Headteacher blog 4th December 2020

It has been a very wet and soggy end to the week and at lunchtime today we ‘surrendered’ and admitted defeat: we had better keep the children in. A particular problem at the moment is that 3/4 of the juniors are having to stay in field zones and these are a muddy brown quagmire rather than an idyllic snowy-white playscape. Let’s hope for some proper snowy days later in the winter.

This week we had a sub-committee of the governors looking at finance, buildings and staffing issues. Amongst other things, we looked at pay progression for teaching assistants: an army of critical staff working with some of our most vulnerable or challenging pupils. I am delighted that we will be able to offer a little more to these valued colleagues over the coming years and will be in a stronger position in terms of recruitment and retention.

The government has provided some details about next year’s SATs. There are some changes due to COVID, not least the suspension of league tables and the (inexplicable) cancellation of the Y6 Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar test. Most of the tests will go ahead, on a more flexible timetable than previous years, and I am actually looking forward to seeing how the children do. Year 6 have been doing practice papers this week and we will be identifying areas to work on from these.

One Comment

• Rebecca says:

  08/12/2020 at 10:56 am

  It’s great that Peter has taken the time to look at the pay progression for our Teaching Assistants, who are critical for the development of the children and the overall success of the school. Excellent news.

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