This week I had an introductory meeting with a DfE-appointed accountant who is going to support our school briefly with our budget. Like almost every school, finances are very tight – nearly half of Leeds’ primary schools were in overall deficit at the end of the last financial year and Farfield was close. I will be interested to hear what she has to advise as it feels like we have made lots of savings already. We also need to actively explore how we can raise income further.
Thankfully, we have a fantastic PTA that certainly does help. Delivery of our new-to-us minibus is imminent – probably next week – and we wouldn’t be able to afford that without them. On Friday, they held their new-school-year coffee morning, and they have another ambitious and exciting programme of events planned.
On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a whole class Y3 ukulele lesson. This is a new initiative this year, and it is early days, but it was nonetheless an active, pacy, engaging session with skilled delivery from an Artforms teacher. 30 beginner 7 year olds all strumming their ukuleles wasn’t as grating as I feared! I joined in and enjoyed the session. At the end, the teacher gave out a couple of ‘well done’ type stickers and then gave one to me. I stuck it proudly on my chest – apparently, I was supposed to have given it to a child!
