It’s great to see you and your children again after our summer break. Our staff enjoyed various breaks and all have worked really hard to prepare classes and teaching ready for the Autumn term. We all hope you and your family also enjoyed the breaks, whether travelling to distant lands or simply enjoying time with family and friends (perhaps enjoying Eid celebrations).
Thank you…
…to all the children who so far have sent us a postcard (and to mums and dads who have encouraged this!). We’ve received cards from sights in Yorkshire (Magna Centre, Leeds Town Hall, Castle Howard…), UK sights (the Lake District, Bath, Holkham Beach…) and more far-flung places (Egypt, USA, Portugal…). It’s not too late to send us one or bring a postcard into the office for us. Soon, we’ll put the postcards into a hat and choose some lucky winners – and all the cards will go on display, too.
New faces
Sadly, we said goodbye to a few people over the summer. However, we’re happy to say hello to new faces – in fact, there’s one new person in every class, so hello to Abi, Jorja, Lennox, Luca, Brannoc and Mehak, from Y1 to Y6 respectively. Of course, there will be thirty more new faces as our new Reception class start to arrive from Monday 17 September. This takes our numbers on roll to 204 with the likelihood of at least one more pupil joining us shortly – our highest number at least since I started at Moortown Primary.
Staff
Most of you will know that Mr Owen is on extended leave – he’ll return to take over the teaching of Y5 just before the October holiday. This will allow Mrs Weekes to return to Y1 to class share with Mrs Maver. We said goodbye to Mrs Jack at the end of last term (she has joined a local school as Y5 teacher), but welcomed back Mrs Taylor from maternity leave (she will continue in her role of Health Leader and cover teacher).
In the Spring and Summer terms, I was working in another Leeds school for one day each week as a ‘Local Leader in Education’ – someone who supports other headteachers. This term, I’ll continue to work in this role, supporting an existing school and supporting a new Leeds headteacher, but I don’t expect to be out of school quite so much. I’ll also be continuing to work with some Year 6 children on Thursday afternoons teaching Tough Stuff Maths and (new this year) Tough Stuff Reading (we’ve just started to read ‘Animal Farm’).
Uniform
There are aspects of our Uniform Policy which we can’t absolutely enforce, but the governors and I hope we have your cooperation – sticking to this policy helps to make sure all our children are smart and feel part of the school community by not looking ‘different’; it also helps to make sure our children focus on being happy and healthy learners without distractions.
Once again: it’s great to see you all again.