Our last weekly message of the year: Friday 17 July 2026

We’ve reached the end of another happy and healthy school year. This week’s message is a long one, but hopefully the headings will help you to read the parts that matter to you…

Have a happy and healthy summer

As we reach the end of another successful school year, we’d like to thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and partnership throughout the year. Your involvement has played an important role in helping our children be happy and healthy at Scholes (Elmet) Primary and beyond.

We’re very proud of all that our pupils have achieved and grateful to our dedicated staff for their commitment and care. Together, we have celebrated many successes.

We hope you and your family enjoy a well-deserved, restful and enjoyable summer holiday, creating some happy and healthy memories together. We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another exciting year on Wednesday 02 September.

Junior Leadership Team review of the year

The Junior Leaders have had an amazing year representing the views of their classmates and making a positive contribution to school life. They’ve been involved in a range of important decisions, including choosing our school charity, helping the school become a more environmentally friendly school and deciding the theme for this year’s village show. After sharing lots of ideas, the JLT chose ‘Amazing Animals’, as they felt it was a fun and inclusive for all.

At the start of the year, each member of the JLT was voted in by their classmates to represent their class. In their first meeting, the children talked about what they wanted to achieve during the year. They agreed that they wanted to make a positive difference to school life and raise as much money as possible for charity. After gathering ideas from across the school, the JLT chose The Woodland Trust as this year’s school charity. They’ve supported fundraising throughout the year by promoting the Number Facts Challenge, collecting donations after our EYFS and KS1 Nativity performances and selling ice pops during the summer term. Thanks to their efforts, they’ve helped raise over £500 for The Woodland Trust.

The JLT has also supported many events across the school. They helped to set up the Book Fair, which was a great success, and encouraged children to develop a love of reading both at school and at home. They were proud to be involved in the opening of our Forest School and have taken part in discussions about a range of ideas to help improve school life. They’ve led discussions in class and really ensured that all voices are heard.

They should all be very proud of everything they have achieved.

It’s been an absolute pleasure working with you and your children this term and it has been fantastic to witness their progress over the last 6 weeks. I have never had a situation before where I have had a year group reach a 100% pass rate in one block which is a huge credit to your children’s hard work…

You can tell how much the children love the environment…at your school.

Sphere Summer of Smiles...

Power is back. School is opening - 14.07.26

Our weekly message: Friday 10 July 2026

What a busy week! We’ve seen some great performances…

Our Year 6 children put on quite the show! ‘Let the games begin’, a performance about teamwork, courage and spending time away from screens, was a total hit. The acting, singing, dancing and costumes all added up to a production to be proud of. Thanks to the Year 5 children who came to support, too – your singing was amazing!

Our Year 2 children have also been showing off their skills. Yesterday, we had our Ready to Read assembly – a chance for our children to show off just how much progress they’ve made with reading since starting school in Reception. From phonics to poem of the week, the children showcased their skills. Well done – we’re really proud of you. Your journey with reading continues in Year 3.

Moving on…

As we approach the end of the year, we get ready to say goodbye to Mrs Wadsworth and Miss Young.

Mrs Wadsworth has been at Scholes (Elmet) Primary since 2019 – she came for 4 days as a supply teacher and we didn’t let her go! During her time here, she’s been an important part of our Year 3,4 team. She doesn’t leave us entirely, however: Mrs Wadsworth will join Moortown Primary so our staff will still see her from time to time. Here at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’d like to thank Mrs Wadsworth for all her hard work over the years. We know that she’ll be missed.

Miss Young started with us as a trainee teacher on her teaching practice five years ago. She’s been a great addition to our KS1 team, at first in Year 2 and later in Year 1. We know the children will really miss her but she’s changing schools to be nearer to home. We’d like to thank Miss Young for all her hard work, too.

Some of our older children may have noticed that Mrs Moss isn’t in school.  She’s now gone on maternity leave – her baby is due any day now! We wish her all the very best and look forward to seeing her soon.

Non-uniform day

Next Friday is the last day of the school year. We’ve recently updated our Uniform Policy, but the content about non-uniform days remains the same:

Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully, even on non-uniform days. Clothes are inappropriate if they, for example, glorify violence, feature bad language, are very short (eg crop tops), or relate to age-inappropriate topics. When consulted, junior leaders described this as ‘setting-appropriate’ clothing and clothing that is ‘well-judged’. Make-up…is not allowed. Flipflops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.

Morwick Grove

Please note that there’s absolutely no access to school using Morwick Grove over the summer. This is stated here out of respect for our neighbours.

Our summer competition

For the past few years, our summer competitions involved taking a pic – this might be a pic of a letter spelling out ‘HAPPY’ or ‘HEALTHY’, a pic of ‘extreme reading’, or a pic of a ‘hidden’ smiley face.

