The first week back of the new year has flown by, without the distraction that other areas of the country have had by the weather. The children have slipped back into the school routine easily, and it has been delightful to observe how excited the children were to see each other again. We have welcomed several new children to our school this week and our January nursery starters. Our Westroyd family continues to grow!

A highlight for me this week, was on Friday afternoon, when I was having a cup of tea and a biscuit with a small group of children from KS2. (I may have encouraged the habit of dipping one’s biscuit in the one’s tea). We were “chewing the cud”, reflecting upon the week and what our plans were for the weekend. Apart from it being a lovely, enjoyable thing to do, the children demonstrated excellent respectful, supportive speaking and listening skills. It made me so very proud!

Year Five did their rescheduled sharing assembly. Which did make me chuckle. It was rescheduled from early December as so many children were ill, but then on the day this week, their class teacher, Miss Wager, was off ill! It was OK though, as the children got Mr Popple up to speed on the day, and they implemented a show of their learning to a large group of parents. I was especially impressed by the group playing the ukulele, unaccompanied with Felix leading the beat. Not an easy thing to do. We are so lucky to have Mr Fisher come into our school from Artforms to teach our children in Y5 every week to play the ukulele. This year we have also continued the music journey for a group of Y6 who showed talent in Y5. They also get an additional lesson each week. Mr Fisher also teaches guitar and is very popular, especially because of how supportive and how he adapts the sessions for some of our learners with additional needs. I listen from my office, as they strum away the latest cool tunes!

Wraparound is about to get a treat next week…. We have many new resources that were delivered on Friday. I spoke to the children about what they wanted and, thanks to a grant from the local authority, we were able to fulfil their wishes. Well mostly – I drew the line at a swimming pool!