This week’s spellings are the days of the week. Each day we write down the date along with our learning objective so it’s a good idea to know how to spell these words accurately:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Author: Mr Roundtree
This week’s message (Friday 09 September 2022)
We’re sad to note the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II. She demonstrated and represented important values and behaviours. In school today, we have marked this historic moment with a special assembly and teachers have followed this up with a review and reflection in class.
Our first weekly message of the year continues with some important information for the year ahead at St James’ CE Primary School…
Dates for the year
Key dates for the school year are in our school calendar. We’ve prepared this list for you to print out and have ready to check, too.
Support your child at home
Like last year, we’re hosting a series of Zoom presentations to help you support your child’s learning at home – the first one is this Monday.
The invitation is open to all parents and carers across Sphere Federation, although we’ve indicated if the session might be more appropriate for particular age ranges. The full list of presentations are:
- Phonics and early reading: 12 September 2022
- Story telling: 19 September 2022 (Mrs Payne here at St James’ CE Primary will read a story over Zoom for your child and you to enjoy – the session is ideal for children in Reception, but children in Year 1 and 2 are welcome to join, too.)
- Number (KS1): 03 October 2022
- Number (KS2): 10 October 2022
- Topic: 07 November 2022
- Reading and Writing: 14 November 2022
- Online safety: 28 November 2022
- Key Stage 2 SATs: 09 January 2023 (This one is mainly for parents of Y6 children.)
- Key Stage 1 SATs: 27 February 2023 (This one is mainly for parents of Y2 children.)
- Reception to Year 1 transition: 19 June 2023 (This one is for parents of Reception children.)
All the sessions are at 6pm on Mondays and should last around 30 minutes.
If you’re interested in attending any of these Zoom workshops, please either send us a message on the School Gateway app or email the school office. We’ll then email the Zoom joining details out to all those who have expressed an interest.
Homework
Your child’s first homework task is published today.
Homework is an important part of education and gives you a chance to support your child and find out what they’ve been learning. This doesn’t need to be sitting at home with a stack of worksheets or creating an elaborate project: quality time talking to your child and practising basic skills is enough.
Today, we’ve given each child a new homework book. The book is for your child to practise spellings, writing, times tables and number facts. It doesn’t need to be sent back to school.
This homework guide sets out what we expect children to do and why. Reading, spellings, times tables and number facts are essential for all children to be confident with. The focus of your support at home should be ideally around these areas. Your comments in the Reading Record book (at least once a week) are really helpful for your child’s teacher.
As always, contact school if you have any questions or concerns.
Children settled into the new school year really well this week. It’s likely they’ll feel tired after a busy week back. Have a restful, happy and healthy weekend.
09 September 2022
Vocabulary is the focus of this week’s Talk Time.
We’ve just begun a new Science topic and with it comes new Science vocabulary.
This half-term, we’re all biologists, learning specifically about Living Things and their Habitats. 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 Biology vocabulary:
| alive | a living thing; not dead |
| dead | no longer alive |
| habitat | the place where an animals or plant lives |
| basic needs | the things that a plant or animal need to live |
| food chain | shows who eats who in a habitat. |
| predator | An animal that hunts and eats other animals |
| prey | An animal that is eaten by another animal |
Years 3 and 4 Biology vocabulary:
| vertebrate | an animal with a backbone |
| invertebrate | an animal without a backbone |
| warm-blooded | animals that can control their body temperature (birds and mammals) |
| cold- blooded | animals that cannot control their body temperature; their body temperature changes with the air or water temperature (all animals except birds and mammals) |
| organism | a living thing, animal or plant |
| insect | an invertebrate with six legs |
| classification key | a set of questions about the characteristics of organisms; used to identify a living thing or decide which group a living thing belongs to. |
| environmental danger | something that can threaten a habitat |
Years 5 and 6 Biology vocabulary:
| taxonomy | The science of naming, describing and classifying organisms |
| organism | a living thing, animal or plant |
| kingdom | The highest division in the classification system; there are five kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, protists, monera) |
| flora | Living things that are plants |
| fauna | Living things that are animals |
| bacteria | Single-celled organisms; most or which can only be seen with a microscope |
| fungi | Organisms that can feed on the remains of other living things; can be single-celled or multi-celled (eg mushroom, yeast, mould) |
| micro-organism | An organism that can only be seen through a microscope |
Some of these words have been introduced already this week but there may be others that are going to be covered in the coming weeks.
Welcome to Year 1!
