What a busy week…

Thank you to all the parents/carers who met with teachers this week for the first of two parent-teacher meetings in the year. We’re available for short updates and questions, comments and concerns at other times, but we hope you found the meeting this week helpful.

Today, we’ve had a training day. Teachers from across Sphere Federation have had four professional development sessions:

• Art
• Maths
• Special Educational Needs
• Assessments

Applying for a place in Reception or secondary school?

The deadline for applications for Year 7 places falls in half-term: 31 October 2025. If you need help with an application, please contact startingsecondary@leeds.gov.uk.

If you’re applying for a Reception place, you might want to check out Leeds City Council’s You Tube video about applying for a school place.

Staying safe online

We’ve recently updated our Online Safety page on our website. If you’ve not spoken with your child about the importance of staying safe online for a while, it would be worth having a look at the clips and checking out the NSPCC link over the half-term break.

Watch us while we work

If you visited us for our recent Watch Us While We Work session, thank you. An even bigger thank you if you left us some feedback:

• What went well? ‘The way the teacher interacted with the class, how the subject was taught, the command and rapport the teacher has with a the class.’
• ‘Can not believe how quick my daughter is at her working out on arithmetic.’

One comment was around varying the subjects we feature. We’ll act on this next time.

Coming up in the first week after half-term break…

Me and My Money themed week

Our next whole school themed week, Me and My Money, is based around money and financial education. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this aspect of our Living and Learning curriculum. Learning throughout the week will include:

• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• How do we spend money?
• How do we manage money?

There will be two fundraising events, as chosen by our Junior Leadership Team, to raise money for our current school charity, Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Firstly, we’ll be having a penny trail where children are encouraged to bring in any 1ps and 2ps to their class during the week and a trail will be created using all the money brought in at the end of the week.

To conclude our Me and My Money themed week, on 07 November, we’ll be holding a Hotshots fundraising event led by PE Partner. This involves each child having three chances to score a goal and their fastest speed recorded. All children will receive a certificate with their fastest shot speed and medals will be awarded for the fastest boy and girl in each class. Your child will be bringing home a sponsorship form for this event and money raised should be added to School Gateway by Friday 14 November.

If your job involves an aspect of finance and/or money and you can support our themed week by coming into school, please contact us.

We’ll select the new school charity as part of the themed week. The shortlist is:

• Zarach, whose mission is to end child bed poverty, giving children the opportunity to engage at school and break the cycle of poverty.
• Martin House provides family-led hospice care free of charge for children and young people with life-shortening conditions.
• Emmaus (pronounced em-may-us) helps people move away from homelessness by providing a home, training and work opportunities as part of a package of long-term support.
• National Deaf Children’s Society, who support deaf children with any level of hearing loss.
• Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, whose vision is a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature.

Have a happy and healthy half-term break.