Author: Mr Roundtree

Living & Learning: I recognise the importance of sleep

This week in Living and Learning, we have been looking at the importance of sleep.

We thought about all the things we already knew about sleep. We wrote this on the board in red, blue, and green pens. We already knew that sleep was important for both our minds and our bodies. We later went back to this and added our new knowledge in pink.

We heard about a little girl called Mia who struggled to go to sleep one night after a very busy day and rushing straight to bed. We talked about what was good to do before bed and what wasn’t. We sorted things into two piles.

Later, we thought about our bedtime routines and planned a new bedtime routine for Mia. We decided that a super bedtime routine would possibly include:

  • screen times going off an hour before bed
  • going to bed at the same time each day
  • brushing our teeth
  • having a story
  • staying goodnight to our family

Help at home

Talk to your child about what they find most helpful during their bedtime routine. See if they would like to include something new, if they need it, in their bedtime routine to help them get to sleep.

Summer Term 1 – Week 1 The Bad Tempered Ladybird

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter break and enjoyed the sunny weather! This term our topic focuses on ‘Life on Earth’. Our focus story is all about a ladybird who isn’t very happy but realises that it is much better to share than fight with our friends.

We have enjoyed lots of outdoor learning this week. We had a walk around school to see which mini beasts we could find. We talked about the different places we might find them. We were very excited when we reached the pond area to find lots of tadpoles in there.

We thought about different places bugs might like to live and if they ever go on holiday? We decided to create some bug hotels! We were very excited when Mr Atkins gave us a demonstration on how to safely use hand drills and screwdrivers to create our own bug hotel for outside.

We have been exploring different materials to create some models. We really enjoyed using clay and exploring different ways to create joins.

I bet you have all been wondering how our grass heads are doing. Well over the holidays they all grew hair! It was so exciting to come into class and see our new friends. We decided that they needed a visit to the salon and practised our scissor cutting skills by giving them a hair cut!

Our poem this week was called ‘pitter patter’. We hope you like it.

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History: What is a carnival?

We’ve kicked off this topic’s learning in fine style! This history driven topic will explore carnivals from around the world but also closer to home – The Leeds West Indian Carnival.

Why not search online about carnivals – we looked at carnivals in Rio de Janeiro, Venice and Leeds. Quiz your child on what things make up a great carnival!

Be sure to chat to your child about the key vocabulary we’ll be using throughout…

Chat with your child about what these words mean. Unsure? Why not Google or even ask Alexa!

This week’s message (Friday 21 April 2023)

We hope you had a happy and healthy Spring break.

Industrial action

First, in case you missed an earlier message this week, is some advance warning about the forthcoming industrial action.

The National Education Union (NEU) has announced planned strike action for Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 02 May.

St James’ CE Primary has previously remained open and been largely unaffected by the industrial action. It seems likely that this will be the case again.

However, as was the case previously, we’re not in a position to guarantee this because all workers, including teachers, have the right to take industrial action without prior notice. It would be advisable to prepare for some disruption on the days listed here just in case.

We’ll continue to keep you informed.

Class trips

Thank you very much for your responses to the recent survey about class trips. The feedback has been really helpful. The key message we’ve received is that you’re very keen for school trips to happen more regularly and that you see a lot of value in them:

  • ‘I think they are an important part of the curriculum to enhance learning and make connections with the real world. They also form a memorable part of school. In summary, an invaluable experience.’
  • ‘Great that these are coming back following the pandemic.  Thank you for putting time and energy into making these a possibility again. In terms of the regularity of class trips, the vast majority of people would like there to be more than one trip per year. We’ll aim to offer two class visits per year, but this does depend on receiving enough voluntary contributions from all parents/carers.

You also gave us a variety of other feedback and suggestions which we’ll consider. Examples of useful points raised include scheduling trips on a Monday or Friday if classes need parent helpers; a memorable visit doesn’t have to be something new or expensive or a long distance away; and weekly direct debits to build up contributions – we’ll ponder over your suggestions as well as start putting in place a schedule of trips across all year groups.

Attendance matters

For the year so far, up to the Easter holiday, the whole-school attendance rate is 91.7%.

This is lower than the national figures for the same period: 92.4% for all schools and 63.9% for primary schools.

Our assessments show a simple picture: the higher the attendance rate, the better the learning.

Not only that, children with good attendance get a chance to socialise with their friends – they’re happier and healthier.

For their sake, please make sure your child attends school as much as they can.

Enjoy the weekend.

We are biologists!

Biologists study living things, including people, animals, and plants. This half term, Year 1 and 2 will be studying plants.

On Tuesday, we began looking at the different things plants need to grow. We have created an experiment looking at what an onion bulb needs to grow.

We planted four onion bulbs in different conditions.  

We have four environments for our bulbs to grow:

  1. no light, no soil, no water
  2. no water, no soil
  3. no soil
  4. water, light, soil

After we’d planted them, we made predictions on which bulb we thought would grow the best or wouldn’t grow. Each week, we will be observing our bulbs to see which are growing.

