Dear parents and carers,

Spring has finally arrived! It felt as though winter was never going to end this time.

I was very lucky to spend two weeks on holiday in Crete over Easter; such a beautiful island with so much history. Greece has had its problems over the last few years, suffering hugely from the financial crisis but the people have remained happy and optimistic. It struck me how clean and well looked after everywhere is. Returning to Bradford and resuming my walk to and from work every day it’s depressing to see so much litter on the streets. We organise regular weekend litter picks with our group of Girlington Growers but within a few days the litter is everywhere again.

Parents have a huge role to play in teaching their children not to drop litter. Let’s work together to make Girlington cleaner and greener. It makes everyone feel better if the area they live in looks nice.

Keep your eyes open for another Girlington Growers litter picking and planting session in May.

Those of you who bring your children in the school holidays will have noticed that we had some children and staff from Lilycroft Nursery School attending. We had to make the decision to close the under three site which was based at Farcliffe Family Centre as it was no longer financially viable so from now on all holiday provision will be based at St Edmund’s. We have had great feedback from the staff and parents about this new arrangement and the children had a great time.

Sadly, the council voted through the changes to the Children’s Centres so from August we will no longer be running the West Bradford Cluster. At the moment we are not sure what services will be running from September but we will let you know as soon as we know more.

Fortunately, we still have Amanda Jordan our Parental Involvement Worker so she will continue to organise some events and courses.

As usual there’s lots of exciting things happening this term for you and your children to enjoy.

Enjoy the spring sunshine and the spring flowers.

Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie Merifield, Executive Headteacher