This school year has brought many challenges. Just when we thought we were over the worst, COVID came back with a vengeance and ran riot through staff and children before and after Christmas. Supply teachers were in such high demand that they were impossible to find so our staffing was stretched to the limit for several weeks! Teaching is a challenging job at the best of times so I’m sure you can all imagine the effect that teaching a class of thirty with no support, and in some cases no breaks, had on staff! However, thanks to our staff’s incredible efforts, we were able to keep all classes from Reception to Year 6 open throughout this challenging period.
Losing two terms of school in 2020/21 obviously created significant gaps in children’s learning. We made the decision to ‘go back to go forward’, meaning teachers had to completely change their teaching sequences to ensure that the gaps were addressed. Whilst our end of year assessments may show that overall attainment is slightly down, our children have a solid foundation on which to build future progress and accelerate learning. However, Willington Primary is about so much more than just academic attainment – it is about making children feel good about themselves and helping them to maintain friendships, deal with conflict and develop resilience.
2022 has been a year of sporting success! Both our boys and girls football teams were unbeaten, winning their respective leagues in style! Well done to all the children involved and thank you to Mr Littlefair for being a fantastic coach.
Goodbye and Good Luck Mr Lawrence! Mr Lawrence is leaving his position of IT manager to pursue his love of gymnastic coaching. Mr Lawrence has looked after our IT systems for over 20 years and you will have seen many of the wonderful photos, videos and DVDs that he has produced. Just about everything we do in school involves technology and we would like to thank Mr Lawrence for all the hard work he has put into keeping our system running – as Mr Lawrence knows, a teacher without working technology is not a happy animal!!
On behalf of all staff at Willington Primary I would like to thank you for following the rules through the COVID periods and for your continued support of our school. We hope you all have a great summer and look forward to welcoming the children back into their new classes in September.
