Miss Emma Longstaff

15th October 2021

This will be a short message this week. Sometimes less is more.

Many of you will know that, just this last weekend, our friends and colleagues at Sitwell Junior School tragically lost a highly valued, highly regarded and much-loved friend and teacher.

After a short, but incredibly brave battle with illness, Miss Emma Longstaff passed away over the weekend. As you might imagine the whole of the school community is in shock. Our thoughts are with Miss Longstaff’s partner and family, and her friends and colleagues from the Sitwell family. We are supporting them through this very difficult time.

It is a mark of Miss Longstaff’s approach, her manner, her professionalism and her care that there are children, parents, carers, governors and friends of the school who have also been terrifically impacted upon by this news. Miss Longstaff was a highly respected teacher and, although still in her early thirties, she had given the school a decade of service and care. Miss Longstaff started at Sitwell Junior School as a newly qualified teacher and over the years she has progressed, making an impact with children, with their families and with her colleagues. She loved the job, she loved the children, she loved her community. Miss Longstaff was a local girl, growing up in the community and giving back to that community, as a successful and ambitious professional. Her ambition was always for her children and the children of Sitwell Junior School. Miss Longstaff is missed today. Miss Longstaff will be missed next week, next month and for years to come. Through the children, parents and colleagues she has touched her legacy, her memory, will live on.

I ask that you take some time to reflect upon the passing of this very young and vibrant teacher, SENDCO and Assistant Headteacher.

All those who knew and worked with Miss Longstaff are taking time to come to terms with this immensely sad news. We have a community in shock.

‘What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal’. Albert Pike