Headteacher blog 23rd February 2024

It remains so wet and muddy around school and the planting season on the farm is getting off to a slow start. I know ‘real’ farmers are having it tough too as the ground is just too wet to plant many crops. The state of the school fields really is exceptionally bad, with the puddles on the top field now seeming to float above the wholly saturated soil, not just gathering in indentations. Farm sessions have begun again for all KS2 year groups after a partial winter break, and I know a Y6 group yesterday were pleased to harvest brussel sprouts that they knew they had sown exactly a year before.

On Thursday, two teams and a wildcard individual went across to Temple Newsam for the West Yorkshire Cross Country finals. The cross-country season has been significantly disrupted too by the weather over the past few months, but this one went ahead and our children did well despite being up against the best runners from across the region. We haven’t managed to qualify for any national finals, but the children can be proud to have got as far as they did. The next regular race is Saturday 2nd March at Woodhouse Grove from 1pm.

This week we have started some of Y6 booster groups prior to SATs. We have started them a little later in the year this time. We want the children to do as well as they can in these SATs, but we don’t want the tests to wholly dominate Y6. We do ensure that we continue with a full, rich curriculum throughout the year and I am always delighted to see the Y6 children doing science, history, geography, music, art, RE, computer science, PE and everything else that should be a basic entitlement. Sadly, I know that in some schools that is not always the case.