C pass rate respectively.

The city's three grammar schools, Devonport High School for Boys, Devonport High School for Girls and Plymouth High School for Girls, achieved some of the 200 highest A-level average scores in the country, whilst Hele's School has been named as one of the top A-level performers with students achieving an average of 305.3 points.

Further information on results may be found on our education and learning pages.

Independent schools

There are four independent schools in Plymouth offering places to the 3 to 11 year age group, and two independent schools for 11 to 18 year olds which offer both day and boarding facilities. Kelly College, which is located on the edge of Tavistock, offers places for the age groups of 2½ to 11 and 11 to 18 with day and flexible boarding facilities available from the age of 9 onwards.

[Back to top]

---

Higher education

University of Plymouth

The University of Plymouth has 26,000 full-time students and a further 6,000 at partner colleges, and comprises seven faculties located over three campuses at Plymouth, Exeter and Exmouth, as well as teaching facilities at Truro and Taunton. The faculties are:

• Arts
• Education
• Health and Social Work
• Science
• Social Science and Business
• Technology
• University of Plymouth Colleges

Known for its innovative courses, the University covers subjects as diverse as Applied Marine Sports Science, Zoological Conservation Management, Contemporary Jazz and Naval Studies, and has been recognised by the Government as one of the country’s top universities for teaching excellence, securing an extra £18 million in funding over the next five years. 15 of the University's subject areas have been ranked excellent or equivalent, and its portfolio of marine-based degrees is the most extensive in the UK.

The University of Plymouth has a long record of high quality innovative research which is organised into Research Centres (eg Centre for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience and Centre for Coastal Dynamics and Engineering) and Groups. The outcome of the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise was extremely successful, with the following areas attaining levels of national and international excellence:

• Computer Science
• Civil Engineering
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Environmental Sciences
• Geography
• History of Art, Architecture and Design
• Local Government Election Studies
• Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering
• Psychology
• Social Policy and Administration
• Sociology

The University of Plymouth can help business and public sector services thrive by combining its expertise and resources with an organisation's knowledge and skills to achieve extraordinary results through working together.

The University has recently undertaken a programme of major investment in facilities to take it further towards its stated mission of delivering teaching and research to world-class standards and being recognised as a university of excellence. Current and future investments include:

• £30 million building to provide state-of-the-art teaching accommodation and a new home for the Faculty of Arts
• £30 million building for the Peninsula Medical School, Faculty of Health and Social Work, Faculty of Science and departments in Technology
• £36 million in new research and teaching facilities for health and medicine
• £8.3 million refurbishment of science and engineering buildings
• £8 million to enhance and expand library facilities
• £2 million refurbishment to provide a general open-access computing facility, new teaching space and Graduate School
• £1 million nursery facilities for children of students and staff
• £850,000 fitness complex
• £500,000 food technology and dietetics laboratory
• £110,000 on new boats for sailing and diving activities

The University is a partner, along with the University of Exeter and the National Health Service in Devon and Cornwall, of the Peninsula Medical School.

---

Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry

The Peninsula Medical School, founded on a unique partnership between the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the National Health Service within Devon and Cornwall, was established in August 2000 and commenced delivery of its Undergraduate Programme in Autumn 2002. The School has seven sites, with three in Plymouth, three in Exeter and one in Cornwall, and its head office is located at the Tamar Science Park in Plymouth.

In addition to undergraduate teaching, the School delivers Postgraduate Education, including a new Masters programme, and has a strong research base focused in the Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Science, Institute of Health and Social Care and the Institute of Clinical Education.

Having established a highly successful undergraduate programme, the School was recently selected from an intense national competition to create the Peninsula Dental School which will train 62 dentists a year and offer a joint Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree through the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth. The four-year undergraduate programme, designed for science graduates or healthcare professional entry, started in September 2007.

---

Peninsula Radiology Academy

The Department of Health chose Plymouth as one of only three places in the country for a new Radiology Academy (the other two being in Norwich and Leeds). The Peninsula Radiology Academy is both a specific educational environment for radiology trainees and a more general meeting and conferencing facility for other healthcare professionals, and contains a full complement of modern multimedia facilities, clinical simulations, library resources, and areas for peer-group work.

The building and fit-out at Plymouth International Medical and Technology Park is complete, and the Academy is now open and training increased numbers of radiology specialist registrars.

[Back to top]

---

The University College Plymouth St Mark and St John

The University College Plymouth St Mark and St John (Marjon) has an academic community of approximately 5,000 people. Its educational activities have continued to evolve in response to local, regional, national and international needs, and it is about to undertake an impressive multi-million pound capital investment project which will see further development and refurbishment across the site.

In 2007 Marjon received Taught Degree Awarding Powers which provided it with university college status and the ability to accredit its own degrees (previously awarded by the University of Exeter). With this new status, the college was once again re-titled as it is now known, University College Plymouth St Mark and St John.

The following subject areas are offered by Marjon:

• Children, Youth and Community
• Computing and Information Technology
• Creative Writing
• Drama
• Education and Teacher Training
• English Language Teaching
• English, Language and Literature
• Outdoor, Environment and Geography
• Management
• Media, Public Relations and Culture
• Philosophy
• Applied Psychology
• Sociology
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Sport, Health, Coaching and PE

---

City College Plymouth

City College Plymouth (formerly known as Plymouth College of Further Education) provides a wide range of opportunities for obtaining further academic qualifications or undertaking vocational training in a variety of subjects. In particular, the College is strong in the fields of electronics, catering and business studies and there is a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in both high technology engineering and hospitality. The College is concentrated in the main on two sites at Kings Road and the Goschen Centre. In March 2004 there were 3,500 students aged 16 to 18 and nearly 14,800 adults students studying through the College.

City College Plymouth can assist companies and organisations of any size (both in the private and public sectors) with the development of their workforce through its range of training and support services. The College offers local businesses a complete training service and  can provide training needs analysis, advise about on-site training and tailored training courses. Further information on services available to businesses may be found on City College Plymouth website.

---

Plymouth College of Art and Design

Plymouth College of Art and Design is one of the few remaining specialist art colleges in the country providing both further and higher education, and is one of the main providers of vocational art and design in Devon and Cornwall.

The College offers courses in the following subject areas:

• 3D Design
• Motor Vehicle
• Living Fashion
• Media and Photography
• Design Communications
• Fine Art, Diagnostic Drawing and Painting

The Viewpoint Gallery at the College exhibits work by students and local artists.

---

UPC

The University of Plymouth Colleges (UPC) network links local colleges and their communities to the University of Plymouth. The network provides higher education courses across Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset and includes colleges from Penzance to Bristol.

Full UPC members have more than 80% of their education provision linked to the University of Plymouth. Associated membership applies to those colleges that do not meet this threshold and include, amongst many, the community colleges in Plymouth, Weymouth College and Highlands College in Jersey.

[Back to top]