I went to Hill Top Primary School this afternoon...

I had been invited by Duncan Grant who as a new headteacher has been really bowled over by the building and is coming to terms with some of the limitations of the PFI contract. Duncan and his colleagues are doing great things and have wonderful plans to extend their early years and foundation stage provision. The school is a very inclusive school and they have developed their own Pupil Development Centre which is also doing great things.

Duncan had arranged for me to talk to some of the classes. I talked to Year 2 about their Cultural Routes Project where they had worked with Trish Cooke and created a brilliant jigsaw quilt with each child designing and making one of the jigsaw pieces to illustrate their cultural routes. The finished work, which is wonderful, will hang in the hall. I also talked to Year 6 children who had organised their Spirit Alive week raising £250 by organising amongst other things a Teddy Bears Picnic. This was added to the £200 Education Leeds had provided to allow the children to plan, organise and pay for the opening and closing ceremonies, the events, the medals and the refreshments. This afternoon the infants were having their Spirit Alive Sportsday and the sun shone and everyone appeared to be having a great time. I also spoke to some of the School Council who were brilliant ambassadors for the school and talked to me about the book fair, Spirit Alive and the improvements they want to see in the playgrounds.

It was great to spend a couple of hours at Hill Top which is a highly effective little school doing wonderful things in this little bit of Leeds.
Chris