Author: Mr Roundtree

Fab feedback

At St James’ CE Primary, we’re always keen to welcome professionals beyond our own school to provide an additional ‘pair of eyes’, to provide an external view on how we’re improving. This is obviously even more important following the Ofsted judgement of ‘requires improvement’ (March 2017).

One of the people who has visited throughout the year is our School Improvement Advisor (SIA). At the end of June, he visited again and we’ve received his report – it makes for really encouraging reading. Here are some extracts:

It is the view of the SIA that the school has made significant strides from the March 2017 Ofsted RI [‘requires improvement’] outcome…St James’ C of E Primary is now a good school. The Executive Headteacher communicates a clear vision for the school. He quickly and effectively [improved the quality of teaching] and the result is a more harmonious, effective and dynamic workforce. The appointment of an effective Head of School has been instrumental in improving relationships within the school, with parents and the school’s profile in the wider community.

The federation has benefited each of the three schools involved – allowing the sharing of good practices, CPD [continuing professional development], leadership development and moderation.

Since inspection in 2017, the SIA has noted dramatic improvements in the quality of teaching… Subsequently, productivity, higher levels of presentation and standards in pupil’s books have improved significantly.

As the learning walk evidenced, teachers have high expectations of pupils’ behaviour. The simple yet effective approach of teachers counting down from 3 to gain pupil’s attention is consistent across the school; subsequently, there is very little learning time lost. On this visit, even on a hot sunny day near to the end of a busy school year, pupils responded well to teacher instruction and were keen to engage in the learning activities set. Good teacher modelling of learning allied to systems of drafting and editing and peer-to-peer review and feedback all contribute to improvements in teaching and learning over time. Further to this, as evidenced at an earlier visit, pupils are able to verbalise how their school has improved over time. They are confident to talk about their learning and on how the feedback from teachers enables them to improve their work and understanding further.

Thank you to everyone who have supported and encouraged us this year as we continue to improve.

Summer support

The long holidays can be a tricky time for families. The extended services team (EPOSS) have organised two drop-ins for parents / carers – an opportunity to come in and chat with the team about any difficulties, ask advice or look at problem solving together, to try and help the holidays be an enjoyable time for all the family. Or, just a chance to have some adult
conversation and a cuppa!

There’s no need to make an appointment. Just drop in at any time during the session.

  • Friday 10 August, 10.00am – 12 noon, Wetherby Children’s Centre
  • Friday 17 August, 10.00am – 12pm noon, Boston Spa Children’s Centre

The day the classroom quit!

This fortnight, we have been reading The Day the Crayons Quit.

In this story, Duncan comes into the classroom and discovers his crayons have quit for various reasons. Red Crayon is tired of colouring strawberries, Santas and fire engines; Orange Crayon and Yellow Crayon are fighting over who is the true colour of the sun; Blue Crayon is used too much so it short and stubby and Grey Crayon is fed up of colour such big animals like Hippos and Whales.

This week, we have written our own stories pretending to be different items from the classroom that quit. The children came up with some really imaginative ideas as to why each item might quit. Here is a few examples of our letters to Duncan.

     

29 June 2018

This week’s homework is practice makes perfect and is due on Thursday 05 July.

I can write a set of instructions.

This week is sports week and we are looking at all of the ways we can be healthy. One of those ways is moving. Children are recommended to do 60 minutes of exercise a day – 30 minutes in school and 30 minutes at home.

Your homework is to write a set of instructions for a sport/game of your choice. You can choose any sport or game as long as it’s active. Such as, football, cricket, netball, tig, stuck in the mud or sharks and fishes.

Don’t forget, instructions need a title, a ‘what you need’ section and a ‘what to do’ section.

Living and Learning: I tell the truth and say sorry if I need to.

Today, we read the story “Tiddler”.  Tiddler the fish makes up stories about why he is late for school, every day. No-one ever believes these stories. One day,  Tiddler is VERY late for school because he has been captured in a fishing net and got lost. Nobody believes his reason for being late to school.
We talked about how if you tell lies nobody will believe you when you tell the truth.
Lilly : “It’s like the boy who cried wolf”.
We also spoke about when we might need to say sorry.
Evie – “If I tell a lie”.
Everybody makes mistakes that might affect or hurt somebody else and it is best to tell the truth and say sorry.
Fleur  – “I’d say I did it … I’d say sorry.”
Jemima – “It’s best if you tell the truth and say sorry”

22 June 2018

This week’s spelling homework is a set of words to learn.

Group 1:

Here is a list of 6 words to learn that all include a suffix ‘ed’ – think about how to spell the root word before you add your suffix. Don’t get tricked out by the ‘ed’ sounding like a ‘t’.

jumped, helped, pushed, looked, washed, worked

Group 2:

Here is a list of 8 words to learn that all include a suffix – think about how to spell the root word before you add your suffix.

jumped, helped, walking, playing, fastest, smartest, taller, higher

Group 3:

Here is a list of 10 words to learn that all include a suffix – think about how to spell the root word before you add your suffix.

delightful, cheerful, sadly, strangely, entertainment, enjoyment, safely, bravely, painless, harmless

Fabulous Library Visit!

Yesterday afternoon, Year 1 and 2 visited Wetherby Library. Have a look at some of the comments the children made and the pictures of them using the library. They were much more confident in how to use the library this time and more focussed on choosing books that suited/interested them.

Ellie – The library trip was great. I got one of my favourite books called ‘I’ll never let you go’.

Lilly – It was fun walking down the library and getting a Harry Hill’s book.

Jack – I like going to the library because I saw a book that I liked about Kart Racing and Mr Wicks liked it too

Harley – It was really fun and I picked a book about fires, police and bees.

Joe – I like going to the library because there are so many books that I would like to get from there.

Daisy-Mae – I liked going to the library because I found some Beast Quest books and I got to get a Molly Broomstick book. I saw a book about a clown but there were no words in it so I think it would be a good book to make up my own words for the story.

Living and Learning – I can share and include others

This week’s living and learning statement is “I can share and include others”. We talked about what sharing means and how we can include others, both in the classroom and at home.

Have a look at some of our ideas for how we can share and include others.

Jacob: “If somebody said somebody else couldn’t play with them, I would say ‘do you want to play with me?'”.
Willow (talking about if somebody was on their own in the playground): ” You could go up to them and ask them if they want to play”.
Brooklyn: “Including others is saying yes when somebody wants to play”.
Lily: “If somebody was lonely and you said ‘do you want to play?’ they wouldn’t be lonely any more”.

15 June 2018

This week’s homework is a practice makes perfect. We have been learning to tell the time this week.

Year 1 have been learning to tell the time to o’clock and half past (on an analogue clock).

Year 2 have been learning to tell the time to 5-minute intervals (on an analogue clock).

Have a look at Class Clock and play some of the games to practice telling times.