Dear Parents and Carers

As we break for the holiday; I would like to wish everyone a fabulous Easter with your family and friends, and I hope you can have a restful and peaceful break.

Also, a happy Eid al-Fitr for those who will celebrating with friends and family when the time comes this April.

I would also like to let you know that our Chair of Governors, John Hayton has left his role this Easter after 10 years as Governor and Chair at West Oaks School.

We thank John for his support and challenge over the last decade as he has been a strong advocate and champion for the school. He joined us when we had 140 pupils and were planning for Woodhouse Learning and has been involved in two Outstanding Ofsted inspections of our school and was also instrumental in helping shape the opening of both Woodhouse and Headingley Learning.

We owe him a huge debt of gratitude and we also thank him for his work with Friends of West Oaks School. John stated that his role as governor was extremely rewarding and that this was “largely a result of the great team that you have at West Oaks and the feeling of togetherness which has been sustained over a long period of time. Everyone at West Oaks should feel very proud of their contributions and remember that they are changing the lives of so many people for the better.” Thank-you John Hayton.

Ben Thaler has been elected as our new Chair of Governors and Ben will bring the same level of support and challenge that the school demands. Ben has been a Governor at West Oaks for many years, and he will continue to be supported by our Vice-Chair Elaine Hampson and the Governors of West Oaks School.

As a result of John leaving our governing body, we do have a Parent governor vacancy and we will begin our recruitment and election process after Easter.

Ideally, we would like to have a colleague who has a finance or business background to complement our existing board of Governors and we hope to have that person joining our governing body for the next meeting on June 12^th.

I also hope to see you at our Big Breakfast event at Woodhouse Learning between 10am-12 midday on Saturday April 27^th, 2024.

Take care everyone and a Happy Easter and a Happy Eid al-Fitr.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

I hope you are all well. The academic year is flying by, and I really hope the weather improves, so we can actively promote our “environment as the third teacher model” and spend more time outdoors.

We are proud of our indoor and outdoor teaching and learning areas and recognise the educational benefits our environments bring to all our pupils. Over the Easter period, our grounds will be prepared for increased outdoor pupil use and our heating/air-conditioning system at Headingley learning will be revamped and an outdoor play space with new equipment will also be installed, ready for the summer term and September.

Woodhouse Learning will also benefit from the creation of another play space as we respond to the changing needs of our pupils and adapt to improve our existing provision.

Boston Spa grounds are exceptional, and we will ensure that they continue to be fit for purpose with adaptations to some of the outside areas and our Saxon Roundhouse will have minor works completed, to ensure it is a space for all seasons.

The Spring term has been busy with recruitment, parent/carer evenings, open days, consultations, meetings and of course our continued focus on our core business, which is delivering high-quality teaching and learning to our 445 pupils, which will become 480 pupils in September. The journey to excellence never stops and we are constantly looking at developing our teaching and learning offer for our pupils.

Our school community is pioneering and powerful, and we need to harness this energy and expertise to continue to move our school forward. It is a privilege to lead and work at West Oaks and we always will put the needs of our pupils first, but it is our whole school community that will drive our provision forward over the next decade.

As we continue to strive for excellence for everyone within our school community, we will see the “West Oaks community around the child” model gather momentum as we look at the impact the wider community and our school learning community offers our young people.

By harnessing the input, strength and knowledge base of our teachers, associate staff, parents, carers, therapists, health professionals, social care team, family support staff, SENSAP/Local Authority, Friends of West Oaks and other stakeholders in a more holistic way; we will enhance our school offer for all of our 500 pupils, 1000+ parents/carers, 220+ staff and the whole West Oaks extended community.

As a strong provider of SEND provision in Leeds and the North of England we will shape a unique way of working in our “learning communities” to meet current and future demands on our provision. These are exciting times, as always at West Oaks, and I look forward to sharing more details in the future and having further discussions with you regarding our plans.

Thanks for all your continued support and I have another opportunity to mention. Due to retirements at Governing body level, we will be recruiting a Parent Governor for September 2024, and we welcome expressions of interest from parents/carers from a Business, Finance, Social Care or Education background. Please email your interest to [email protected]. For those who have previously contacted me, I have your details and we will be in touch regarding next steps. Once we have all interested candidate’s information we will run an election process in the summer term.

Just a reminder about our Big Breakfast on Saturday April 27^th at Woodhouse Learning at 10am-12 midday. Look forward to seeing you all then.

We would also like to wish families a very peaceful and healthy Ramadan 2024.

Take care all.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

Thankfully the snow is not an issue today and apologies to those pupils and families who were affected by the snow and transport related difficulties yesterday. West Oaks will rarely close for snow or adverse weather but sometimes decisions are taken out of our hands by Leeds City Council school transport. The issues yesterday could have been prevented with better communication and rest assured we will  be taking this up with the relevant people to rectify for the future.

