Bishop Luffa School

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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.

1 School Performance
2 Arson Incident
3 Sports facilities
4 New classrooms
5 Flooding
6 References
7 External links

[edit] 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].

Stephen Courtney is one of the highest acheivers ever to attend this school: he achieved all A*s in the 2006 GCSE examinations. He also famously wears a FACE on his jumper.

Two recently famous alumni of the school include "Preston" from the Ordinary Boys and Celebrity Big Brother fame and Jonathan Ansell who rose to fame after being in G4, a four piece band who were on the X-Factor.

[edit] Arson Incident

In February 2005, three teenage boys were convicted of arson after a fire they started caused £500,000 damage to the school's sports hall. The boys were given referral orders and two were ordered to pay compensations to the school (£100 and £200, respectively). ^[5] The hall not only serves as a sports facility but as an examination room, therefore whilst under renovation GCSE exams where held in the schools separate gym and in portable Cabins.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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^[6]. 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 ^[7].

[edit] Flooding

In the Autumn of 2006 torrential downpours saw major structural damage to the schools' Bartlett Hall. Water leaked through the faulty roofing and also through the fire doors, this water resulted in the flooding of the hall which led to the temporary closure of the school canteen and dining facilities. The excessive rain caused the wooden flooring to swell, which resulted in the fire doors jamming. This raised fears amongst several members of staff. In a statement released by the Headmaster he confirmed that the hall would be subject to further flooding unless the roofs are not properly sealed in the future. The school were quick to act and re-coated the roofs with sealant.