Bishop Luffa School

Bishop Luffa School

Established	1963
Type	Secondary Academy
Religion	Church of England
Headteacher	Mr Nick Taunt
Chair of Directors	Mr Nigel Hoggarth
Location	Bishop Luffa Close Chichester West Sussex PO19 3LT England
DfE number	938/4604
DfE URN	140472 Tables
Ofsted	Reports Pre-academy reports
Staff	90 teaching, 40 support
Students	1,416
Gender	Coeducational
Ages	11–18
Houses	Andrewes, Burrows, King, Otter, Ridgeway, Sherbourne, Story, Wilson
Colours	Maroon and Gold
Website	www.bishopluffa.org.uk

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.

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.

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. 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 half 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 2010 the rate was 99.2%. A2 entries at grades A or B were 60%, with the majority of successful A2 students going onto established universities, including between 5-10 annually to Oxford & Cambridge.

Teaching aids

Most of the school's classrooms are equipped with SMART boards to incorporate ICT into learning. Many of the SMART boards have rendered the traditional whiteboard obsolete, in some cases resulting in them being removed.

The school is in the process of rolling out a piece of interactive learning software, called frog.

Academic performance

The school's admission policy is non-academically selective. In 2012, amongst coeducational State Secondaries, the school was rated 3rd in West Sussex for 5 good GCSEs inc. Maths & English (76% of pupils), and 4th for average points per pupil at AS/A2 level (803.7). There are a total of 49 Secondary establishments in the County.

The latest (Oct 2008) Ofsted report rated the school as uniformly "outstanding" across all metrics. The school was praised by the Anglican schools inspectorate for its Christian religious character.

Houses

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

Andrewes - Green, Burrows - Blue, King - Pink, Otter - Purple, Ridgeway - Red, Sherborne - Black, Story - White and Wilson - Yellow

Sports

Sport at Bishop Luffa is a part of the school, with sports competitions taking place every week. The competitions or matches are either 'interhouse' or against other schools. At the end of the year the points from the interhouse competitions are totalled and the house with the most points are awarded with a trophy. At the end of the year there is a Sports Day, in which pupils in years 7-10 participate.

World Record

On Thursday 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. Pictures were taken from a plane that soared above the school for about 10 minutes during lunch time whilst everyone was being organized 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.

Notable former pupils

• Jonathan Ansell, musician, pop-opera band G4
• Samuel Preston, singer, the Ordinary Boys and Celebrity Big Brother
• Charlotte Hawkins, Sky News Sunrise presenter
• Linus Roache, actor, son of William Roache of Coronation Street, Batman Begins and Law & Order
• Rupert Holliday-Evans, actor, The Bill
• Cara Horgan, actress, Lewis (TV series) and Silent Witness
• Joel Ward, professional footballer, currently with Crystal Palace Football Club
• Rupert Wingfield-Hayes the BBC's Beijing, Moscow, Middle East and now Tokyo correspondent

External links

• School website
• EduBase