September 2025

We are so proud of the way our new Year 7s have settled into life at Luffa. Their induction day was packed with energy, laughter, and plenty of memorable moments.

Students threw themselves into every activity, from meeting tutors and exploring the school to taking part in a brilliant Positively YOU workshop, where they discovered how to “train their brain” for success.

The afternoon’s highlight was the lively interhouse spaghetti tower challenge. Competition was fierce, towers wobbled, spaghetti snapped - and teamwork, creativity, and a lot of laughs filled the room!

We believe school life should be full of opportunities, challenges, and memorable moments - a chance to experience life in all its fullness. Year 7 have already shown they’re ready to get stuck in, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll achieve next.

Neil Topley, Assistant Head Teacher

Once again, as is the tradition at Bishop Luffa School, we came together for our first assembly on the school field, with the sun shining down on us.  The assembly started with the Prayer of St Richard read by Ms Sutton, with our School Captains, Scarlette Guilfoyle and Rupert Reddington, welcoming everyone to a new school year.

Mr Hindman spoke to the students about what a huge privilege it is to be the Head Teacher of this school, saying:

“Every year that I’ve been Head Teacher here I’ve had letters and emails from members of the public, telling me about extraordinary things they’ve seen our students do.  I’ll give you one example: a parent wrote to me because she had just witnessed something incredible. There was a homeless man near the Cross in Chichester. He had dropped his things and some young people were being unkind to him. Four boys walked over to him. Instead of making life more difficult for him, they helped him up, retrieved everything that he’d lost and they even offered to buy him a cup of tea. 

“Now I think that everyone wants to be nice. Deep down. I think that everyone wants to help out, to try their hardest, to smile, to treat everyone around them equally. But the world makes this difficult. Peer pressure makes this difficult, whatever age you are. But here I think that we have managed to reverse that. I think what makes this a special school is that the peer pressure is on you to do the right thing.

“Which makes you some of the bravest people that I know. Doing the right thing takes more courage than going with the crowd. Our motto at Bishop Luffa School is ‘always our best because everyone matters’. Showing people that they matter takes courage. The important things in life do. Think what it means to be surrounded by people who want the best for you. It’s human nature to secretly hope that people make mistakes, so that we can feel better about ourselves. Being surrounded by people who want the best for you means that you can follow your dreams. 

“You are part of a chain of courageous people, who wanted the best for everyone around them and followed their dreams. I want you to hear about some of the people who walked the same corridors as you, who stood on this field like you, who ate pizza in the Bartlett Hall, just like you. 

“You go to the same school as Dr Josephine Kwahli, who was in the very first class at Bishop Luffa School. Josephine was told that she was not bright enough to go to grammar school, should give up studying and do something practical. Josephine took great pleasure in proving everyone wrong and earning not one but three university degrees. Today in Parliament, two former Bishop Luffa students are helping to run our country. You go to the same school as the Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons, Ugbana Oyet. You go to the same school as Baroness Morrissey, who was one of the first female students to study A-level Maths here.

“There are plenty of heroes who have just left us. You go to the same school as Zoe Smyth, who won a full scholarship from the army, who said that they would pay for her to go to any university, so Zoe went on to win a place at Cambridge. You go to the same school as Laura Taylor, who beat thousands of applicants to win an apprenticeship at the BBC. You go to the same school as Alex Wilburn, who is one of only five people in the whole country to be awarded a full engineering scholarship with the Royal Navy.  You go to the same school as Charlotte Hatton, who won the Oxford University “Physics Partners” competition.

“You go to the same school as Holly Mitchell, who won a £20,000 scholarship to attend Southampton University and represents Great Britain at sailing. 

"And there are heroes standing amongst you today. You go to the same school as Jack Challen, who was asked to play in an adult cricket league at the age of 13 and finished the season as top scorer! You go to the same school as three students who, since they left their homes in Ukraine, have completed a DofE award every single year. Dasha Pedan 13An, Veronika Zavarzina 13Wi and Yehor Vysotskyi will be going to Buckingham Palace to collect their Gold Awards next year.  You go to the same school as Oscar Stephens, who has been selected to represent Great Britain (GBR) at the Irish Optimist National Championships in August.  You go to the same school as Niamh Clark-Lyons, who won two senior ballet awards this summer, even though she is still at school and who danced at the Victorious festival last month.  

“You go to the same school as Harry Bonney, who won the National TeenTech award for designing a Biometric steering wheel. You go to the same school as Krystelle Fernandez, who won Chichester Cathedral’s writing competition. You go to the same school as Fraser Haining, who has been selected to cox an adult crew for The Monster of the Loch rowing competition, despite being in Year 8! You go to the same school as Sam Leney, Isaac Siddle and Seb Leney, who organised their own charity bike ride from Lands End to John O’Groats, raising £4k for CYE. 

“The list goes on and on. And every single one of those people has this school in common with you: they are proud of you and want to hear about your achievements, this year and for the rest of your life. 

Why is this such a special school?

“Because we believe. We believe that there is more to life than just existing. We believe that you aren’t defined by what you look like or where you come from or how much money your family has. We believe that you can achieve anything that you set out to achieve; that you can be whoever you want to be. And for many of us, there is one core belief that makes it all possible. We believe that you are the most special person on this planet to God: just like everyone else is. That is why everyone matters. That is why you owe it to yourselves to live the fullest live that you can lead.”

In September both the Law and Politics students in Year 13 had the privilege of travelling to London and visiting the Houses of Parliament, as well as the Supreme Court. In Parliament we had the fortune of participating in a guided tour which took us through both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.  As well as this, we were able to meet with our local MP Jess Brown-Fuller and ask her questions about her role in the community and in the government.

