Longsands Academy

Longsands Academy is a co-educational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the town of St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, England. It is one of two St Neots secondary schools that are part of the Astrea Academy Trust, with Ernulf Academy being the other. History Longsands Academy was opened in September 1960 as "Longsands School", a secondary modern, under headmaster Harold K Whiting assisted by Deputy Head Mr Denny and Head Mistress Miss K C Flowerdew. The school's four houses were Rutherford (after Physicist Ernest Rutherford), Britten (after composer Benjamin Britten), Eliot (after poet Thomas Stearns Eliot) and Moore (after sculptor Henry Moore). When opened the school had four years. The 1st year was streamed into 1E, 1A, 1S, and 1T, 2nd year 2N, 2O, 2R, 2T and 2H, 3rd year 3S, 3O, 3U, 3T, 3H and 4th year 4W, 4E, 4S, 4T. The use of the letters of the cardinal points of the compass being a way of partially disguising which classes were streamed the highest. The 5th year was started in 1961 for those pupils staying on beyond school leaving age (then 15) who were taking the GCE at O level. Subsequently, Longsands became a comprehensive school and acquired a Sixth Form, and was heavily expanded. It was known as "Longsands Community College" until the late 1990s before being shortened to Longsands College. In August 2011 Longsands College was renamed to Longsands Academy, as Longsands became an academy.