Newsround: 21st May 2022

Apps for Good

We are delighted to share the news that the school will once again be represented at the annual Apps for Good competition final.  When we have details of our finals team and the event, we will share them with you.  We are very proud of the children for doing so well.  The competition is open to schools to enter, making proposals to create an App based innovation, to improve an aspect of our lives.  It is run by the Apps for Good charity and has links to major international technology companies.  

Food Standards agency

Well done to the team in the School Servery for retaining our 5 star rating in the Food Standards Agency inspection of our kitchen.  Great news, it is important our kitchen has the highest standards.

Budget news

We are all awaiting news of our energy price rises and households are bracing themselves for rises in the cost of living, in addition to those you already see in fuel and food costs.  The school is not unaffected by this and we have taken some precautions to set an increased budget for energy price rises.  Latest news from the energy companies is the previously projected costs are likely to have been underestimated.  It is likely we will have to make some serious adjustments to energy saving and budget cut backs over the next year.  We will share details of plans with you later in the year.

Covid update

Reported cases of Covid in the school have become very rare, though sadly not totally gone.  We are gradually returning to a more recognisable sequence of learning experiences in school as the dangers of infection abate.  

DfE's new White Paper

The government recently published a White Paper outlining a series of reforms for schools.  This includes increasing the school hours and plans to force all schools to become an academy.  

Our proposals for the new school hours will be debated by governors at the next meeting in June,  Decisions will be shared shortly afterwards.

At the moment, the option of becoming an academy is not being considered by the school as it poses few advantages over our current organisational structure.  The governors will be debating options over the coming year.  Progress with this line of enquiry will also be shared as the year progresses.