The first week back at school completed and the thought of lying on a sunbed with the only decision being whether I need a dip in the pool to cool down or not, seemed very unfamiliar. Suddenly, I am making a million decisions on an array of interesting subjects (directly involving our children) and really not interesting at all (such as claiming back VAT and where to store our new kitchen trollies!) As a teacher, coming back after six weeks, even as someone who loves their job, is a bit of a challenge! The training day is the hardest, sitting still in one place for starters, but once our gorgeous children appear on site, all is great again! The paperwork, the boring stuff isn’t why we do this job, it is working every day with such lovely characters and seeing them flourish is why we do it!

An achievement has been that we are open, unlike some schools who have had building work in the city. Over the holidays, the local authority installed a brand-new fancy fire system on both sites. We had to pack the whole school away in that last week in July, because of the dust! All the sheep in my office had to hibernate! It was four weeks' work and unfortunately, the work started two weeks late, and I think it only started then, as there was me, the business manager and Mr Brier making lots of phone calls, from wherever we were, nagging to get the engineers through the door! So, as a consequence, the engineers only finished on the last Friday of the holiday.  We still have all the scaffolding in the back carpark!  So that resulted in a rapid tidy up, clean up and set up by staff at the last minute. Bless them, the teaching team were on it! I was on mopping the floor duty! I never realised what a skill it is to both brush a floor and do mopping. Needless to say, I was rubbish at it and Mr Brier was too polite to say it, but I caught him redoing it!  We have also had work done in our ASPIRE room, to make it more practical for play-based sensory learning for all children, but also for our children with SEND needs. A quiet breakout space that is calm and under stimulating. Mr Brier had to use a very long drill bit to put the sink in, which he is very proud of! 

 As we now have new caterers, the training day involved a whole new kitchen going in. At the same time, the cooks managed to provide us with a lovely buffet, to sample the new food. Which enhanced our statutory training!  The buffet was excellent, well-balanced. I have noticed this week what a better menu it is than before.  A lot of traditional staples on the menu, proper vegetables, and no sloppy pasta on site! Mr Popple was eyeing up the old school cake this week. He has such a sweet tooth!

Our new Reception children started this week. I loved the little gift Miss Dennison made for the parents! A little bag with some tissues, a bag of Yorkshire tea and a biscuit. We also have quite a lot of new children joining or joining us across the school, which has been lovely to see how supportive and kind our children are in welcoming them.

At the start of the week, we had 65 music teachers in our school hall, from across the city. We are huge supporters of ARTFORMS and eagerly engage in anything creative. So they knew I would say yes, when they asked if our Y6 children would be willing to be taught by a leading music teacher, as part of a model demo lesson. I also got some free CPD for teaching singing. Our children loved it. So a win, win all round!   It reminded me of an ancient song I used to sing in my Early Years Days. “Who stole the cookie from the Cookie Jar?” I have had it in my head since Thursday! 

Rosie the dog was back in school at the demand of the children. I loved it on day one, when I greeted one of our Y4 children and instead of saying hello back, his response, “Is Rosie coming in on Thursday?” Well, she did and we all loved the cuddles. She didn’t come in before the break due to the heat, so we have all missed her.

I had a stroll down to Grumpies on Friday for a brew and a chat about the upcoming harvest events we have planned as part of the Farsley Community Project, raising money for the lanterns! From scarecrows, to singing to wonky vegetables to hooking a duck. It is going to be wacky, fun and an excellent community event!

I have just done next week's calendar with Mr Popple, and we both noticed there is not much happening other than the norm.  Which is not a bad thing, as the children need to settle into their new routines, but it did surprise us both.  So I had best find something extraordinary and fun to do. Watch this space!