Long Furlong Primary School

Governors: Chair's Message

Welcome to Long Furlong Primary School!

As Chair of Governors since 2009, I'm delighted to be involved with Long Furlong at such an exciting time for the school.

As a medium-sized community school, Long Furlong is a friendly, nurturing environment in which our children can develop and achieve their potential through a rich and varied curriculum, inside and outside the classroom. Our surveys show that Long Furlong pupils enjoy school, and their parents are satisfied that we are helping their children to become mature and responsible.

Two years ago, we welcomed Zaheer Ahmed as our Head Teacher. Over the past two years, Mr Ahmed, the Staff and Governors have worked very hard to deliver significant improvements in a very short space of time. Parents may be aware that our Key Stage 2 SATs results had been disappointing in 2008 and 2009. This was a school whose standards had started to drop. Since 2009, we have focused carefully on improving standards. Our results in 2010 showed a marked improvement, and we expect that improving trend to continue in 2011.

Although important, SATs are of course only part of the story.

Please take time to download our School Plan, which will show you exactly where our focus is at the moment. Above all, we aim to create and maintain a safe, calm, nurturing environment where your child will feel at home, will be happy and will learn and develop to the best of his or her potential.

Among other improvements, we have a very successful 'behaviour policy', which focuses on positive messages and has made a big difference to the life of the school. We have invested in a significant amount of play equipment, and also negotiated exclusive use of the local playing field during school hours. We recognise that play is important to children, and have noticed the positive effects the improved environment is already having on the children's readiness to learn.

Parental engagement is important to this school, and some of the items in our School Plan are the result of parent feedback to the questionnaires we send out to parents each year. We look forward to working even more closely with parents in the future.

If you are interested in visiting the school, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Ahmed. If you want to contact the Governors, you can also do so via the school office.

Paul Bradley
Chair of Governors

Long Furlong Primary School Boulter Drive ABINGDON Oxon OX14 1XP
01235 532358 (Term time only 8:30 to 4:30) Office.2602@long-furlong.ocnmail.net