This summer, it’s time to get even more creative. Over the summer holidays, we invite your child to re-create our school logo in some creative way – maybe a painting, a collage, even a mobile.

It could be anything – the only rules are:

• it needs to be ‘display-able’, so we can put it on display along with the other entries
• it needs to show our trees and tracks logo in some recognisable way (but the more original, the better

To enter, your child needs to bring along their pieces of art in the first week – no later than Friday 04 September. Entries will be displayed in a Scholes (Elmet) Primary trees logo display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Our weekly message: Friday 03 July 2026

Thanks for coming along to our 2026 Sports Day today – we hoped you enjoyed the day.

This week, your child received their end-of-year report. We hope you find it a helpful summary of your child’s learning journey, perhaps with one or two areas highlighted where you can support at home.

2026-27 classes

In case you missed it, this message is a repeat from one sent earlier in the week…

On Wednesday, your child met their new teacher. Hopefully, they came home and told you all about it. Lots of children are really excited about their move but it’s normal for children to be nervous or find change a bit overwhelming, too.

There has been some teacher movement this year so this is what it looks like from a whole school perspective:

• Nursery – Mrs Beesley
• Rainbow (Reception) – Mrs Cowgill
• Sunshine (Reception) – Mrs Long (3 days) and Mrs Palmer (2 days)
• Year 1 – Mrs Brown (4 days) and Mrs Palmer (1 day)
• Year 1,2 – Mrs Latham
• Year 2 – Mrs Paterson (3 days) and Mrs Wilkins (2 days)
• Year 3,4 A – Mr Lindsay
• Year 3,4 B – Miss Iveson (3 days) and Mrs Lake (2 days)
• Year 3,4 C – Miss Howarth
• Year 5,6 A – Mr Goodwin
• Year 5,6 B – Mrs Hogarth
• Year 5,6 C – Mr Wain

You’ll notice we say goodbye to Miss Young and Mrs Wadsworth. Miss Young is leaving to teach closer to home and Mrs Wadsworth is moving to Moortown Primary so we’re not losing her from Sphere Federation. We wish both of them well. They’ve been with us quite a few years and have done an amazing job.

You’ll also see that we’re welcoming Mrs Palmer and Miss Howarth. Mrs Palmer has taught at our school before and Miss Howarth is starting her teaching career with us. We know you’ll make them really welcome.

Swimming success

As you know, we’ve  changed how we organise swimming lessons in Key Stage 2. Instead of using the local swimming pool, we installed a temporary ‘pop-up pool’. It means we save money and save learning time. The frequent lessons across one half-term have meant children learn to swim more successfully, too…

During the Summer 2025/2026 term, 44 children from Year 3 have taken part.

• 43% of children were able to swim at least 25m – now, it’s more than doubled to 89% (and we’ll provide top-up lessons to those who can’t when we get the pool back again in two years’ time)
• 43% of children were able to use a range of strokes effectively – now, that figure is 75%
• 55% of children were able to perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations – after the daily lessons, it’s now 98%

Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs) results

Yesterday, we received news from the Department for Education about the SATs results:

Schools were due to receive their results on 7 July 2026. However, results will now be available on 16 July 2026.

I appreciate that schools have been waiting for these results and that this delay will be frustrating… The delay relates to the readiness of the system used to make results available to schools. Importantly, this delay is not due to any concerns about the quality of the tests or the accuracy of results.

It certainly is frustrating. We’ll aim to get results to parents and carers as soon as we possibly can.

As always, we hope you have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 26 June 2026

What a week – it’s been incredibly hot. Rest assured, we’ve taken lots of precautions to make sure your child remains happy and healthy and as cool as possible.

There’s lots of Design and Technology going on at the moment at Scholes (Elmet) Primary. This half-term’s topic is all about textiles, especially sewing.

Every term, we also do some food preparation – one example is pitta pizzas.

Tremendous times tables

Every year across England, children in Year 4 do an online Multiplication Tables Check. Last year, the national average was 21 out of 25. Just over a third (37%) achieved top marks.

At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, our Year 4 pupils have achieved an average of 23.3 out of 25 – way higher than last year’s national average.

Perhaps even more impressive, 70% of pupils got top marks – 25 out of 25.

Amazing! Well done to all our Year 4 pupils and thank you for your support at home.

Leeds SEND WhatsApp channel

Leeds has launched a new WhatsApp channel for families to find out more about the Leeds local offer. There’s news about Local Offer developments, SEND service updates and information about events for families. Join the WhatsApp channel here.

Earrings

Last week, we let you know about our updated Uniform Policy, so you’ve plenty of time to start thinking about any changes ready for September. This week, we’d like to focus on just one part of the policy – earrings.

