Author: Miss Beatson

Today, we welcomed the Mayor of Wetherby, Councillor Neil O’Byrne, to St James’ . The Junior Leadership Team joined the Mayor as he officially opened our new woodland area. The Mayor has donated £100 towards our wonderful forest school which has paid for resources such as hammocks, gloves, rakes and much more. It has been our second week of forest school and the children are having a fantastic time learning outdoors.

Thank you to the PTA for their continued support with this great initiative and thank you to the Mayor of Wetherby for his support and kind donation.

Thank you to everybody who donated to Comic Relief today. We raised £76 for the charity.

Yesterday, we celebrated World Book Day by doing lots of fun reading activities. We had a teacher swap session where teachers went to read to different classes; we had a class swap where the older children went to read with younger children; parents in Nursery and Reception were invited into school to read with their child; and children brought in their favourite bedtime book to read with their friends. Each child was given a £1 book voucher to spend in bookstores or supermarkets.

Today is Safer Internet Day–  a worldwide event that is celebrated each year in February to raise awareness of online issues. This year’s theme is ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’. 

We’ve been celebrating how great the internet is and talking about our favourite things to do online. We’ve also been exploring online issues and how to deal with them. Some of these issues include online bullying, fake news, scams, and seeing things that make us feel scared or uncomfortable.

In Foundation, they’ve been reading the story Penguin Pig by Stuart Spendlow. It’s a wonderful story with key messages which reinforce staying safe online.

Years 1 and 2 joined together this afternoon to play games in the hall which involved discussing different online scenarios and what to do in different situations.

Years 3 and 4 explored a website  all about staying safe online. They found out about age appropriate websites, games and apps. Quite a few children were surprised to find out that Tik Tok has an age rating of 13+.

This afternoon, I watched an engaging lesson in Years 5 and 6, where the children were reading online messages on a gaming platform which showed an example of online bullying. The children were excellent at identifying why the messages were an act of bullying. They then had to re-write the messages making sure they were positive and kind.

The key message for all our children today has been to tell a trusted adult if they feel unsafe, unhappy or uncomfortable online. It would be great if you can continue these conversations at home, too.

Each week, we’re having an attendance competition. The class with the highest attendance percentage wins a class reward. Since the start of Spring term, Reception, Year 1 and Year 5/6 have all won the competition. Let’s see if Year 2, Year 3 or Year 4 can win next week!

Thank you to the adults who were able to attend our topic review on Friday. It was an opportunity to see the classes recapping on knowledge they’ve learned in our recent history and art topics. Here are some of the comments made by those who visited:

“What a lovely classroom and teacher. The children all seemed so happy and engaged which was so lovely to see.”

“The children listened well and it was interesting to watch.”

“I enjoyed watching all the children working in teams and sharing their knowledge. It gave a good insight into what happens in class.”

The next opportunity to see learning in action will be on Thursday 26 January at 9am.

Thank you for all your donations today- we raised £103 for Children in Need.