Governors Report
EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE GOVERNORS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2011
REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Pupil numbers during the year averaged 158 of whom 18 were either full or weekly boarders.
Examination results for summer 2011 show that the school continues to maintain excellent standards at GCSE, AS and A Levels. 85% of pupils achieved five or more GCSE passes at grades A* to C and 87% of all results were grade C or above. 100% pass rate was achieved at A & AS Level, with 65% A and B grades and 94% A to C grades.
During the year the Senior Leadership Team decided to adopt a 'Faculties Structure' under the four key areas: English & the Humanities, Mathematics & Sciences, Languages, and The Creative Arts, to discuss and monitor the curriculum, evaluate new resources, discuss assessment issues, work scrutiny, lesson observation, development planning, teaching methodology, target setting and contribution to the school's activities programme. At a meeting in the Summer Term staff faculties considered their responses to the ISI consultation on the future of inspections. Professional development included an in-house INSET session on Learning Support and the school's ICT teacher led a series of lunchtime sessions for all staff. Our teaching staff attended numerous external subject specific courses such as GCSE assessment and moderation. Other individual training for relevant staff included Safer Recruitment, Safeguarding Children, Allegations, Dyscalculia, Boarding Inspection, Early Years and Certificated First Aid, Marketing, Basic Expedition Leader, Education Management, Special Educational Needs, Autism, Fire Risk Assessment, Fire Safety Awareness, Swimming Pool Safety and Update on Inspections. Teaching staff also attend their subject specific GSA Cluster Group meetings which provide a useful opportunity to discuss curricular and pastoral matters with colleagues from other schools. The Headmistress hosted the regional GSA Heads' Cluster Group Meeting at the school in June. The Chairman of Governors attended a Safer Recruitment training course and other Governors attended AGBIS seminars and a New Governor course.
The school website, which is regularly updated, provides a ready source of information for parents and prospective parents and also includes information on the availability of means-tested financial support for school fees as well as a link to download the following policies: Accessibility; Admissions; Anti-Bullying; Behaviour; Child Protection (Safeguarding); Complaints; Curriculum; Disciplinary & Exclusion; Fire Safety; First Aid; Health & Safety; Learning Difficulties and/or Disabilities, Speakers of English as an Additional Language; Use of Restraint, PSHE, Pupil Supervision and Safeguard and Promote the Health & Safety of Pupils on Activities outside the School and Educational Visits. Other school policies are available from the school on request.
During the Christmas closedown period major refurbishment was carried out in the school's kitchen wash-up area and in March the school's kitchens received 'top marks' following an Environmental Health Inspection by the Chichester District Council. In the Spring Term we installed an integrated projection/PC and sound system in the Scott Hall and a new Uniform Shop was created at the Junior School which has been very much welcomed by parents and pupils. The programme of classroom and dormitory redecoration continues and in the Junior School the Parents & Friends Association provided a new Wendy House, much to the delight of the junior pupils. During the Summer holidays a major programme of window replacement was carried out in the classrooms and laboratories and a new ICT Suite was created and installed in one of the new classrooms.
Parents continue to enjoy a variety of musical performances at the regular senior chamber concerts, as well as the junior end-of-term entertainment and many girls are members of the two school choirs. Piano, recorder, clarinet, flute, violin, viola, guitar, singing and drum lessons are taken in school time and the school's Strings Group, new Flutes Choir and Chamber Orchestra meet regularly at lunchtimes.
In February the PE department hosted a hugely successful 'Creativity' evening of Gym and Dance Displays in front of an audience of 140 parents, fellow-pupils, staff and governors. Netball and hockey are the main winter sports and our school teams continued their success in area tournaments and local fixtures; at the West Sussex West Area Netball Tournament Lavant House won the Under 12 and Under 13 sections. Our U14 team were third in the WSW Area Rounders Tournament, our KS3 girls were winners of the WSW Tag Rugby Tournament and the Lavant House team achieved third place in the WSW Swimming Gala. In the Summer Term the annual junior and senior inter-house sports days are eagerly anticipated by girls and parents alike, as are the school's junior and senior swimming galas. At the West Sussex West Area Athletics Championships at The Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth our Under 16 team achieved fourth place, and the Under 14, Under 13 and Under 12 teams all finished third in their respective sections. One Year 8 pupil was awarded the Most Outstanding Performance by an individual, having beaten the 100m and 200m records, achieved 2nd place in the high jump and for being a member of the 3rd place relay team.
