Longfield Academy Newsletter

Dear Parents/Carers,

As we come to the end of 2022, I want to take a moment to offer my profound gratitude to all parents, carers, students and staff for the hard work, resilience, determination and enormous support that has allowed us to enjoy another successful year.

We have left no stone unturned in our quest towards maximising opportunities for all our students. In addition to a greater emphasis on the quality first teaching, we have continued with our tradition of supporting our students with their academic work beyond the normal school day, through after school interventions, Saturday and holiday sessions, as well as one-to-one and small group tuition through the National Tutoring Programme.

We have introduced a life coach programme and our students have participated in various workshops which we expect to impact on behaviour and wellbeing positively.

Including:

• Resilience Workshops

• Road Safety

• BMX Course

• Counselling with Mary Dolly Foundation

• Mental Health Ambassador Training

• Building positive relationships (Spectrum Centre)

• Kent Police - Online Safety Talk

• Fitter Stronger Intervention

• Risk It - Risk Taking Behaviour Workshop

• Anti Bullying Workshop

• Anti Bullying Ambassadors Training

• Social skills programme

• Positive behaviour programme

• Sex Education & Consent

Between September and December, students have had fantastic and exciting opportunities to extend their learning through a wide range of educational visits. In modules one and two alone, over 300 attendees - from year 7 to year 13 - have benefited from enjoying educational visits from across a number of subjects, such as English, science, geography, drama, music, art, film studies, photography and PE. These visits are directly linked to our students' education and help them develop the wider knowledge and context of the subjects they are studying. They have included theatre visits to see a Shakespeare play as well as more modern performances, such as 'Back to the Future', in both Kent and London, and a visit to The Turner Gallery.

In addition, there have been other visits that have supported our students' personal development outside of their subjects. These have included visits to Oxford University, Canterbury University, and Kent University and Sussex University, thus fostering our students' aspiration into further education at some of the world's leading universities.

Christmas time is an opportunity to give back to the community and to support the less privileged in our society. Therefore, I am extremely proud of the work our students and staff have done in raising money through our Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day, support for the Community Cupboard in West Kingsdown by collecting donations, and donating to the Giving Tree at Bluewater.

I am pleased that through our newly introduced parent/carer drop-in events, we are now able to meet more parents and carers regularly as we seek to improve our home-school partnership for the benefit of all our students. These will continue in 2023, alongside the regular letters and the Principal’s briefing videos, so that we continue to improve communication between home and school.

I thank all of our parents and carers for the diverse ways you have supported us: through the Facebook pages, your letters and emails of encouragement and support, the challenge you offer and the wisdom you share. My thanks also goes to those of you who have supported the various activities on site, including the informal music concerts, school pantomimes, open events, second-hand uniform sales and charity events amongst others.

On behalf of all our staff and governors, I wish each member of our community a very happy, healthy, and safe festive season, and I look forward to seeing all of our students and families again in 2023.

Dr F. Donkor