Headteacher blog 20th March

Eid Mubarak! Happy Eid to all our Muslim friends. Last week’s PTA iftar meal seemed to be a great success and a lovely community event.

On Tuesday, the children enjoyed assemblies and book reading by TV celebrity George Webster. Over £500-worth of books were bought and we marked World Down Syndrome Day with odd socks and a collection for local charity Sunshine and Smiles. On the subject of reading, it has been fantastic having so many parents coming into school to be ‘secret readers’ recently. Thank you so much – the children love it (and are so proud!).

On Wednesday, a team of Y5 children went to a debating competition. This is a new venture for school and comes at the end of a successful new unit of English work supporting oracy. The debate this time related to school uniforms. We didn’t win but did very, very well in the competition and had a great time.

On Thursday, half of Y4 went to a big skipping competition and also had a great time. We won lots of events and came second overall. An official at the event said that our team’s positivity and support for each other ‘shone through’ and was infectious!

It has been a glorious, sunny week for the most part and that makes such a difference! All the grounds have been in use from the infant woodland area to the junior dens and farm area. Yesterday, I was on lunch duty on the top field and was concerned to see, from a distance, a group of Y6 girls climbing into the pigs enclosure – especially as Biscoff and Gremlin can be aggressive and prone to bite. I made my way up and need not have worried – they had it all worked out. They were cleaning out and replenishing the pig sty with straw. They had climbed over the fence to negate the risk of a gate getting knocked open. Similarly, they were loading and unloading their wheelbarrows with garden forks over the fence. They had directed the pigs away by putting their food on the ground in another part of the enclosure and they had three large plastic bin lids on hand to use as ‘pig board’ shields should anything go wrong. I need not have been concerned: they were an F1 pit lane team on top of their game! Team-work, resilience and innovation were all on display from these top girls.

Next week, we have some big trips planned: Y2 to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in South Yorkshire and Y4 to Murton Park in North Yorkshire. We have mid-year reports to issue, detailed SEND review meetings to complete, a full governing board meeting, end-of-term assessments and Parents’ Evenings the following week. Busy days!