Longfield Academy Newsletter

Principal's Welcome

This academic year has without doubt been one of the most challenging for most staff, students, parents and carers. We have witnessed transitions from remote learning, through hybrid learning back to face-to-face instruction. We have had our challenges with in-school Covid testing to home testing, and have had to make several adjustments to our normal routines. Despite the many challenges, I am delighted to report that we have made some good progress, as a community, towards living our school’s motto of ‘Achieving Beyond Expectations’. I am grateful to all our staff and students for their continued support, resilience and commitment to the cause. I am also thankful to parents and carers for all the support. The kind words you send via emails, phone calls and Facebook posts have been a great source of encouragement to me and the team at Longfield.

I am delighted to mention that we have achieved the enviable National Online Safety Certified School Status. Again, my thanks to all staff, students, parents and carers for completing the relevant courses that led to us to gaining this recognition.

I would like to remind parents and carers that we would expect all students to return in full school uniform from the first day back in September. Wearing the correct uniform is important to our identity and we recognise the importance of establishing our school as a family of learners. Therefore, students who do not arrive in the correct school uniform, worn with the pride it deserves, will be isolated and their parent/carer may be contacted to take them home. Students arriving in school wearing trainers will be placed in college isolation unless they have a note from a doctor to indicate that they have a medical condition. Additionally, we will be asking parents and carers to pick up students whose skirts are worn more than just a few centimetres above the knee. Parents and carers may recall that I have raised the issue with skirt lengths a few times in previous correspondence. September presents a fresh start and I hope I can count on your support with regards to this too.

We will be saying goodbye to some of our long-serving teachers and SLT at the end of the academic year. Mrs Mulheran is retiring as a teacher of Criminology and as our staff governor, while Mr Lever, Miss Marlborough, Mr Stone and Miss Giannini are moving on to continue their teaching careers elsewhere. We are grateful to all of these colleagues for their meritorious service to Longfield Academy and wish them the very best for the future.

Saara Williams will re-join the leadership team from September as Head of Post 16 after taking nearly a year off from the leadership team for personal reasons. I am delighted to also report that after some very rigorous processes, including circa 60 applications, and various interviews, we were able to appoint new colleagues into the leadership team. David O’Leary (Head of Galileo College) joins us from St Catherine’s School in Bexleyheath. Mark Shaw (Head of Anderson College) joins us from Prendergast School, Lewisham. Farai Punungwe (Assistant Head of Matisse) and Joy Liasu (Assistant Head of Anderson) join from Bower Park Academy and Woolwich Polytechnic School respectively. These colleagues will undoubtedly bring new energies and ideas to the leadership team and consequently help us to move the academy forward. Mr Bird will move across from Matisse to Galileo as Assistant Head of College.

My thanks to all staff, staying or leaving, for their commitment to me, our students and academy.

Next term will be great and I look forward with great anticipation. For now, however, I would like to wish you and all in your families a safe and peaceful summer holiday.

Dr F. Donkor

Principal

Key Dates:

1st September - start of term for Years 7, 12 & 13
2nd September - start of term for All Years
22nd October - end of term

Outside of school, some of our students have been participating and excelling in other activities. Aaron Whittaker (Year 12) is the captain of the U19 Great Britain white-water rafting team. Aaron and his team competed at the National Whitewater Centre at Holme Pierre Point in Nottingham against teams from across England, Wales and Scotland, coming top in their age category (U19).

We would also like to celebrate Katie Butcher in Year 8, who participated in the Kent School Games Secondary Leadership Virtual Award and task booklet and was judged to be one of the top students within the local area.

Summer School 2021

As a result of the many disruptions to this academic year and the impact these have had on teaching and learning as well as students’ progress, we will be running a two week summer school from 26 July to 6 August.

For incoming Year 7 students, the summer school has been designed to support their transition into secondary school life. We have planned sessions that will help to encourage their participation in mainstream education, raise attainment in Maths, Science and English as well as open doors for them to enjoy school and to succeed in most of the subjects they will be studying from September.

For Year 10 and the targeted Year 12 students, the sessions will focus on closing the gaps resulting from lockdown whilst preparing them for the examination year ahead. I have every faith that this will be a very rewarding two weeks for our students and would therefore like to encourage parents/carers who have signed up to ensure that students are punctual and making the most of this opportunity. Please contact the school via christine.goodwin@longfieldacademy.org if you have any queries about the summer school.

Start of next module

Parents and carers may be aware that the Department for Education (DfE) have advised that students should take two Covid-19 tests at the start of the new school year in school. To facilitate this, we would be adopting a staggered start to the term as per the table below. Please help us to keep our community safe and help to alleviate anxieties by ensuring that your child is in school, on the days specified, to take the tests. We have to ask Years 7 and 8 and Post 16 students to take their first test a day before school officially resumes for students so that we can minimise disruption and ensure that more time is dedicated to teaching and learning. I thank you in advance for your support with this.

