Many joyful unusual things happen in any school, but at Farsley Westroyd, I like to think we have many more of those happy moments than most schools. Friday, for me, was filled with moments that just reaffirmed how wonderful and unique our children and our school are.

It started with Bobby in Y2, who, after I said good morning to him, on the yard he replied, “Morning, are you OK this morning, Miss Pashley?”  Then a little lady from Y2 came rushing up to me, to show me her new coat. “Look I am a sheep” and then flung herself at me for a hug! Her coat was white and fluffy like a sheep. I then had to admire some very fancy hairstyles that the children in Y1 are wearing, which must put pressure on the parents in the morning!  Followed by Alfie, who was desperate to show me how he had been practising his spellings at home. Finally, I got into the building, to be met by one of the boys in Y4 telling me he was helping me set up for assembly later, what time should he find me and that he would also help with the stickers. Another child then piped up – I will do the music. When I reached Y6, after various hugs and mornings, I was victim to some kind of planned attack. A group circled me in the corridor, until I agreed that they could do some gardening for me over the lunch hour!

 I did chuckle about half an hour into the day, when a little man came up to my room to show me some learning. I was halfway through my breakfast at my desk. He proceeded to stand next to me helping himself to the soggy bran flakes in my cereal bowl whilst we chatted about his work. 

So that was the start to my day. It ended in the afternoon, catching up with a couple of children from Y5 joining me for a cup of tea, dunking biscuits and right good chat!

I have always shared my office with Mr Popple and now Mrs Brown has joined us. This has freed up more working spaces for the children across the school. Mr Popple consistently wins the messiest desk competition, simply by the number of coffee cups and random bits of paper he has on his desk at the end of every day. Mrs Brown wins the fastest typer competition and I win the can't sit still for more than 5 minutes competition. But having us in the same room does provide the opportunity for constant reflection, evaluation and planning about the children and the school. Mr Popple, with his A level in Media studies, is rather creative, digitally, but this week, I seeded that we need some more artwork around school, focused on the children. He then began to plot a large sheep-themed creation. I have just seen on the calendar that our talented governor, Aidy, is coming in for a chat – so I am super excited to see what is going to happen!

This week, when I got home one night, I got the following text from Mrs Pinder, who works in our wrapround at lunchtime and is always the first to volunteer for anything we do in school. What do a female deer, large domestic pig and a female wolf have in common? She is a clever lady, so I thought it was some kind of riddle. I had to give in, but the answer is that all those animals individually weigh ten stone! And that is the amount of weight our Mrs Pinder has lost so far over the last year or so! Most of that off her own back, changing eating habits and getting moving! We are so proud of her and the fact that now she has so much mobility, she has signed up to make use of it and is doing a sponsored walk for cancer research next month. The journey is not over yet and, in the true Westroyd way, she believes she has more weight to lose, and her weight loss journey is not over yet! I am in awe of her, especially when I see her storming up the stairs to the staff room!

So the nights are drawing in, my torch is out to unlock the gates in the morning, conkers are on the ground and harvest songs are being sung. Sadly, it is a big sadness for me, as I love the summer, but it is ending! I wore trousers this week. Next it will be tights. Heyho, worse things in life to worry about!