Class News

The Magic Paintbrush

Posted on Sunday 02 February 2025 by Emma Kendrew

This week our focus book has been The Magic Paintbrush by Julia Donaldson.

We talked about what we would paint if we had a magic paintbrush and wrote down our ideas.

 

We’ve be learning about Lunar New Year and have enjoyed making our own dragon in the workshop area that we showed in our whole school celebration assembly on Friday. We’ve also used our funky fingers to make snakes to mark the start of the year of the snake.

Poetry Picnic

Each week, we will be learning a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. This week’s poem is A Little House.

I’m going to build a little house,
With windows big and bright,
And chimneys tall with curling smoke,
Drifting out of sight.
In winter when the snowflakes fall,
Or when I hear a storm,
I’ll go and sit in my little house,
Where I’ll be snug and warm.

We also recited this in our assembly and impressed the whole school with our wonderful prosody.

Phonics

Spring 1 week 2  has focused on our final sounds of phase 3: air, er

We’ve learnt the tricky words; are, sure, pure

Tricky words are words that should be read by sight

Have a happy and healthy week and  thank you as always for your support.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Mrs. Small and Mr. Smith.

Writing – Diary entries

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Rachael Poole

We’ve really enjoyed writing our diary entries this week! We’ve been bringing our learning about volcanoes from Geography into our writing by writing a diary entry about the day a volcano erupted. We’ve been using expanded noun phrases to provide a detailed description and conjunctions to join clauses.

Elara was really proud of her writing, particularly when she reviewed it against the R2s (things we need to do to be successful.)

Elara’s writing skills continued to amaze me when the next day she wrote another diary entry. We will be editing and self-assessing these next week but you can already see how she has used more conjunctions and expanded noun phrases in the initial draft of the second diary entry.  This time she also used her dictionary skills to correct her spelling mistakes.

Check back next week to see some more of our formidable writing!

Maths

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Jamie Kilner

Arithmetic

We have been working really hard on our arithmetic skills in Year 5 and 6 and our confidence is really improving. As a result, we are seeing our scores steadily improve. We have seen many personal best scores today and the children have been very giddy and eager to share. Well done everyone!

Help at home – please encourage your child to go on Times Tables Rock Stars.

Cross Country!

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Mr Freeman

Over 40 of our Key Stage Two pupils recently took part in the East Leeds Cross Country Competition. From Year 3 races of 900m, to Years 5 and 6 running a whopping 1500m, these tough tasks were met with enthusiasm and brilliant attitudes from the children at St James. Every single child managed to finish their race, showing resilience and determination throughout. I was really impressed with how well children conducted themselves – they were brilliant role models for our school. Finally, a huge congratulations to one of our runners, Lily, who has qualified for the next round of the competition by finishing 6th in her race!

Comparing Numbers to 20 in Year one!

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Ellie Bye

In Year One, the children have been mastering how to compare numbers up to 20 using greater than, less than, and equal to. They are now able to confidently organise their own number lines and describe numbers in different ways! This helps them understand number order and comparisons clearly.

Help at home:

  • Try using everyday items like blocks, toys, or snacks. Ask questions such as, “Which is more: 6 cookies or 9 cookies?” or “Is 14 greater than 7?”
  • Encourage your child to draw their own number lines to practice comparing numbers.
  • Play a game where you describe a number: “I’m thinking of a number greater than 15 but less than 17. What number am I thinking of?”

Reading – Sequencing and Summarising

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Mr Nash

In reading and writing, our focus text is Flooded by Spanish author and illustrator, Mariajo Ilustrajo.

We’ve really enjoyed this text, exploring the key themes by asking questions and making connections.

A theme is a big idea or message.

Flooded is a funny tale of animals in a slowly flooding city. Behind the humorous story and illustrations, there’s an important message. Flooded touches on themes of environmental crisis and responsibility, as well as the power of community, and working together to fix a problem.

We’ve used the text to practise our summarising skills – summarising is retelling a story in your own words.

The children impressed me with their skills, sequencing pictures from the story and writing a summarising sentence for each.

 

Help at home by inviting your child to summarise Flooded. Can they tell you about the key themes? Try sequencing and summarising events in a different text. What happened first? What next? What happened at the end?

 

Heavier Or Lighter?

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Miss Gledhill

This week, we have been thinking about weight.

We have been comparing objects in our classroom and using the words ‘heavier’ and ‘lighter’ to describe them.

Sometimes, we were tricked! Some of us thought that the biggest object might be the heaviest. We now know, that’s not always the case!

Help at home: Can you compare some objects that you have? Which feels heavier and lighter when you feel them?

Living and learning: I know how to seek help.

Posted on Friday 31 January 2025 by Mr Freeman

This week, our living and learning statement is:

I know how to seek help.

In our weekly circle times, we always refer to ways we can seek help. I am really impressed with how well the children remember and use these systems – this ensures we maintain a happy and healthy classroom environment.

Help at home: Talk through the slide above with your child. Make sure they feel confident enough to use at least one of these strategies if they are worried or in need of help.

Science

Posted on Wednesday 29 January 2025 by Jamie Kilner

Light

This morning, Year 5 and Year 6 carried out an investigation to find out what will happen to our shadow at different times during the day. 

We measured our shadow at 9.40am, 10.40am and 11.40am.

The children really enjoyed the process and recording their results. We found that our shadows were longer earlier in the day as the sun was at a lower angle causing longer shadows to form.

Help at home – How are shadows formed? Light travels in _________ lines. What does opaque mean? How did your child keep themself safe during the investigation?

Topic: Geography

Posted on Tuesday 28 January 2025 by Mrs Palmer

This half-term, we’ve been learning what it means to be geographers! This week, we ventured into our local community to carry out some exciting fieldwork. Before setting off, we talked about how to stay safe during our trip.

Here are some of the safety rules we followed:

  • We wore high-visibility jackets so drivers could easily see us.
  • We stayed with our group and our adult leader at all times.
  • We listened carefully to instructions and only crossed the road when it was safe to do so.

During our fieldwork, we visited four different areas and made observations about noise levels, litter, recycling bins, traffic, how safe we felt and the plants and trees around us. We recorded our findings in a chart using happy, neutral, or sad faces.

Back at school, we analysed our results and wrote a sentence about which place we thought was the best. It’s been a fantastic week of exploring and investigating our community!

Hel

Help at home: Become a Local Geographer!

Encourage your child to observe their surroundings at home.

You can:

  • Go for a short walk and note things like noise levels, litter, plants, and safety features (e.g. crossings or streetlights).
  • Create a simple chart with happy, neutral and sad faces to record their observations.
  • Talk about ways to improve the area, like picking up litter (with gloves!) or adding more plants.

This is a great way to reinforce their learning and show how geography connects to everyday life!