News

In English lessons, Year 8 have been learning about the role of newspapers and how they are written. Mrs Cooke, who is a Teaching Assistant at our school, is also a journalist and editor, and she spoke to Year 8 about her role; the importance of free press and truth, and the importance of asking questions.

"What a fantastic evening," was the resounding response to the Evolution of Musicals evening directed by Grace Watkins (13Ridgeway).  The evening was a chance to see a cabaret style showcase of Bishop Luffa's musical talent, celebrating nearly a century of theatrical music composition from 1993 to 2018!  Songs showcased included classics like Guys and Dolls and Chicago, to modern pop mega-musical sensations like Six and Hamilton.  It was an evening of nostalgia and fun.  £1,000 was raised at the event.  This has been split between the drama department, to invest in some radio mics to help enrich future shows, and The Cameron Boyce Foundation, which supports Arts charities and epilepsy research in memory of actor Cameron Boyce, who died of an epileptic seizure in 2019.  Congratulations to all the students involve in this amazing event.

Year 7 Student Ambassadors Louis Davies (7Sherborne) and Josephine Tupper (7Story) recently returned to Oakwood School for their Senior School Information Evening. Louis and Lottie attended Oakwood before joining Bishop Luffa in 2022. They answered questions from prospective parents, carers and their children, as well as catching up with some old school friends and their teachers, who were delighted to see them and to find out about Life at Luffa. Thank you Louis and Josephine.

As part of our journey through Lent, in our final week of term students from across KS3 have had the opportunity to consider the journey that Jesus went on through Holy Week, as he made his way towards the cross at Easter. Journey to the Cross was an interactive journey of eight stations; at each station students read a Bible passage on which the station was based, a summary of what happened and how Jesus’s story is relevant today. They then had the opportunity to take part in an interactive activity to respond to what they had read and reflected upon. Activities included flower making, writing on leaves, asking questions, tying ribbons and finger print marking.

Members of the Bishop Luffa GreenPower F24 team were given the privilege of a VIP tour of the Volkswagen Group Paint & Body Centre as part of their journey in building the school’s first GreenPower F24 car. Year 10 students Alex Wilburn (10Otter), Sam Goldsmith (10Burrows), Seb Cunningham (10Wilson) and Sam Tonks (10King) presented their aerodynamic research, car design ideas and colour scheme plan to brand manager Richard Vandenberg, and body shop Chief Engineer Ivan. The team had a full tour of the body shop, asking questions throughout about core engineering techniques, equipment and tools used in an ever-technological industry. Both Richard and Ivan were so impressed with the teams forward thinking, enthusiasm, commitment, maturity, and dedication to the GreenPower project that both Richard and Ivan offered VW sponsorship to guide, advise and assist the team with the outer body design and fitting, along with a full professional spray paint finish to the car.

The Ukraine Cycling Challenge which ran throughout March attracted many Bishop Luffa students, staff and parents, who took part in order to support Ukrainian children and families at this difficult time.

This year we have had record attendance to the clubs run by Computer Science staff (and Sixth Formers). For the list of clubs click here. Many of the clubs are just for fun, but there is a competitive element to many, be it Chess or VEX Robotics or our Girls Code clubs (judging will take place for the latest in house competition this Friday for the girls).

In History this term Year 7 have been learning about castles as part of their Middle Ages topic. Some classes took the opportunity to bring History to life by making a model of a motte and bailey castle. As well as the more traditional castle models, we also had Minecraft castles, interactive castles and a collaborative video tour of a castle. Some students put their baking talents to use to make edible castles and Mr Hindman happened to pop into a lesson so was able to sample one of these cakes! It was fantastic to see so many different skills and talents being put to use by our Year 7 historians to bring greater understanding to their learning.

To help ensure that learning is creative and imaginative, Year 7 History students have been invited to create a historical scene using an egg as the centrepiece (in a shameless link to Easter!). As such, a range of egg-stremely(!) creative models have been created, ranging from Stone-Age people through to Winston Churchill! It was great to see students getting so creative, and learning in a different way. It was also great to see the range of historical periods being covered. I am sure that the incentive of a chocolatey prize for the best display per class was in no way a motivation!

On Wednesday 29th March we hosted a new dance event to showcase performances and choreographies from students in Years 7 to 13. We had originally planned to launch this new event in our calendar in March 2020 but sadly the pandemic put a stop to our plans!