Now that we’re into the Summer term, please remember to make sure your child is protected from the sun: sun cream, hat, plenty of water.
We kick off this week’s message with a question…
Have you thought about becoming a governor?
We have vacancies on our Governing Board. The role involves acting as a ‘critical friend’, providing support and challenge at a strategic level. There are six core Governing Board meetings in the year, three online and three in person, plus occasional additional meetings. There are also visits into school, the focus of these would depend on your role as governor.
If you’re interested, please contact the Chair of Governors, Rachel Cooper: rachelcooper@spherefederation.org
Read more about the Sphere Federation Governing Board.
Getting to grips with things…
Thank you to all the adults who visited us in Reception to explore some fine motor challenges with us.
Children had the chance to show everyone just how well their pincer grips are developing. Some of the activities included pegging out the washing, creating butterfly paintings using cotton wool buds, and filling the holes in Lego pieces with water using pipettes. The children showed great focus and enthusiasm throughout.
Mrs Kendrew then spoke about how children are developing both gross motor skills (big movements) and fine motor skills (small and pincer movements) to support correct pencil grip. She also discussed the 4 Ps of handwriting: posture, pencil grip, paper position and pressure.
Staying Safe themed week
Our next whole school themed week, based around Staying Safe, is from Monday 18 May 2026. The key message is how to be safe in a range of situations – at home, at school, online and in the environment.
A variety of sessions and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of education including water safety (Canal and River Trust and RNLI); fire safety (West Yorkshire Fire Service); first aid; safety in our community (PCSOs) and drug education (d:side).
On Wednesday 20 May from 3.00pm – 3:30pm, there’s a drug education drop-in information session in the playground. A representative from d:side, a health education provider, will be available to discuss details of your child’s drug education learning in the themed week.
Can you help? Does your job involve an aspect of safety? If you’re able to support our Staying Safe themed week by coming into school to speak to children, please contact us via the office or your child’s class teacher.
Due to the rising costs of visitors to school, this year, we are requesting a voluntary contribution of £2 per pupil to go towards paying for visitors. This can be made on Arbor. Thank you for your support with this.
We’ll keep you up to date about events during the week on the Class News pages. Thank you for your support to keep St James’ CE Primary School a happy, healthy and safe school.
Nursery
At the moment, children in Early Years (Nursery and Reception) are taught in one classroom. In 2026-27, we’re expecting higher numbers join us in Reception. This, combined with low numbers for Nursery, mean that we’re looking at withdrawing our Nursery provision. Please contact us if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns about this.
Sweatshirts
For some years, pupils in Year 6 have worn a different coloured sweatshirt to wear as part of the school uniform. From this September, Year 6 children will wear navy blue sweatshirts, matching the rest of school. There are several reasons for this:
- Expecting Year 6 pupils to wear different colours each year means our uniform is unsustainable – they can’t be passed on and reused. Blue sweatshirts that still fit the children can continue to be worn into Year 6.
- Government guidance from September 2026 states, ‘schools should limit the number of compulsory branded items of uniform’ and that schools should ensure their uniform is cost effective and sustainable.
- We want Year 6 pupils to look and feel like they belong at St James’ CE Primary.
- School has always bought pupils one sweatshirt or cardigan to help with the cost of wearing a different colour – in our current economic climate, we can no longer afford to do this.
Although there will be some disappointment amongst the Year 5 children, we’ve explained the points above and reassured them that they will still have leavers’ hoodies at the end of Year 6.
Finally this week… To our Year 6 children: All the best for your end of Key Stage 2 SATs assessments next week. And to everyone: Have a happy and healthy weekend.
