Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends

I wanted to use this edition of The Link to talk to you about our on-going efforts to work even more closely with you in

the interests of students. Last year, you will recall that many of you completed an online questionnaire identifying areas

where the school could improve its relationship with you. This led to a number of parent focus groups being established

to further explore some of the areas raised. Broadly you identified three areas where we could enhance our work with

you:

1. Parents’ evening arrangements being better managed both in terms of venue, booking and appointment times.

2. Awareness of who the individual colleagues were who were teaching your children.

3. Providing more information about school initiatives and changes in education and also how parents can support

their children at home.

In response to what you have told us I am delighted to inform you that we have taken the following steps. Although

more detail will be provided by other colleagues leading these changes I would like to share the headlines with you:

1. Staff names, photos and work email addresses organised by department will be on our website by Friday 29 Sep-

tember 2017.

2. An electronic booking system has been ordered to enable parents to book appointments on line. This will be used

first for Year 11 Parents’ Evening.

3. Governor and staff photo boards for the front office have been ordered and will display all staff and governor pho-

tos.

4. Last week we ran two parent information evenings on Drop Everything and Read, Show My Homework and

Go4Schools reports. A further event was held this week on the new GCSE grading system and Progress 8. An in-

formation evening on E-Safety is being held at Longdean on Tuesday 26 September 2017. All parents are welcome

to attend.

5. Parents evening will look very different this year with more rooms being used for appointments and meetings

with teachers being mixed with presentations from departments and other lead staff about the work going on in

school.

I hope these developments demonstrate our commitment to improving the strong relationship we already have with

parents and I look forward to working with you throughout this year.

Away from this important work I would also like to take time in this edition to highlight what the East Dacorum Coopera-

tive Learning Trust is seeking to do this year. As you know Chambersbury Primary School joined the trust at the end of

the Summer Term and much of our work this year will be exploring how we can learn from the primary sector. We have

already begun a training programme for middle leaders from all of the schools and are looking to run a history of the

coop event for primary and secondary students to work together in conjunction with the University of Herts.

Finally for this week I would like to say a huge congratulations to Jess Stretton. On the back of her Olympic success last

year Jess recently won the Para Archery World Championships held in Beijing. Jess also broke her own world record

whilst winning this event.

Best wishes,

Mr G Cunningham

Headteacher

Edition 2 22 September 2017 Headlines

Longdean Link

Numeracy

Last week’s answer:

£34,736

Prime numbers are used in

sophisticated encryption codes.

They were used by ALAN TURING

as a key to crack the Enigma code

used in World War II.

Sometimes, life is as simple as a phone call. In

Neymar and PSG’s case, it was indeed a phone call

that made the biggest transfer in football history

possible.

PSG paid a record breaking €222m or £200m fee to

sign the Brazilian superstar…

What was the exchange rate on the day?

Are you in year 10 or 11?

Do you want to achieve GREAT grades

Do you want to get in your chosen college/sixth form

Do you want to be a high flyer in life and achieve your dreams

The Maths department highly recommend the following revision books for your independent learning.

Numeracy Continued

Centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele 2017

Independent Learning and Homework at Longdean Please remember to discuss your child’s Independent Learning and Homework set on Show My Homework using the ap or the website https://longdean.showmyhomework.co.uk/school/homeworks/calendar where you can find the entire school’s homework and filter by subject, teacher, or class without logging in. For specific details about your child’s homework, please log in to this website or the app. We recommend half an hour a night, Monday through Thursday, on sites such as Sam Learning, GCSE Pod, BBC Bitesize, Linguascope and MyMaths. Links to these sites can be found on the Exam Support and Homework sections of the LLP. Mr R Muskett - Assistant Headteacher

http://www.gcsepod.com/parents for a parent's guide. www.samlearning.com Centre ID: HP3LS Username and password are in the format: DDMMYYII, for example Mr Muskett's would be 050582RM.

www.mymaths.co.uk - students have an individual username and password from their Maths Teacher. MFL—Ask your Teacher for the username and password for Linguascope. Further e-learning links can be found at: https://moodle.longdean.herts.sch.uk/mod/tab/view.php?id=8888

Information

Reporting Absences from School - Contact Numbers

If, for any reason, your child is absent from school, please contact one of the following fix numbers as soon as possible. Any messages will be picked up at the beginning of the school day.

Da Vinci: 01442 205706

Franklin: 01442 205707

Gates: 01442 205760

Pascal: 01442 205703

Sixth Form: 01442 205720

SITE ACCESS INFORMATION

All access onto the site will be from either Rumballs Road or Hill Common. Peascroft Road access is now

closed.

The main entrance at Rumballs Road has a ‘drop off’ area, with a one-way system for vehicles and a wide

pedestrian pathway leading to Reception (see the diagram below). Please do not park on the zig-zag lines

in Rumballs Road.

The main entrance will be access controlled throughout the school day for pedestrians and vehicles.

Vehicular access closer to the building is now only possible for disabled staff and visitors, the emergency

services or by pre-arrangement. The car park at Rumballs Road is for staff and a small number of visitors;

please do not use the car park to drop off pupils.

The car park at Hill Common is for staff, visitors and 6th Form; please do not use this car park to drop off

pupils. A new access controlled pathway leads to reception.

A Wheeler

Premises Manager

RUMBALLS ROAD MAIN ENTRANCE, DROP-OFF ZONES AND ONE WAY SYSTEM.

