Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends

Congratulations to the numerous sports teams who have reached District or County finals over the last two weeks.

Our junior girls’ Rugby league team won their regional competition and will now take part in the national tourna-ment. Our Year 9 Netball team went undefeated in the district finals, losing out in first place on goal difference.

In boys sport, our Year 7 Futsal team narrowly lost the County final having won the district tournament. Our Un-der 19 Basketball squad reached the County final for the first time in 12 years, narrowly losing out. In rugby, our Year 9 & 10 boys reached the County finals. The Year 9 narrowly lost out but our Year 10 are now the County shield champions.

Away from sport our Senior Technology team won the Rotary Club Technology Tournament. Longdean School has never won this event. It requires teams to design and build a vehicle before putting it through a series of tests. Well done to all.

In Citizenship, Year 11 students have been running a series of campaigns to raise awareness of issues or raise mon-ey for charity. Some stand out items are the £500 raised for Billy's Wish and the £100 raised for climate change awareness and DENS. This comes alongside the £2,320 the school raised for our link school in Ghana and Comic Relief.

It is important for all of our students to engage in charitable works and campaigns as well as sport and vital educa-tion. This enables students to leave with qualifications but also develops in them the skills and qualities to be em-ployable and able to contribute to the wider community.

Away from these great achievements I would like to congratulate Year 11 on their preliminary examination results. They showed a great attitude at this difficult time and their efforts have paid off. There are four school weeks and a two week Easter break before exams begin; a lot can be achieved in this time and I would encourage all students to study hard. I have attached a list of all available revision guides to this newsletter.

Finally I would like to update Parents and Guardians on the first term of our new mobile devices policy: 202 devic-es have been confiscated once, 22 for a second time, 5 for a third and 2 for a fourth occurrence. The school is calmer as a result and the Pastoral team are not untangling events related to social media fallout. We will review our policy after one year. I would like to thank parents for their support in this major change.

We have also begun the process of refurbishment of rooms F13 & F14. We have identified the machines we desire and will soon be running a tender process for them.

Have a great Easter.

Mr G Cunningham

Headteacher

Edition 13 5 April 2019 Headlines

Longdean Link

Important dates 4 April 2019—Year 9 Parents’ Evening

5 April 2019—1.00pm School Finishes

23 April 2019—8.15am School Starts

25 April 2019—Year 7 Parents’ Evening

6 May 2019—Bank Holiday Monday

7 May 2019—External Exams Start

Numeracy

Numeracy

Last issue’s answer:

Film Club Numeracy

Film Club Numeracy

Literacy Link

Artwork of the Month

Congratulations to the U14 Futsal team who won the Dacorum Schools network futsal tournament last month. The girls went on to represent Dacorum at the Herts Futsal games at Batchwood in St Albans. The girls played some brilliant football on the day in a tight group. They were unfortunate to narrowly miss out on going through to the finals. A really great performance building on a great season of football this year.

Good job girls!

Sports

On Friday 29 March 2019, Longdean school took part in the 2019 Dacorum Dance Competition. The evening was a fantastic celebration of dance and ended with the Longdean Senior group winning the competition for the first time with their piece ‘sticks and stones’ based on bullying.

The Senior group included the following students: Evie Coombs, Tara Bacon, Joseph Howse, Aiden Earle, Milli Carroll, Megan Holloway, Ellie Rua-Fernandez, Spriha Shrestha, Brooke Darke, Phoebe Cave, Khia Bernard-Arnold, Alana Adams, Amelia Fennessy, Isabelle Glynn and Rosey Carter-Sullivan.

The junior group also performed extremely well and their confidence improved massively throughout the rehearsal process. The junior group consisted of: Alana Davies, Aimee Hill, Elizabeth Nouch, Lilia Lawton, Sophie Lake, Grace Lipman, Ella Sturt, Ava Mesiano, Hollie Griffey, Olivia Hipgrave, Bella Chalmers, Tilly Andrews-Smith, Emily Shults, Daisy Bull and Tia Bull.

Well done to all students involved

Dance Competition

Congratulations to the year 9 and 10 who completed their Bronze Practice Expedition. Although there were a few wrong turns along the way, we were really impressed with excellent navigation, camp craft

and team work!

We are looking forward to taking the groups on their qualifying expeditions this summer.

Duke of Edinburgh

Top Technology Thinking for a Tricky Task from Longdean School.

