Welcome to Littleover Community School

Important: Parents Bringing Students to School by Car

Posted 14th June 2018

The road outside the main school gate on Pastures Hill is very dangerous.  The speed limit is 30 mph.  Traffic moves very fast and, during the start and finish of school, it is very busy.  We value our students’ safety and expect parents to do so, too.  If you, or a relative, drop off or collect a child from school, please make sure the school rules are obeyed.

• DO NOT bring cars onto the school premises.
• DO NOT drop off or pick up your child on the opposite side of Pastures Hill from the school.
• DO NOT perform a U-turn in the school entrance or anywhere on Pastures Hill.
• DO NOT park on the yellow zigzag lines on either side of the school entrance.
• If travelling down Pastures Hill, from the direction of Littleover Village, drive past the school entrance and turn round at the first Heatherton roundabout, to drop your child safely on the correct side of the road, well away from the entrance to the school.
• Ensure that your child only crosses Pastures Hill at the light controlled crossings.

The safety of all our students MUST be our first priority.

Job Vacancy: Teacher of Girls` P.E.

Posted 13th June 2018

LCS has a vacancy for the position of: Teacher of Girls` P.E..

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

Job Vacancy: Cook (Industrial Catering Cook)

Posted 13th June 2018

LCS has a vacancy for the position of: Cook (Industrial Catering Cook).

For more information please see the Job Vacancies Page.

Raising Dementia Awareness through Poetry

Posted 7th June 2018

Littleover Year 13 student Kiara is a regular Meal Time Volunteer, working in a Care of the Elderly Ward at the Royal Derby Hospital. She was inspired by the personal experiences of patients living with Dementia and their carers to write a poem called "The Memory Thief" based on their stories, to raise awareness about Dementia.

Kiara wrote a poem to raise awareness of Dementia.

Kiara was invited to read her poem at the Dementia Conference held at the Council House on 21st of May 2018 and also at the Dementia Meeting on the 29 of May at the Royal Derby Hospital NHS Trust. Her poem was also used at the University of Derby to promote Awareness of Dementia this week and won Littleover’s Key Stage 5 poetry competition.

Dementia Awareness Week is supported by the Alzheimer's Society which is a UK charity which provides support and research for those affected by dementia. In the UK, there are about 800,000 people with dementia; it is estimated that around 400,000 people have dementia but do not know it and building awareness to support them is a key health priority.

Kiara is currently working hard for her A level examinations and hopes to pursue a career in medicine. We wish her luck.

Snack Attack? Are our Break Time Snacks Healthy?

Posted 7th June 2018

Littleover Newsletter reporter Izzy and a team of volunteers find out if our students are following government recommended snack guidelines.

This Year 8 student chose grapes as her break time snack.

What did you eat for snack at break today? The Change4Life campaign, backed by Public Health England, says we shouldn’t have more than two snacks a day and they should be under 100 calories each. PHE says that on average, children are consuming at least 3 unhealthy snacks and sugary drinks a day, that go over the 100 Kcal guideline. We decided to conduct our own snack survey to find out what LCS students are eating at break time, where they get them from and collect any information that might help us in our goal to encourage healthier eating at Littleover Community School.

On Friday break time, I led the survey team aided by some helpful volunteers from the Year 11 Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE group and interested 6th Formers; a few key questions being ‘What are you eating?’ and ‘Where is it from?’ We also carried three ‘low calorie alternatives’ (listed as suggestions by Change4Life), which we offered to those who had snacks of 100kcals+ which included apples, oranges and malt loaf. We collected data from students in year 7 to 11 and then analysed our findings.

The results were quite eye opening. The most surprising result was that the number of students consuming 100kcals+ snacks was 20 out of 25 - a shocking 80% of snacks were over the recommended amount.