Our Supreme Court visit took us through its museum and into the main court room itself, where we were able to sit on the same chairs as the most senior judges in the entire country! 

Tom Lowe (13Andrewes)

In September Dexter Coyne (7Story) was invited to the BBC Make a Difference Awards ceremony, as he had been nominated in the Young Hero category. He had been nominated for the years of charity work he has completed. Dexter has completed a challenge for every year of his life to raise money for charity.  Everything from the 10 mile Moonlight walk for St Wilfrid’s Hospice, to climbing to the top of Big Ben and indoor sky diving. Dexter started this just to help those in need and over the years he has chosen lots of different charities.

Although he was very shocked to be nominated, we are so pleased to announce that he won his category and is officially a Young Hero. Congratulations!

Mrs Shona Charge, Head of Story House

Lily Davison (7 Story) was one of the fifty finalists in this year’s BBC 500 Words short story competition out of 44,000 entries, and was invited to attend the award ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Her story, The Great Chocolate Factory Robbery, is available on the BBC website, performed by Lord of the Rings - The Rings of Power actor, Gavi Singh Chera. Over the summer, producers from the BBC reached out to Finalists to ask them for their top tips for new writers. Lily, who was diagnosed dyslexic just before the competition, said that she “reads her work out loud to her family. That way you hear the mistakes and can correct them. And if you’re trying to be funny, you can see whether your jokes work.” 

Some Year 11 students had the exciting opportunity to visit Chichester Festival Theatre for Performing Poetry, a morning of live poetry readings. The event featured a range of actors currently based at Chichester Festival Theatre who performed a selection of poems from the GCSE anthology, giving students the chance to experience poetry as it was meant to be heard — spoken aloud with rhythm, emotion, and energy. The performances brought to life many of the themes Year 11 have been studying in English, and the performances were also assisted by feedback and advice from an AQA examiner.

Students were particularly inspired by the variety of voices and styles on display, with the performance of 'Remains' being particularly poignant and emotional. Overall, it was a memorable and enjoyable trip that not only supported their learning, but also encouraged everyone to think about poetry in new and exciting ways, and showed the importance of hearing poetry being performed out loud, as it was intended!

Keith Allman, 2nd in charge of English

Many of our students have been taking part in sporting activities during the summer holidays and weekends.  Here are just a few we have heard about:

Sam Machell (10Burrows) travelled to France to take part in The RS Feva World Championship 2025 hosted by The International RS Feva Class Association & Club Nautique Voile d’Aix les bains. The Championships were held in the picturesque thermal spa town of Aix-les-Bains, situated on the serene shores of Lake Bourget in Savoie.

Sam and his Helm Thomas arrived a few days early to start some pre-training on the lake with the GBR Team. The regatta started with two days of qualifying series with 168 boats split into 3 flights. The sailors faced varied conditions, beginning with a thrilling, windy start on Monday for the first race, followed by tricky winds that made setting a course a challenge. Tuesday, saw a short delay as they waited for the wind, which soon transformed into a delightful sailing. Five races were successfully completed in the qualifying rounds.

The qualifying series concluded, the gold, silver, and bronze Fleets took place over the following three days. Sam and Thomas came 8th overall in the qualifying series which got them into the Gold Fleet. They finished 8th overall in the Gold Fleet on the final day and finished top 10 Gold Fleet boat. A huge achievement for them. 

Niamh Clark-Lyons (11King) had an incredible summer of dance, qualifying for the All England Dance regionals, and being awarded the senior ballet award at the EDI summer intensive.  At the Bright Star festival Niamh was awarded the Adjudicators choice award for the most promising senior dancer (and most of the seniors are a year or two older than Niamh). She was also awarded the highest scoring ballet solo trophy and won her ballet, contemporary and classical improv sections! 

Olly Harrison (11Otter) has qualified for the World Final at the Penina Golf Resort in Portugal this November, as part of the Race to Woodhall Spa Golf Tournament, which started with over 500 junior competitors nationally.  Entry to this tournament was based on Olly being the most improved golfer in 2024 at Rowlands Castle.

Fraser Haining (8Ridgeway) was selected to cox (steer and motivate) an adult crew for The Monster of the Loch challenge, a large event involving 300 vessels racing the length of Loch Ness (21 miles).  The crew he completed this with are a competitive quad (four rowers, two oars each) aiming to do it in less than 3 hours.   The team did really well and completed the challenge, finishing 5th overall and 3rd in their category, out of 118 boats that started the race.  They took 2 hours, 47 minutes and 37 seconds to complete the 21 miles.

Molly Smithers (12King), Stan Wilkes (12Burrows) and Ben Stewart (11Andrewes) took part in the Super Series Triathlon Grand Final at Mallory Park. They all had a great race, Molly finished in 11th place, Ben finished in 24th & Stan finished in 28th place.

Molly was then invited to take part in the Youth & Junior mixed relay and had another great race.  Molly is part of the South East Academy and has had an exciting year being part of the Academy.

Joe Stewart (10Andrewes) was representing the South East in the IRC at Mallory Park and they finished 4th overall.  A great weekend of racing.

Congratulations to Thomas Bacon (11Story) for completing his RYA Competent Crew sailing exam in September. The exam was very intense, particularly with the wet, windy conditions, Thomas completed the three-day practical exam with a very strong pass and some fabulous feedback from our examiner saying “he feels Thomas has a great future ahead in the marine industry”.