Victory for Longdean School in the 2019 Annual Rotary Club Technology Tournament, which took place at Ashlyns

School, Berkhamsted, on 14 March 2019.

Longdean entered two teams, one in each of the Intermediate and Advanced sections. They were set an intriguing

scenario of rescuing and moving to a safe distance, before releasing, a flask of toxic chemicals. Add a low bridge

and the further complication of operators not allowed within 60cm of the rescue vehicle and the students design

and engineering skills were put to the test.

Both Teams engineered ingenious solutions to capture the flask and deliver it to the safe zone, but the

Intermediate team were hampered by mechanical failure at a critical point on their judged run, despite running

repairs.

The Advanced team rolled to victory under the watchful eye of the judges and all of the other competitors, via a big

screen. Minor setbacks further pressurised the team, but they held together to win the Advanced Section Shield,

which will be proudly displayed at Longdean School.

All of the competitors received a certificate for their excellent teamwork and technological effort, something for

them to add to their personal portfolios to take forward to University, or employment.

The Longdean teams were; Advanced; Ruth Glasheen, Rohail Khan, Kavan Williams and Cameron Tattershall.

Intermediate; Spriha Shrestha and Holly Nethercoat, Lewis Clark and Jack Clark.

The students want to thank the Rotary Clubs of Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead for their organisation and

running of the event, the many sponsors without whom the event would be more impossible than the tasks and

Ashlyns School for hosting them, and the winners shield will be on display at Longdean School in the next few days,

after engraving.

Technology Competition

Please support your child by ensuring that they are in school every day, as far as possible.

Three families have been issued with a fixed penalty notice and two have been prosecuted by Hertfordshire County Council for their child's non-attendance at

school this academic year.

Nothing is more critical to attainment than consistent attendance.

Well done to all of the students who achieved 100% so far this academic year.

Sept July

Y7

Y8

Y9

Y10

Y11

Research suggests that for every

17 MISSED SCHOOL DAYS,

a student’s achievement will drop by

ONE GRADE when they sit their GCSEs

Attendance

We are going to Cambodia in 2020, our team will be visiting the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. Here we

will be preparing for our expedition. We will then trek through the Ratanakiri jungle for 3 days, trekking through

diverse terrain. We then travel to Siem Reap which is known for their temples of Angkor. Our community

engagement phase will engage with the community and seek a positive impact on their community. Our rest and

relaxation phase will be in the temples of Angkor where we can explore the temples or relax on the beach with

plenty of activities to do before we finally depart from Phnom Penh.

You can still be a part of the team! If you are interested in joining us on our trip to Cambodia, then come and

speak to Mr Macdonald or Miss Segalini for further information.

World Challenge 2020

We are delighted to tell you that we have raised £2,320 from our recent non-uniform days, half of which will go to Ghana and half of which to Comic Relief.

The community of our link school in Ghana will use the money towards developing the permanent Senior High School (‘Fast Track College’), which is a vital project because until it opened most post-Year 9 students had to walk up to 15 KM a day to go to the nearest one in the market town of Agona. Comic Relief will use the money to support vulnerable people and communities in the UK and around the world as part of their vision to create a just world free from poverty.

Thank you to pupils, parents and staff for their support!

Charity Fund Raising

Independent Learning and Homework at Longdean Please remember to discuss your child’s Independent Learning and Homework set on Show My Homework using the app 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 GCSE Pod, BBC Bitesize, Mathswatch, Tassomai, Educake, MyMaths and others as advised by the departments.

http://www.gcsepod.com/parents — for a parent's guide. www.mymaths.co.uk — students have an individual username and password from their

Maths Teacher.

Mr R Muskett - Assistant Headteacher

Information

Reporting Absences from School - Contact Numbers

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

Please call each day your child will be absent.

Da Vinci: 01442 205706

Franklin: 01442 205707

Gates: 01442 205760

Pascal: 01442 205703

Sixth Form: 01442 205720

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 address, and on the LLP. Next issue: Friday 26 April 2019

Recent Communication

Attendance

Franklin

92.2% Pascal

Gates

94% Da Vinci

0% 100%

Whole School: 92.6%

92%

Recent communication sent

home:

Year 12 & 13—New Post 16 Manager

Year 9— Parents’ Evening Reminder

Year 10—Careers Talks

Year 11—Last School Day & Revision

Guides

Year 13—Study Leave

Year 7—Da Vinci & Franklin

Whipsnade Zoo Trip

Year 7—Parents’ Evening

Year 9—Macbeth Book Purchase

92.7%