As we approach the half-term break, I wanted to thank-you for your ongoing support and it was great to meet several of you at our three Parent/Leadership forum events this week. It is good to talk and to catch up and to share our current educational thinking and practice but more importantly, to listen to your views. For those who were unable to meet up this time with myself, Keeley, and the Heads of School these were the key headlines:

Currently West Oaks has 445 pupils across our three sites, and we continue to operate a one school/three site model as we grow to five hundred pupils in the next two years.

We are very oversubscribed and will have 480 pupils on roll in September 2024. Headingley Learning will be in its third year!

West Oaks is in constant dialogue with Leeds City Council and SENSAP and both Keeley and I have met the new Leeds Deputy Director for Education, Dan Barton who has also visited our School to discuss how we can help improve the Leeds SEN system.

Last week West Oaks led the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) Outstanding Schools Leadership inset session on teaching and learning.

We have also hosted a visit from Den Corrall from the Leading Edge high-performance schools programme this week and have been asked to complete a case study for publication in the spring edition of their Leading Change national magazine on our “Magical 7” initiative.

As mentioned earlier; the demand for our places is exceeding what we can realistically offer new parents and children. We are seeing an increase in tribunals and SEN place pressure in Leeds and from neighbouring areas. In 2007 when I first started at West Oaks School we educated 109 pupils, and now teach 445 pupils.

A key priority for us is to refresh and reorganise from within our school structure and continue to focus on the mapping of Foundations, Footsteps, Stepping Stones, Reaching High, Moving On curriculum areas to meet our growing school population.

These are exciting times for our school as we continue to sustain our high quality provision whilst striving to develop/improve elements. Inevitably, there will be changes but they will always be linked to improved outcomes for all our children.

We also discussed communication and our use of class dojo, twitter, parent/carer updates, parent’s evenings, family support coffee mornings, Friends of West Oaks network, Big breakfast etc and whether we could use other forms of communication i.e. WhatsApp.

I am really grateful for the positive feedback we received about our provision from those present and will look at how we can create “locality activity menus” to signpost people in our school community to activities, how we continue the West Oaks conversation and how we factor in a “West Oaks Gathering” so like-minded parents/carers have opportunities to access activities with their children whilst also networking with each other. This will require some thought, but we will explore ideas with you.

We have a strong group of over one thousand parents/carers in the West Oaks School community and we need to find new ways of harnessing the skills and knowledge base of our parents/carers to help support each other.

We also discussed the relatively new Leeds Parent Carer Forum and some of you may wish to get involved in that network. They have a parent/carer wellbeing event at Headingley stadium Friday March 8th, 2024, 10am-2pm for those that are interested.

I hope you have a positive half-term break, and we look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Monday 19th February.

Take care everyone.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

Happy New Year to you. It was great to welcome our pupils back to West Oaks this week. 2024 promises to be another fantastic year; full of hope, aspiration, and excitement for our school community.

During January it is always a good to reflect and plan for further improvement in our provision and, we will focus on strengthening our parent/carer relationship.

I am aware that I speak to hundreds of prospective parents/carers through our four open days but there is not the same mechanism for existing parents to share ideas and get an overview of current and planned provision.

I know we meet with parents through meetings/parents evening and have contact via class dojo, twitter, family support sessions, summer events, coffee mornings etc but we want to strengthen this network and harness your ideas as we develop West Oaks.

I am going to introduce an annual parent/carer survey in the summer term and aim to hold a parent/leadership forum where you will have the opportunity to meet with me and Keeley and the relevant Head of Schools to discuss our school strategy and have ageneral catch up.

The 2024 parent/leadership forum events are planned for:

Headingley Learning 10-11am Monday February 5^th, 2024.

Woodhouse learning 6-7pm Tuesday February 6^th, 2024.

Boston Spa Learning 4-5pm Wednesday February 7^th, 2024.

I hope many of you can attend and you can attend any session as we have tried to add some flexibility on timings and venues. The “West Oaks conversation” will be an important annual event in our calendar, particularly as our provision grows from 445 pupils to 500 pupils by 2025, with 1000+ parents/carers and extended family members in our school community group.

Our parent/carer group is a strong SEND power base that can help shape and influence SEN services in Leeds. As an LA maintained Special School, West Oaks are proud partners in developing strategy and SEN places for Leeds. Leeds is the second largest education authority in the country, and we are proud of our contribution to SEND in the city, but more can be done and achieved.

In the years to come, we will have to further adapt to meet primary and secondary curriculum need across our three sites and whilst this will require some work and re-organising, we are confident that our curriculum is robust enough to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

I have been contacted by the NHS regarding our ongoing support for their immunisation programmes. The Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) has advised that the Year 8 Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination one dose has shown to be just as effective as two doses at providing protection against infection. As of September 2023, a single dose schedule will take place and a letter will be sent home shortly with more details from the Heads of School.

