Headteacher’s blog 10th January 2025

Happy new year!

It has obviously been such a cold start to the new school year but we managed to stay open. Well done to the site team for their efforts clearing and gritting the site as best we can. I am grateful to staff for their determination to get to work: a few have bruises or sore knees to remember their journeys. After snow fun on Sunday and Monday morning break, we have had to keep the children in as the ice has developed across the yards and fields. The novelty has worn off now and we can see the effect of the children being inside all week, barely able to expend their energy. Roll on the weekend and a thaw next week!

Attendance has obviously been well down this week, with some children being kept off all week. That is disappointing. Low attendance does cause a lot of problems for individual children and the class as a whole: does the teacher just crack on with the curriculum with just 60% of the children there? Attendance did rise to about 85% from Wednesday onwards, but is obviously still way below the usual 95%+. I expect us to get back to normal next week.