This week’s message is a short one. It starts with a particularly important point…

Staying safe

Did you read this news story this week? We were so sad when we read it.

We’ve a long list of online safety tips but three simple ones to follow are:

• make sure your child is only online in a shared room like the living room or kitchen where there are others around – and that also means have no mobile devices in the bedroom
• talk to your child often about what they’re getting up to online
• check your child’s mobile device regularly, just like you might check on who they’re playing with at the park – why not set an alarm on your phone a couple of times each week to remind you

Online safety has been our Living and Learning theme this week: I know how important it is to make careful choices when online. Each week, check our school calendar for the Living and Learning theme.

Oracy

This half-term, your child will be continuing to practise their oracy skills throughout all of their learning.

Oracy is your ability to communicate and express yourself effectively. It’s about having the vocabulary to be able to say what you want to say and the grammatical awareness to structure your thoughts in a logical way.

Good oracy skills have loads of benefits…

• it increases engagement in learning
• it improves academic outcomes
• it develops wellbeing and confidence
• it equips students to thrive in later life

Help at home…

1. Be an oracy role model: model good speaking and listening skills to your child, and when they’re in ear-shot.
2. Don’t ‘dumb down’ your language: try not to avoid using more complex vocabulary. Instead, use complicated language but then succinctly explain what it means eg succinct means short and quick
3. Complete the talk time homework: these are a great opportunity to have a conversation and model good oracy skills.

Have a happy and healthy weekend – and stay warm!

Thanks for your Children in Need donations this morning – we raised £129.93. The collection bucket will be out again this afternoon.  

As we always do, the message this week – second week of the half-term – is all about our new topic in Key Stage 1 and 2. The message comes from Mr Wilks, who leads Science and foundation subjects across Sphere Federation.

What is this half-term’s topic?

Topics are the vehicle for delivering much of the learning in the foundation subjects (eg History, Art, Geography, Design Technology). This half-term, we’re artists. We’ll develop our art knowledge and skills.

The learning this half-term has two aspects to it:

• art appreciation and history: your child will learn about some specific artists and their work
• art process: your child will practise and develop skills by creating art

Each phase has age-related knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. Please see pages 10 and 11 of the Topic Curriculum Guide.

We’ve also produced an Art Curriculum Guide which gives you more information about how art is taught in school and the different ‘visual and tactile elements’ that pupils will be learning about and using in their lessons.

What’s happening in each phase of school?

Years 1 and 2

Children will learn about two featured artists across the half-term: Georges Seurat and Bridget Riley. They’ll compare their art, talking about similarities and differences. They’ll discuss what they like and dislike about the art and how it makes them feel. They’ll also learn about the artists’ lives and where in the world they lived.

In practical art lessons, children will hone their artistic skills and knowledge by sketching objects using pencil and developing painting skills inspired by Bridget Riley and Georges Seurat.

Years 3 and 4

Children will learn about the work of two architects: Christopher Wren and Zaha Hadid.

They’ll compare and contrast the buildings that these architects designed. They’ll look at the influence of classical Greek architecture on the two architects and look for examples of this in buildings locally and nationally. In practical art sessions, children will develop observational drawing skills, before focussing on creating sketches and drawings of buildings on different media.

Years 5 and 6

Children will learn about and study the work of two designers: William Morris and Orla Kiely.

They’ll look at examples of products that use their designs and then focus on the designs, analysing them using technical vocabulary. They’ll also compare the designs, spotting similarities and differences.

In practical art lessons, children will sketch their own designs inspired by Kiely or Morris. They’ll then create relief prints of their own designs which they’ll turn into a wallpaper design using a design website.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning. The Class News page of our website is a good place to go to find out more about what your child is doing.

