Week 3 – Sharing a Shell

What a great week we have had in Reception. Our focus book this week is Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson. We recognised that this author has written lots of other stories and remembered some of our favourites.

We have been learning more about rockpools and creatures that live inside them. We used dough and construction to make our own ones.

We created our own ice-creams using puffy paint! We used shaving foam and glue to make our ice-creams come to life!

This week for poetry basket we learnt more about a song. We hope you like our version.

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We hope you have a great weekend!

This week’s message (Friday 23 June 2023)

We kick off this week’s message with early news of our annual Summer competition…

Extreme reading

Here at St James’ CE Primary, we love reading. Over the coming weeks, we’ve a challenge for your child… Show us how reading-obsessed they are by sending us a pic of them reading in an extreme place or position.

For last year’s competition, we gave you a few ideas for your happy and healthy smiley faces spotted in unusual places. This year, we’re not giving you any ideas (yet!), but you’ve plenty of advance warning, so get your thinking caps on!

To enter, email your pics to stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 08 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.

All entries will be displayed in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Our current topic…

…is a Design and Technology one – it’s a great topic to finish the year! The focus for all classes this year is construction (next year, it’s textiles) so children are busy designing and making products.

A key aspect of the Design and Technology curriculum is the understanding that products don’t just get made. Instead, they go through a design process that includes three key elements: evaluate, design and make. Think of this process as a cycle. For example, Sphere Motors want to create a new family car. Before the car is made, they need to evaluate existing products and talk to customers so that they’re clear about what the new car needs to have. They will then design the car and evaluate those designs. They may make a prototype of the car to help them evaluate the designs. Next, they’ll decide on a final design that will go into production and get made. This finished product will be evaluated and the whole process starts again.

Years 1 and 2

Children have been exploring what makes structures stable and strong. Next, they’ll get their design brief: to design and make a new chair for Baby Bear (clumsy Goldilocks has broken it again). Children will design and make their product, using what they’ve learned about strength and stability to help them. Finally, they’ll evaluate the product by testing it and reflect on what they would change about their design to improve it.

Years 3 and 4

Children will use a construction kit called Techcard to design and make a prototype of a go-kart which must satisfy a number of design criteria. They’ll explore how to make strong structures and mechanisms using Techcard before designing and making their prototype. Finally, children will evaluate their finished product by comparing it to their design and testing whether they have achieved the design criteria.

Years 5 and 6

Children have begun the topic by learning about pioneering female designers and engineers.

They then move on to designing and making a moving vehicle which most protect Eggy the Egg in a crash. They’ll need to research and learn about the different safety features that cars use to prevent crashes and protect passengers. They’ll then establish the design criteria and design and make their vehicles. They’ll be using a range of tools and materials to make their vehicles. Finally, children will test their vehicles against each design criteria to see how successful it is. They’ll then evaluate the vehicle based on the results of the tests to suggest improvements.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. You could even talk through the three key elements of the design process: evaluate, design and make (check out Sphere Motors, above).

The class news page of the school website is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

The school library and local libraries will have some books about Design and Technology which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and design knowledge.

Finally, there’s a lot of programmes on CBBC and CBeebies with a Design and Technology focus:

Bitz and Bob
Grace’s Amazing Machines
Junk Rescue
Maddie’s Do You Know?
The Dengineers

Uniform update

Each year, we review our Uniform Policy. This year, there’s only a tiny tweak about footwear to make things clearer for you: ‘choose shoes that are safe to run around for healthy, active playtimes’.

Talking of uniform, please remember a couple more points:

‘Regarding jewellery, only plain stud earrings (no more than 4mm wide)…are allowed.’ We’ve started to notice more earrings that are bigger and brighter – please save those for weekends and holidays!
‘Advisors recommend no earrings are worn for PE; therefore, we will ask your child to remove earrings before the lesson and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by the child. If they are unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.’ – so the start of the Summer holidays is a good time for ears to be pierced.

Thanks for your cooperation.

That’s all from us this week – enjoy a happy and healthy weekend (maybe the whole family will get up to some extreme reading!).

23 June 2023

This week’s Talk Time has a social theme:

I can talk about a healthy friendship I have.

A friendship is something we can choose to have and it should make us feel happy and secure. Healthy relationships are positive and welcoming towards others, and do not make others feel lonely or excluded. When thinking about a healthy friendship there are some important characteristics to consider such as mutual respect, truthfulness, loyalty, kindness, generosity, trust, sharing interests and experiences and support with problems and difficulties.

Think of someone in your life who you feel you have a healthy friendship with. Discuss why you feel it is a healthy relationship by linking it to some of the important characteristics listed above.

Encourage your child to think about what they would do if they were having difficulties with a friendship and who could help them.

Additionally, or alternatively, you might like your child to consider our current Christian value…

At St James’ CE Primary School, we learn about Christian values that help us to become well-rounded citizens in society. The values are woven into our everyday school life. Each half term, we have a new Christian value that will be embedded into our collective worship and our reflection areas.

This half term, our Christian Value is courage.