Discreet (small, not brightly coloured) stud earrings are allowed. However, earrings can cause serious injury: imagine a bang against the ear… serious accidents occur as a result of contact between pupils wearing earrings or studs and other pupils or equipment, thus damaging the ear, or where items of jewellery have caught in apparatus and torn the ear lobe.

We expect your child to remove earrings before PE lessons and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by your child. If they’re unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.

Please consider the risk of injury during other active times such as an after-school club or class trip.

If you do want to pierce your child’s ears, please do so at the start of the summer holidays so sleepers and studs can be removed in September.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 19 June 2026

Thanks to everyone who completed the annual survey. We’ll review the results and update you soon.

Dates for your diary

Here’s an example of how we’ve previously acted on your feedback… In previous annual surveys, you’ve said the earlier you know dates, the better. That’s why we’re busy adding dates for next year into our calendar.

Most of the 2026-27 dates are already there. On rare occasions, we sometimes have to change a date. For next year, we’ve had to move a training day due to a clash out of our control. The training days when school is closed are now:

• Tuesday 01 September 2026 – straight after the summer holiday
• Friday 02 October
• Friday 23 October – just before the October half-term break
• Monday 07 December
• Monday 07 June – just after the Summer half-term

There’s a lot going on as we approach the end of the school year. Please check our calendar for what’s going on.

And don’t forget the school photographer is in next Wednesday to take class pics.

Uniform update

Another thing we’ve done based on feedback in previous annual surveys… Around this time of year, we review and update our Uniform Policy. This is so you’ve plenty of time to start thinking about any changes ready for September. Please read our updated policy.

The main points haven’t changed:

• Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully for school (including on non-uniform days)
• All clothing should be clearly labelled
• Avoid expensive items – we don’t accept responsibility for any loss or damage to an individual’s property

SEND inspection

Yesterday, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published their Area SEND Inspection report for Leeds. Its inspection outcome is:

There are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), which the local area partnership must address urgently.

The local authority fully accept the findings and welcome the report as ‘an important and independent assessment of our services and a clear starting point for the next stage of improvement’.

The report identifies areas where the wider system must improve. It does also recognise that important steps are already being taken to strengthen leadership, governance and partnership working.

We know that some parents are unhappy with the support that we’ve provided for their child with SEND. We hope you recognise we’re working in a very challenging context. Locally and nationally, we’re told systems and support will improve.

Summer savings

The Great British Summer Savings scheme starts next week. Running from 25 June to 01 September 2026, its aim is to help families feel a bit less squeezed this summer.

The scheme includes reduced VAT on days out, including tickets at attractions like soft play, adventure centres and theme parks, children’s tickets for theatres and cinemas, and children’s meals in restaurants. Children aged 5 to 15 in England will also be able to travel free on local bus services throughout August.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Ice pop sale!

Our ice pop sale was a roaring success this Friday. Thank you to everyone for buying an ice pop from the JLT stand and for supporting our school charity, the Woodland Trust.

We will be doing the ice pop sale most Fridays in the KS2 playground straight after school. Ice pops are 50p each and all of the money raised will go to our charity.

Thank you again. A grand total of the amount raised will be announced on the final week of term.

From the JLT!

Our weekly message: Friday 12 June 2026

You’ve still time to complete our parent/carer survey – it closes on Monday at noon. We really want to hear your views, especially about mobile phones in school.

Near the start of each half-term, we like to give you an overview of the topic in Key Stages 1 and 2…

What is this half-term’s topic?

Design and Technology is the driving subject for this half-term. It’s a great topic to finish the year! The focus for all classes this year is textiles (next year, it’s construction). Children will be busy designing and making products using fabric.

A key aspect of the Design and Technology curriculum is the understanding that products don’t just get made. Instead, they go through a design process that includes three key elements: evaluate, design and make. Think of this process as a cycle. For example, Sphere Motors want to create a new family car. Before the car is made, they need to evaluate existing products and talk to customers so that they’re clear about what the new car needs to have. They will then design the car and evaluate those designs. They may make a prototype of the car to help them evaluate the designs. Next, they’ll decide on a final design that will go into production and get made. This finished product will be evaluated and the whole process starts again.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. See page 14 and 15 of the Topic Curriculum Guide.

Years 1 and 2

The product the children will be designing, making and evaluating is a hand puppet. They’ll start by learning about the design process before looking at and evaluating existing hand puppet products. They’ll then learn to use an over stitch and practise threading needles and tying knots. Following this, they’ll be introduced to all the materials they can use to create their puppet. Once they’re familiar with the materials, they’ll design their puppet. Next, it’s on to the making stage. They’ve already honed their sewing skills so they should be confident making and then decorating their puppets according to their designs. Finally, it’s evaluation time: children will compare their designs to their finished products. They’ll reflect on successes and things they’d do differently next time.

