We were delighted to welcome Bishop Leah to both our schools at Cowick and Pollington-Balne. She took part in our worship and led a blessing; answered questions from our worship council including who had inspired her and what do you have to do to be a Bishop. Then she took the time to bless our newly refurbished room with the well. It was a real privilege to meet with her. We also welcomed Huw Thomas, our Diocesan Director for Education and his puppet friend, Bernard! As you can imagine, Bernard caused a usual riot, but he and Huw left us with a lovely gift of a book about inspirational people and those who show courage; very fitting as our Christian Value this half term was courage.

A big thank you to all the parents and carers who took the time to drop in and see Lottie! She truly enjoyed connecting with you. We are excited to announce that Lottie will be visiting Pollington-Balne on Monday, 16th March at 2:30 pm, and she would love to meet even more of you there.

If you can’t make it to Pollington-Balne, don’t worry! Lottie will also be dropping in at Cowick on Monday, 23rd March, again at 2:30 pm. Both of these drop-in sessions coincide with our Book Fairs, so it’s a perfect opportunity to pick up a lovely book for your child while you’re visiting.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Over the last term we have gathered feedback from parents at various events such as parents evenings, meet and greets and questionnaires.

You told us you had concerns about alleged bullying and negative behaviour. We have listened and we have acted:

We held a dedicated training day to review our procedures and strengthen our practice. Staff completed additional training in safeguarding, behaviour policy, autism awareness and SEND to ensure we are meeting the needs of all pupils effectively and consistently.

At our request, a Local Authority safeguarding review took place in January to provide additional external scrutiny and reassurance. The review was comprehensive and highly positive, confirming that strong and effective safeguarding practice is embedded across the school. It recognised the robust systems already in place, the culture of vigilance among staff and governors and our clear commitment to keeping children safe. The review also offered constructive recommendations to help us strengthen our practice even further, which we have fully embraced within our ongoing improvement planning.

We continue to engage closely with the Behaviour Support Team and educational psychology service, and have spoken directly with children to ensure their voices are heard and reflected in our approach.

Working alongside our School Improvement Advisor, we have reviewed inclusion strategies, classroom adaptations and positive behaviour approaches to ensure high expectations are matched with appropriate support. We also continue to work closely with the Education Welfare Service and other external partners to provide joined-up support for pupils and families.

Excitingly, we are now looking to implement layers on top of our already successful dojo point system to align with our behaviour policy and most importantly encourage our children to display positive behaviours for learning in school consistently through extra rewards!

Thank you for sharing your concerns, your feedback is important to us as it helps us to reflect, improve and strengthen our school for every child.