This week I received a whole pile of letters, beautifully handwritten by the Year 5 students of Le Cateau primary school. The children had written ‘thank you’ letters, following their recent Murder Mystery experience in TWS , but I was particularly struck by how eloquent they were and the quality of the hand writing. It made me reflect that we under estimate, sometimes, the level of sophistication of our primary age students. We do this at our peril, indeed this year our Year 7’s have been tested with the new mastery curriculum and by and large have thrived on the challenging material. Proof , if it were needed, that students can often do far more than you think they can.
2016-17 will definitely be remembered for our increased press coverage and this week is no exception. Just the day before we were due to take the majority of school to the Yorkshire Show, I was contacted by the BBC. BBC Radio York had been debating the issue of parents taking children out of school, in order to visit the show and they had heard about TWS’ ‘Grand Day Out’. Whilst at the show, some of our students and Mr Ashcroft gave an interview which aired on the Jules Bellerby Drive time show at 17.47pm last night , the iplayer clip can be found at : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056zqx1 Furthermore, I will continue to support our farming families and those running small businesses in the area, by allowing students time to participate in work related shows and trips.
Which brings me neatly to my breakfast meeting this morning with Rishi Sunak MP. David Poole from the Lower Wensleydale Network, Mr Barnett and myself were able to meet with Mr Sunak, briefing him on our proposed plans for a new look post-16 in 2018. Mr Sunak is a huge supporter of apprenticeships and work related learning opportunities, so was very interested in out proposals. For us, having the support of our local MP is vital to the success of the new venture . More details will be released in September.