Tunnock’s Teacake Challenge

The GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition course requires students to use excellent presentation skills. They need to practice this for their assessed practical exam.

To help with this, the idea is to use a Tunnock’s Teacake so that students can focus on the elements of decoration, added features and eye-catching presentation, rather than lengthy making tasks. This challenge is supported by Tunnock’s and it is an annual competition that hundreds of schools enter. The challenge this year was "Teacake Travels Around the World"

Mrs Atkins and Mrs Wilkins are delighted with the outcomes and the overwhelming 73 staff votes! Thank you and here are our winners.

1st Place - Evie 10M with her interpretation of a Japanese garden. Well done Evie!

2nd Place- With just 1 vote in it, Bella 10A with her reflection of the World Wars and remembrance day. Well done Bella, a very close call.

3rd Place- With just 3 votes off Bella, Seryna 10A, Who was inspired by the London skyline, well done!

Word Millionaires

A huge well done to our 5 Word Millionaires, keep up the great work. We are looking forward to seeing how many students can rise to the challenge in the next academic year. Our best year was 2018 with 22 word millionaires - we would love to see next year's students supersede this.

In total this year, our year 7s have read 25,757,212 words and year 8s have read 15,406,693 words.

Energy Quest Workshop

This term selected year 7 and 8 students have taken part in a virtual Energy Quest Workshop. During the workshop the students are posed with an engineering real world problem and then taken through activities where they discover what type of engineer they are. The workshop closes with them carrying out an investigation into solving the problem that they have been given. This year the problem was, you are stranded in a forest and need to make electricity to charge your phone and all you have is a lunchbox with an orange in it, a torch, a kitkat wrapper and a speaker. The students were given scientific equipment that matched this equipment and a range of basic methods on how to create electricity using it and then looked at which method produced the highest amount of electricity. The students were all fully engaged with the workshop and really enjoyed the different activities. At the end of the workshop the students were more aware of the different types of engineers and there were a large number of students who were more interested in becoming an engineer.

Geography Field Trip

On Wednesday 13th July after a very long two years without a field trip we finally made it to Margate with our A Level students. We were carrying out different fieldwork techniques ready for a data collection day in September. They were looking at how regeneration in Margate has impacted upon the area. It was a lovely warm day, the students worked very hard and in the afternoon when the sun was shining we all enjoyed lunch on the beach before a very quiet journey back to school.

Schools Reconnect

We are pleased to inform you of some exciting opportunities being made available to children and young people in Kent by businesses and community organisations who are working with us to make Reconnect a success.

These include:

• Free travel on buses - our local bus companies have agreed a summer travel offer. All pupils in years 6 to 13 will be able to travel free on buses in Kent. All children and young people will receive a physical bus pass, which will be distributed by the end of term.

• Free learning opportunities - 50 % discount for all Kent families and children to join Kent Children’s University, funded by Reconnect. For more information please visit their website http://www.kentchildrensuniversity.co.uk/cukent/home/

• Discounted leisure centre offer - The majority of leisure centres across Kent have united behind Reconnect and agreed to have a summer membership offer for children and young people. All are offering a 6-week membership pass for £25 per child, discounted by Reconnect to £10 for those on benefits related free school meals. Families on FSM will be able to use the Reconnect Discount Voucher with their chosen participating leisure centre to access this offer.

Summer Reading Challenge

Kent Libraries would like to introduce Wild World Heroes, Summer Reading Challenge 2021, a celebration of nature and action for the environment, in partnership with WWF UK. Running from 10 July – 11 September 2021, this year’s Summer Reading Challenge celebrates adventure, friendship, reading and fun while helping children to explore nature and discover how important it is. The challenge involves reading six library books over the summer period, and once completed, children will receive a medal and a certificate (whilst stocks last). And it’s all free! With the help and funding from the Reconnect Programme, Kent Libraries are able to offer Kent families additional interactive virtual events and exciting resources, encouraging more children to get involved. There will be activities and events throughout the Summer on the Kent Libraries Facebook page and YouTube channel, where there will be loads of naturethemed, fun ideas for taking care of the environment.

KCC Travel Saver

Remember to apply for or renew your KCC Travel Saver before the 1^st August to get it on the first day of term.

The cost is £370 for the year but you can spread the cost with monthly instalments and some discounts are also available.

Application is online and very simple. New applications will need a digital photograph but if you are renewing, your existing photograph can be re used.

If you are a young carer, young person in care or a care leaver and are eligible for a free pass.

For more information please click the links below.

KCC Travel Savers

KCC 16+ Travel Savers

Below are a list of clubs that will be starting in September. Please confirm with the relevant teacher on the day to make sure the club is going ahead.

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