Rufford Park Primary School

Dear colleagues,

As we approach the first break that most of you will have had in around five months, we want to take this opportunity to thank you and all your staff for everything that you have done for children and young people this academic year – and especially since we were all put into lockdown in March as a result of Covid-19.

We know that school leaders, teachers and support staff have worked incredibly hard throughout this period to ensure that pupils have been able to access learning – whether that was at home or when some of them were able to return to school.  The support that has been afforded to the children of key workers and vulnerable young people has been incredible - we have heard so many positive stories of schools going above and beyond in numerous different ways throughout this crisis.  All of this has been an incredibly important part of our city’s response – everything you have done is massively appreciated.

Of course, this has been a really troubling time for children and young people themselves, and we can’t help but feel saddened about the disruption they have had to cope with.  When you think of the vast number of things they have missed out on through not being at school such as performing in concerts, mixing with their peers, building friendships and relationships, moving forward in their learning, and even experiences like taking tests, transition visits to secondary schools and the excitement of preparing for end of primary school parties - it’s been really tough for them too.

This is why, as a child friendly city, we want to recognise and appreciate all our children and young people to acknowledge how difficult things have been and thank them for the part they’ve played in helping to keep people safe.  We would welcome your support with this if you feel that you have capacity to help.

Child Friendly Leeds has produced two certificates (attached) – one for primary and another for secondary - so that every child and young person in the city can receive a big ‘Child Friendly Leeds thumbs up’ at the end of the academic year.  If you are able, we would appreciate it if you could share this with children and parents/carers in one or more of the following ways:

Print out copies of the certificate to include with each child’s end of academic year report

Email a copy of the certificate to parents/carers for them to print out for their child at home.

Upload the certificate to your website and share the link with families.

We will be promoting the big ‘Child Friendly Leeds thumbs up’ through a social media campaign starting w/c 13 July.  We appreciate how busy you are, so if you don’t have time or capacity to use the certificates in school please don’t worry -  we will also make these available for parents and carers to download via the Child Friendly Leeds website.   

Finally for now, we recognise that the summer break will be a welcome respite, but that it will probably be shortened by the preparations that will be required in the run up to September.  Please be assured that we will continue to be with you every step of the way, and will work closely with you to prepare for whatever the new academic year brings.

Thank you again for everything you are doing for children and families in Leeds.

Our best wishes,

Cllr Jonathan Pryor   Executive member for learning, skills and employment

Cllr Fiona Venner   Executive member for children and families

Sal Tariq   Director of Children and Families