Askham Lane
York
YO24 3HP
Welcome to all our new families who are joining us this year and welcome back to everyone else. It was lovely seeing so many of you last week and I can’t tell you how happy we are with the amazing attendance. The children look gorgeous, everyone has arrived on time and there are lots of smiley faces. A great start to the new year.
The summer passed with a flurry of building works. The Den has finally been removed, which is funny given that it was a temporary structure 40 years ago. Pipework has been installed for future heating systems and the usual round of redecoration has happened. Painting Westfield is rather like painting The Forth Bridge; as soon as you finish, you start again. After a mild panic at the state of school the week before we returned, I was amazed that we were in a position to welcome everyone back to a beautifully clean school. Once again, this is testament to the amazing team who supported one another to get ready for the new school year.
The highlight of last week was seeing so many tired, but happy faces after the Y6 residential visit to Robinwood. I am sure there was lots of washing and sleepy children, but to hear the children telling me all the things they achieved, which they never thought they could, makes all the planning worthwhile.
I just wanted to remind everyone about the changes to the start of the day. KS1 needs to access an additional 15 minutes of education each day to fall in line with the government guidelines of 32.5 hrs each week. KS2 (Y3,Y4,Y5 & Y6) already access this, so their times remain unchanged. One member of staff will be on duty in the playground at 8:35, doors will open at 8:45 with a pickup time of 3:15. KS1 will open their doors at 8:40 with a pickup of 3:10. This allows for a 5 minute window between KS1 and KS2 drop off and pickup to avoid a lot of waiting around. We all know for some strange reason it rains at 3pm! EYFS can drop off anytime between 8:40 and 8:50 and the pickup time remains 3:00pm.
Please look out for some Facebook posts of the first few days back at school. Mrs Gomez had to relinquish control of the social media account to the Y6 staff. She will be raring to send updates out this week.
Have a great week!
Lamara Taylor