One of the Hebrew words translated as ‘courage’ means ‘to show oneself strong’.

The Bible abounds with stories of courage. Moses was courageous when he confronted the Pharaoh of Egypt and commanded him to let God’s people go (Exodus 5). Joshua was courageous when he conquered Canaan (Joshua 1). Young David was courageous when he faced and fell the giant Goliath (1 Samuel 17). The Bible says we can be courageous by having faith and confidence in the fact that God is with us and for us. Nelson Mandela said: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.”

Help at home!

Try one, or both, of the following two activities:

Make a list of feats you want to do or have done, whether physically, mentally, or morally, that would require courage. Try to come up with a plan for how you can be courageous and tackle these feats.

Create a certificate of courage for someone you know. Tell them when you have seen them show courage and what challenge they faced. Talk to a grown up or friend about when you have shown courage and how you overcame your challenge.

Our School Adventure

We had such a fantastic day at Piglets Adventure Park on Tuesday. Even though the weather was a little rainy we had an amazing day. On the coach we saw what it is like to drive through a city. We saw different buildings and spoke about how the roads were busy.

We learnt more about what the animals need on a daily basis and the correct vocabulary for adults and their young.

The sand areas were great for us to discuss the beach and ways we can keep safe.

Thank you to everyone who made our trip possible.

This week’s message (Friday 16 June 2023)

Hot, hot, hot! Despite the weather, there’s still loads of learning happening at St James’ CE Primary!

We start this week’s message with with an important change…

Our school day

Some time ago, the Government published a White Paper setting out various proposals which included the strong expectation that schools are open for 32.5 hours each week. Following the consultation, the White Paper was cancelled. We assumed the ‘strong expectation’ would also be no more.

Frustratingly, the expectation remains in DfE and Ofsted publications – this wasn’t clear earlier in the year.

This means we need to add five minutes to the school day. We’re going with the overall preference from the parent/carer consultation earlier in the year, which is to add the five minutes to the start of the day. This means our school day from September will be 08.45 – 3.15, every day.

I’m sorry for the confusion and change.

As always, if you’ve questions, comments or concerns, please do let me know.

Testing times

The end of the school year brings with it many assessments, some we have to do and others are to help us keep track of all our pupils’ learning.

The DfE has updated its collection of information for parents. This now includes links to all National Curriculum assessment leaflets for parents, including leaflets for the:

KS1 and KS2 national curriculum tests (Year 2 and Year 6 pupils)
reception baseline assessment (RBA)
phonics screening check (Year 1 pupils, and some Year 2 pupils)
multiplication tables check (Year 4 pupils)

In school, we really try to make sure all the assessments are as positive as possible.

Our annual survey

Thank you to everyone who completed the annual survey this year. The survey closed at noon today. We’ve had quite a small number of responses, but all were extremely positive (100% of respondents report their child is happy and feels safe at school, for example).

We’ll spend some time reviewing the responses. Just like in previous years, we’ll get in touch with any individual parent / carer in advance if they’ve raised any specific issue (as long as they’ve provided their name), and we’ll look at some of your suggestions for improvements.

Staying safe in the water

Next week is Drowning Prevention Week. Here’s a few facts to think about:

around 44% of accidental drownings happen between May and August
62.4% of accidental drownings happen in inland water
accidental drownings takes an average of 402 UK & Irish Citizens every year
lack of confidence and competence in water affects survival rates
more than 46% never intended to be in the water

Spend some time with your child talking about staying safe in and near water.

Have a happy and healthy – and safe – weekend.

Week 2 – Seaside Poems

What a lovely sunny week we have had at school! This week our focus book is called ‘Seaside Poems’. We have loved reading and listening to the different poems. We had lots of fun spotting rhyming words and thinking about words we associate with the seaside.

We have really enjoyed learning with our new outdoor equipment. We have investigated how water can move in different ways and made our own beach. The ladder and climbing frame have helped us with our climbing and balancing skills.

We have been thinking about different ways we can travel when at the seaside. Boats are an important vehicle so we decided to create our own.

During circle time we discussed fruits that we like to eat. A member of our class said that they wanted to know where melons grow. We used an atlas to look at different countries and discussed why some things grow better in different places. We enjoyed a tasty snack of melon afterwards.

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.

16 June 2023

Key stage 1 homework

This week’s Talk Time has a Reading theme.

I can talk about my favourite class novel so far.

Over the year, we’ve had the opportunity to read and enjoy lots of different types of books. This week, we’d like you to think back and talk about the book/novel you enjoyed reading the most and why.

Below are some of the class novels we have enjoyed so far in Key Stage 1.

Key Stage 2 homework

This week’s Talk Time has a Reading theme.

I can talk about my favourite class novel so far.

Below are some of the class novels we have enjoyed so far.

Y3/4
Greek Myths by Marcia Williams
The Firework Maker’s Daughter by Phillip Pullman
Leodis Ledes Leeds by Tom Palmer
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf
The Witches by Roald Dahl
Fighting Fantasy by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson

Y5/6
Secrets of a Sun King Emma Carroll
The Nowhere Emporium Ross Mackenzie
Letters from a Lighthouse Emma Carroll

Week 1 – One is a snail ten is a crab

Welcome back to a very exciting final summer term! Our topic this term is all about the seaside and different cities.