Other sporting activities include tennis, gymnastics, dance, badminton, volleyball and horse-riding. Once again a mixed age group of pupils enjoyed the multi-activity sporting trip to France at the end of the summer holidays and a Year 10 pupil was chosen to represent the Berkshire Girls' Cricket Team. The school maintains an active Duke of Edinburgh Award Unit achieving Bronze and Silver awards during the year.
Throughout the year many day girls stay on after school for Thursday evening activities, with casual boarding also on offer. In the winter months the main activity is the Chichester Netball Club, and in the summer months, swimming in the school's heated outdoor pool dominates, usually followed by a barbecue and a game of rounders. Sleepovers, when the day girls are able to experience a taste of boarding life, are also very popular. Many senior girls stay on after school for supervised 'Prep' and, in addition, we provide after school care for our junior pupils, between 4 and 5 p.m. each evening.
During the year the boarders enjoyed the Moscow City Ballet at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Swan Lake, ten-pin bowling, cinema outings, ice-skating outside the Brighton Pavilion in Brighton, a visit to the Intech Science Centre and Planetarium near Winchester, a picnic on The Trundle, blackberry picking and weekend trips to London, the Brinsbury Show and the coast. They all completed a Basic Food Hygiene course, made and sold pancakes for charity, created their own hand-made Christmas cards and produced the very popular Boarders' Christmas Puddings and Spiced Chutney for sale at the annual Christmas Fair. Other activities included sewing, knitting, flower arranging and painting,
The Junior Department of the school experienced a wide-ranging programme of excursions during the year: Years 5 and 6 performed at Chichester Cathedral on two separate occasions; the younger juniors enjoyed an action-packed day at Dell Quay wading through mud and trawling ponds and also a day of orienteering and treasure hunting at Staunton Country Park; Years 1 and 2 visited the local War Memorial and Years 5 and 6 attended a LIFE exhibition at the Swanfield Chapel. The younger children attended an interactive performance of 'A Mole in the Hole' at the Chichester Festival Theatre and an exciting and informative day at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum.
In November all the juniors took part in a 'Jump Off' and raised £468 for the British Heart Foundation, involving sponsored skipping skills and routines. In the Spring Term ten of the junior girls took part in the online round of the West Sussex Travelwise Quiz and girls from Years 4, 5 and 6 took part in a First Aid Course where they learned how to deal with the kind of emergency situations they are most likely to come across. In the Summer Term the Year 6 girls took part in and passed the Bike Ability Course organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents and all of Key Stage Two pupils visited the Haslemere Museum to take part in pond dipping and bug collecting. Other topic-related trips included a visit to Arundel Castle and a Tudor workshop at Southsea Castle, as well as a Prayer Workshop at Chichester Cathedral. All the junior girls took part in an extended topic on the theme of Colours in the Summer Term, which involved making kites and then flying them on West Wittering Beach.
In the Senior School, the girls of the Upper and Lower Sixth enjoyed an action-packed day at the Marwell Activity Centre at the start of the year, involving an aerial adventure through the treetops, quad biking and an assault course. The Head of Lower School introduced special activity afternoons for Years 7, 8 and 9 this year, with a programme which included a local author, an animal dentist, a birds of prey demonstration, a Canine Partners demonstration (which resulted in the school sponsoring a puppy) and a mock trial, led by local magistrates. A new mentoring scheme was also introduced this year, with Year 9 girls being trained as mentors and then being paired with Year 7 girls, under the guidance of a member of the Sixth Form.
A number of girls achieved success in the school's Intermediate Mathematical Challenge and also took part in the national ESU Public Speaking Competition and Mace Debate. A Year 7 pupil won first prize in her age group in the Rotary Club of Chichester 2011 Poetry Competition with her poem entitled "It's a Wonderful World", the Year 10 girls enjoyed a very different Techno Easter Egg Hunt in the grounds and the Modern Languages Department organised a successful visit to Paris during the Autumn Half Term. Year 9 girls took part in the national BBC news project, reporting on how a local farm uses its waste to produce energy and how the same farm has invested in a school in Senegal. Girls in the senior school enjoyed excursions to Jane Austen's House at Chawton, the Salters Chemistry Festival at Brighton University, Poetry Live, Science Live, the Cobnor Activity Centre and 'Little Woodham' 1642 Living History Village as well as field trips to East Head and Goodwood Home Farm. Theatre trips included Legally Blonde, Blood Brothers, A Christmas Carol, Goodnight Mr Tom and To Kill a Mockingbird.
