Headteacher blog 16th June 2017

It was wonderful to meet so many families at the Reception Open Evening on Thursday. The children seemed delightful and confident; I am sure that they will be a good cohort. As I was speaking to the families, I was very well supported by the large Foundation Stage team. This team is very well established, talented and committed, and provides a great start for children beginning their educational journey with us.

This week, Year 1 have been having their phonic tests. Although the pass mark hasn’t been announced yet, we are confident that this cohort will achieve our best ever results. This is testament to the hard work of our staff who have ‘upped the ante’ as regards phonics this year. Partnership with parents has been crucial: some of the progress has been spectacular and we know that practice at home has really helped (and it has been obvious where this hasn’t been the case).

I was pleased that we were able to send a girls’ football team to a tournament on Thursday. They reportedly had a great time, winning two and losing two of their four matches. Next week, 30 children will be competing in the Pudsey Olympics at the John Charles Centre and we have hired a coach to get us there as we don’t have enough minibuses for all the trips and events that day! Sadly, we have needed to give apologies for some sporting events as a result of not having enough staff or transport to get there – we will need to rethink how we can take part in even more sporting opportunities next year.