Our first Living and Learning statement of the year was:

I follow the school rules.

We established that rules are instructions that we’re asked to follow. They help to keep us safe and make sure we’re all treated fairly. Rules help to bring order.

We discussed our 3 school rules; how they look and sound in the classroom and around school.

The children gave some great examples of how we might have different rules at home, at school or in the community and there was some interesting discussion about how the world might look different if we didn’t have rules…

Help at home by discussing rules with your child.

• What are our school rules? Is one important than the others?
• What are some of your rules at home and why do you have them?
• What are some of the rules in the community? Are there consequences if we don’t follow them?

I hope you’ve all had a happy and healthy summer break. The children have returned to school in fantastic form, settling in quickly as we’ve learned new routines and procedures. We’re looking forward to sharing our learning journey with you over the coming weeks but in the meantime, a few reminders.

Reading books

We have a new e-books system; Collins Hub. Parent guidance should have been emailed to you and children’s log-ins will be sent home today (09.09.24). Books have been assigned but we are aware of some teething problems as we learn the new platform. Please let me know if you’re experiencing any issues.

Reading records

Please return reading records to school by Wednesday. Make a note of what has been read and any areas you have focused on. This is a great way for us all to keep up to date and an often overlooked way of staying in regular contact! If you have any questions about this, please be in touch.

Library books

Our library day is Friday. Please return library books to school by Wednesday, ready to return to the library in exchange for a new one.

NumBots

Please continue to use NumBots. It’s a really valuable resource and a fantastic way of keeping home learning fun. If you need any technical support, please be in touch and I’ll try my best to help.

PE days

Our PE days are Tuesday and Friday. Uniform compliance has been fantastic to start the year – let’s keep it up!

Water bottles

Please make sure your child comes to school with a clean, labelled water bottle every day. Water bottles must go home every day.

If you need any additional support, you can email me on ajnash@spherefederation.org and I’ll get back to you within an appropriate timeframe.

Staying Safe Week

This week has been a special week at St James’. We’ve been exploring lots of different ways to stay safe. We’ve discussed:

• sun safety
• first aid
• online safety
• staying safe in the community
• staying safe at home
• staying safe on the road
• staying safe on bikes/scooters
• staying safe around animals

The children have contributed their ideas maturely throughout the week and I feel confident that they all know how to stay safe!

We’ve been lucky to welcome some fantastic visitors this week.

Lou, a local PCSO, gave us some fantastic tips about road safety and staying safe in the community.

Mrs Hill from Dogs Trust spoke to the children about staying safe around dogs.

Dave from D:side gave a brilliant workshop on online safety.

Jed, a first aid expert, taught the children about how to call for help and administer some basic first aid. The children had a fantastic time practising CPR and putting bandages on one another’s (very imaginative!) injuries.

Help at home by discussing Staying Safe Week with your child.

• What have they learned this week?
• Can they share a top tip from each of our visitors?
• Are there any safety features in your home?
• Can your child memorise their address and a guardian’s phone number?

In Living and Learning, we’ve been learning about identity and body image.

We’ve been thinking about the physical and personal features that make each and every one of us special. We spent some time considering how our names and appearance form part of our identity, including an interesting discussion about how life might look different if we were nameless and all looked the same…

• How would we make friends?
• How would we know who to play with at playtime?
• How would you get someone’s attention?
• How would your family know you were you?

It’s important to know that we’re all unique. It’s something worth celebrating!

It would be boring if everyone liked the same things. It’s good to share each others’ successes and interests.

Not everyone can be good at everything but everyone is good at something.

It can be hard to celebrate our physical features – sometimes, we feel insecure about the way we look. The children showed mature understanding of the physical features they can and can’t change and spent some time complimenting one another. We discussed appropriate ways to respond to compliments; a simple ‘thank you’ or a compliment in return.

Finally, we took a moment to celebrate ourselves and our brilliant bodies.

Help at home by discussing our living and learning statement with your child:

I know that people I see in the media don’t always reflect real life.

Is it healthy to compare ourselves to the people we see in the media?

We’ve enjoyed learning about sustainability in our most recent science unit.

We’ve been learning about how plastic can be helpful and harmful and some of the things we can do to make sure it’s disposed of sustainably.

sustainable – causing no harm to the environment

What is plastic?

Plastic is a man-made material that can have lots of different properties and can be formed into lots of different shapes. This makes it really useful! The children observed that plastic can be:

• light
• flexible
• strong
• rigid
• transparent
• opaque
• and many more…

Some of the children were surprised to learn that even some of our clothes are made out of types of plastic like polyester, nylon and acrylic. After some body-contorting label-checking, we concluded that most of our clothes contained at least a small percentage of plastic.

Single-use plastic

We discussed single-use plastic and had a think about some items we encounter on a day to day basis that, once used, are simply thrown away:

• plastic bags
• plastic straws
• yoghurt pots
• plastic bottles

Plastic lasts a long time in the environment. It doesn’t decompose like paper or wood. The children learnt about how waste is sent away to landfill and some of the problems it poses to the environment, especially when polluted by plastic.

Everyone can help!

After learning of the stark reality of plastic pollution in the environment, we were delighted to learn that everyone can help if we remember to:

reduce
reuse
recycle

Reduce – Use less plastic to cut down on the amount of waste.

Reuse – Use plastic again rather than throwing it away.

Recycle – Dispose of waste responsibly so it can be converted into a material that can be used again.

 

To tie all of our sustainability learning together, we reused some single use plastic bottles in a way that could help the wildlife in our local area. The children really enjoyed making their bird feeders and we hope the birds in the local area are reaping the rewards!

We’d love to share some photos of the bird feeders in situ. Photographic evidence of avian visitors would be particularly welcomed. Please email them to me: ajnash@spherefederation.org

Help at home by discussing plastic waste with your child.

• What small change could you make to reduce your plastic waste?
• How could you reuse plastic waste rather than putting it in the bin?
• How could you tackle plastic pollution in the environment?

The children have thoroughly enjoyed the return of forest school! We’ve spent time exploring the woodland habitat, identifying plants and observing seasonal changes.

This has linked well to our current science unit – we’ve been learning about sustainability and the ways in which we can care for local wildlife.

sustainable – causing no harm to the environment

In our recent forest school session, the children made miniature ‘landscapes’, considering the features of the local area and how they could be represented.

Help at home by discussing sustainability with your child. Why is it important to care for local wildlife? What can we do to help?

Our Living and Learning statement this week is:

This week in our Living and Learning session, we discussed the ‘5 a day’ message. We linked this to our science learning, discussing the scientifically identifying features of fruits and vegetables.

fruit – a part of a plant that contains seeds

vegetable – a part of a plant that can be eaten as food

The children impressed me with their knowledge of fruits and vegetables – we’ve some adventurous palates in our class!

We discussed the importance of fruit and vegetables in providing crucial vitamins and minerals in our diet – these help to keep our bodies and minds healthy. The World Health Organisation recommends 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

A portion is an amount you could fit in your hand.

What counts towards your 5 a day?

Almost all fruit and vegetables count towards your 5 a day. They can be fresh, frozen, canned, dried or juiced.

Eatwell Guide

As a class, we looked at the Eatwell Guide and discussed what a healthy meal might consist of.

The children then had the opportunity to ‘prepare’ a healthy dinner.

Help at home by discussing the Eatwell Guide with your child. How does this compare to the meals you eat at home? Are there any opportunities to make healthier choices?