A new partnership for Chichester!
Rumboldswhyke School starts a new chapter today, as it formally joins Bishop Luffa School and becomes part of a brand new academy trust for Chichester. The trust is called The Bishop Luffa Learning Partnership.
The trust was officially opened by local MP Gillian Keegan, who has been a supporter of the plan from the very beginning.
Ms Keegan said: “I’m delighted to be able to reopen Rumboldswhyke, after a long campaign to keep this wonderful school open. The whole community worked together to find a solution and I am personally very grateful to all the parents, teachers and the wider community for their support. I particularly want to thank Bishop Luffa School for stepping in to sponsor the academisation of the school and my colleagues at the Department for Education for listening to local voices. Our small schools sit at the heart of their communities and the recent chapter in Rumboldswhyke’s proud history, having been established since 1884, is testament to that – I wish all the current pupils and those to come the very best in what I am sure will be a bright future.”
Year 2 students from Rumboldswhyke and Year 13 students from Bishop Luffa School helped Ms Keegan reopen the school. Austen Hindman, the Head Teacher of Bishop Luffa School, said: “the partnership is about bringing students and staff together. The Year 2s loved seeing the older students, and our School Captains, Ethan Storey and Freya Jones, were talking afterwards about how much fun it was working with six year olds. We all have a lot to learn from each other.”
Mr Hindman will be the CEO of the new venture. He explained that: “the aim of the Learning Partnership is to provide support for Church primary schools in our community. A big school like ours can provide resources that aren’t affordable to small primary schools. We want primary Head Teachers to be concentrating on the learning going on in their schools, and not having to worry about the budget or infrastructure. We hope that families at Rumboldswhyke will see very quickly the advantages of partnership.”
