Since we returned to school we have been determined to resume to as much normality as possible whilst keeping everyone safe. These last few weeks have shown how, with a little thought and the use of technology, we can continue to offer a broad and balanced curriculum and encourage parental involvement in school life. This week our Year 5 children took part in a poetry and music workshop lead by our Poet in Residence (Winston) and our new Musician in Residence (Paul Harding). The work they are carrying out in our school is funded by the Elland Cluster and aims to support creative writing through immersion in the arts. I know the children ,and staff, really enjoyed their sessions which were fully risk assessed to allow for them to come into school and perform in front of the children. Whilst I am growing tired of looking at my own face on Zoom, the app has proved invaluable to us as a school. When children are required to isolate, they are able to join our Friday assembly securely and this week one of our amazing teachers , who was required to isolate, taught her class remotely ensuring that their learning wasn’t disrupted. I previously shared that we had started to run two sports clubs for the Year 4 and 5 bubbles- sadly the government have asked for this provision to stop during the current lockdown but this has not stopped us! Mr Bade is going to deliver a club using Zoom- Joe Wicks eat your heart out! We are hoping in the new year to offer online keep fit sessions for all our children. The response to our ‘Mystery Reader’ project has been amazing and there is nothing more rewarding than seeing children excited to hear a story. Thank you so much to those who have already sent in a video for the children to watch. Today is Children In Need day and I’ve been amazed at the ways the children have found to break our uniform rules! It was a tough decision but the prize for the best rule break goes to Peter in 4G, Rocco in 4A and Isaac in 1A. In the interest of democracy, we opened up a vote for the children as to what the staff should do for Children in Need and the winning option was a great choice- watch out for pictures of us all in our finest sleepwear on Facebook! And finally- please do check out our new and improved website. We hope that you find it to be user friendly but if you have any feedback, please do drop me an email. I would like to thank you all for your support with our request for parents to wear face masks at pick up and drop off unless you are exempt. I am so proud of our school community and how we have continued to pull together despite the difficult situation we all find ourselves in.

Have a lovely weekend

🙂 Mrs Crowther