Our focus story this week is a counting book. We have been looking at the legs of different creatures. We have been adding different amounts together and creating numbers beyond 20.

Our word of the week this week is country. We have learnt more about what a country is and which country we live in and have lived in and different countries we have visited. We created finger print flags for different countries.

We have been working hard on our counting skills. We have been counting amounts to 20. It is important to count slowly and carefully so we don’t miss any numbers.

We have been using our predicting, counting and recording skills in our maths provision. We had to predict how many objects were in the bowls, counted to see if we were right and then recorded the amounts.

We are loving our new physical activities in our PE lessons. This week we have been taking part in ‘ants in your pants’. We have to work in partners and one person needs to get the ants into the hoop whilst the other person moves the hoop away.

Our poem this week is all about thunderstorms. We loved making the different sounds.

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As the weather is set to get warmer please can we make sure that everyone has a sun hat, water bottle and sun cream.

This week’s message (Friday 09 June 2023)

How was your half-term holiday? Hopefully a good one, helped by the nice weather. Now that we’re properly into Summer, remember to make sure your child is protected from the sun (sun cream, hat, plenty of water).

We need to start this week’s message with a correction and end with a reminder.

Sorry!

In the last Friday message just before the holiday, we stated the wrong month for one of a training day. It should read that there’s a training day on Friday 24 May (not June):

We’ve had an increase in requests for some term-time absences. Many of these are linked to the Summer half-term. We don’t authorise term-time absences (see our Attendance Policy). To help next year, we’ve changed the training day to Friday 24 May – this means that you’ve an extra day to use to plan for any holidays.

Thanks to the super-organised parent who spotted the error.

Talking of attendance…

Up to the end of Summer 1 half-term, our whole-school attendance figure is 92.8%*.

Our figure matches the national data: 92.6% (12 September 2022 to 19 May 2023). However, it does fall a short of the national figure for primary schools: 94.1%.

Here’s how each year group shape up:

Reception: 91.5%
Year 1: 93.7%
Year 2: 93.6%
Year 3: 95.7% – the highest in school, and higher than national – well done!
Year 4: 89.8%
Year 5: 91.5%
Year 6: 93.7%

Thank you for making sure your child is at school as much as they possibly can.

*This figure is adjusted to take account of a small number of pupils who have moved away, but are still on our school roll until we have confirmation they have started at a new school.

Please help us

This summer, National Book Tokens is offering schools the chance to receive £1,000 in National Book Tokens. Please nominate our school.

If we’re one of the five winning entries, you’ll also win a £100 National Book Token to spend in your favourite bookshop!

The more entries received for St James’ CE Primary, the higher the chance we’ll win – so spread the word.

Thanks to the parent who alerted us to this.

Have you completed our annual survey yet?

If not, there’s still time: you’ve got until Friday 16 June to let us know your views. Thanks to those people who’ve already completed it – it really helps to shape what we do.

Have a happy and healthy weekend!

09 June 2023

Vocabulary is the focus of this week’s homework. This is because we’ve just begun a new Design and Technology topic and with it comes new Design and Technology vocabulary.

Here’s a list of key words that are being learnt and applied as part of our learning. Over the half-term, practise using these words with your child.

Years 1 and 2 Design & Technology vocabulary:

design process: the steps that need to happen for something to go from an idea to a finished product
to plan: to think about and decide how you’re going to do something
to evaluate: to decide, after careful consideration, how good or bad something is
base: the bottom part of an object; the part on which something rests
structure: a combination of materials and/or parts to create a 3d shape
stable: something that is unlikely to fall down or collapse
freestanding: something that stands up by itself

Years 3 and 4 Design & Technology vocabulary:

product: something that is designed and made fu
function: the purpose of something
design brief: a description of what a new product should do
design criteria: the precise features a product must have to be successful
annotated sketch: a detailed sketch labelled with notes (eg dimensions, materials) prototype: an early sample or model of a product used to evaluate a design
component: a part that combines with other parts to make something (eg a machine or a piece of equipment)
exploded diagram: a drawing that shows the individual components or parts of a product and how they fit together
mechanism: a number of parts or comp

Years 5 and 6 Design & Technology vocabulary:

design criteria: the precise features a product must have in order to be successful
innovative: an adjective to describe new or original ideas
sustainable material: a material is sustainable if it comes from renewable sources and it does not damage the environment
dimension: a measurement of something in a particular direction (eg height, length, width)
aesthetic: something about the appearance (eg something can be aesthetically pleasing) computer-aided design (CAD): a way of drawing on a computer to visualise designs and simulating them to see how they work
computer-aided design (CAD): a way of drawing on a computer to visualise designs and simulating them to see how they work
to reinforce: to strengthen or support

Some of these words have been introduced already but there may be others that are going to be covered in the coming weeks.