We held our Spring Term Home Learning Exhibition this week.  Congratulations must go to all the pupils who contributed their creative ideas.  All the children received a certificate for their efforts and a range of the work, from across the Year Groups, has been put on display in the Hub area of the school for visitors to appreciate.

Longfleet took 30 children to Branksome Heath Junior School to participate in a cross country competition for the termly "Howieson Cup". BHJS Sports Ambassadors kept the children entertained with some interesting activities if they weren't running. In the cross country event, a great course was designed to ensure the children kept on going and showed resilience to finish. 

 

Events to look out for in the Summer Term:

-KS1 Girls' Football Festival (at Longfleet)

-KS1 Howieson Cup Athletics (at Longfleet)

 

The orchestra performed brilliantly at the Music For Youth Regional Festival in Southampton today.

The feedback from the music mentors was superb!

We also got to listen to a soul band, a folk violin ensemble, a rock band and a 60 piece secondary school band.

Well done to all the orchestra pupils!

Last night, Thursday 8^th March, 126 children from Longfleet held a special evening concert at Saint Mary’s Longfleet. The concert featured 126 children performing on 11 different instruments including guitars, violins, cellos, cornets, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, recorders, keyboards, pianos and drum kit.

The young musicians had spent months practising at home and preparing with their peripatetic music teachers and Miss Wright. For many of the children it was their very first time performing in a concert but you never would have known it because they were so calm under pressure. Louis, one of our Year 6 drummers, summed up the feeling of nerves when he said “The hardest thing about it was just getting up there in front of all those people!” The largest single instrument group were the guitars – 36 children in total. The orchestra, made up of 47 children, opened the concert with Latin Lullaby and Dan The Man and closed it with a rousing performance of ‘Firework’. All the music was of a very high standard, the children were smartly dressed & beautifully behaved and the bows were full of pride.

We were so lucky to be able to hold the concert at the beautiful Saint Mary’s Longfleet with Matt Molyneux helping out with the sound and visual display, Justin there to look after us and the PTA providing tea and coffee in the interval. Our audience were wonderful: you could have heard a pin drop during the performances and the applause was rapturous. Mr Helm was a very entertaining compere and it turns out he has a new favourite word: ‘clarinettist’!

Each and every group of performers was outstanding so it would be impossible to list highlights but everyone will hold onto their own special memories of the night. Here are a few photographs that show the array of talent on display. There are many more photographs to upload and they will follow shortly. Thank you and congratulations to everyone involved in the event.

On Tuesday 6^th March, Longfleet entered two teams into the National Quiz Championships (Area heats). It was a fantastic and tense afternoon with some incredibly tough questions. Our children performed brilliantly and the lead changed hands many times over the course of the competition. In the end, one of our teams was victorious, scoring a tremendous 1285 points! Our other team also performed brilliantly and finished in 4^th place, narrowly missing out on the top 3. Our winning team now goes through to the semi-finals of the National Championships. Well done to all who took part.

Year 3 walked to the library to see a presentation of Mary Anning's Fossil Depot. This was a production put on by As One and was performed by two people. We were amazed by the show. We became part of the show, travelling back to Mary's curiosity shop. The show was all about Mary and with the help of her brother Joseph, we looked at her inspiring life  led with a passion for hunting and understanding fossils as Mary struggled with poverty and self-education. It certainly was a must see! It was a great morning / afternoon for us all.

Year 6 Netball Tournament

On Tuesday 6th  March, some of the Year 5 and 6s went to Oakdale Junior School to take part in another netball tournament. There were lots of different schools from

across Poole there. Sadly, Hamworthy couldn’t make it.

 

For our first match, we played St Joseph’s School. They played very well and won 3-2. Then, because Hamworthy weren’t there, we had to practice games (one against each other and one against Oceans). After that, we played Oakdale and Baden Powell. Oakdale won 4-2 and we drew with Baden Powell 3-3. Overall we came forth in our group but still played to our best abilities.

 

By Maisy and Stevie (Leopards) 

Last Monday, eight children went to a Poole Schools netball tournament. Those people were William, Ellie, Erin, Michelle, Bruno, Ollie, Jess and Nyah. Everyone played really well, even though it was very cold and snowed during some of the games.

We played five games and won four, just missing out on the semi-finals!

By William and Ellie

 

Longfleet took 10 enthusiastic children to Wimborne RFC for the inaugural Contact Rugby Festival, which included five other local schools. For many of the boys, this was their introduction to contact rugby and they had to learn quickly against schools who had much more experience. Year 6 should be very proud of their efforts, with some well-worked tries and some excellent tackling and rucking, especially by Bruno and Paolo, who worked well to bring the team together.

Dear all,

 

I hope your children had an enjoyable day today.  We even had the coloured footballs out at lunchtime to ensure that play could continue!

 

It is now 4.30pm and the weather has taken a noticeable turn over the last three hours.  The roads are apparently slightly chaotic - which is evidenced by the fact that we have a number of children whose parents are currently stuck in traffic.  We also have a few staff members who have had to leave their cars in the school car park and walk home.  Whilst waiting outside, from 2pm onwards, a number of parents let me know that they would not be sending their pupils to school tomorrow. 

 

Therefore, I am making the difficult decision to close the school on Friday.  I have made an early decision to enable parents to make suitable arrangements for childcare.  As a parent myself I know that it is not easy to change plans at the very last minute.  I appreciate that this will frustrate some parents (but may please others) - I hope that you will understand the fact that I have a duty of care to my staff who have to travel from an area encompassing Dorchester to Christchurch.  Many of the staff also have children at schools that are closed tomorrow and therefore have childcare difficulties themselves to contend with (several joined us today).  Whilst it was 'fun' today to play in the snow, if it turns to ice the school site will less easy to manage safely.  Finally, our hot meal provider's host school is closed and we cannot guarantee the delivery of the meals at the moment.

 

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to welcoming the warmth of Spring as from Monday.  If the weather changes overnight I fully understand that this could look a 'hasty' decision but sometimes I think it is important to consider all the available evidence and make a 'judgement' call to ensure that effective plans can be put in place.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Nigel Helm