Familiarise yourself with the artists and the artwork that your child will be learning about in class. Look in books or on the internet for pieces by the artists and talk about them. Find art by other artists that you like and compare it to the featured artists. If you feel confident, you can go into more depth using the topic-specific vocabulary. However, if not, leave that to the teachers and just enjoy looking at the pieces and asking general questions:

• What do you like or dislike about the art?
• How does the art make you feel?
• What colours can you see?
• Can you spot influence of Greek architecture in buildings (eg columns or pediments)?

The Tate Gallery has a good children’s website with games and activities which children can explore.

If you’re in Leeds, the Leeds Art Gallery and Henry Moore Institute are both free to enter and if your child has already visited during a trip, they can be the tour guide and show you around!

Finally this week…

Next week is Road Safety Week. As the clocks have changed and the nights are darker, the week highlights the importance of road safety. Check out these road safety tips and just look at how important bright clothing is at this time of year…

What a busy week!

Me and My Community week

This week, children have been enthusiastically learning about all things community-related as part of our Me and My Community themed week.

Highlights included some junior leaders visiting Warm Spaces (a volunteer service providing lunch for people in our community), sessions considering stereotypes and diversity, Year 5 children visiting Wetherby’s community radio station Tempo FM to talk about the themed week, and of course a visit from Wetherby’s mayor this morning!

Speak with your child about some of the learning they’ve done this week linked to communities.

There’s another themed week later in the year – Being Healthy.

Our new school charity

Part of our Me and My Community themed week involved the selection of our school charity. Last year, our charity was Leeds Hospitals Charity. This year, the shortlist was selected by the Admin people across Sphere Federation. The six charities were then discussed in class before our new Junior Leadership Team met to agree the final charity.

They’ve selected Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

We’ll raise some money across the year for the charity – the main way will be collections at Christmas and end-of-year performances.

STOP!

• Several Times On Purpose
• Start Telling Other People

Beyond next week, please keep talking about these – one’s a definition of bullying and the other’s a solution. Talk about the differences between falling out and bullying, and between a one-off situation and something that’s happened more than once.

Check out this anti-bullying advice for parents and carers.

…compassion.

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

This half-term, we focus on compassion.

‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.’ Ephesians 4:32

The definition of compassion is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is hurting, in pain, or has misfortune and is accompanied by a strong desire to help the suffering. Christians believe that Jesus is the greatest example of someone with true compassion. Not only did Jesus have compassion and heal people from physical suffering, he also showed the greatest compassion when he died on the cross for our sins.

A Junior Leadership Team member thinks this value is important because, ‘It helps you understand what they’re feeling and how to help them and then makes the school a happier place’.

It’s not always easy to show compassion, especially when we feel like the person deserves their misfortune, but we try to show compassion to all who need it whether they are the same as us or different.

Help at home!

Talk to your child about compassion.

• How can they show sympathy for a friend?
• Is there anyone in school who is very compassionate?
• Talk about a time when you were compassionate or someone was compassionate towards you.

This week’s message is one day early because tomorrow is a training day.

What happens on a training day?

Training days are exactly what they say on the tin – a day jam-packed with training for teachers to make sure they’re all fully skilled and prepared. In recent Ofsted inspection reports, the impact of the training we provide for teachers across Sphere Federation is rated highly:

Teachers have secure subject knowledge… The professional development available for all staff is of high quality, and they appreciate the collaborative support shared among the schools in the federation.

Scholes (Elmet) Primary Ofsted inspection report, 21-22 May

Professional development for all staff is exemplary. Leaders have planned high-quality training.

Moortown Primary Ofsted inspection report, 19-20 March

At the training day tomorrow, teachers from across Sphere Federation will gather for five different learning sessions: phonics teaching; using technology as a teaching aid; gymnastics; Art skills; and Living and Learning.

