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September Letter to Parents |
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Dear Parents/Carers
Welcome back to the new academic year. Our new Year 7 students will arrive on Thursday 4 and the whole school on Friday 5 September. I know from speaking to parents the young people coming in are as excited as we are and can’t wait to get started at Longhill.
Our examination success from last year has been largely maintained, with improvements in specific areas. Our upper ability achievement has increased dramatically and the targeted work to increase male achievement has also been successful.
Cumulative % | GCSE | A* | A or higher | B or higher
| C or higher | | 2003 | 3.2 | 13.7 | 33.9 | 60.8 | | 2004 | 2.0 | 9.1 | 24.6 | 51.5 | 2005
| 1.9 | 11.4 | 30.6 | 55.6 | | 2006 | 1.3
| 8.9 | 27.2 | 51.7 | 2007
| 2.2
| 11.3 | 28.8 | 55.8 | | 2008 | 4.4 | 14.6 | 30.6 | 52.8 |
| Summary Data | All
| %
| Male
| %
| Female
| %
| | Number of Candidates | 241
| 100.% | 120 | 49.79% | 121
| 50.21% | Achieving 5+ A*-C
(including English & Mathematics) | 87 | 36.10% | 44
| 36.67%
| 43 | 35.54% | | Achieving 5+ A*-C | 129 | 53.53% | 65
| 54.17% | 64 | 52.89 | | Achieving 5+ A*-G | 233 | 96.68% | 113
| 94.17% | 120 | 99.17% |
The number of passes at 5+ C and above has dropped by a small percentage, with A* - B upper level passes increasing to the highest level that our records are able to show. Our vocational subjects delivered a high level of success in Sports, Horticulture, Health & Social Care and PE and had a significant impact upon the opportunities of our students to continue with their studies this year. Congratulations to all those students who achieved the best they could, we are proud of you all. We intend to celebrate with our students and their families on the 21 November, so please put that date in your diaries and we look forward to meeting with you then.
Many of you attended the Celebration of Achievement day at the end of last term. This was a really wonderful event and gave the school an opportunity to share in the achievements of our students with their families. Thank you to those families who attended and I hope to see more of you there next year.
We have new canteen operators, a company called Innovate and they will be supplying a better range of quality of food in the existing facilities until half term. There will be a major refurbishment over the half term closure in October. Students will be involved in the designing process and I anticipate this will be enthusiastically welcomed when it takes place.
Our Curriculum development continues with Opening Minds, a major investment of time and energy. We have been designing the new curriculum for almost a year and it is with some excitement that our Year 7 team will open this new page in learning pedagogy for Longhill in September. We will keep you up to date with how this is progressing and I will ask our students to feedback to you via the website.
Jayne Thrush our Administration Manager has taken on board a new responsibility of overseeing communications, which will include the new school newspaper and links with local communities. Keep your eyes peeled for this new initiative designed to increase our ability to engage our communities in the life of the school.
Thank you to all our families, including those leaving us in Year 11. We are looking forward to building the same positive relationships with our new families over the next five years. Working together to ensure that we and our young people will be the best we can.
Haydn Stride
Headteacher |
