Headteacher blog 21/11/25

Brrrr…. It’s been a cold and frosty week but it has been enjoyable nonetheless.

On Wednesday evening, we took over 60 children to see Matilda the Musical in Bradford at the Alhambra (part of our Y5/6 Show Time club). As expected, it was a great show with brilliant songs and child performances. Our children really enjoyed it and may have been inspired too. As regular patrons, we were immediately recognised by the ‘front of house’ who confided that we are their favourite school! (At least partly, that will be because we probably buy the most tickets. Our children are great as well of course!) When we had a difficult moment, they kindly gave us an extra free ticket to help us out.

Year 1 have been to Temple Newsam this week for an immersive workshop on the theme of The Great Fire of London (and visited the farm there too). We got some lovely feedback from a parent helper about that trip, commending the staff for their teamwork and warm, inclusive, nurturing approach. They are doing a great job.

We also had all our Y5s completing bikeability this week – akin to what might have been called Cycling Proficiency in the ‘olden days’. One thing we have noticed is that fewer and fewer children are able to ride a bike by the age of 9. This year, about a third of the cohort were non-riders – by far the most we have ever had. (Ten years ago, it would have been a few.) The tutors got some of those riding but that wasn’t really the point of the scheme. We don’t really have the capacity to teach children to actually ride bikes if they don’t acquire that skill whilst in Reception. We are going to have to rethink some of our Y5 residential provision as so many of them won’t be able to access the single track mountain biking that we do next summer.