Bishop Luffa School
Bishop Luffa School is a Church of England secondary school in Chichester, West Sussex, UK. The school was founded in 1965 [1] and named after a former Bishop of Chichester, Ralph de Luffa. The school is situated on the outskirts of Chichester and has around 1,400 students, including the sixth form.
School Performance
An inspection by the Office for Standards in Education conducted in November of 2005 reported Bishop Luffa to be "a good school with some outstanding features". The report noted that the school's results in the GCSE and A-level examinations place it in the top 25% of schools nationally. The school was ranked as "good" for its performance in the categories of overall effectiveness, effectiveness and efficiency of the sixth form, achievement and standards, teaching and learning, curriculum and other activities and leadership and management. Its performance in the categories of personal development and well-being and care, guidance and support was ranked as "outstanding". The inspection team recommended that the school "improve the progress pupils make in science in Years 7 to 11". [2]
A January 2006 inspection by the Diocese of Chichester commended Bishop Luffa for "the very strong and distinctive Christian ethos which permeates of the life and the work of the school." The Diocese recommended that the school adopt a more proactive monitoring role for the governors of collective worship, and continue the process of increasing the effectiveness of religious education throughout the school by improving the overall quality of teaching and learning". [3]
The school has recently won the "Thesis Asset Management Investment Challenge" [4].
Sports facilities
A new, multi-purpose games area has been built, replacing a portion of the school field. The versatile games area allows pupils to play football, hockey, tennis and Netball long after dark, using state of the art floodlights. However, the presence of the lottery-funded facilities has proven to be controversial. The perimeter fences, which stand at over 2.7 metres tall and the floodlights at over 10 metres tall, have been a cause of complaint for the neighbours, whose view is, in a number of cases, blocked by the structure, which they claim creates a negative visual impact on the surrounding area.[1] Another issue raised was the increased noise levels experienced by the neighbouring properties. In order to reduce the effect of noise, an earth mound was built to reduce the acoustic impact.
One of the physical education teachers at the school is former England international Dave Thomas.
New classrooms
The school has recently applied for planning permission for two new classrooms to form the start of a new 2.5m pound creative arts centre for the school[5]. The planning application was approved and the school started construction in August 2006, the building work should be finished by the end of December. The new development was opposed by several neighbouring properties as they feel it may block out light and air however the council were reluctant to act [6].
Trivia
- Former celebrity students at this school include Jonathan Ansell who rose to fame in the pop-opera band G4, who narrowly missed out on winning the X-factor Other Celebrity students include Samuel Preston, singer of the band the Ordinary Boys.
References
- ^ Chichester Community History Page
- ^ Ofsted Inspection Report (see attachment.)
- ^ Anglican School Inspection Report (see attachment.)
- ^ "School Wins Investment Challenge!"
- ^ The Argus, February 5 2005
- ^ A copy of the plans found on the Chichester District Planning portal
- ^ A document containing information relating to the construction of the MUGA
- ^ A Link to the article on the bishop luffa site about the new classrooms