At Longlands, we believe that every child is different, yet equally important and valued. We pride ourselves in providing a caring, happy, and friendly atmosphere that nurtures all children to their maximum potential in all areas of their growth and development. I have been the Head Teacher at Longlands since January 2014 and have seen the school grow from strength to strength in a very short time.
We aim to give the highest priority to academic excellence through a broad-based balanced curriculum. As well as this, we have some long-established traditions as a school which excels at sport and music.
Through every strand of school life, we aim to promote the spiritual, moral, and cultural development of every child, alongside the academic, to prepare them for the future challenges and opportunities that life offers.
The Department for Education has recently reinforced the need “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. We ensure that British Values are introduced, discussed, and lived out through the ethos and work of the school. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for furthering understanding of these concepts and, in particular, our RE, SMSC, and focus on our Golden Rules lessons provide excellent opportunities to deepen and develop understanding.
The children at Longlands see democracy celebrated and practiced in a variety of ways. We have an elected school council that represents student voices in the school. The school has a long tradition of a house system named after the Saints of the British Isles and Ireland. We have a rolling program of celebrating Saints Days as part of our focus on British Values. As part of this system, we also have a Head Girl and Boy plus House Captains who act as representatives for their House in a range of contexts. Children regularly get opportunities to express their views in school through Pupil Voice sampling and questionnaires.
The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school, or the country, is consistently reinforced at Longlands Primary School. Our children are taught from an early age the rules of the school through our Golden Rules and high expectations. Children are taught the value and reasons behind rules and laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves, and the consequences when laws are broken. Through our whole school approach, we seek to enable children to develop the language and strategies to solve conflict and to right wrongs. For example over the past year visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service have helped to reinforce this message.
Discussions at the start of the year around setting class rules provide a vehicle for exploring the need to balance the rights of the individual against the rights of the group. At Longlands, children are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for our young children to make informed choices. Our whole school approach to the development of a Growth Mindset supports the principle of taking ownership and responsibility for yourself with a huge focus on working hard.
At Longlands Primary School, we value the close, positive relationships between all adults and children, and see this as being key to enabling all children to access their learning, Assemblies regularly cover the theme of ‘respect’, and pupils have the opportunity to discuss this further in circle time sessions. Children learn that their behaviors affect their rights and those of others. All members of our school community are actively encouraged to treat each other with respect.
