Headteacher blog 24th January 2019

It’s been a good, busy week at Farfield that has been more enjoyable as it hasn’t rained!

Year 1 have been particularly busy with a glass art workshop with local artist Kate Park and a trip for 1G to Cartwright Hall (1P go next week). The football pitch has been well-used too, with our U9s and U10s in cup action.  Lots of parents in Y2 attended a briefing meeting about their children’s SATs later in the year and the feedback from that meeting was very positive.

In my working week I have had a visit from the inspirational new independent chair of the Leeds Safeguarding Partnership Jasvinder Sanghera CBE to discuss how we deliver effective safeguarding and child protection across schools in Leeds, and a meeting with the new (ish) Head of School Improvement Dave Clark about how Leeds Children’s Services engages with headteachers across the city.  Although there is always work to be done and improvements to be made, I do think that I am fortunate to be a headteacher in Leeds as we have strong partnership working between schools and with agencies such as police, NHS and wider Children’s Services.

Our Director of Children’s Services Steve Walker steps down this month to concentrate on other projects and he deserves great credit for his work that contributed so strongly to Leeds being the only city with an Outstanding Ofsted grade for its Children’s Services.  He is replaced, on an interim basis, by Sal Tariq OBE who has also played a key role in Leeds’ journey to Outstanding and we know that he will do a fantastic job.