Dear Parents and Guardians,
This Lent Term has brought the very best of Lancing to life, as our community has come together for Charities Term, supporting others, raising funds, and finding plenty of joy along the way. From spyring and bake sales to home-clothes days, and even running the equivalent distance from Lancing to the Eiffel Tower, pupils have embraced charitable action with imagination, energy and generosity.
The Head’s House Sleep Out was a particularly powerful example of our values in action, with a night spent in the Cloisters raising both funds and awareness for Clock Tower, our local youth homelessness charity. Across the College, each House has chosen its own cause and is planning or delivering events, a testament to the strength of pupil-led initiative and leadership at Lancing.
That same spirit was evident in Lower Sixth pupil Isaac H’s exceptionally moving Holocaust Memorial Day concert. The culmination of six months of research into music composed and performed in concentration camps, the project far exceeded the demands of the EPQ that first inspired it, and stood as a remarkable act of scholarship and remembrance.
Throughout the term, I have greatly enjoyed dropping into lessons and seeing high-octane scholarly endeavour in action, with thoughtful, targeted questioning from our teachers, engaged and enthusiastic pupils, and classrooms characterised by focus, curiosity and intellectual ambition.
We have also celebrated early academic successes, with Upper Sixth pupils securing offers from an impressive range of universities in the UK, including Imperial, UCL, Oxford, Cambridge and the Royal Veterinary College, as well as institutions across Europe and the United States. There is an extraordinary depth of talent within our community.
It has also been a pleasure to meet so many of you informally as I make my way, all too often in the rain, around the sports fields on Saturday afternoons. I very much hope we will have more opportunities to meet in the sunshine later in the year. Founder’s Day takes place on Saturday 23 May, an opportunity for the whole Lancing community to come together for prizegiving, sports day and picnics – I do hope that we will see as many of you as possible.
Looking ahead, I have asked my team to explore ways in which I can communicate with you more regularly and share updates on life at the College. Please stay tuned as we work towards launching this by the end of the school year. Effective communication with parents is important to me, and I warmly invite your feedback on this and on many other aspects of school life through our live parent survey. Thank you to all those who have already completed this. Here is the link for those who have not yet completed it. Please do take part, as your views genuinely help to inform and shape our decision-making.
I wish you all a restorative and enjoyable February break.
With best wishes,
Dr Scott Crawford
Head Master
