Weekly round up

Today we said a few goodbyes at Low Ash and many tears were shed.

Firstly a huge well done and goodbye to our Year 6s - the class of 2024! They have been an amazing year group and should be proud of all they have achieved throughout their time at Low Ash. Although their successes are far more than academic (you only needed to watch their show!), we would like to share their SATs results with you - the best Low Ash has every achieved. 82% of the pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths which is 20% above the national figure. 88% achieved the expected standard in reading (14% above the national figure), 83% in writing (10% above the national figure) and 93% in maths (20% above the national figure). Well done to Year 6. We wish all pupils who are leaving us this year, the best of luck for the future.

Further farewells

Mrs Fiona Meer (Co-Headteacher) is retiring after teaching at Low Ash for 19 years - nearly all of her teaching career! It will be a big loss to the school and Mrs Meer will be missed by staff and pupils alike. We wish Fiona all the best for her retirement and look forward to hearing all about the exciting things she gets up to over the future months. We know Mrs Meer will be a regular visitor to school though. Mrs Beth Medhurst will become the sole headteacher from September and will increase her working days to 9 out of every 10 (Mrs Medhurst will work every other Friday.)

Mrs Meer is not the only staff member retiring however. Mrs Diana Deas is also starting off on her retirement adventure after working as a teaching assistant at Low Ash for 17 years. Many children have benefitted from Diana's skills and expertise over the years and she will be missed.

We also say goodbye to Miss Janina Grimshaw who has been the Inclusion leader at Low Ash since 2019. Miss Grimshaw is leaving to pursue her career in counselling and we know she will be a huge success. We hope we will still benefit from Janina's expertise from time to time however! Mrs Carmel Spedding - Assistant Headteacher- will take on the full role of Inclusion Leader from September.

Mrs Saskia Rhodes (formerly Butterill) who has been with us at Low Ash since September 2020 is also moving onto pastures new. Saskia leaves us to continue her teaching career at a school in Leeds and we wish her all the best.

Mr. Tom Handley left us on Friday to relocate overseas to continue his teaching career. Mr. Handley has already left the country and is settling into his new home.

Lastly, but most certainly not least, Miss Amber Christensen, an apprentice who has trained in EYFS and KS1, is leaving us to take up a teaching assistant post at another primary school.

Mrs Charlotte Scaife is not leaving us but is starting her maternity leave as of today. We wish Mrs Scaife the best of luck and look forward to meeting her new arrival. Good luck Mrs Scaife!

We will miss all of the staff who are leaving us but wish them the best of luck for their new ventures.

Thank you to all of those who supported us at the summer fair last night. We all had a fantastic time and nearly £1000 was raised for school. The alpaca walking and soak the teacher seemed to be particular favourites... we can't help but wonder why!

In addition to the summer fair, the school break the rules day raised nearly £600 for school and the graduation photographs for Nursery and Year 6 have raised nearly £1000 due to the money raised by school being matched by two businesses. Amongst other things, money raised will help us to develop our Forest School provision further and help us to establish our new Art and DT room (see below for further details).

We couldn't do any of these events without Friends of Low Ash (FOLA) who really are a crucial part of Low Ash. If anyone is interested in joining FOLA, please contact school. All new volunteers are very welcome.

We wanted to make you aware of some changes we are making over the summer / from September.

1. From September, the modern foreign language we will be teaching at school (in Key Stage 2) will be Spanish. We have made this decision as, a number of the secondary schools our pupils move on to, no longer teach French. We are also aware that many of our pupils holiday in Spain or the Canary Islands so will have the chance to practise their language skills. We are very excited about this change.

2. We will be continuing with enrichment afternoons next year, but these will not be on a Friday for every year group. Key Stage 1 will still enjoy Fantastic Friday, Lower Key Stage 2 will take part in Terrific Tuesday and Upper Key Stage 2 will take part in Wonderful Wednesdays. Initially the enrichment afternoon activities will include cooking, first aid, and Forest Schools. One of the Upper key stage 2 classes will also take part in the Commando Joe's Programme - a character education programme. (Click the link below for more information). This will be rolled out across school as the year progresses.

Commando Joe's - Commando Joe's (commandojoes.co.uk)

3. There will be some exciting room changes taking place over the holidays. The current staff room is going to be changed into an Art and DT room. This will include facilities so pupils can cook. We are really excited to get this up and running and think it will be fantastic for all pupils.

4. An additional room for pupils in EYFS and KS1 who cannot access all of the learning in the mainstream classrooms will also be opened. This will ensure all pupils can access the appropriate curriculum for their needs.

5. Parental communication - we will be improving parental communication by introducing a system called Marvellous Me for Years 2 - 6. This has been trialled in 2M and 6LH this last half term and seems to have been well-received. Look out for further information about this in September.

EYFS will continue to use Tapestry and this will also move into Year 1.

There are lots of free events going on in and around Bradford this summer holiday. Click on the picture below to take you to the Bradford.gov website with the latest details.

Tuesday 23rd July - School finishes for the summer holidays and will re-open for pupils on Monday 2nd September.

Years 1 and 2 curriculum information session - Tuesday 3rd September

Years 5 and 6 curriculum information session- Wednesday 4th September

Years 3 and 4 curriculum information session - Thursday 5th September

All of the above curriculum information sessions will take place straight after school and your children may accompany you.