It has been a very busy week. We have been showing round new families; having a governor sub committee and setting the new budget. Our governor sub committee, with four new governors, included an interesting presentation by our RE leads about the recently-revised RE curriculum that is enhanced by our cultural diversity and commitment to visiting a range of places of worship. At the budget meeting, we managed to stay out of deficit last financial year by the skin of our teeth (0.2% of annual income) but the financial future for schools looks bleak. Very many primary schools are already in deficit, especially if they are less than full and/or have lots of children with high levels of SEND need. I am relieved that we have another full 60 for Reception this September, but we are still projected to spend more than we have coming in as income this financial year.
Reception classes have had lovely trips to RHS Harlow Carr gardens this week and, on Saturday, the PTA host their Dog Show. My dog Louby Lou has had a haircut this week and will be coming along with her beautiful ‘eye lashes’. Sadly, I don’t think that there is a ‘looks quite cute but a bit useless’ category. The show runs from 12 noon til 4pm and is open to the public too.
Our grounds need a lot of maintenance. I am grateful to B&Q and to Jewsons recently for their generous donations to the EYFS outdoor area (Mrs E Tomlinson has phenomenal ‘scrounging’ skills) and to the PTA for a generous donation to Farfield Farm which is definitely showing its age with most of the works having taken place about 15 years ago. We will be rebuilding lots of the raised beds over the coming weeks. We also need to replace lots of fencing and re-cover the top polytunnel but that work will have to wait for a bigger lottery grant application. (Pigs absconding is becoming a regular occurrence.)
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