| Motto | Dare to Learn "Dare to..." |
|---|---|
| Type | Comprehensive community school |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Headteacher | Mr Andrew Cooper (2011 to Present) |
| Specialism | Technology College Applied Learning College |
| Location | Bitteswell Road Lutterworth Leicestershire LE17 4EW England |
| Local authority | Leicestershire |
| DfE URN | 120300 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 700 |
| Students | 2,400 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 14–19 |
| Houses | Franklin, Lombardi, Lamarr, Turing & More |
| Website | Lutterworth College |
Lutterworth College is a large 14–19 non-selective Upper School with a fully comprehensive intake, situated in the rural market town of Lutterworth in district of Harborough in the South Leicestershire countryside. A Specialist Technology and Applied Learning College and Church of England Voluntary Controlled school.
There has been a school on the site since 1880. Lutterworth Grammar School grew from a small boys’ grammar eventually into a large mixed comprehensive school in 1967. In 2006, Governors agreed to change the school's name to Lutterworth College. As the school has grown in size (from around 750 in 1967 to over 2000 today) the site has grown, but remains in its original Lutterworth location.
There are around 2100 students on roll, with around 800 of these being in post-16 education (over 70% of Y11 currently stay on post-16). Numbers are projected to be stable (between 2000-2100) for the next five years, according to the Local Authority. There are two main feeder 11–14 high schools (Lutterworth High School and Brockington College) and also a substantial amount from a third school (Thomas Estley Community College). The intake is above national average attainment, mainly rural Leicestershire (but with increasing numbers of Leicester City suburbs children) The full range of ability is welcomed into the college. About 1400 students come to school by school buses.
The last full Ofsted inspection was in November 2008, under the 2009 framework as a pilot inspection. Overall, the college was judged to be good in all aspects with some outstanding features. Part of the moral purpose of the college is to be judged as “outstanding” in all aspects during the next inspection.
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An article published by the News of the World newspaper under the headline "It's St. Sinians", on April 29, 2007, revealed that for the four years up to 2007, it handed out 345 morning-after pills to girls at the school. This ranked it one of the highest distributors in the country. The article was followed widely, and covered in the following days by newspapers including the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. However the school defended itself in saying that it runs a "Strictly Confidential" service at the school, which allows students to meet a doctor in school time. The school faced especially strong opposition from pro-life groups, with the UK Life League even publishing the principal's home number and address and compelling people to protest outside it. They have since taken these down, citing that they had moved onto new projects. In the spirit of the school, the students maintained strong support for the head teacher, and the "Strictly Confidential" service.
It later came to light that the "Strictly Confidential" service offered by the school was in fact introduced two years before the current headmaster had begun working there. Furthermore, it was completely controlled by the local doctor's practice, not by the school. Students went on to form a Myspace page dedicated to supporting their headmaster, and hundreds of students signed up. This resulted in the anti-abortion groups' and newspapers' attempts to damage the school's reputation failing, particularly due to widespread local support.
In August 2008, Pat Schofield, an external examinations officer who works at the college, complained about Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Education For Leisure", describing it as "absolutely horrendous" due to its references to knife crime. Duffy responded by writing a poem entitled "Mrs Schofield's GCSE", highlighting the use of violence and stabbings in Shakespeare's plays. In response, Schofield said that she was "gobsmacked" and that she found the poem "a bit weird" as she found much of Duffy's poetry. Many of the school's students resented the decision to remove the poem (having the opinion that it was by far one of the most interesting to examine, and also one of the easiest to compare and contrast with) and felt that Mrs Schofield clearly had only a very basic understanding of poetry. The poem was then replaced.