What a fantastic day Year 1 had! The children came into school really well and were happy in their new classroom. They enjoyed learning in the provision areas and having a go at the challenges set.
They wowed the grown-ups with their fantastic reading and phonics skills and, in the afternoon, enjoyed their first science lesson all about living and non-living objects.
Have a look at our super learning below.
A warm welcome from Early Years
We’re so excited to start our transition into Reception Class on Wednesday 07 September. Everyone has been working hard to create a wonderful learning place in Reception and Nursery.
We cannot wait to see everyone very soon!
Welcome back…
…to Year 4!
We hope you’ve had a happy and healthy and safe summer holiday! Mrs Freeman and I are super excited to welcome you back to the new school year. The classroom is prepped, pencils are sharpened and your books are labelled ready for loads of learning!
This year, Mrs Freeman will be in school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Mrs Valentine will be in school Thursday and Friday. We’ve both known each other for years so we’re looking forward to being a team again. Miss Rigley will also be a part of the Year 4 team, too!
Can’t wait to see you all!
Our annual survey 2022
Every year, we invite you to complete an annual survey of parents and carers. Thank you to the 22 people who completed this year’s survey.
Most of the questions we asked were based on those that Ofsted use for their Parent View. This gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think about your child’s school, from the quality of teaching to dealing with bullying and poor behaviour.
We’re delighted that the statements prompted very good responses: the following questions all had a 100% opinion outcome:
- Is your child happy at school?
- Does your child feel safe at school?
- Does St James’ CE Primary make sure its pupils are well-behaved?
- Do we make you aware of what your child learns during the year?
- Does St James’ have high expectations for your child?
- Is your child doing well at school?
- Is there a good range of subjects available to your child?
- Does St James’ CE Primary promote its Christian ethos effectively?
- Our vision is to be a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. Overall, do we achieve this?
- Would you recommend this school to another parent?
The other questions we asked typically had a positive response rate of 95%.
We asked if you’re aware of bullying at the school. The vast majority of respondents were not aware. However, there was a small minority who said they were. Our definition of bullying is Several Times On Purpose and our solution is Start Telling Other People. Please do make sure you alert us about any concerns you may have.
We asked if you’ve ever had to raise a concern. We’re pleased that the vast majority who had raised something replied that it was dealt with well – ‘On both occasions my concerns were acknowledged within a very short space of time’ and ‘The teacher was great at explaining and helping’ were typical comments. As always, please do make sure you raise concerns – your child’s class teacher is usually around at the end of the day.
The last question was an open-ended one: we invited any comments you may have. There were 12 comments here, and the majority of these were positive – thank you.
[My daughter] has really developed and has thrived in the warm atmosphere and kind yet high expectations of the teaching staff.
I am particularly impressed at how the older children feel a sense of responsibility for the younger students, all the way down through the academic years.
Both my children and I love this school. The staff are wonderful and so caring. I feel the communications are excellent and the children have fantastic opportunities to develop and grow. I appreciate Miss Beatson being present on the school gates each week.
We’re keen to keep improving. We’ll review the suggestions, which included comments about uniform (introduce a polo shirt colour?). We’ll also make sure staff are aware of the praise they’ve earned.
Thank you to those parents / carers who completed the survey.
As always, please contact us with any questions, comments and concerns during the school year.
Have you entered our Summer competition yet?
Stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you…
We want to see your pics of hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a walk in woods or a play on the beach might include creating a smiley face, for example! Here’s our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…
…but we’re sure you can do better!
Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…). (Just avoid obvious and intended smiling faces like the ones featured in the Breeze list of summer dates from last week’s message – they’re too easy to spot!)
To enter, email your pics to stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 09 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.
All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.
Our Summer competition
We’re a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe!
Over the Summer weeks, we want you all at home to stay alert to happy and healthy faces all around you… and take a pic of any hidden smiley faces in your surroundings: a day out at the beach might include creating a smiley face, for example! Here’s our suggestion (look for the smiling face!)…
…but we’re sure you can do better!
Look out for things around you that show a hidden smiley face – a happy and healthy face – or encourage your child to create their own from things around them (pebbles, leaves, Lego…). (Just avoid obvious and intended smiling faces like the ones featured in the Breeze list of summer dates from last week’s message – they’re too easy to spot!)
To enter, email your pics to stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 09 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject.
All entries will be displayed in a happy and healthy display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.
Goodbye, Year 6!
A huge well done to all of the children in Year 6.
Everyone at St James’ is so proud of all you’ve achieved in your time here and we wish you all the best as you start the next chapter at high school.