As Headteacher, l am extremely proud to be serving the community of Longfield and the surrounding area. I have led four other schools, steering one to outstanding which led to me becoming a National Leader of Education, one from requires improvement to good, and another that became the highest achieving school in the county.
Since my arrival in April 2022, I have implemented many changes to support Longfield Academy on its journey to becoming a place of outstanding educational provision. Starting with the achievement of an Ofsted good grading in all four Ofsted areas in October 2024:
- The quality of education
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Personal development
- Leadership and management
My goal is to ensure that Darlington and the Longfield area, has an outstanding school at the heart of its community. Our school and Trust vision is to build a learning community that shapes young people’s development into happy, productive, independent adults.
United with our Trust’s vision, we are determination to empower all our young people to flourish, not just academically, but also socially and personally. At Longfield, we encourage our children to adopt behaviours that support learning and promote good relationships. Our children are polite, respectful and “the culture is now one where pupils are happy, kind and friendly”. Our children are amazing.
Our ‘Choices of Behaviour Policy’ seeks to encourage young people to make positive choices and re-enforces those choices through praise. Our academic achievements continue to demonstrate that we improve the future life chances of our children, complemented by a strong desire to support the development of the whole child through our Pledges, Life Curriculum and Enrichment programmes.
Children with Special Educational Needs are a high priority, and we have developed a Personalised Learning Centre to support additional need and support our most vulnerable with a wide range of intervention strategies.
We believe that Longfield Academy is a fantastic school and with the support of parents / carers and the local community, we will continue to strengthen our positive culture and academic provision for all our children.
Please accept my offer of an open invitation to visit us, anytime, to experience our academy first-hand.
Mrs A. Sweeten
Headteacher
