Longacre School was chosen as the 2020 Independent School of the Year for Community Outreach in recognition of our strong community links with Elmbridge Retirement Village in the nearby village of Cranleigh. Since September 2019 the children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 have taken it in turn to visit the residents at Elmbridge on a weekly basis. During their weekly visits the children spend time reading with the residents and working together on the topics they have been learning about in school.
The residents have also enjoyed paying regular return visits to the children at Longacre. They are collected once a week by the school minibus and then spend a couple of hours enjoying singing and craft activities with the children. Residents have also been invited to watch the school’s annual Pre-Prep Nativity play which they thoroughly enjoyed, as well as attending the Longacre PTA Quiz Night. Such is the connection between the school and Elmbridge that a number of the residents attended the school’s annual ‘Grandparents Afternoon’ acting as surrogate grandparents for those who did not have anybody attending. Although COVID-19 has put a pause on their visits for now, the children have been staying in contact with their friends at Elmbridge via weekly group visits on Zoom.
Longacre pupils are also regularly involved in other community events and visits. The school’s orchestra and choir perform at both the Bramley and Shamley Green village fete every year and our Chamber Choir has visited Birtley House Nursing Care Home on a number of occasions. A new community tradition was started in 2018 with Longacre parents and children going carol singing around the village green at Christmas.
We invite pupils from local state schools to join our pupils for events and visits such as the author visits we host during the annual Guildford Book Festival. Longacre also hosts an annual football tournament for all the local state primary and infant schools.
The school makes its facilities available to local clubs and groups such as:
- Shamley Green Art Club who make use of the Art Studio on a weekly basis
- Shamley Green Cricket Club who use the Sports Hall and Astro for nets practice
- Blackheath Cricket Club who use the sports facilities and in return the school uses their cricket field for matches
- Ewhurst Youth Football club who occasionally make use of the football pitches for training
- Love this Life Basketball Club who use the Sports Hall weekly and in the school holidays
- Rugby Tots who use the Sports Hall at weekends
The school also makes its facilities available to the local community to hire for birthday parties, weddings and functions. Please visit our Facilities Hire page for further information.
Charity
The school holds a number of fundraising drives throughout the year with a focus on a different charity each term. Charity Days are organised by one of the four school houses who elect which charity they would like to support. Over the past few years pupils and their families have supported the following charities:
- Cancer Research UK
- Mane Chance horse sanctuary
- Shooting Star Chase Children’s Hospices
- Leukaemia Care
- British Heart Foundation
- WaterAid
- Children’s Liver Disease Foundation
- Orchard Dementia Centre
- David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
- Railway Children
- Children’s Growth Foundation
- World Land Trust
In addition to termly Charity Days, the school also gets involved with wider community charity initiatives such as the Romanian Shoebox Appeal organised by local Rotarians each Christmas. We have also joined forces with Prior’s Field school for the past few years to support their book donation drive for the book charity Delight.
The Longacre PTA also donates 10% of the funds raised at their annual Summer Ball to a local charity. Last year the PTA chose to support The Fountain Centre, a charity for cancer patients, their families and carers, located in the St Luke’s cancer unit at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford.
