I’ve been quite busy this week, finding out about the history of our school, in preparation for our open heritage day, next Saturday.   I will never forget the day I came to look around Farsley Westroyd, whilst I was considering applying for the headship. As I drove around the corner of Frances Street and saw the main building for the first time, it took my breath away. It is such a grand building! My first thoughts were, this is old, there is a story, I want to know the story and I want to be part of it! As I was shown around by the governor at the time, I was totally hooked by the time we reached the hall. It was then that my chin hit the floor! It is such an amazing space and questions came into my head. How many children had sat on the parky wooden floor over time?  How many children had sung their hearts out in this room? What significant events had happened in this room? To be honest, I also immediately found a connection that was comforting.  I do have an interest in the industrial revolution and a reason for that is my own heritage and experiences.  Although I did not grow up in Bradford, my extended family are all from the area.  My grandparents and great-grandparents worked in the woollen mills and dye works.  Westroyd looked just like the school. My old Mum had shown me pictures of that she attended as a child. As a young child, I would visit my Grandma Alice, in her back-to-back terrace, built with the same millstone grit as our school.  She had no bathroom and thus a toilet in the front yard. She used to tell us, this was quite posh, as other streets had to share a toilet! At our school, the outside toilets were where the car park is now! A whole row of them, Councillor Carter told me!  I was absolutely petrified of visiting Grandma Alice's toilet, as frogs used to take up residency in the toilet bowl! I’m still haunted by their little eyes looking up at me!  My own children never believe me, when I talk about how their Great Grandma Alice had a metal bath in the kitchen that we use to fill with buckets from the tap! I think they are still gobsmacked as she had no TV! 

When teaching history in primary schools, our goal is not for children to learn lots of facts, although they do need to, to put things in order, but to use sources around us to find out about the past, ask questions and consider why that was the case.  An absolute career highlight this week, was visiting a new friend to us, Joan, with some of the Y6 children! 94 years young, who started at Westroyd in 1937! She had lots to say, especially about being at school during the war. We are very lucky as she willingly volunteered to join us at our heritage open day on Saturday!

We do hope you can come along and celebrate the fact that Westroyd has been identified as a building with significant architectural interest and recognised as an important part of not just Farsley’s history, but the whole of Leeds. We have a sheep-themed treasure hunt for the children to participate in, which will turn them into historians as they use different sources of evidence to solve clues! We even have real life artefacts! In the essence of Westroyd, it should be lots of fun, prizes for completion and a drink and a biscuit! Hopefully, see you at some point between 10am till 12 on Saturday 20^th 2025.