This week’s message is a short one, kicking off with a reminder…

Class trips

We want to put a long-term plan in place for class trips.

There are lots of benefits of class trips (a chance to make learning more real or practical, a memorable, exciting change from the typical day…), but we know they’re expensive.

To help us, we’d be very grateful if you spend just five minutes completing this short survey.

Attendance matters

We’ve been sent by Leeds City Council an attendance summary for 2021-22.

St James’ CE Primary attendance was lower than the average for other schools nearby and for Leeds primary schools as a whole.

One of the main reasons for this was the number of children with attendance less than 90% – these pupils are classed as ‘persistent absentees’.

About six in ten absences were due to illness. However, about one in ten absences were not authorised due to a holiday, about one in ten absences were due to arriving late, and about 15% of absences were for unknown reasons.

In 2022-23, we’re starting to see some improvements – please do continue to make sure your child gets to school as much as possible.

Special visitors

Today at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’ve been delighted to welcome people from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). Alongside lots of teachers, they visited Mrs Allaway (the Sphere Federation Maths Leader) and a class of Year 4 children to review good practice in Maths teaching. We’re fortunate that Mrs Allaway is a lead teacher for NCETM, regularly supporting teachers in other schools as well as supporting our very own teachers.

As well as Comic Relief, it’s another special day – happy St Patrick’s Day if you’re celebrating!

Have a great weekend.