Bishop Luffa School

Bishop Luffa School
Established 1963
Type Secondary Academy
Religion Church of England
Headteacher Mr Nick Taunt (retiring July 2018, thereafter: Mr Austen Hindman)
Chair of Directors Mr Nigel Hoggarth
Location Westgate
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 3HP
England
50°50′24″N 0°47′51″W / 50.8400°N 0.7976°W / 50.8400; -0.7976Coordinates: 50°50′24″N 0°47′51″W / 50.8400°N 0.7976°W / 50.8400; -0.7976
DfE URN 140472 Tables
Ofsted Reports Pre-academy reports
Staff 90 teaching, 40 support
Students c. 1,420
Gender Coeducational
Ages 11–18
Houses Andrewes, Burrows, King, Otter, Ridgeway, Sherbourne,Story, Wilson (all named after bishops)
Colours Maroon and Gold          
Website Bishop Luffa School (Intranet)

Bishop Luffa School, named after a former Bishop of Chichester, Ralph de Luffa, is a coeducational Church of England secondary school in the City of Chichester, West Sussex, England. The number of enrolled pupils was around 1,400 in 2010, in eight 'Year' house-forms and the sixth form. The school, formerly a 'Technology College', is now a 'CofE Teaching School', holding Leading Edge status, with national Artsmark and Sportsmark also having been awarded. From its foundation to 2013; a Voluntary Aided establishment, on 1 December 2013 the school successfully converted to Academy status.[1]

New classrooms

The school applied for planning permission for a drama studio to form the start of a new £2.5m creative arts centre for the school. The planning application was approved and the school started construction in August 2006. The drama studio was opened in February 2007. The school has also extended their sports hall, adding an extension onto the original facility, where the climbing wall is now kept.[2][3] At the end of 2017, over 18 months of work was completed to remodel the former 'K Block', at the southern end of the buildings – forming a newly updated Humanities Block, with additional and remodelled facilities. At the same time, the Main Reception of the school was repositioned into the centre of this new facility, from the Northern site entrance – which also had the effect of amending the postal address of the school – which now (for postal purposes) is located on Westgate (from Bishop Luffa Close). New perimeter security fencing across the site, as well as swipe-access readers were also added, to enhance the access security of the entire school.

Sixth form

There is an integral sixth form at Bishop Luffa for students who wish to continue their education after the age of sixteen, with an annual intake of around 160. Although 140 existing pupils are given priority, 20 pupils from other schools are also accepted each year for entry in Year 12, for which competition is very keen.[4] A wide range of subjects can be studied, including Business Studies, Computing, Law and Economics. For the most able students, the school also offers the new AQA Baccalaureate 'Bacc' hybrid qualification, including a 100-hour self-directed project.

The academic admissions criteria are rigorous, and progression from Year 11/Lower school into the Sixth Form for existing KS4 students is by no means automatic, with all applicants being offered conditional places; which are then only confirmed for the highest performing 140 students, once final GCSE results are known. At a minimum, five GCSE grades A*-C are required to gain entry *AND* at least a GCSE B grade is needed in each of the subjects that are desired to be studied at AS/A2, except for Maths (GCSE Maths A required) and Further Maths (GCSE Maths A* required).

Typically, around 30–35% of GCSE students leave the school aged sixteen for either further AS/A2 College study, vocational training or employment.

A2 level pass rates at Bishop Luffa are above the national average. In 2017, for co-educational State schools in West Sussex, Bishop Luffa pupils achieved the 3rd highest average individual point scores (11th overall)[5], with the majority of successful A2 students going on to established universities, including between 5–10 annually to Oxford & Cambridge.

Academic performance

The school's admission policy is non-academically selective. In 2017, amongst co-educational State Secondaries, the school was rated the highest in West Sussex (4th overall) against the new 'Attainment 8' Key GCSE subject scores per pupil, including English, Maths, Sciences and Humanities.[6]

The latest (Oct 2008) Ofsted report rated the school as uniformly "outstanding" across all metrics.[7]

The school was praised by the Anglican schools inspectorate for its Christian religious character.[8]

Houses

Years 7 – 11 are split into 8 house groups, each named after former Bishops of Chichester:

Andrewes (formerly Bell) – Green, Burrows – Blue, King – Pink, Otter – Purple, Ridgeway – Red, Sherborne – Black, Story – White and Wilson – Yellow

World record

On 24 March 2011, during the school's annual charity week, the whole school successfully took part in an attempt to break the previous record (551) for "Most People in a Human Smiley", with 1349 pupils and teachers.[9] Pictures were taken from a plane that soared above the school for about 10 minutes during lunch time whilst everyone was being organised by Sixth Form student Imogen Mullett. Bishop Luffa appeared on the BBC local news later on that evening. The Sixth Form aim to use the money raised from this and the rest of charity week to support the Sixth Form's charity, Grass Roots. The record was lost in July 2011 to an Indian university, with 3737 people.[10]

Notable former pupils

References

  1. ↑ School website article regarding the Academy conversion Archived 3 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ A document containing information relating to the construction of the MUGA Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ A copy of the plans from the Chichester District Planning portal
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2011. Sixth Form information
  5. ↑ "All schools and colleges in West Sussex - GOV.UK - Find and compare schools in England". Find and compare schools in England. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  6. ↑ "All schools and colleges in West Sussex - GOV.UK - Find and compare schools in England". Find and compare schools in England. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  7. ↑ "2008 Ofsted report" (PDF). nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  8. ↑ Anglican school inspection report Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  10. ↑ "Largest human smiley". guinnessworldrecords.com. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  11. ↑ Bawden, Tom (21 January 2011). "Friday interview: City superwoman fights for boardroom equality". the Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
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