Headteacher blog 25th October 2024

It is the end of a long, eight-week half-term and everyone will be ready for a break. It has been a successful half term and I am pleased that the large number of new staff have all settled well and made a positive contribution already.

I am in the season of tours for prospective parents and I am always happy and proud to show them around. We don’t put on anything special: visitors see a typical day. If the tour is in the morning, we mostly see English and Maths but on Wednesday I did an afternoon tour and we saw lots of DT model-making or other construction, science, farming, cooking and other exciting lessons.The level of engagement was exceptionally good.

On Saturday, we had a big group of children for the first cross-country race of the season. There were nearly a thousand competitors overall but we were the only school from the Pudsey/Farsley/Calverley area. It was an exciting course at Woodhouse Grove and the competition was tough! This was the first race using chipped number bibs which was a great success – no more frantic queueing and numbered lollipop sticks. Well done to all the Farfield children and particular thanks to Mrs Tomlinson and to Mrs Fain for organising things.

On Tuesday, Year 3 had their Stone Age Day. I enjoyed working with them making and firing bows and arrows and talking about food in stone age times. Firing a simple bow and arrow is really challenging for 7 year olds but lots of them have been practising at playtime since and have really improved. It is wonderful to have the space to allow this sort of thing to happen. At the end of the afternoon, we went on a megafauna hunt: firing our arrows at ‘blue deer’ grazing in the orchard and a passing herd of Y6s (doing cross country).