Headteacher blog 4/12/25

Along with most schools (and workplaces?), we have struggled with attendance this week: nearly 5% below our usual levels. There is clearly a lot of sickness around which is not particularly surprising given the time of year. One primary school on the other side of Leeds had 70 children off with flu on Monday and have now banned singing at Christmas to try to limit the spread! Maybe I’m not the Scrooge headteacher of Leeds! Next week we have flu vaccinations but less than half of children are signed up for them. A sign of the times? What I have noticed is that more and more children and adults seem to end up visiting hospital nowadays – it wasn’t always this way was it?

I really enjoyed the cross-country last weekend. Woodhouse Grove is always an exciting course and after the first lap, Fraser was leading the 150-odd U11 boys. He didn’t win in the end, but probably posted our best-ever result. We had a really encouraging turn-out: nearly 10% of KS2 were there. Well done everyone!

Christmas is definitely coming. We have the Nursery and Reception Nativity next week and over 60 Y5s and Y6s are off to the Leeds Playhouse to see a spectacular version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Today RPT visited the Abbey House Museum to meet santa. On Thursday Y1 visited St John’s church and made Christingles. We also have the Christmas Fair and festive jumper day on Wednesday. On two tours for prospective parents this week, we have visited the classrooms and they have been full of angels, shepherds and inn-keepers. King Herod was already in character when I visited RKT – scary!