Mrs Foster's last news of the year

Mrs Foster’s News

I can’t believe we are here – the end of another amazing Whitefield year.  Do you recall our Ofsted inspection in October last year?  It seems so long ago!  We did rather well, didn’t we?  Starting the year brilliantly and ending it on a high too.

Quite a few things to talk about in this news so get yourselves a cuppa or a G&T and relax...

 

Firstly, have you all kept up to date with the events in school in the last few weeks?

We had a magnificent Whitefield World Cup – thank you to Mr Huntington and Mr Birchall for organising such a great event! 

The children in Reception performed their end of Reception assembly and I cried!  It is a joy to see how much they have all changed over the last year and to see what their aspirations are for the future.

The Friends of Whitefield Summer Fair on Friday was probably the best summer fair I have been part of in my eight years here.  Nic and the team did an absolutely brilliant job and I hope you all enjoyed your evening too.  I didn’t get to see as many of you as I had hoped but I could hear all the fun and laughter as I was in different places.

Congratulations to the Whitefield staff football team on their wins on Friday night and thank you and well done to the two parent teams who were such great sports!

 

We are drawing to a close at school and a huge part of this week is our celebrations in Year 6 as they get ready to leave us and move on to high schools.

On Monday evening the Year 6 children put on a great performance of The Next Big Step and they received their hoodies which were paid for by the Friends of Whitefield (THANK YOU!).

On Wednesday evening, we had our leavers disco complete with red carpet, ‘champagne’ and balloons – special thanks go to our resident DJs TASH & JOHN for an amazing party; to THREE SISTERS EMPORIUM for our balloon arch; to PUCCINI PIZZARIA in Penwortham for providing the pizzas (they were sooooo good) and to Mr Boyd for rolling out the red carpet and making the school entrance look so great for the children.

And on Friday, they will be in assembly, back in their original Reception places as we reminisce on their last seven years.

 

It is at this point that I must mention Year 6’s magnificent SATs results this year.  We want all our children to achieve the best that they can in ALL areas of the curriculum and we try to make the preparation for SATs and the actually SATs week as stress-free as possible for the children. The results this year are the best results we have had since I have been Headteacher.  In reading 89% of children achieved the expected standard with 25% achieving the greater depth standard, and 89% in grammar, punctuation and spelling as well (25% greater depth).  In writing we achieved 78% at the expected standard with 28% writing at a greater depth. In Maths, 84% of the children achieved the expected standard with 12% achieving greater depth.  Great results from a year group with a brilliant work ethic.

 

Also leaving us on Friday, along with our Year 6 children, are:

Mrs Ward who has been working with us as a dinner lady.

Mr Huntington who has taken up a post in a Lancaster school, five minutes from where he lives and the school he went to as a child!

Mrs Grilli who has worked with us and Emily in Reception for the past year. She is leaving us to return to university and train to be a teacher.

And Mrs Walker who has been at Whitefield for 21 years and is leaving us to take up a new post in Lancaster County Council.

We wish all three of them great luck in their new ventures.

 

Joining us in September we have:

Mrs Tabord who will be a teaching in Year 6 – she comes from a school in Wigan.

Miss Batey who will be teaching in Year 4 – she comes from Cop Lane School.

Our two new apprentices are Jack Gray (who you may have spotted at the football on Friday night) and Sandra Maxfield who is one of our dinner ladies and has been volunteering in school for quite a while.

 

Mrs Huxtable should be back with us in September as Baby Hux is due in October and we will be eagerly awaiting the news of Baby Jackson who is due in August.

 

I finish this week with my daughter leaving primary school too – she was two when I started here and it has been lovely to see my Whitefield children growing up alongside her over the years.  She’s excited about her high school I think. During her transition week at her new school I asked her, ‘How was your day?’ and she replied, ‘Good.’  I think that means she’s ok, doesn’t it?

 

Enjoy your summer whatever you choose to do.  The Foster Family are taking Monty on his first caravan trip over to France – a couple of weeks at a site in a forest about an hour from Bergerac. Lots of cheese, wine, sleep, dog walking and swimming I hope.

Stay safe everyone and we will see you all in September.