As the weather is predicted to change next week, please can you ensure we have accurate contact information for you. Very rarely does West Oaks close and in adverse/snow conditions we would only expect pupils to come to school if it is safe to do so. Should we decide that school is closed to pupils and/or staff, in extreme conditions, we will communicate this to you via text/dojo/school website. Hopefully, this is not necessary.

Take care everyone.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

It has been another busy week at West Oaks and a warm one too!
Pupils and staff have coped well with the heat, and I have been impressed by the range of activities, both indoor and outdoor that have been arranged to safely educate our young people.

Several open evenings for parent/carers of prospective and new starters have taken place this week as we move to educate 440 pupils across our three sites in September 2023. The events were an enormous success, and we now have many more excited pupils and their families ready to join us in the new academic year.

As we plan for September, class groups and annual reports will be shared with you ahead of the parents evening week commencing July 3rd and we look forward to catching up with you then and during the sports days that will be taking place across our three sites next week.

At a recent governing body meeting, we decided, despite food and catering service costs rising, we will look to reduce our meal charges for a pupil meal to £2.50 daily instead of £2.70 and not pass on the increasing costs. This action is in recognition of the financial pressures’ families are under and the change will start 6th September when pupils return to school after the summer break.

Also, please put a note in your diary of the return of our annual community event and family fun day which will take place at Headingley Learning on Saturday September 23rd from 10am-2pm. It will be a good opportunity to introduce our Headingley site to everyone and in the future, we plan to rota events, so we hold the fun day at a different campus every year in either July or September.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Best wishes
Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

As we near the end of another busy half-term at West Oaks School, I wanted to say thank-you for your support once again. It is rewarding leading and working in our school and our community is like no other. It is a privilege to be a part of West Oaks.

It was great to see several of you at our recent coffee mornings and it will be good to catch up with many more of you during planned activities during the next half-term.

We have a lot to look forward to next half-term as we plan for our new starters, our leavers, 2023/24 groups, share reports, plan 2023 Graduation, hold parents’ evenings, host our first 39ers Alumni event, hold new parent/carer open evenings, have sports days and of course run our Magical 7 days of activities starting July 13^th to ensure that our pupils finish the term with a range of fantastic activities and memories.

Our Magical 7 initiative has been recognised as high-quality practice and awarded a UK Leading Edge Innovation grant. We have also been asked to write an article for educators in the SSAT Leading Edge network. This again, is a credit to the talented staff who work in our school. Please follow us on twitter @westoaksleeds where daily/weekly pupil and school activities are shared.

Just a reminder, that we return to school on Monday June 5^th and school closes for the summer on Friday July 21^st, 2023.

I have also attached the calendar for the next academic year which will help you with holiday planning. On the rare occasion that you need to request additional time off for your child, as your holiday overlaps with our term time, can you contact us and ask for permission please. We do understand, but please do not just inform us of the absence as it will be un-authorised. Thanks for your support with this.

I am really looking forward to September 2023 and my 16^th year as Principal of West Oaks School as we continue to grow to 440 pupils across our three sites. As always, our focus is on our core business of teaching and learning and all our decision making is based around positive outcomes for our children as we strive for continual improvement at West Oaks.

Thanks everyone and have a wonderful week. Take care.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents/Carers

West Oaks School will be open to all our pupils on Thursday 27^th April and Tuesday 2^nd May 2023.

Due to the NEU strikes there will be disruption to some of the teaching at school on both of those days. However, learning activities will still take place across our three sites on both days.

Apologies for the late notice and thanks in advance for your support.

Best wishes

Andrew

Dear Parents and Carers

As we break for the holidays, I would like to wish you all a happy and peaceful Easter break.

It has been another busy term for West Oaks, and we are looking forward to our new developments at Boston Spa Learning taking shape with a complete refurbishment of our Art and DT space and our Food Technology area which will complement our 16+ Bistro area.

We are also looking forward to using our new Saxon Roundhouse at Boston Spa in the summer term and building further Roundhouses at Headingley and Woodhouse.

Ensuring the environment acts as the third teacher brings another dimension to our 5 curriculum pathway offer. It is always about teaching and learning; it is our core business.

We are proud of our high standards and Ofsted judgements, but we do not do anything differently at inspection nor for Ofsted.

We pride ourselves on our excellence for everyone approach, and that is what drives me, Keeley, our team, and our school every day.

Thank-you to those of you who reached out to me and my colleagues regarding the sad death of Headteacher Ruth Perry and Ofsted media coverage recently to ask if we are ok? And we are, and we will continue to put the needs of our children first and we all enjoy what we do. It is a real privilege to work at West Oaks School.

Happy Easter everyone, see you on Monday 17th April.

Take care.

Andrew

Dear Parents/Carers

West Oaks School will be open to all our pupils on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March 2023.

Due to the NEU strike, there will be disruption to some of the teaching at school on both of those days.

However, learning activities will still take place across our three sites on both days.

Apologies for the late notice and thanks in advance for your support.

Best wishes

Andrew