Headteacher blog 22nd November 2019

This week there has been a report about a global epidemic of inactivity amongst young people. Whilst the report focuses on 11-16 year olds, there have been similar concerns about younger children too. Having been on lunch duty all week, I have been really pleased to observe very high levels of physical activity in the juniors. Many members of Year 5 for example were engaged in an enormous ‘Team Tig’ game that seemed to span the whole of the school grounds: hordes of welly-clad ‘warriors’ stream across the muddy expanse of fields between den areas. On the yard, variants of the game included ‘Pacman Tig’ along court lines and ‘Infinity Tig’ that seemed to include Rock/Paper/Scissors as a feature. Despite the weather, it has been an active autumn  enhanced by our new games leader Ms Carter being on the yard with lots of new activities that the children are keen to engage in.

On Tuesday evening we had our first event in our ‘Show Time’ programme. 49 children from upper KS2 (and 7 staff) attended an epic and awe-inspiring performance of Taiko drumming in Bradford. I am delighted that we have been able to accommodate 50% more children in the programme this year.  We hope that the children really enjoy the shows and that these experiences are culturally enriching and inspiring. The next show, in December, is The Northern Ballet’s Cinderella at the Leeds Grand Theatre.

Finally, it is always good to get affirmative, positive feedback on our work. Earlier this week two of our staff – Lucy Swindlehurst and Nikki Harding – presented at a STARs Autism lead practitioner meeting and I received a lovely email from the event’s organiser afterwards praising their contribution to the session and their ‘wonderful work’. Well done to them and to all our dedicated SEND-related staff.