Dear Families,
Happy New Year and welcome back to the start of the Spring Term. We all hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas break.
Already busy busy busy on the first week back starting with a mid-week trip to Sheffield Arena for Young Voices 2025! This is an incredibly long day and it is hard work for the children. They were an absolute credit to school and to you. Their behaviour and engagement were outstanding and that made the whole experience so much more fun for everyone. We were fortunate this year to have a position close to the action on the stage and so we really felt part of every single aspect of the action. Those of you who attended as audience members will have had a fabulous evening too. It really is magical and one of those stand out moments that will stay in memories for ever. Thank you for trusting us with your fabulous children. Thank you too to Mrs Roughley for all the planning that goes into the event before this week and to both Mrs Roughley and Mrs Naylor for their hard work on the day.
Just a couple of health and safety updates, that we have focused on in our training this week, to share with you.
The yellow zig zag lines in front of our school are keep clear lines and at Warthill cover the fire access points. Please avoid pulling up on these. There have been complaints about the buses pausing on these at Sand Hutton from a member of the public and therefore I am aware that these are being monitored. In addition, at Sand Hutton, children walk, sometimes unaccompanied, along the street into school. Their route takes them across the entrance/exit to the school car park. Could I politely request that parents don’t pull into the car park or use it to turn around as this adds additional risk to pedestrians, particularly at busy times.
Office hours for both schools differ. Thank you for informing us of changes to arrangements for bus and after school club with as much notice as possible. Please be aware that the office at Warthill may not be manned after 1pm and therefore the phone may not be heard and messages not received if you are calling after this time. Staff do their best but when they are teaching it is not always possible to pick up phone calls.
As part of a recommendation from the LA, we will be practising an invacuation procedure as well as a fire drill with pupils. We will make sure not to scare children but we will be showing them how we would get children off our playgrounds as quickly as possible in an emergency. We have always had a procedure for this, but we haven’t practised it previously with pupils. It involves a slightly different signal and no lining up. The scenario we are given is getting children inside should there be a dangerous dog unleashed. I thought it useful for you to be aware of what this is, should the children mention it at home.
Finally, I am looking forward to taking Warthill and Sand Hutton swimming together for the first time ever this term.
Have a super weekend, whatever you have planned.
With every best wish,
Beverley Pawson
Headteacher
Sand Hutton and Warthill Federated Schools