Lytchett Minster School

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Lytchett Minster School is a comprehensive school, with around 1200 students and 50 teachers, located just outside (4 miles) of Poole near (1 mile) the smaller town of Upton, in southern Dorset located in southern England. It contains seven academic years: year 7 (age 11 to 12), year 8 (age 12 to 13), year 9 (age 13 to 14), year 10 (age 14 to 15) and year 11 (age 15 to 16). The other two years are non-compulsory 6th form, year 12 and 13, age range 16 to 18.

The school, unlike many local schools, uses a house system to arrange the students. This is due to the belief that a Head of House that remains constant will be able to form a better teacher/pupil relationship as the pupil has the same Head of House for the whole 5 years of compulsory education. In the upper school there is no house system as the amount of students is smaller than that of the lower school, But the 6th form holds a separate community of its own.

1 Lower School
2 Sixth Form
3 Achievements
4 The 2000 Fire
5 Building Plans
6 External links

[edit] Lower School

The Lower School comprises the compulsory education pupils, years 7 to 11. There are several differences between Upper and Lower school. For example, the lower school pupils are required to wear a fixed uniform, whilst the older Upper school can wear office-suitable clothing (described as "smart-casual" by the uniform rules), but not a strict dress code (there are some rules to ensure the formality of the Sixth form lessons).

The House system only applies to the lower school, as previously mentioned, and therefore in activities such as Sports Day, the houses compete against each other for the Sports Day Trophy. There are also the Inter-house sporting activities, such as football, netball, rugby and other sports. There is a trophy for most of these sporting events, as well as the inter house chess contest most of these events (apart from sports day) are held by individual teachers that have a keen interest in that sport/activity.

‘The lower school’ are also involved in theatrical productions, such as Godspell and The Sound of Music.

[edit] Sixth Form

The school has a sixth form, years 12 and 13, of students studying for, among others, GCE 'A' Level exams. The Sixth Form has its own Sixth Form Centre, housing the Common Room, Small Common Room, offices of the Head and Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Sixth Form Staff Room and 2 classrooms. There is also a sixth form study room in the school's manor house building which was opened in September 2006; it contains a computer room, work room and small reference library.

The Sixth Form student responsibility structure has a Head Boy and Head Girl with 6 deputies in Year 13. Each of the 6 deputies chairs a Sixth Form Committee. In the year 2006/7 these committees were; Social and Common Room Committee, Lower School Liaison Committee, Public Relations and Media Committee, Cultural Committee, Sports Committee and Charity and Fundraising Committee. There is also the Sixth Form Forum which is made up of 1 elected student from each tutor group, the Head Boy and Girl and the Chairperson of the School Council.

[edit] Achievements

The school uses its Arts College status to improve its Musical and Dramatic performances. The School often scores well in Battle of the Bands, a County wide competition where amateur bands play to impress a crowd and Judges. Also, the school performs in the England School Rock Challenge, and has reached as high as 5th place over the whole of England but has come 1st on many occasions in the sub-category of "best dressed."

[edit] The 2000 Fire

The school was targeted by arsonists in June 2000, just before the turn of the academic year. The fire was started in a science lab, and then expanded (with the aid of the gas filled supply taps to all science labs) to devastate the whole of the Science, Maths and Humanities blocks. As the building was completely destroyed, and an investigation had to be undergone by Police and Fire marshals, the school was forced to remain closed, adding an extra 2 weeks onto the 6 week summer holiday.

The blocks that were destroyed have been replaced with temporary classrooms on the other side of the playing field (known as "the mobile village"). This has led to problems, such as the need for travelling time between lessons, to enable pupils to walk the 400m from the main site to the 'village' without missing education time and also that the government has to pay the land owners to use the land.

[edit] Building Plans

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Even though the fire happened in 2000, the building for the new science, humanities and maths classrooms only started in September 2006 due to major conflicts between the head teacher (Mr. Clark) and Dorset County Council. These plans were disputed by a number of issues. The preparation work for the new building has now begun. Large areas of the school site have been sealed off for building work. The final plan for the building interior has yet to be agreed by all sides. The work progresses slowly.