This week has been the first of two themed weeks at St James’ CE Primary – this one was our Me and My Community week.
What a great week! We’ve had lots of visitors, visits and important lessons about community and identity. Some highlights this week have been a visit from the Mayor of Wetherby who led an assembly to the whole school talking about his role. The Mayor’s favourite part of the job is meeting lots of different people. Community, to him, means helping other people. Some other highlights involved a visit from the Royal National Institution of Blind (RNIB) and a visit to the local radio station, Tempo FM.
Talk with your child about some of their highlights of the week.
Choosing our new school charity
During our Me and My Community themed week, our newly elected Junior Leaders listened to the views of their class and then met together to decide on our school charity for 2026-27. Charities in the shortlist were:
The charity chosen by our Junior Leadership Team is Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
Wee’ll raise money for the charity at occasional events through the year, especially inviting donations during our school productions.
Attendance matters: aim for 100% every week in November
Every week in November, there’s a chance for your child to win a £10 voucher if they’ve attended school every day in the week. So, that’s four weeks of prizes:
- Week 1: week beginning Monday 02 November
- Week 2: week beginning Monday 09 November
- Week 3: week beginning Monday 16 November
- Week 4: week beginning Monday 24 November
There’ll be two lucky draws: one for children in Reception and Key Stage 1, and another for children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6).
Our school attendance is currently 94.1%. We’re sad this remains stubbornly below the national average of 95.9% for primary schools. The more your child is in school, the more they can feel belonging to our happy and healthy community.
Check out this information about school attendance and absence from the Department for Education.
And as always, check the NHS site to help decide if your child is too ill for school.
Children in Need
Next Friday is Children in Need day. To mark the occasion, we have a non-uniform day. We invite your child to make a donation to the charity. Donations can be made on the school fund (charity donations) section on Arbor or by cash on the day.
As with all non-uniform days, we do still expect pupils to dress appropriately and respectfully. Here’s an extract from our Uniform Policy:
Clothes are inappropriate if they, for example, glorify violence, feature bad language, are very short (eg crop tops), or relate to age-inappropriate topics. When consulted (18.03.21), junior leaders described this as ‘setting-appropriate’ clothing and clothing that is ‘well-judged’. Make-up (other than face paints as part of a specific costume) is not allowed. Flipflops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.
Have a happy and healthy weekend.