Headteacher blog 7th June 2019

Eid Mubarak to all our Muslim families!

My school week has been dominated by Year 6 residential at How Stean Gorge in North Yorkshire: abseiling, gorge scrambling, caving, climbing, via ferrata and camping. This is a really strong element of our PE curriculum and we were further vindicated by an unannounced visit on site by the Health and Safety Adviser (Outdoor Education) from Leeds City Council. He rated the residential as ‘Outstanding’ and stated: “You continue to provide a challenging and dynamic outdoor education programme at Farsley Farfield to the credit of all involved. From what I witnessed and your own feedback, How Stean Gorge continues to deliver safe and exciting activities in an exemplary manner.”

Feedback from parents and children was also very positive: one parent wrote: “Over the years I have seen Farfield excel at many things, but I truly believe that the residentials are one of the best in helping our young people to find and form themselves. They will carry these memories forever.” I liked the feedback from Husna about the Via Ferrata as it captures the personal challenge and the camaraderie of the group: “Despite the fact that I am scared of heights, I managed to cross the bridge – with some help. It was quite an experience as the view was amazing as I was up on the murky, mossy and steep rocks; it was scary but at the same time awesome to see my friends – Lizzie, Nina, Umayyah and Mariah – do the extra bit of the Via Ferrata as the height was extreme.”

If you would like to see for yourself how exciting these residentials were, visit the 6S and/or 6H blogs.  Many thanks to all the staff who gave their time to ensure that we can run residentials like these.