Longfleet made two trips to Carter Community School for sessions delivered by Carter's Year 7-9 Sports Ambassadors. The children loved the festival, which included balance skills, speed and agility activities. They were thoroughly puffed out by the end of the hour session but would definitely come back again!

The Year Two children have had a very exciting end to the term with an inspiring visit to Portland Lighthouse. They spent the day completing various activities such as climbing to the top of the lighthouse (153 steps!), where we heard the unique sound of the horn, a quiz and the children produced some lovely artwork. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Thank you to all of the adults who gave up their time to help on the trip.

This week we have held three Easter services at St. Mary's Longfleet Church.  The Upper Key Stage Two service was a more traditional event with some beautiful singing from the pupils and choir.  Reception and Key Stage One was an 'uplifting' occasion with some lively songs for everyone to enjoy.  Lower Key Stage Two dramatically told the Easter Story with some superb acting and storytelling using both spoken word and songs.

 

Congratulations to everyone involved - the church was full for three days in a row with a feeling of joy and new life.

Some of the older pupils of our Running Club joined the Poole Teachers' Sports Relief run this morning.  One of our parents, who is also the headteacher of Sylvan Infant School, was running to each school in Poole to raise money.  We joined him (and his crew) for the Longfleet to Baden Powell leg. 

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.