Longsands Academy

Longsands Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the town of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England.^[1][2]

History

Longsands College was opened in September 1960 as "Longsands School", a secondary modern, under headmaster Harold K Whiting assisted by Deputy Head Mr Denny and Head Mistress Miss K C Flowerdew. The school's 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". In August 2011 Longsands College was renamed to Longsands Academy, as Longsands became an academy.

Features

The student population was recorded as 1,772 in the Ofsted report of November 2009. 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 cricket strip and two rugby pitches, as well as a football pitch, long jump pit and all weather floodlit football/hockey pitch. The school used to have a museum located within the building however this 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 other museums.

Media Lab The Media Lab was opened in December 2005, some six months after designation of Specialist Status. Originally a boiler room, it now houses a video editing suite, radio studio facility. The suite is used by all schools in the local community.

SMART boards are in every classroom.

Horizon

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 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.

Notable alumni

• John Gregory - England footballer
• Lee Philpott - footballer
• Wayne Larkins - cricketer
• Robert Grabarz- high jumper. Bronze Medalist at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and Gold at World's the same year in Helsinki
• Rob Harris - lead guitarist with Jamiroquai

References

External links

• College website

Coordinates: 52°13′53.21″N 0°15′26.52″E / 52.2314472°N 0.2573667°E / 52.2314472; 0.2573667