Ghyll Royd School and Pre-School’s Chair of Governors, Mr David Cunningham, gave an end of year speech in our awards service.
Dear Parent,
I cannot believe we are already at the end of another fantastic year. Having said that, I am not surprised how quickly it has flown, given how much there is going on throughout the year – I wonder how the staff fit it all in!
SATs Results
Following the ISI “Outstanding” in all areas rating which we received last year, the school continues to build on that result. Just recently we have received this year’s SATs (National Standard Assessment Tests) results and, once again I’m proud to say that all the children who took part in the Year 2 and Year 6 SATs have achieved and exceeded the standard required. For the second year in a row, 100% of our children achieved the required standard in Mathematics (106 GR average, 104 national average), Reading (111 GR average v 106 national average), Writing (109 GR average v 105 national average), against a National Average of 61% overall. It is no wonder we have been shortlisted again for a Small School of the Year Award for the 7th year running. A massive thank you and congratulations to all the pupils and to the staff involved some who have played a part in the children’s education since they were two years old. Special mention to our outstanding Year 2 and Year 6 teachers, Mrs Neild and Mrs Woodham.
Creative Arts
In Art, the school continues to maintain its Silver ‘Artsmark’ accreditation for our dedication to teaching the Arts across the school and the positive impact that has on arts in the community. During the Autumn term we were successful in the Independent Schools Association’s National Art Competition with nine of our artists receiving a prize in first and second place categories. As part of Artsmark’s ‘Day to Create’, Form 6 had made focaccia art using vegetables and herbs from the school garden and foraged from the school grounds to create images inspired by the Yorkshire Dales.
The children have learned lots during the many projects they have taken part in during the year. The children researched the planets in our solar system and shared space facts when they were visited by the Wonderdome Planetarium. To celebrate Earth Day, we had a Big Plastic Count to highlight what is thrown out each day.
We have had lots of school trips this year: Forms 3 and 4 visited Eden Camp Modern History Museum to learn about life during World War II, Early Years had tractor rides at Kemps Farm, to the Key Stage 1 Pantomime trip to see ‘Dick Whittington’ in Harrogate, Lower Key Stage 2’s Maths City trip and to Skipton Castle. Year 6 ended the year with a great Enrichment Week with trips to Bolton Abbey, Go-Ape, Pen-y-Ghent, and a mystery tour to Liverpool.
Arts continued
Well done to all of the Key Stage 2 children for a beautiful Palm Court Afternoon Concert in April. Mrs Evans and our team of specialist music teachers helped put together a fantastic afternoon featuring choirs, soloists, drummers, pianists, guitarists and woodwind artists.
Another well done to all the children who participated in this year’s Wharfedale Festival of Performing Arts. Twenty pupils took part in this year’s Speech and Drama Festival, with great success. They all represented the school brilliantly and should be very proud of the confidence shown to speak publicly on a stage.
And just last week, the summer performance this year was “The Wizard of Oz”. As usual, it was another superb show. Thanks to the fabulous cast for making the show amazing and crew of staff for their hard work and effort in making it happen.
Early Years
This year the Early Years team reached the final for the Mumbler’s Favourite Childcare Provider category in the Wharfedale & Craven Mumbler Awards 2024. The Early Years team continue to excel with their exciting plans and the weekly newsletters highlight all the great things the children are involved in from learning how to walk like a penguin to how grow your own vegetables. The Little Adventurers have explored emotions using ‘The Colour Monster’ and implemented a sensory area where children support the understanding of their own emotions by having an area to reflect. This has been hugely beneficial to the children. In Great Explorers, the children have been showing new and exciting interests in topics such as construction, hairdressing, cooking and superheroes.
In Reception, as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, the class tried on traditional Chinese dress, made dragons and learnt the story of the Zodiac (including some Zodiac yoga). Form 1 enjoyed sampling traditional Chinese food in class, which went down very well! They tasted spring rolls and noodles during their lesson with Mrs Picken.
Sport
In Sport we continue to be a Gold ‘Activemark School’ and that is reflected in the sporting events we are involved in and the achievements that result. Building on last year’s footballing successes in the National Independent School’s Association U11s Football Championship, we were finalists in the ‘Outstanding Sporting Achievement’ category of the Independent Schools of the Year Awards. We were the only prep school up for the award against larger schools such as Sedbergh.
