A busy week with a lot of great things going on.

Every time I write a post I seem to have achieved it grabbing a window in an increasingly frenetic pace of life.

Over the last two weeks I have shown around numerous families looking for school places for September and we now certainly look be expecting our first ever full intake into Reception.

However, as this goes on, normal life needs to continue in school.

Earlier this week a Year 3 pupil, Jacob, brought in his completed reading challenge.  This was set over a year ago with no time limit included. To achieve the challenge you must have read 26 books, with the first letter of a name or a word in the title matching each letter of the alphabet (not the Aleph - Bet ).

We will celebrate this properly in assembly next week but I would like to share something Jacob said to me.  He confided that he had not always enjoyed reading but the challenge had got him into reading and he really enjoyed it now.  One could almost say "Job Done!!", but of course we will continue with new challenges for Jacob.

Our Reception pupils have enjoyed the fruits of Mrs Senior's 'Forest Schools' training this week.  They have been outside building shelters, lighting a fire and also toasted marshmallows.  Squeezed in amongst these activities was some maths in one of our shelters.

Mrs Shaw` has also completed this training and we are looking forward to rolling this out across the schools.

These photographs show you the children in action in our own environmental area.

Year 6 are sitting their SATs this week and are, so far, bearing up well under the strain.  They were still able to share their work linked to the Arts Award.  This is a national scheme designed to develop skills and leadership in all the arts.  Mrs Taylor coordinates this at the first stages (Discover and Explore).

Mrs Biggs has trained to assess the next levels to Silver.  This will allow us to role it out into key Stage 3.

The families loved seeing what the pupils had done and this also allowed the students to demonstrate their ability to share and explain their work to others.

These photographs show some of the pupils sharing their work and their portfolios.  All were very impressed.





























Finally, for the first time, our Year 8 boys, were able to lead a Minyan formed at school for morning prayers.  Most are Bar Mitzvah, with one now studying in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah.  A key aim when planning our provision was how we could keep our boys and girls engaged beyond Bar Mitzvah/Bat Mitzvah/Bat Chayill.  We expect next, to give some of the Year 7 girls an equivalent opportunity as they move into Year 8.

We want all our students to grow into leaders in our community and any part of the wider Leeds community in which they live .  This is one of the first steps.