The most popular snacks were crisps, making up 40%, all of which were over 120kcals. Although chocolate bars were also frequent in our findings, they weren’t the highest calorie snacks; cereal bars ranged from 182-230 Kcals! It might not always be clear, but they are often breakfast replacers - not intended as snacks! Only 1 student out of 25 was eating fruit, although some students were willing to swap their unhealthy snack for it. One year 8 student said “I like fruit but the biscuits were just easier to bring to school”. Another year 7 student knew that the guideline was under a 100 calories, but had still chosen to eat crisps. “I didn’t realise I could see how many calories there were in the pack by looking on the back,’ he said.  

Year 11 students Cavin and Maisie helped conduct our snack survey.

We also asked students what they would be willing to swap for and popular suggestions included strawberries, bananas, or grapes and not surprisingly, some were still insistent on chocolate! However, compared to other options including crisps and breakfast bars, they can be fewer calories, even sometimes falling below the recommended 100kcals, as many food manufacturers are reducing the size of their products to meet the new guidelines.

To improve healthy eating, it was also important to know where the snacks were coming from. Only 2 snacks from our student sample were bought on the way to school and 1 was from the school canteen, although the location of our data collection may have affected this (due to being away from the dinner hall and G-block food stalls). 88% of the snacks were coming from home, suggesting families need more information about the campaign – you can find a link to Change4Life at the end of this article.

So with only 20% of students following PHE guidelines and keeping under the 100kcal limit, what can we do to improve this? Our team had a few ideas including giving information to new students as they move up to secondary school. We also asked Mr Venkatesh what the next steps should be; 'We need to review the snacks sold in the school cafeteria to ensure that they all meet the guidelines. I fully support the drive for healthier eating, and a key lesson for future life is that we need to look after our bodies, and we can't do this unless we are educated about health.’

For more information on the 100 Calorie Snack Campaign, visit the Change4Life website:

Change4Life campaign

Read more at https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/healthier-snacks-for-kids/100-calorie-snacks#AsdJDoZJ32MO8QhG.97

One Small Step for Orlagh...

Posted 21st May 2018

This year, as part of the Design Space Competition, Year 12 student Orlagh Simpson has been chosen to participate at international level, winning a visit to the Kennedy Space Centre in the USA. Following success for LCS at the regional and national level, Orlagh is one of just 12 pupils to be given the opportunity to represent the UK at the International stage.

A team of LCS Pupils visited Imperial College in London to compete in the national leg of the competition.

The selection process began last year at Derby University when Littleover students were asked to design a space settlement on the moon. Teams were split into 4 main areas with Orlagh acting as team president. These covered a wide range of tasks: automation - involving the technical and robotic side of the project; structure - looking at the construction of the space station; human - what people would need to survive in space; operation - focusing on the idea of pitching to a company. The teams had 6 hours in order to come together to create an idea and create a presentation to a panel of judges.

At national level, the team travelled to Imperial College, London. Students were split up into inter-school groups and Orlagh chose to go to automation, due to her interest in computer science. The team had the chance to stay overnight in London and ended up having to spend most of the night working on their project in order to complete their presentation. The hard work paid off, as Orlagh was picked for the final international team element of the competition, heading for Florida!

Orlagh was picked for the final international team element of the Design Space competition in Florida, USA.

This is to be Orlagh’s first time abroad and said she was “excited and nervous” by the prospect of going abroad. “I hope to gain a better understanding of the field of work and gain some unique experiences that will help my studies in Physics and Computer Science”. Mrs Cairns, who organised the LCS entry said “This is a life changing opportunity where she will meet and work with NASA engineers, Astrophysicist and others from the space industry on a complex and challenging design. We wish her all the best for the competition and hope that she has a great time in the Florida sunshine. We’d also like to thank Rolls Royce and the organisers for their support throughout.”

The trip is happening between the 25th of July and the 2nd of August and all at LCS wish Orlagh the best of luck and hope there will be another victory for her team.

By Emily, a Year 12 Student at LCS

Exam Information Booklets

Posted 9th May 2018

Exam information booklets for candidates sitting GCSE and A-Level exams in May and June are now available to download.

You can download them from the Exams page.