Talk:Peter Symonds College

The armed mutiny of 1957
No mention of the day in May 1957 when sixth-formers seized the armoury, armed themselves with rifles and dangled the acting headmaster out the window? See: "How the sixth form seized an armoury and shut a school," The Times, 24 January 1997

Buildings
"Neil Hopkins is now the only principal not to have a building in the college named after him, and instead the landfill site in front of the Northbrook building which was demolished has been affectionately called "Hopkins' Hump"."

I don't know of a Nicholls building, so he isn't the only one. Secondly, since John Shields was built, the hump has gone I believe


 * There is the Nicholls Pavilion, which is a building owned by the college on the opposite of Bereweeke Road. As far as I'm aware their A-Level P.E. and Level 3 Diploma Fashion, Theatre and Media Hair & Make-Up courses are taught there, amongst other things. -- SpokOfMinecraft — Preceding undated comment added 22:36, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Famous Attendees
I see a list of famous people who went to PS has been added. Jack Dee certainly did but did Colin Firth? According to this site he went to Barton Peveril? --TDE 17:36, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Colin Firth did indeed go to Peter Symonds. His younger brother Johnathan also went to the same college after him. I also went to Peter Symonds but not at the same time. I know that Colin lived in Winchester because his father was and is a history professor at King Alfred's College. He may well have gone to Barton Peveril. He most probably did his A-levels at Peter Symonds and then moved on to BP. A lot of students did this. At the time Colin went to PS, it was already a 6th form college. To be honest, I'm not sure if Bernard Manning went to PS.

I don't think that Colin Firth did go to Peter Symonds ... I was in the year below his brother Jonathan (aka Jon) ... Colin went to Barton Peveril (Eastleigh's 6th Form) and did their Theatre Studies course (which was a 'double course' i.e. the equivelant of 2 'A' level courses in terms of the timetable). Jonathan Firth deserves a mention as an alumni as he is a pretty well established film and TV actor albeit not on the same scale as Colin ... Nice bloke too. --81.155.92.206 23:26, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

In the King's School entry Clin Firth is listed as former pupil (of Montgomery of Alamein). PhilomenaO&#39;M (talk) 14:18, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Both John Christopher and Sam Youd are listed in the Former students, since they are the same person this should be one entry, but is it the pen name or the actual name that should be included?

No mention in the alumni of the delightful Philippa Forrester. Her own page states that she attended PS. So, did she or didn't she?

Apostrophe
The college omits the apostrophe on Symonds. See Here --TDE 15:44, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Bernard Manning
Removed the reference to him. I'll believe he went to PS when someone produces evidence. When they do, he should be described as "Outrageous standup comedian", not as "Child prodigy..."

Chris C 16:52, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Latest vandalism
Warmest thanks to Thaines, Ryanpostlethwaite and everyone else battling the boneheads in defence of this article! Heaven knows I have mixed feelings about my old school, but it doesn't deserve the treatment it's been getting.

Chris C 17:35, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
 * No problem! Its on my watchlist now so I'll keep a look out for it :-) Ryan Postlethwaite See the mess I've created or let's have banter 17:39, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Assessment
This article has now been assessed. The feedback given was: ''A good article with plenty of information on the school provided. However, this article still needs to cover topics apart from history in more detail - such as current policies and uniform. An infobox with the logo integrated into it and perhaps more supporting pictures would also be a valid improvement. Though, the biggest weakness of this article is its lack of references, these need to be added or the factual accuracy of this article is disputable'' Camaron1 | Chris 18:15, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Copy & Paste Fairy
Large chunks of this article are copied directly from the colleges website http://www.psc.ac.uk/college/history.php. I don't have time to sort it out now, but I will come and have a play with it some point in the next week or so if no-one beats me to it! (There are also various bits in the "Peter Symonds College" section which I'm sure are not true - being a local I'm sure I would have noticed some of them - so I will look for some supporting evidence, or remove if I can't find any!) -Ladybirdintheuk (talk) 23:41, 19 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Just removed large chunks of the history section it was a direct copy from that page. As far as I can see what is left is fine (at least in terms of copyright). -- Flutefluteflute Talk Contributions 08:57, 16 November 2008 (UTC)

Cheering you on ...
... there's too much of the PR release about the article as it stands.

Chris C (talk) 15:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Removing More Notable Alumni
I don't understand the moderating of this page when it comes to the Notable Alumni section. The rules state that any name added needs a reference attached to prove that that individual went to Peter Symonds and a link to that person's Wikipedia page does not count as a reference. However, there are names without references (other than their Wikipedia page) that are still on there, and there are names who have had references attached that have been deleted. Who and how exactly is this being decided?

I also think whoever is removing the names needs to understand what "notable" means. They do not have to be internationally-known celebrities to be classed as "notable". They could be on something as simple as Big Brother, but they're still "notable" because notable means that they are, in some way, a public figure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.165.182.52 (talk) 00:28, 17 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I suggest we remove the unreferenced (currently Mike Batt, Jon Boden, Laura Carmichael, Dan Lobb, Hugh Mitchell, Christian O'Connell, Budge Pountney, Pete Robertson and Samuel Youd). I would agree that someone who was on Big Brother should be on the page, however I think some care needs to be taken, I've seen some recent PSC leavers basically trying to advertise themselves using this page. Perhaps whenever someone removes an alumni for that reason, they should post on this page, so others can see. -- Fluteflute Talk Contributions 07:38, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Rather than completely removing the unreferenced, I've placed them in a comment section at the start of the alumni section. This enables them to be added back if a reference that shows they went to Peter Symonds is found. -- Fluteflute Talk Contributions 07:32, 29 April 2012 (UTC)

Continuing COI, copyright and promotional issues
Per the above discussions dating back at least five years, there have been recent attempts to use the article for promotional purposes. I've copied the following discussion from my talk page. 76.248.144.216 (talk) 14:52, 7 August 2013 (UTC)

Edits at Peter Symonds
Kindly cease interfering with the Peter Symonds page. Your 'contributions' are effectively vandalism. The college is not violating its own copyright by putting its own material onto its wikipedia page. Please cease.


 * Yes, that is a copyright violation. And if the college is responsible for the edits then WP:COI is a relevant policy as well. I've requested page protection for the article, which has a history of promotional edits, copyright violation, and the assorted non-notables, presumably added by themselves or friends. Please also be aware that inaccurate accusations of vandalism backfire. Please read the site's guidelines for editing, especially if you'd like to contribute in a constructive and neutral capacity, and not solely as a WP:SPA. Also, I'd suggest reading WP:MULTIPLE, which looks like another policy that's at issue here. 76.248.144.216 (talk) 00:42, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

History
This article states that Peter Symond's became a comprehensive from 1974-78. I thught from the start it was the sixth form college while the County High went comprehensive. This is explained in some detail on the Westgate school page of Wikipedia and confirmed on the College's own website “1973 The task for his [former headmaster‘s] successor. Stuart Nicholls, was to transform a school with an outstanding reputation into a sixth-form college. In September, 1974, the first admissions were made.”

And why is it not in the "schools in Winchester" category?PhilomenaO&#39;M (talk) 14:18, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Notable alumni
All of the alumni listed need a citation showing that they attended the college. I have marked this on the article, but if a citation isn't provided for the remaining people, I will have to remove reference to them. LoudLizard (📞 | contribs | ✉) 20:29, 24 November 2016 (UTC)