Talking of Living and Learning…

Living and Learning

‘I use what I’ve learnt in Living and Learning’ was this week’s Living and Learning statement. It’s an opportunity for teachers to return to some of the learning this half-term, including rights and responsibilities, protected characteristics, and democracy. Help at home…

• talk to your child about what they’ve learnt
• check out our Living and Learning Curriculum Guide – page 6 gives you an overview of next half-term’s mental wellbeing theme

As a teacher, one sign of getting old arises when a parent tells you they were in your class as a child. This happened to me the other day. Crazily, I think I’ve still got the tea-towel (now more of a rag, I admit!) with all the pupils’ self-portraits on that the PTA sold back in 2000 or thereabouts. Perhaps I should hunt it down to show his children their dad’s artwork of the time!

This week’s message has four articles: an overview of how we teach Reading in our school, news about the Junior Leadership Team, news about a Leeds competition, and an article linking attendance with social and emotional development.

Reading in our school

At St James’ CE Primary, we teach reading in a variety of ways in order to promote a love of reading, to develop decoding skills and fluency, or to develop specific reading skills. Each element forms our Reading Diet – all the different learning, activities and skills that we do over the week that involve reading.

For children in Reception and Key Stage 1…

Story time is a hugely important part of our Reading Diet. Enjoying books together and listening to an adult read out loud enables children to access texts that they can’t necessarily read themselves. We often ‘narrate’ what we are thinking as we are reading; wondering out loud what a character might be feeling, describing what a word means or what we think might happen next. We also enjoy reading non-fiction (fact) books in this time, too. They’re often linked to our Topic or Science learning and children can listen to and learn new facts that they can share and discuss.

Our daily Phonics lesson is crucial to children’s reading journey. Words are split into phonemes (sounds) that are matched to graphemes (written letters). This helps children break down words (decode) and begin to read. We follow a systematic phonics programme that has a huge amount of built-in practice. Repeating and revisiting sounds and words helps children learn to read quickly and effectively.

Our Reading Practice sessions happen four times per week. They give the children repeated opportunities to read the same book at least four times, developing their phonics skills. They’re also used to develop decoding skills, fluency, prosody (expression) and comprehension throughout the week. The books are matched to the child’s secure phonic knowledge so they should be reading fluently and with increasing pace as they progress through the books. The fifth session of the week involves a visit to the school library where children can choose a book to share at home and to promote their love of reading.

Our Daily Poem gives us an opportunity to really celebrate our love of reading. We choose all different sorts of poems. Children really enjoy trying to memorise it over the course of the week or read it with the teacher by the end of the week – especially if it’s a funny or silly one!s

For children in Key Stage 2…

Reading is still a big feature right across Key Stage 2. Each class has dedicated Class Novel time where children enjoy simply being read to and discussing language. We develop fluency by reading the same short text again and again over the course of the week. To develop specific skills, Reading Skills lessons happen four times a week and often include learning in other subjects, too. Every class visits the library once a week so make sure you check in with their child about their current choice. Children enjoy a weekly Book Club where they enjoy some relaxed independent reading and complete a directed activity.

Help at home by reading every day with your child for around ten minutes and discuss the words and phrases the writer has used and what they mean. If a child is read a story or book daily, by the time they are 5, they’ll have heard approximately 296,660 words – imagine how many more words a child will have heard by the time they’re 7, 11…!

Junior Leadership Team

‘I take part in democratic decisions’ has been our Living and Learning statement this week. This is in readiness for next week, when we have our annual Junior Leadership Team elections.

Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in school life. The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy.

This week’s whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections next Thursday (24 October).

We’ve been asked by a parent to publicise Recycle Week…

Rescue Me – Recycle!

Did you know it’s Recycle Week?

It’s not too late for your child to get involved by designing a Leeds Recycling Superhero! They can create their very own recycling hero and show everyone how to see recyclable items as treasures, not trash.

And for the rest of us, it might be worth reminding ourselves of what we can recycle here in Leeds. The latest Recycle Now research shows that about nine out of ten people regularly recycle, but nearly eight out of ten of us put one or more items into the rubbish bin that could have been recycled. (Did you know we can now recycle glass in our green bins?)

