| Established | 1960s |
|---|---|
| Type | Secondary school |
| Religion | all |
| Headteacher | Mr Robert Whatmough |
| Specialism | Arts College |
| Location | Longsands Road St Neots Cambridgeshire PE19 1LQ England |
| Local authority | Cambridgeshire |
| DfE URN | 110905 |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1593 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Willow, Aspen, Maple |
| Website | www.longsands.cambs.sch.uk |
Longsands is a coeducational secondary school in the town of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. It offers state funded education.[1][2]
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Longsands College was opened in September 1960 as "Longsands School", a Secondary Modern, under its original headmaster Harold K Whiting assisted by Deputy Head Mr Denny and Head Mistress Miss K C Flowerdew. The school's original four houses were: Rutherford (after Physicist Ernest Rutherford), Britten (after composer Benjamin Britten), Eliot (after poet Thomas Stearns Eliot) and Moore (after sculptor Henry Moore).
When opened the school had four years. The 1st year was streamed into 1E, 1A, 1S, and 1T, 2nd year 2N, 2O, 2R, 2T and 2H, 3rd year 3S, 3O, 3U, 3T, 3H and 4th year 4W, 4E, 4S, 4T. The use of the letters of the cardinal points of the compass being a way of partially disguising which classes were streamed the highest. The 5th year was started in 1961 for those pupils staying on beyond school leaving age (then 15) who were taking the GCE at O level.
Subsequently, Longsands became a Comprehensive School. Prior to around 1998, it went by the name "Longsands Community College". The school used to be a technology specialist. In August 2011 Longsands College was renamed to Longsands Academy, as Longsands came a Academy.
The school currently has around 1700 (1772 by a recent OFSTED count) students ranging from 11-18 with years 7,8,9,10,11,12 and 13. The upper two years are part of the Sixth Form, which has its own Block on the site. Around 2002 a new sixth form building was built onto one of the back of an existing block, with the previous separate building being converted into 4 classrooms.
The school facilities include a sports hall, two gyms, library, stage, an enclosed courtyard, and a large outdoor area including cricet strip and two rugby pitches, as well as a football pitch, long jump pit and athletics track. The school used to have a museum located within the building however this formerly closed around 1997 and was used primarily as a classroom until 2003 when it was converted into two classrooms with remaining artefacts being donated to various museums.
Media Lab The Media Lab was opened in December 2005, some 6 months after designation of Specialist Status. Originally a boiler room, it now houses a video editing suite, radio studio facility and Mr Gamby – our Media Technician. This suite is used by all schools in the local community.
With refurbishment complete and SMART boards now in every classroom in the college the ICT implications have been taken to a new high standard. Additional computers have been made available within the college also.
The radio team are a dedicated group of Year 10 and 11 students, who meet on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes in the College’s Audio Studio. The aim of the club is to produce a podcast each half term or term, depending on what is happening around the college at the time. Students record, edit and have fun with audio –through speech, music or drama.
Headteachers from Mexico visited in St Neots in June as part of a major British Council project to improve education for hundreds of thousands of children across Latin America, the Caribbean and in the UK by developing new approaches to leadership in schools. The Principal of Longsands, Rob Whatmough, visited Mexico in 2007, and said; "It was a great privilege to be one of three UK heads involved in the very first phase of the project. Our focus was on creating guidance and national standards for headteachers in Mexico. The contexts in which we work are very different but we are united in the aim of providing the best possible education for young people."
The successful collaboration between British Council offices and national ministries of education has been the hallmark of this project and its achievements have been enthusiastically endorsed. Xochitl Osorio, Undersecretary of Basic Education in the State of Veracruz, Mexico said, “SLANT has helped generate great innovation among all head teachers, which has been shared with others in our school networks. We have been able to learn from each other, improving our impact in the education process. This has been an incredible project for all our headteachers”.
The Horizon Association was formed in 1992. It contains two schools in England, one in Wales, one in Spain, two in Italy, one in Moscow, two in France, two in Germany and two in the Netherlands. Horizon was formed by Michel Rousseau-Rambaud who was Head of a lycée in Angers in France.
The purpose in forming the organisation was to further the ideal of European citizenship. This is done by organising events at which small numbers of students (mainly Sixth Formers) can travel to a host school who puts on a programme of interest for a week or even up to half a term. Over the four years, several hundred students have participated in such ventures. The recent Moscow Sports Festival was the biggest event to date and was an attempt to bring together as many students as possible.
By working closely together on an educational/cultural theme, we hope that young people will develop closer insights into what is involved in living and working in Europe. The Horizon Heads meet at least once a year for an extensive planning conference.