Headteacher blog 20th November 2020

Sadly, we had our first confirmed positive case of COVID in school this week and, as a result, just over 100 children and 8 staff are now in self-isolation. Thankfully, the child is showing no symptoms and is well.  The self-isolation has affected more children than we hoped, as the child is in the largest bubble due to a shared outdoors space and attends Fun Club who are unable to replicate the seven separate bubbles that we have across school. This was always recognised as a possibility and is in line with guidelines.  We are not alone in this: at any time over the past few months, between 5000 and 7000 pupils have been isolating across Leeds and over 500 staff have not been in school. We have been doing well – and been lucky – to have got this far into term without a previous outbreak.  We will continue to follow all the guidelines as best we can, and we will review whether we can reasonably separate the Nursery and Reception classes when they are outside.

Up until Thursday, we were having another good week – notwithstanding an impromptu fire practice in the infants at dropping off time inexplicably caused by the site manager trying to fix a toilet! I have been encouraged by the positive start made in classes Y4-6 with their new 1:1 Chromebooks. Already, we are seeing some of our least confident writers producing some pleasing written work. We are also already benefitting from the sharing of ideas in many subjects, for example maths reasoning explanations using the Diagnostic Questions website. Using IT solutions like this can be a great way for all the children to submit their thoughts and helps the teacher to quickly identify gaps in understanding across the class.