Year 5 and 6 were visited this week by a pair of actors taking part in some drama workshops. The play told the story of a boy (Callum) who had gone to spend a few days with his Grandad and the resulting discoveries they make about each other's life. The actor playing the part of Grandad interacted with the children in the audience constantly throughout the drama by asking them to explain to him what they thought was happening and why Callum was behaving in the way he was. They were also asked to advise him about how he should speak to the boy character and what he should do next in the story. Underlying the drama was a theme of domestic violence which was cleverly entwined into the story by the use of Pinocchio toys; this allowed the children to give advice to the characters about a serious subject but in an age-appropriate, sedate and controlled manner. The children were enthralled from beginning to end and came up with some fantastic ideas and advice for the characters in the production. Afterwards, the gentlemen who ran the workshops were extremely complimentary about our school and the quality of discussion and thoughtfulness shown by our children.  Well done Year 5 and 6!

The Farsley Springbank athletics team saw their exciting run in the indoor athletics competition come to an end with an impressive performance in the city finals at Leeds Trinity on Tuesday. The best of the best came together, with Springbank having won the Leeds West Area competition before Christmas, to go head to head in the University sports hall. A fiercely competitive set of teams slugged it out in all aspects of athletics with our Year 5's and 6's holding their own with a combination of blood, sweat and tears. The announcements at the end of the day were tense to say the least but when it came down to points we ultimately finished in third place, marginally missing out on progression to the final round of competition. This equalled our highest ever place finish and disappointment soon turned to pride when we realised the scale of our achievement; to put it into context, out of 250 schools in Leeds we can proudly say that we are now in the top six! This is undoubtedly an exceptional result. The athletics team now take a short spring break before returning to refocus efforts on retaining the Year 3-4 and 5-6 outdoor athletics crown at John Charles Centre for Sport in the summer.