The Littlehampton Academy

The Littlehampton Academy (TLA, formerly Littlehampton Community School) is an 11–18 mixed, Christian, secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Littlehampton, West Sussex, England. It was formerly a community school that was established in 1972, and adopted its present name after becoming an academy in 2009. It is part of the Woodard Academies Trust.

Littlehampton Community School (LCS) was a community school that opened as Littlehampton Comprehensive School in 1972, following a merger between Andrew Cairns Secondary School for Boys and Maud Allen Secondary Modern School for Girls. This was a part of the phasing out of the secondary modern school in the late 1960s after the distribution of Circular 10/65.

LCS was located on a split campus site, named 'Hill Road' and 'Elm Grove' respectively due to their proximity to neighbouring roads. The main 'Hill Road' campus consisted of the English, Science, Humanities, Languages, Core Curriculum, Learning Support, Performance and Physical Education departments, whilst 'Elm Grove' campus was home to the Design Technology department and a disused Maths block. The two campuses were linked by a pathway.

In its final years, largely due to the ageing nature of the school, many new buildings were built, including a separate sixth form college, a specialist business and enterprise centre, and a 'Maths Village'. The Maths Village, which opened in December 2007, underwent rushed construction following the discovery of asbestos in the original maths block, which was first built more than seventy years earlier as a military hospital in World War II. The new Maths Village building was then, just days after its opening, raided by thieves who stole a multimedia projector leading the new Maths Village to be the subject of widespread ridicule within the school. The library and science block meanwhile were also relatively modern in comparison to the rest of the school, being rebuilt in 1991 following an arson attack on the school.

LCS left its historical house system in favour of a year-based system. The house system involved students being sorted into one of five houses which were all named after hills located in West Sussex; Amberley, Bignor, Chantry, Highdown and Rackham. In contrast to this, a reorganisation in 2004 saw students being sorted into one of three 'learning teams' which were all named after species of trees; Larch (Red), Chestnut (Yellow) and Sycamore (Blue) – the initials subsequently spelling the acronym of the school, 'LCS'. The main difference in the latter system was the establishment of five 'Head of Year' posts.

In 2003, the school successfully applied to become a Business and Enterprise specialist school. Much of the money that was required was donated by Anita Roddick, the then owner of The Body Shop. As a result of this donation, a new building that was built with this money was named 'The Roddick Enterprise Centre' (normally abbreviated to 'REC').

The successful implementation of Business and Enterprise specialism meant the school often entered teams into national competitions. The most successful of these was the school's entry into the 2005 Yell Challenge, which they won and, as a result, set up a new school radio station called "Revamp Radio". It launched on Tuesday 18 September 2006, with help from Arun District Council Chairman Stephen Haymes and kids TV presenter Dave Benson Phillips.

The school successfully reapplied for, and was subsequently re-designated a Business and Enterprise specialist school in November 2007, following the completion of the schools original four-year plan.