Finally this week, the first of a series of messages about what a child misses if they’re absent for a prolonged time. We know children are sometimes ill and have to spend time out of school – that’s inevitable – but if we factor in regular holidays, children really struggle…

If your child was absent for five days in a row…

…they’d miss out on loads of opportunities to develop their social and emotional skills. They’d miss out on at least 5-6 hours of pure social time at playtimes and lunchtimes – time to play and chat with their friends. This is time when children can stay physically active, and also time when they learn to interact – making friends, choosing games to play, agreeing and learning to disagree. This is all valuable time to develop confidence, resilience and simply to have fun!

The impact of low attendance…

• Children who miss school miss out on not only learning and education, but also spending time with other children and friends, which helps with developing social and emotional skills.
• Children who miss school more than others can find it difficult to keep friendships.
• Children who stay away from school tend to struggle more with their mental health later on.

By going to school, children can meet with their friends for social and emotional development and not become isolated at home.

Being in school is important to your child’s academic achievement, wellbeing, and wider development.  There is evidence to suggest that regular school attendance is a key mechanism to support children and young people’s educational, economic and social outcomes. Schools can facilitate positive peer relationships, which is a contributes to better mental health and wellbeing.

(DfE Education Hub, September 2023)

Most of this week’s message is about our first themed week of the year…

Me and my community themed week 

Our next whole school themed week is all about identity, diversity and community. It takes place in the week beginning Monday 04 November. This is the first of two themed weeks in the year.

Children will learn about what it means to belong to a community, from family to national or even international communities. Importantly, our children will also learn to respect and celebrate different communities. A variety of events and visitors are planned to help us deliver this key aspect of our Living and Learning education.

Events and learning during the week will include looking at our own identity including belonging and self-esteem, diversity of people around us including race, age, religion and disability, and children will also be getting out into the community, working with local organisations and taking pride in the local area for example by litter picking.

Active travel in the community

We encourage children to get out in the community in an active way on their way to and from school, with prizes available as part of the themed week. By walking/scooting/biking to school, families will be keeping our community safer and healthier by reducing congestion at the school gate. Maybe even pick up a piece of litter on the way! Even by parking further away from school your child could then do the final part of their journey by foot, bike or scooter. Bike and scooter storage facilities are available on the school grounds.

Email us (stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org) a picture of your active travel, maybe by a landmark in our community on your route to school, for the chance to win one of four vouchers. Entries to be submitted by noon on Friday 08 November.  

New school charity

During the themed week, classes will have the chance to discuss our charity shortlist*. After class discussions, the Junior Leadership Team will have the final vote for which charity they’d like our school to support, replacing our current charity, The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund.

*This year, we’ve invited all the Sphere Federation admin staff to suggest a charity each.

Can you help?

Maybe you speak another language and you’d be happy to speak to children about this or you’d like to share about your own family culture and heritage. If so, please contact the office to pass on your details. Also, do you have any local community links that may support our week?

Governor election outcome

Thank you if you voted in the recent parent governor elections.

Mr Craig Barker will become the new Parent Governor when Mr Matt Hick’s term of office ends on 19 November 2024. Mr Barker’s period as governor is 4 years from 20 November 2024. His appointment is subject to satisfactory DBS checks.

Please remember…

We’ve two policies that are especially important for you to remember. The first is our Uniform Policy – please make sure you check it out, especially details about what to wear on PE days, what jewellery is allowed, and typing back long hair, too. The other is our Attendance Policy – this is important because it reflects recent national changes around penalty fines for unauthorised absence.

Finally this week, a reminder well in advance… Our parent-teacher meetings will be on Tuesday and Thursday in the last week of the term. Please save the date!

Watch us while we work

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Watch Us While we Work session – it was great to see so many of you. And thanks if you found the time to fill in our online feedback form – here’s one of the comments:

It was really useful to see the teaching of times tables and how to make practising it fun. All the children were engaged and interested.

We take your feedback really seriously. One thing we’re often asked is whether we can organise this differently to help children who are in different year groups. We’ll keep exploring whether this would work, but in the meantime, do remember to next Watch Us While We Work session on Thursday 23 January.