01: VEHICLE ENTRY

02: VEHILCE EXIT

03 & 06 DROP-OFF AREAS

04: STAFF CAR PARK

05: MAIN FOOTPATH LEADING TO SCHOOL BUILDING

Site Access For The New Term

Year 11 Careers Advice

In their final compulsory year at school we will be giving lots of help and guidance to our Year 11 students.

Here are details of the forthcoming events:

Post 16 booklet - students should have brought home this booklet that outlines the options for next year, if you don’t have one of these they can be collected from Reception.

This booklet will help students to start thinking about their preferred routes forward.

Apprenticeship Information Evening - on Thursday 19 October 2017 we will be holding an Information Evening in the hall at 6.30pm. This will give you and your child the chance to find out more about this opportunity.

Pathways day - on Thursday 2 November 2017 we will be holding a Pathways Day, there will be workshops on sixth form, college, apprenticeships, university, raising aspirations and interview guidance.

Mock Interview Experience - from the 13 – 30 November 2017 all Year 11 students will be given a 30 minute mock interview. This is our 10 year anniversary of working with BT on this fantastic experience. This year’s interviewers are from Epsom, Parker Hannifin, Army, Microsoft and Saffrey Champness will join our BT managers to give our students this opportunity.

Individual Guidance Interviews – with our amazing partners at Youth Connexions students all have the chance to talk through their ideas in a one to one situation. Parents are invited to attend these interviews and an interview can be requested at any time.

For more information about any of these initiatives please contact me directly at a.cooke@longdean.herts.sch.uk

If we work together we can make sure all of our students are well prepared for their next step.

Mrs A Cooke

mailto:a.cooke@longdean.herts.sch.uk

Literacy

Social Media Workshop

Social media, friendships, your child and you

A workshop for parents

Tuesday 26 September 7pm to 9.30pm

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. These issues affect parents and young people every day.

We are pleased to offer a workshop that addresses these questions.

This free, two and a half hour workshop run by Supporting Links is a practical programme for parents and carers.

Through the use of group discussion, individual/group activities and written materials you will learn about:

How to support young people when friendships break up.

How to have difficult discussions about time in front of screens.

How to teach our children about what is acceptable online/social behaviour.

What to do if you are worried about your child’s friends.

Helping young people to understand when a friendship/relationship is not safe.

This workshop is open to all parents and carers of children at Longdean, Chambersbury, Astley Cooper and Adeyfield Schools.

The workshop will take place in the Library at Longdean School, Rumballs Road, HP3 8JB. There are a limited number of places which will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

If you would like to attend, please register by following this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/social-media-friendships-your-child-and-you-a-workshop-for-parents-registration-37767968009

For further information or to ask a question contact Supporting Links on 01442 300185 or email info@supportinglinks.co.uk.

Supporting Links is an independent company. No personal information will be reported to the schools from this event.

Parents around the world are asking how to manage their children's screen usage

Friendships are made and broken and are displayed all over Snapchat and Instagram

Children cannot come home and leave school behind; it follows them into their bed-rooms

Adults and young people act badly via text and on social media with unfortunate consequences

Bike Competition

Once we finished our art GCSE we took part in a competition which was set by Decorum Borough Council to decorate a bike for the Tour of Britain which was taking place in Hemel on Saturday 9 September 2017. We came up with the theme ‘Summertime’. This theme created loads of ideas for the bike, including wire sculptures making a variety of flowers and a range of insects. We decorated the bike by spraying it, then painted flowers on top of the spray. We used really vibrant summery colours to transform it into something ‘pretty’. We also created lots of felt flowers all different shapes, sizes and colours that adorned the seat and handle bars. The GCSE Photography group designed flowers on Photoshop and these were attached to the bike by weaving the laminated flowers through the spokes. We recycled plastic bottles into flower shapes and placed them amongst the wire flowers. The first event we attended was at Hemel forum in the Council Chambers. We saw the judges asses all of the bikes and found out that we were in the top 3! The next event we attended was in Hemel Hempstead town Bank Court next to the start of the race on the main stage. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places for the bike were announced. We were announced as the WINNERS! We were awarded a trophy and £100 voucher for the art department to use for their GCSE groups. We all loved and enjoyed this creative wonderful competition and experience. All our hard work had paid off as we came 1st in the Decorum Council Bike Competition. – Well done everyone!! Written by GCSE art student Ruth Glasheen on behalf of the GCSE Art Group 2017

Information

Sept July

Y7

Y8

Y9

Y10

Y11

Monday 25 September 2017 Friday 29 September 2017 Monday 2 October 2017 Monday 2 October 2017

Tuesday 3 October 2017

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Thursday 5 October 2017

Friday 6 October 2017

23—27 October 2017

Welcome to Sixth Form

Open Evening Pupil Briefing

School closes early 1.30pm

Open Evening (6-9pm)

School starts at 9.30am

Open Morning (9.30-11am)

Open Morning (9.30-11am)

Open Morning (9.30-11am)

Half Term

Study Support Session: 14 October 2017

Link Dates The Longdean Link is published every two weeks, via the Schoolcomms e-mail system to all those for whom we have an e-mail ad-dress, and on the LLP. Next issue: 6 October 2017

Important Dates

Attendance

Letters that have been sent home re-

cently, via Schoolcomms where appro-

priate:

All Years—Social Media Workshop

All Years—Poppy Appeal

Year 7— Academic Mentoring

Franklin 95.7%

95.4% Pascal

Gates

94.7% Da Vinci

0% 100

Whole School: 94.6%

94.5%