Headteacher’s blog June 29th 2019

It has been a very busy week. The biggest event was the S Factor final for Rec-Y6 held on Friday.  In front of a packed hall, each class’ champion scientist presented their investigation or demonstration to the team of three ‘real scientist’ judges. It was a great morning and all the children did really well.  Many thanks to ALL those children that entered the competition (and their families who provided support at home). Thank you also to our judges – they had a difficult job!

On Wednesday, we had two competitions: the Pudsey Spelling Bee and the Pudsey Mini-Olympics. Out Spelling Bee team came second out of seven schools even though we change our team each year: that’s two second places and a first in the three years of the competition. Thirty children represented the school in the Mini-Olympics at John Charles. They competed well, enjoyed themselves and had a good afternoon – we await the results.

On Thursday we submitted lots of statutory assessment data to the government. This year we had moderation of all our statutory assessments: Reception, Y1 Phonics, Y2 and Y6. It all went very well and the moderators were complimentary about our work. There was no problem until it came to agreeing the ‘Greater Depth’ Y6 writing. Guidance and exemplification is scant, and it is clearly an area that can be somewhat subjective. In the end, we were able to submit 90% of those we initially thought were ‘greater depth’, but the whole episode makes me even more sceptical of the robustness of this comparable data across the country and thousands of schools.

Finally, on Saturday we are hosting our annual Camp-Over. We are expecting about 70 families camping and up to 500 people on site. This is a true highlight of the year and an important part of the school’s wider offer. For me, hours and hours of simple outdoor fun is a crucial part of a healthy, happy childhood.