Years 3 and 4

The product the children will be designing, making and evaluating is a pouch. The function of this pouch is entirely up to them. It could be used to store some pens, trading cards, a shell collection. Children can be as creative as they like – as long as the pouch can be made using a 20cm² piece of felt!

Before they begin to design their pouch, they’ll learn about a famous designer and how they became a designer. They’ll also learn some important skills that a designer needs to have. Children will then evaluate existing pouches, with a focus on fastenings, and then design their pouch. They’ll practise their sewing skills, becoming proficient using a running stitch. They’ll then begin to make their pouches. First, they’ll create a template which they’ll use to cut out the pieces. Next, they’ll join the pieces using their running stitch and create a fastening for their pouch. Finally, they’ll evaluate their designs by comparing them to their designs, testing whether they’re fit for purpose and reflecting on their successes and areas to improve.

Years 5 and 6

The product the children will be designing, making and evaluating is a cushion. However, before they get stuck into their cushion, they’ll learn about some designers who changed the world. They’ll learn about their creations and their impact and look for things that link the designers. Following this, children will learn about the importance of design criteria when designing a product. After this, they’ll be practising their sewing skills and develop their skills in using a running stitch and possibly a backstitch. Next, they’ll evaluate existing cushions to get inspiration for their designs. They’ll then decide on the specific design criteria for their cushions and create their designs using an annotated sketch, detailing the dimensions of their product. They’ll learn about the importance of using sustainable materials when researching the filling used for their cushion (the plan is to use old, unwanted pieces of fabric to stuff the cushions rather than Polyfill so please have a look through your wardrobe and keep hold of any old t-shirts or other clothes as we’ll need them later in the half-term).

Children will use a template to cut out the shapes, use a running stitch or backstitch to applique decoration to their cushion before finally sewing the pieces together and stuffing them. The final stage is to evaluate the designs against the design criteria.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. The Class News page of the school website is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

The school library and local libraries will have some books about Design and Technology which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and design knowledge.

Finally, there’s a lot of programmes on CBBC and CBeebies with a Design and Technology focus:

• Bitz and Bob
• Grace’s Amazing Machines
• Junk Rescue
• Maddie’s Do You Know?
• The Dengineers

Our weekly message: Friday 05 June 2026

We hope you enjoyed a happy and healthy half-term break, whatever you and your family got up to.

Just before the half-term break, we had our Staying safe themed week. During this, all classes learnt important knowledge around water safety. To emphasise this and in light of recent events in the warmer weather, here are some top tips for keeping children safe around water.

Pop-up pool

We’ve been delighted with how successful the pop-up temporary swimming pool has been this week. The children have been fantastic: they’ve taken on the new challenge with resilience and positivity. We can’t wait to see everyone’s swimming confidence continue to grow over the next few weeks.

The pool is a switch from previous arrangements using the local swimming pool. It means we save money and save learning time. The frequent lessons across one half-term are likely to mean children learn to swim more successfully, too.

This week’s message continues with a couple of reminders…

Your views matter

There’s still time to complete our whole-school parent/carer survey. This year, as well as questions closely related to what Ofsted might ask, we’re asking a few extra questions about mobile phones – we really want to hear your views.

Complete the Scholes (Elmet) Primary survey here. The closing date is Monday 15 June at noon.

Relationships and Sex Education

In the first three weeks of this half-term, children in Years 1 to 6 are taking part in Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons. Please be assured that RSE is delivered at a level appropriate to both the age and development of pupils. Lessons are led by children’s class teacher and take place in a safe learning environment.

Please check out these sections of our RSE policy:

• Section 9 provides a list of the vocabulary that will be used (pages 7 and 8)
• Section 11 includes an overview of the topics that will be covered (page 11 includes a table to show the learning across each year group)

If you’d like to find out more, discuss any concerns, or speak to someone in more detail, please contact your child’s class teacher or Miss Hague.

Staying safe on our roads

Sadly, not everyone parks their car safely or respectfully. If you’re aware of an ongoing problem, make your views heard: please report it to Leeds City Council. There are various options, including:

• report a road safety issue
• report a speed concern

Attendance matters

The national attendance rate for primary schools is 94.9%. The Scholes (Elmet) Primary attendance rate is a little lower at 94.6%. Last year (2024-25), our attendance was 95.6%, so we know we can do better!

Lunch and learn

In Leeds, most schools opt in to some support via an extended services cluster. Ours is called EPOSS. Check out the two online sessions coming up:

• Technology Time: Wednesday 24 June at 12pm
• Pre-teens and Teenagers: Wednesday 22 July at 12pm

Log on with a cuppa and your lunch. The log-in details will be sent to you via email. Contact eposslunchandlearn@wetherbyhigh.co.uk