Parent Information

During the summer holidays we offer new students a voluntary opportunity to join us for a week of Summer School. The Summer School will take place onsite at Longdean from 26 to 29 August 2025 and will provide students with an opportunity to meet other students from their form groups and take part in fun activities such as interactive science workshops, sports, fun geography sessions, transition preparation and more. 

Students who attended Summer School last year said that it was great fun and that they made lots of new friends before starting school in September. This is especially important for those students who may be feeling particularly anxious about starting secondary school. 

Whilst the week is subsidised by Longdean, we may ask parents for a small contribution. 

At Longdean, school uniform plays a key role in promoting pride, self-confidence and a feeling of belonging to the school community. These factors contribute to students’ wellbeing and remove the pressures of deciding what to wear and added stress of meeting the fashion expectations of their peers. 

Click here to see a list of Longdean uniform.

Uniform can be purchased from the Stevensons website. PE kit can be purchased from Peter Spiveys.

Students are asked to come in to school in their PE kit on days that they have a PE lesson, so take that into consideration when deciding how much uniform you may require. 

All items should be clearly marked with the student’s name and form.  If your child loses anything in school, then this should be reported to their Form Tutor as soon as possible. Students can check at Student Services, which is in Reception, to see whether it has been handed in.  Items that are clearly named will be returned to your child.

Each student needs to bring the following items which are essential: 

• A school bag to carry books (a rucksack is a popular choice)
• A pencil case containing blue or black pens, a green pen, HB pencils, coloured pencils, eraser, pencil sharpener, 300mm ruler, a pair of compasses and a protractor. 

The following are available to purchase from the school shop: 

• Stationery packs containing all basic equipment of pen, pencils, ruler, rubber, coloured pencils, compass, protractor, set square and glue stick
• Scientific calculator (sufficient to GCSE standard)
• Art equipment in the form of sketch pads and materials 

Please note that the School will not be liable for any loss, damage or theft, however caused, to personal property whilst on, or off the Longdean School site. Please ensure that any personal property is covered by your household or other insurance policy. Valuables (for example mobile phones, music players etc.) are brought into school at the owner’s risk.  Musical instruments are also the responsibility of the owner and again should be covered by your household, or other insurance policy.

Students are expected to pay for any damage that they may cause to school property, furniture or equipment.

Year 7 have an annual 'transition day' to kick start their Longdean journey which is a day in school with no other year groups on site. On this day students are expected to arrive at school from 8.15am where they are met outside the main school building by the Year 7 team and taken to the hall for an assembly at 8:30am. Students are expected to be in full uniform and to come equipped for the day, including a reading book. Parents will have already been informed about which House their child is in and can therefore purchase the correct tie in preparation for their first day.

During the Transition Day, students will spend time with their form tutor and tutor group and take part in some tasks to get to know the school and find out about life at Longdean. Students may also complete their biometrics registration. 

Students receive a free breaktime snack and lunchtime meal on this day, however they can bring a packed lunch if they prefer. Students are also required to bring a drink with them for the day. The day finishes at 3:10pm.

Students will have a school photo taken within the first two weeks of starting and parents will be able to purchase the school photo during the first half term.

The school timetable runs on a two weekly rotation and students follow a Week A and Week B timetable. The school day starts with morning registration at 8.30am and ends after period 5 at 3.10pm.

A typical Year 7 school day runs as follows:

Years 7 and 8 follow the same timetable and Years 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 run on a slightly different timetable. This helps to reduce the number of students in communal areas during break, lunch and in between lessons.

Below is a sample timetable and each period on the table details the subject (yellow), the teacher (green, using three initials and a key at the bottom), the class code (blue) and the location (pink). Please note, the below timetable is an introduction to the format and students will be taught how to read their individual timetable when they join us in September.

With the recognition that technology is transforming the work place, our intention is to move forward with specialising in using technology to enhance learning and better prepare the students for the changing world.

Following our research, we feel that Apple technology are the market leaders with their use of technology in schools. Apple are innovative and are always enhancing their products. iPads have an intuitive interface and the range of apps available are highly engaging. 

iPads are fast, very reliable, and extremely user friendly. They are also lightweight and portable and this is important as we want the students to bring and use the devices everyday as part of their day to day central equipment. 

The advantage of all students having our iPads is we will be able to have control over them. This means we can push out all the essential apps and we can maintain the IOS updates on them, ensuring they are always fit to use both in class and at home. 

iPads come with useful additional features such as cameras (which can support  video conferencing, recording the students so they can evaluate their work and each other and the video/camera function allows students to use them widely in creative subjects). There is also an opportunity to get a pen and keyboard and therefore these devices can be used more extensively. We want to expand on the classroom beyond the four physical walls to further support with homework outside of the classroom. In addition, we want to encourage independent and student-led learning, whilst encouraging collaboration through Apple tools such as Keynote and Numbers. 

More information about iPads in school will be shared shortly, including an outline of the payment schedule information for parents.

You can refer to the checklist below to help you prepare for your child starting with us in September.

To complete the registration forms, you will require access to our Applicaa site. You will receive an invite to register for this on 28 March. 

• Complete the Pre-admission Form on Applicaa.
• Confirm consent (within the pre-admission form) for:
  • Biometric consent 
  • Home School Agreement and Responsible ICT Use 
  • Consent for Local Trips and Visits
  • Digital Likeness Consent form
  • School Dog Consent form
  • Register an interest for a school locker (optional)
  • Register an interest for Summer School
• Download school Apps (including Go4Schools, Show My Homework) 
• Order school uniform (including the correct house tie - you'll find out your child's house around June time)
• Read about our STEM/Performing Arts Pathways and discuss applying with your child (optional). The application forms for this will be shared in July.
• Make sure your child has an appropriate school bag and the required stationery
• Ensure your child brings a book to school every day for DEAR
• Make sure your child has some money on their account for purchasing items from the canteen

The school produces a fortnightly newsletter, which is sent to parents via email. It can also be viewed on the school website in the News and Events section.

Welcome to Longdean

Coffee Events

Mr Cunningham Announcement

Uniform Letter

Ofsted Report March 2025

Headteacher Appointment

School Shop Order Form