Class trips

Previously, you’ve told us you’re keen for class trips to happen. We value trips as a way to enrich learning and broaden children’s learning experiences. Our list of the main trips we’ve got planned are on page 4 of our Topic Curriculum Guide (but please remember we sometimes have to re-arrange or even cancel based on availability, or reluctantly if we don’t receive enough in voluntary donations).

 

The rest of this week’s message comes from our Writing Curriculum Leader…

Spellings

By now, you’ll be familiar with the homework arrangements. Every week in Key Stage 1, or every half-term in Key Stage 2, your child is given a set of spellings to learn as part of their homework.

But why? They’ll probably just use autocorrect on their computer or tablet when they’re older, won’t they? You, like many others, might have found yourself asking these same questions. And, to an extent, there’s some truth in this.

However, we believe spelling is a really important life-skill that is crucial to your child’s success in education. We find that children who can spell more accurately feel more confident about their writing – and we want all our children to feel proud and confident of their learning.

Also, research shows us that thinking about spellings takes up a large part of your working memory when writing (or typing). This means that if you’re able to have to think less about spelling, you’ve more brain power to think about other things: word choice, thinking creatively or pitching your written communication at the right level for your reader.

Help at home by helping your child learn their spellings. This doesn’t need to be for long and it doesn’t need to be boring. Here are some practical tips for effectively learning spellings at home…

• Ask your child to spell their words on the way to school, driving to the shops or walking the dog
• Use some ideas from our Super Spelling Strategies to make learning spellings more creative
• Place the words on Post-It notes around the house so your child is reading them regularly
• Practise them whilst doing something active (throwing a ball, kicking a football, playing tennis etc)
• Most importantly of all, remember that little and often is much more effective than one big session: five minutes every day will lead to much better outcomes than one 30 minute session each week

If you’d like any help about how to support your child with their writing, please speak to their class teacher.

Next week, we’ve the school photographer in to take individual pics (the class pic is taken later in the year. There’s also a Reception Stay and Learn session. Have a good weekend.

This week’s Living and Learning message is a great one to think about at home: I know that rights come with responsibilities…

• At school for example, children have the right to play, and that comes with the responsibility to play alongside others safely and respectfully.
• Think about this at home. For example, in your house, it might be that your child has the right to be online, but the responsibility to be online for a limited amount of time each day.

Food in school

This week, we want to flag up a page on our website you perhaps don’t visit much – Food in school. This page has lots of information about school dinners (including the current menu), free school meals and packed lunches.

• We’ve a general policy on food in school, setting out some key points, including the importance of water and we don’t allow birthday foods.
• If your child has school dinners, please check out whether they may be entitled to free school meals.
• If your child has a packed lunch, have a look at our packed lunch guidance.

On the subject of food in school, don’t forget to alert us to any allergies that your child may have.

Staying healthy…

Last week, we mentioned the West Yorkshire NHS website Healthier Together, launched to provide consistent advice from local health and care professionals.

Linked to this, check out this guide to keeping your child healthy from the UK Health Security Agency.

…for good attendance

It’s worth thinking about what your child might miss if they were absent for five days in a row…

For younger children learning to read, they’d miss five, half an hour phonics lessons – that’s a full two and half hours of phonics teaching. In this time, they’d miss out on learning four new graphemes (eg ay, ou, oi, ea) and practising reading and writing these in words and in sentences. They’d miss learning up to four new tricky words, too. Your child would also miss valuable time to practise the previous week’s graphemes and developing fluency in reading words containing those sounds. As well as the phonics lessons, your child would miss four reading practice group sessions and would not have the time to read and re-read the physical book in school. In these sessions, we develop fluency, prosody and comprehension. They’d also miss the library session and not be able to choose a new book to take home.

Before deciding to keep your child at home, remember to check this NHS site: Is my child too ill for school?

