At Praça Luís de Camões, north of the city of Póvoa do Varzim, there is the Rocha Peixoto Secondary School.
Since this city in the 19th century was the most frequented beach in the north of the country, with a summer cycle of six months and, at the same time, the most abundant square of fresh and salted fish, many traders came from other lands to settle here, thus opening , young people, a new field of work.
In 1982 the Commercial Association was created, similar to those existing in the main cities of the country, which immediately created classes in bookkeeping and commercial accounting. This initiative originated a new socio-professional reality that would sooner or later require intervention by the public authorities, which ended up arriving when in 1924, it was created “in Vila da Póvoa de Varzim, in the district of Porto, an industrial school that will be called Boss Sérgio.
On November 21 of the same year, the school changed its name to the Industrial and Commercial School of Rocha Peixoto, in honor of “the illustrious professor of technical education and distinguished ethnologist”, leaving the fishing section with Patrão Sérgio as patron. Over the years until the year 1948 it changed its name, as decrees of law came out that indicated that until, in 1948 it becomes then the Commercial and Industrial School of Póvoa do Varzim.
Ten years later, in the academic year 1972/1973, the new home was home to 1,019 students, with 437 organized in 22 classes in the day courses, 195 in 15 classes in the night courses and 387 belonging to the 13 classes in the male section of the Preparatory School of Eça de Queirós.
On November 22, 1979, Ordinance 608/79 brings a new change to the name of the school, assuming the name it still carries today: Escola Secundária de Rocha Peixoto. In 1981, with the presence of the then Minister of Education and Culture, Professor Doctor José Augusto Seabra, a solemn session was held at the Gymnasium in honor of Rocha Peixoto who is once again our patron.
The modernization of the facilities, which started at the end of the 2007/2008 academic year, allows us to enjoy a larger built area (13,500 m2) that spreads over old and new buildings, namely the building reserved for management structures and the sports pavilion which is one of the best in the city. This remodeling, carried out under the Program for the Modernization of Secondary Education Schools and inaugurated by the Prime Minister, José Sócrates and the Minister of Education, Isabel Alçada, on January 16, 2010, allowed an increase in the occupation capacity, which translated into more classes.
In parallel with the functioning of regular education, 3rd cycle and Scientific-Humanistic Courses, and because the School never wanted to drop a tradition that had to train good professionals both in the areas of services and industry, everything was done to put in place courses of professional qualification.