It’s been a quiet week at school – the phones have been broken all week after power outages on Monday night! It has been frustrating – and we apologise for any inconvenience – but I think the admin staff have quite liked it, especially as they have been preparing for a big change in their management information system next week. I hope that the telephones can be restored very soon.
Governors met on Tuesday evening in their Resources subcommittee. The budget is looking very difficult again for the next financial year. More positively, we hope to get a new roof for much of the junior building and much of the feedback from a recent staff workload and wellbeing survey was relatively positive.
On Wednesday, staff met after school for a review of behaviour policies, expectations and management systems in school. The vast majority of children are very well behaved. Where expectations aren’t met, some children may find that they receive a sanction more quickly or may find themselves removed from the class for a period. The following day, the government released a report showing that suspensions from primary schools (previously called Fixed Term Exclusions) have increased markedly since COVID. The revised guidance suggests that most suspensions should be kept internal i.e. within school and that a child should only be removed from school for the absolute most serious of issues e.g. serious assaults. We rarely suspend children at Farfield – an average of one or two children a year out of 400+ – and it is usually for serious violent behaviour. It is always a difficult decision and is further complicated by the young age of some of these children, their SEND profile and, sometimes, their family history. It is a difficult balancing of rights and interests: everyone deserves to be safe in their school or workplace, and everyone has a right to an appropriate education.
