The end of the academic year – well nearly.

14th July 2023

The students and staff of Thomas Rotherham College began their well earned summer break on Friday. The staff and pupils and Sitwell Junior School and Oakwood High School have one more week to go – they are nearly there!

The long hard trek to the summer break is nearly done. Just a short final park run loop to complete and then you are all across the finishing line.

The transition activities of this week have perked us up, as much as adding some spice to the lives of our young charges. There has been a little discombobulation exhibited by a small minority, as change is often hard to fathom; be that moving to a new school, moving to a new class or taking on a new timetable. I thank all pupils, students and staff for their patience, hard work and unfailing good humour. The children, young people and families we serve really do appreciate the value and commitment we all bring day in and day out.

We recognise this has been a very difficult period with the national education unions and the government in a long running disagreement over teachers and professional service pay awards. It has made for a very challenging period in how we manage schools. I apologise for the disruption that may have been caused. The good news is that the government seems to have come close to doing the right thing by offering a 6.5% pay rise to all teachers. We’ll await the final settlement but it seems that the teaching unions will call off any future action – that’s good for us, for our schools, good for our staff and for the children and young people. Thank you all for being patient with us and for understanding that the issues this year and the dispute itself had nothing to do with our schools or college. We are just trying to do the right thing by you all, day in and day out. I know you understand and appreciate that.

And so, we are all nearly there. We’ll keep on working hard, and we’ll expect all the children to be doing that too, right up to the end of play Friday 21dt July.

‘I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end’. Abraham Lincoln