Governor recruitment

We’ve had two expressions of interest from parents who are interested in joining our Governing Board. This means we now have an election. Please take a couple of minutes to read each of the two candidates’ written statement and make your vote. Thank you.

 

Finally, a couple of reminders…

We’ve another Watch Us While We Work session next week – Tuesday morning. This is the first of two opportunities in the year to see some Maths and Reading being taught in school so that you can support your child at home.

We’ve also a Coffee Morning for parents of children in Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2). This is the first of two coffee mornings in the year. (We’ve another coming up soon for Key Stage 2 parents – Wednesday 20 November.)

See you next week!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this sunny week – this Indian summer.

Our Living and Learning theme has been a simple one this week: ‘I use good manners’. At school, this can mean greeting people politely (including adults as they arrive at school), saying please and thank you, and avoiding interrupting. Have a chat with your child about what it means at home, too.

Cooking

Over the course of the year, your child will enjoy three opportunities to prepare food…

• Year 1 and 2: fruit smoothies, overnight oats, and fruit bars
• Year 3 and 4: egg pots, chopped tomatoes and garlic, and savoury scones
• Year 5 and 6: vegetable and chickpea curry, pasta bake, and bread

We’ve a couple of requests, please:

Most importantly, please alert us to any allergies your child has. We’ll do our best to adapt recipes.

To make sure that we can continue to offer this, please make a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. We really appreciated your donations last year.

For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year B this year.)

Relationships and Sex Education

At the start of each year, we like to encourage you to be aware of our Relationships and Sex Education Policy. Later in the year, your child will have Relationships and Sex Education lessons. In those lessons, we’ll talk about anatomical terms and different relationships. However, we might need to use the terms at other times, such as when dealing with incidents of misuse or disrespectful language, and we’ll talk about lots of different relationships at any time of the year, too.

How we communicate home

Another thing we like to do at the start of the year is help you be aware of how we communicate home. Findings from our annual survey of parents and carers indicate the vast majority of you are happy with how we communicate, but we’re also aware of a small number of you who are less content. We do our best to stick to the following…

Texts

Anything urgent (such as the cancellation of an after-school club) or a quick reminder about something (like the photographer being in school) will be sent by text. If you have the School Gateway app, it might be useful to set it so you receive notifications of messages. Texts will automatically be sent to your app.

Emails

Our emails will usually be a longer message about one specific thing. We’re moving away from sending out hard copies of most letters (it’s better for the environment to send things electronically and things don’t always get to you if they’re sent home in book bags). Please try to check your emails daily, so you don’t miss anything important.

Weekly messages

Just like this one, our Weekly Messages usually contain more general information. They might include reminders, such as forthcoming events or policy details, but will mainly consist of other information that you might find useful. Usually, they’re published on the school website on Friday afternoons and emailed out a little later the same day.

Class news

For anything relevant to your child’s class, please check the Class News pages of the website (we recommend doing this at least once a week). Nursery and Reception classes use these pages a lot because there are often forthcoming events specific to the Early Years.

Homework

For children in Key Stage 1 and 2, your child should bring home a hard copy of their weekly homework, but you’ll also be able to find it on the Homework section of the website. (There’s no specific homework set for children in Nursery and Reception, but read the Class News articles for lots of ideas to help you support your child at home.)

Social media

Finally, we have Facebook. Messages on here are usually repeats of other communications, such as our Weekly Messages. Nothing urgent or particularly important will be posted only on social media because we know that not everyone accesses these things.

Healthier together

We’ve been asked to let you know about West Yorkshire NHS website Healthier Together.

The initiative was launched to provide families, children and young people with consistent, quality advice from local health and care professionals.

September can be a time when there are more common infections and illnesses amongst children. It’s important that families become familiar with different illnesses (fever, coughs, asthma, bronchiolitis, gastroenteritis…) and how to manage them ahead of the new school year.

And on that note, have a happy and healthy weekend, hopefully enjoying the last of the Indian summer!