As well as presentations by a number of charities such as Canine Partners, Living Waters Ministries and the St Wilfrid's Hospice Support Group, the school's morning assemblies featured other guests and speakers during the year including the local Rector and the Community Police Liaison Officer.
The Head Girl organised a successful 'Back to the 1940s' Day and the whole school enjoyed dressing up as their favourite fictional character for World Book Day - a Literary Lunch was held in the English Room, and a 'story circle' took place in the Entrance Hall, raising over £300 for the local women's refuge. The girls in Year 9 thoroughly enjoyed their off-timetable Activity Week, visiting local galleries and nature reserves, orienteering in the South Downs and exploring historic aspects of Lavant House. Lunchtimes were busier than ever, with the introduction of a Creative Writing Club, a Junior Debating Club and a Gardening Club; other lunchtime activities include an Art Club, Choir, Flutes and Strings practices, Senior Debating Group, Hockey and Netball training, Science Surgery, Maths Clinic, History GCSE Clinic, English First Aid sessions and a French Film Club. In the Spring Term girls took part in the Chichester Speech Festival and the school organised an Internet Security Day when PSHE lessons were devoted to this important and topical subject. A member of the Lower Sixth put on her own Photography Exhibition in the school's Scott Hall.
Other school events during the year included the Harvest Festival, European Day of Languages, the school's 58th Birthday, when a mobile ice rink appeared, complete with snow machine, the Carol Service, Inter-House Drama and Debating Competitions, an Arts Evening, a 'Simply Speech' event, for girls to show their parents their speech and drama examination pieces, National Poetry Day, celebrated by a Poetry Picnic, the Inter-House Tennis competition, Inter-house Technology Competition Day, the Summer Ball and the Drama department's productions of 'Emily's Incredible Illucinations' and 'The Grinch'.
The school continues to enjoy the active support of the Lavant House Parents and Friends Association, whose members operate the Secondhand Uniform Shop as well as organising a number of social and fundraising events, which this year included the ever-popular Quiz & Curry Night in October, the Christmas Fair (which was unfortunately cancelled because of the early snow in December), a Wine Tasting Evening, and a repeat of the hugely popular and successful Dog Show and Barbecue in the Summer Term. Through the determined and sustained efforts of the PFA Committee, the school benefited from donations of £2,300 during the year, funding an electronic drum kit for the music department and a new Wendy House for the junior department.
A total of £4,008 in charitable funds was raised by pupils during the year involving such events as a 60s Fashion Show, House Cake Sales and Penny Collections, Teachers vs Sixth Form Rounders and Netball matches, sponsored skipping and Bin Liner Fashion. These funds benefited a number of national charities including Children in Need, The Rainbow Trust, Jeans for Genes, Oxfam, Living Waters Ministries (sponsoring a Tanzanian girl at school for a year), British Heart Foundation and Red Nose Day, as well as some local charitable organisations, in response to presentations in Assemblies - Chestnut Tree House, The Women's Refuge and of course St Wilfrid's Hospice.
COMMUNITY LINKS AND ACCESS
The school accepted a number of private external candidates during the year, who sat public examinations alongside our own pupils; this is particularly helpful for home-educated pupils.
The Chichester Dance Festival once again ran its annual competition at the school over four days in February half term. During the year the school facilities were let for a variety of uses, including wedding receptions and private parties. In the summer holidays the Cambridge Language and Activity Courses were in residence for four weeks, followed by the Fantasia Music School for two residential weeks of musical workshops. Also during the school holidays our minibuses were used by the Chichester Police for a week's cadet training course in Derbyshire.
We are continuing our links with West Dean Primary School, providing regular minibus transport for their pupils to attend local educational events at Chichester, Tangmere and Selsey. They also used our Hall and Stage facilities in July for a drama production. In the school's Scott Hall in January, the St Wilfrid's Hospice Support Group held a fundraising Country Dancing evening and the Chichester Harbour Rotary Club held a fundraising Quiz Night and Supper. The Lavant Valley Community Choir meet at the school every term-time Wednesday throughout the year and the Chichester Quilters use our Scott Hall for their meetings and workshops. Chichester Film and Video Makers used the school's facilities and grounds as a setting for a local community information film and the New Growth Ministries Trust held a fundraising Musical Evening in the Scott Hall in May to support a Zimbabwean Orphanage and Community.
For more information please contact Lavant House School via our contact form, or you can request a prospectus