Help at home

Explore plants that you have in the garden or that you see on your walk to school. Observe how plants change over time and talk about what things they need to grow and survive.

Week 6 – The Easter Story

We have had a busy week in Reception! Our focus this week has been learning more about The Easter Story. We have learnt more about why this time of year is important to Christians and what things might happen over the Easter period.

We used repeating patterns to decorate eggs and Easter cards. We also used natural materials to create a cross.

In our maths sessions we learnt more about sorting different items. Did you know there are so many ways to sort things. One of our favourite ways was to sort our class by age. We found out that some people in our class are 4 and some people are 5. Some people are a little older than that too!

Our grass heads have started to grow hair! We are very excited to see what they are going to be like when we return from the Easter break.

Our poem this week was also about seeds and growing. We hope you like it.

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A huge thank you to our lovely school PTA who organised a very exciting egg hunt for us this afternoon. We loved hunting for rabbit foot prints and our prizes look very yummy!

 

I would like to thank everyone for their support this term. It has been an exciting term of learning. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter break and fingers crossed the sun will shine for us a little!

Mrs Payne

This week’s message (Friday 31 March 2023)

We’ve reached the end of the Spring term – the longer evenings are so welcome!

Top talent

A fun night was had by all at St James’ Got Talent Show on Wednesday. There were some fantastic acts: jokes, singing, skipping, impressions, karate, ballet and much more. It was wonderful to see the children show off their talents and skills – I was blown away by their confidence.

Thank you to all the parents who attended to support their children and thank you to the staff who made it all happen.

Positive relationships

A few months ago, we asked you for feedback about our current Positive Relationships Policy. A big thanks to those of you who sent in your comments. Since then, we’ve also consulted with our Junior Leadership Team, governors and staff. All the views have been carefully considered.

Our updated policy has various changes, the main one being new school rules – shorter and more positive. We’ll launch the new rules in the Summer 2 term – a gradual change to allow staff and pupils to get used to them ready for the new school year in September.

Check out the updated policy. We’re happy to hear your views and will continue to review and respond.

Special educational needs and disabilities

Leeds SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service) host virtual information sessions which aim to provide parents and carers with information, advice and support on SEND topics. There are three virtual information sessions coming up – check them out and book a place.

I hope you’ve got some happy and healthy plans for the Easter break – whatever you do, enjoy it!

Pirate Bonnie and her swash buckling adventures!

This week, year 1 and 2 were lucky to take an adventure to Wetherby library to meet Pirate Bonnie and hear all about her swashbuckling adventures.

We heard tales of old – of pirates that lived long ago. Pirates who faced adversity and persevered through difficulty to become legendary pirates.

We saw a book that was 300 years old and had pictures and stories about the pirates we had just heard about.

This week’s message (Friday 24 March 2023)

This week’s message is from Miss Beatson…

Spring term is always my favourite: the brighter get-ups, more opportunity to be outside, and it’s the time in the academic year where we see children start to make great progress.

This half term, the children have been learning about Computing. It’s been impressive to hear children from Year 1 upwards talking about algorithms, coding and programming. We had a Topic Review this week where parents and carers came into the classroom to discover more about all the great Computing learning that has been happening. Here are some of the positive comments:

  • ‘Really excellent covering of the topic- the class enjoyed it and they were encouraged to participate well.’
  • ‘Really enjoyed this session. It was clear the children had learnt a lot and were so engaged.’
  • ‘It is a great topic. Totally encourage the use of technology for education.’

This term has also seen the start of our new Design Technology: Cooking curriculum. Years 1 and 2 have made overnight oats with fruit and yoghurt; Years 3 and 4 cooked some delicious tomato bruschetta; and Years 5 and 6 have cooked pasta bake with lots of vegetables. Hopefully, they’ll be able to re-create these healthy recipes at home, too! More wonderful creations will take place next term, too.

In recent weeks, some of you may have noticed that Mr Freeman, who teaches in Year 5/6, hasn’t been at school. Mr Freeman has been very poorly and unable to teach but we’re hoping he’ll be well enough to come back at some point in the Summer term. I know the children are missing him very much and I know he’s really missing being at school. We wish him all the best in a speedy recovery. Meanwhile, Miss Wilson (a teacher from Moortown Primary School), Mrs Bald and I are teaching the class in Mr Freeman’s absence.

Next week, we have a few end of term events:

  • Monday 27 March: PTA bake sale after school. Please bring in your donations on Monday morning.
  • Wednesday 29 March: Easter Service 2-2.45pm at St James’ Church.
  • Friday 31 March: PTA Easter Hunt (this is in school time and just the children will be involved).

Finally, thanks to everyone who responded to the survey about class trips which closed at 12 noon today – we had over 260 responses from the three Sphere Federation schools. We’ll be reviewing the responses which will help inform how we develop a long-term plan for the trips.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.