Dear Parents/Carers,
We have recently concluded our Year 11 and 13 Pre-Public Exams (PPEs), and I am delighted with the exceptional hard work of the students, including the support of their families. The PPEs are very important as they provide opportunities for students and their teachers to consider where improvement is required and personalise intervention, so that our students can continue to make progress towards their final examinations. This of course also improves our ability to communicate effectively with parents and carers about your child’s progress and next steps.
We are incredibly proud of so many of our fantastic students at Longfield Academy who make an excellent contribution to academy life. However, It is regrettable that we have had a small number of isolated incidents of poor behaviour from a minority of our school community. This has included some students who have acted as bystanders to such unacceptable behaviour, but have taken the time to video or photograph, and post it on social media. I wish to assure you that we have taken these incidents very seriously. We continue to build our community based upon ‘R.A.C’: Respect, Aspiration and Care. We uphold high standards of behaviour and pastoral care at the academy, and so we wish to reassure parents and carers that we will continue to support victims, whilst sanctioning those who choose to undermine the safe and respectful community the vast majority of our students strive for. We have also begun to take additional steps to ensure that we do not see any recurrence of these behaviours within our academy community.
I would like to thank the parents and carers who have supported the academy and worked with us positively to resolve concerns. I would also like to ask you, as parents and carers, to support us by talking to your child(ren) about the importance of not sharing videos of other students as that could potentially lead to cyberbullying whilst also putting both victims and perpetrators at risk.
Looking to the future, there are many events within the Longfield community calendar. I am delighted to inform you that two charity events are taking place this festive season; one being the Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday 8 December in support of Save the Children, and the other being The Community Cupboard collection. More information on these events has been sent home to parents and carers in a recent letter, and also shared on our academy Facebook page. On Thursday 8 December, we will also be hosting our informal music concert. Parents and carers are invited to attend and will find the information about timings and how to book on our website. We are also very much looking forward to the Christmas panto, Snow White, which will be held on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 of December.
Please note that on the last day of term, Tuesday 20 December, school will be finishing at an earlier time of 2pm.
Yours faithfully,
Dr F. Donkor
Principal
