July 2020

Headteacher’s Blog

17^th July 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

There has been a pause in my regular newsfeed over recent months due to the huge amount of communication required to keep school operating safely through the coronavirus crisis. I wanted to end the summer term though by thanking you for your continued support and understanding during the most challenging of years. I know I speak for all the staff when I say how much we have all appreciated your words of encouragement and the ongoing support of your children’s home learning since March. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a wonderful community and can’t wait to welcome all of the children back in September.

The summer holiday commences today and school reopens for different year groups on the following dates:

I know that for many of you, the next six weeks will be a continuation of an extended period of time away from school. However, I hope that the summer gives families the chance to visit new places and spend happy times together. Hopefully this will give children and their parents time to think about other activities away from regular school work.

Farewell to Year 6 and members of staff

I want to give a special mention to our Year 6 children who leave primary school today to begin exciting new adventures at secondary school. We will really miss you all and I know you have been so well prepared for the challenges ahead of you. We were all so disappointed that your final year here was shortened but I know you will take with you so many happy memories.

I also want to say farewell to several members of staff who leave today. Goodbye and best wishes to Mrs King, Mrs Powell, Mrs Weldon, Miss Bibi and Mr Hussain. I hope you keep in touch and wish you well in all your future endeavours.

Lessons and Learning in September

Teachers are busy making plans for the new academic year and you should have received some information from them about the learning which will be happening in September. You will have heard about the Government’s ambition for a catch up programme next year. We are taking this into account as we plan for the new year. I want to reassure you that we plan to continue to provide our broad and engaging curriculum from the first day in September. We will, of course, prioritise the development of children’s reading, writing and maths skills but this will be backed up with a wide range of interesting topics, reflecting the broad primary curriculum that children have been used to.

In the early days, we will be giving more time to establishing routines and providing lots of opportunities for children to rebuild relationships and talk through structured lessons such as PSHE. We want to ensure we prepare children well for learning before we launch into a more formal programme of study.

Our teachers are experts at leading from the children and will spend lots of time getting to know where children are and basing new learning on their more recent experiences. More information about the curriculum and our plans for learning will be provided as we start the new year.

The Big Start: Bright Horizons

Our Big Start in September is entitled ‘Bright Horizons’ – we will be giving lots of thought to the future, who we are and who we want to be, our community and what a brighter tomorrow will look like for everyone in it. We’d love to begin this celebration by bringing together art work by our children which will be put together in a collective display outside the school in the autumn term. We are asking every child to contribute to our Big (St)Art project. Over the summer, children are invited to create a piece of artwork based the theme of Bright Horizons – this can be anything at all that comes to mind – let  your imaginations run wild. We’d like each piece of art to be A5 sized and landscape (see diagram). You can use any medium you like as long as it is weatherproof or can be laminated. Please bring your art work with you when you return to school in September. We will include everyone’s work in a fantastic patchwork exhibition in the new year.

New Building Names

We have decided to rename our SPS buildings in time for the start of the new year. We hope this will help parents, children, staff and visitors to know the buildings better and make it easier to find their way around the site. Reception & Key Stage 1 is now The Salt Building and Key Stage 2 is The Aire Building. 

I want to finish my blog by saying a huge thank you to the fantastic staff of Saltaire Primary School. Throughout this year, and in particular over recent months, it has been wonderful to work with such a caring and dedicated team of people who have been committed to the learning and wellbeing of our children in the most difficult of circumstances. They have amazed me with their resilience through continual changes and evolving expectations. I am so proud to lead such a talented team and wish them a happy holiday.

I hope that all of our families have a restful and enriching few weeks and look forward to seeing you on our return in September. Please do keep safe and well.

Kind regards,

Rob Whitehead

Headteacher