This year we have taken part in cross country competitions at Giggleswick, competing against 500 children from different schools. We held our own event in February and achieved great success in the various cross country leagues – from Wharfedale, to Regional to National level. The season was rounded off with top placements for Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the Nell Bank Relays. Olivia, Luca and Leyton made it to the Independent Schools Association’s National Finals achieving incredible finishing times against schoolchildren from around the country. We’ve competed in Netball tournaments across Yorkshire at schools such as Ashville College and at St. Peters School. We’ve also competed in U9s and U11s rugby festivals and taken part in the Northern U11 football championships at Trafford Park. Four of our swimmers competed in the North English Schools Swimming Association Championships, achieving an impressive 3rd place in both the 4×4 freestyle and medley relays.
Outside of school I see pupils taking part at very high levels and winning awards in rugby, football, hockey, swimming, aquathlon, taekwondo, fell running, golf and cricket, which is great to see.
Sports Day 2024 was another fun day. It stayed dry with lots on offer for a great afternoon’s entertainment: cheering our Forms 5 and 6 children over the line of the 800m race, some great techniques in the sack race, a photo finish, a great grandma’s fantastic work in the Mum’s race and one pupil running the 600m with one shoe! It was a close race, but Nelson came out on top as the winning House from the day. Thanks to our incredible teaching staff, the fabulous PTA and everyone who volunteers on the day to make it another huge success.
Community Fundraising
We’ve had another busy year in the community both for the school and for charitable causes. The School Council organised a break the rules day and fines were given out for painted nails, hats and cuddly toys. An impressive £291 was raised in fines which all goes towards school fundraising and the latest instalments in the playground.
Elsewhere, the children have been involved in some fantastic local projects too: sprucing up the planters in our community planters in Burley for Remembrance Day and the D-Day ceremony; and working hard in Mrs Woodham’s gardening club taking care of the planter at Ilkley station (still the best-looking planter, in my opinion)! Thank you, Mrs Woodham and children, for taking care of our local community spaces.
Lots of money has been raised for charitable causes this year: we had a bake sale for Children In Need, the Red Nose Day Jokeathon made a comeback, raising a fantastic £140 for worthy causes for Comic Relief projects. The highlight of the year was a sponsored swim held in support of Mrs Tomkinson’s husband which raised funds for the Rob Burrow MND centre in Leeds – the children swam an amazing 1,580 lengths (39.5km) which exceeded their target and raised a huge £3,900 for the charity; a tremendous effort.
Events
We’ve had some fantastic events over the year including the Haunting of Greystone Manor, where the boys and ghouls dressed up in some terrifying costumes (including a disco dancing inflatable T-Rex). The children enjoyed potion making and pumpkin decorating, a lunch including Spaghetti with Eyeballs, and a school disco.
Mums and grandmas were treated to a concert in the annual Mother’s Day Tea Party with singing and dancing entertainment from children in Early Years up to Year 2. The performance included a song written by Mrs Evans and Reception, all about what they love about their mums.
We’ve had a lot of events in the school hall which was transformed into a Winter Wonderland at Christmas, we held our second grandparents day (which included Christmas stocking making and a quiz), and most recently Chef Dave catered a sold-out Father’s Day breakfast.
Thank you’s
A huge thank you once again to the PTA and Chair Mrs Anna Bedford-Collins for all of the work you do. All the events that the PTA put on throughout the year really display the true community spirit of all of parents, grandparents and the friends of the school. Thanks to the efforts of our PTA and School Council, we have been able to update resources within the school including visualisers, talking tins, heatmaps, science equipment and reading books. Moving forward we are also investing in our IT and we will have more computers and equipment to enhance the teaching and learning experience by the end of next year.
As the year comes to a close I would like to thank two outgoing Governors, Mike Picken and Anna Bedford-Collins. Thank you for all the dedication and hard work you’ve given to the school governing board during the years you have been involved.
So, what a year, we’ve had a Mad Hatter’s tea party; Diwali and Chinese New Year Celebrations; and visits from Santa and the Easter Bunny!
Congratulations to Mr Martin, who celebrated 10 years as Headteacher this year. Thank you to Mr Martin, all the teachers, staff, pupils, parents, grandparents and everyone associated with the school for making it such a great place to learn, grow and play. Our numbers have increased again this year to a record high of 130 pupils on roll so we will begin the school year in September with our highest ever number of pupils in the School and Nursery.
Finally, I want to wish the best of luck and good wishes to all of the Year 6 leavers in their new schools from September and to the parents for their support over the years. You truly do have a “foundation for life”.
Thank you for your continued support which is greatly appreciated. I hope you all have an enjoyable safe and healthy summer.
David Cunningham
Chair of Governors
