PE

We are so lucky here at St James’ that we have so many super sportspeople. The children in Year 6 have already been showing excellent progress in football this half term and are really enthusiastic in each lesson we have. This week, we worked on our fitness and spoke about how improved fitness can positivity impact us.

Help at home – Encourage your child to keep fit at home: this may be a walk/run or some exercises in the home (sit-ups or jumping jacks). Talk about why keeping fit and looking after their body is important.

Writing: What is a squashed sentence?

We have noticed that many of us sometimes write ‘squashed sentences’. This is very common! A squashed sentence happens when two sentences are joined together without a full stop or a joining word.

Here’s how we fix them:

1. Use a full stop and start a new sentence with a capital letter.

2. Add a conjunction like and, or, so, but, because to join the sentence properly.

For example:

• Squashed sentence: I went to the park I saw my friend.

• Fixed with a full stop: I went to the park. I saw my friend.

• Fixed with a conjunction: I went to the park and I saw my friend.

Remember, fixing squashed sentences makes your writing clearer and easier to read! Keep practising, Year 3!

Help at  home: Come up with your own squashed sentence and fix it with a full stop or conjunction.

Our class novel

This term, our class novel is Podkin One-Ear by Kieran Larwood, and we have loved diving into the magical world of rabbits, warrens, and adventures! The story has already captured our imaginations, and we can’t wait to see what happens next.

We have also been practising one of our key reading skills: retrieval. This means finding information directly from the text to help us answer questions. As part of this, we looked carefully at the description of the Bard and used words from the story to describe him. Afterwards, we drew our own versions of the Bard, bringing the character to life with the details we found.

Help at home: Choose a character from a book, find words from the text to describe them, and use these words to help you draw the character.

Our Class Family

It has been a lovely week to welcome all the children to their first full day sessions. The children have continued to explore all the areas of provision inside and outside nursery. The children have been getting to know each other and familiarising themselves with their new surroundings and grown-ups!

Bags, Wellies and Spare Clothes

Don’t forget to bring in your school wellies and a draw string or small bag of spare cloths/underwear to keep in school. Thank you to the parents and carers who have already provided these.

Family Photo

We will soon be talking and learning about different families. To support our learning, please send in a photo of your child with their family. You can bring in a copy  of your photo or email it to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small

Our Class Family

We have welcomed all the children into class this week and we are so proud of how everyone is settling in, getting to know their new classroom and making new friends. There are lots of routines to learn and things to remember at this stage, but we’ve been amazed at how quickly children are settling in.

PE Day

PE will start on Monday 22nd September. Please send your child to school in their PE kit every Monday. ( plain white t-shirt, navy blue shorts, school jumper/cardigan and trainers they can fasten themselves.)

Bags, Wellies and Spare Clothes

Don’t forget to bring in your school wellies and a draw string or small bag of spare cloths/underwear to keep in school. Thank you to the parents and carers who have already provided these.

Family Photo

We will soon be talking and learning about different families. Next week we will introduce out first focus book The Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman and Ros Asquith.

To support our learning, please send in a photo of your child with their family. You can send in a copy  of your photo or email it to:

stjameseyfs@spherefederation.org

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. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week we introduced our first poem called Chop Chop.

Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop.
Cut off the bottom and cut off the top.
What there is left, we put in the pot.
Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop.

Help at home– Ask your child to recite the poem to you, can they remember the action as they perform it to you?

Phonics

This week, we have learnt our first four phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) s,a,t and p.

During our phonics learning, we listened carefully to the initial sound in a word and sorted objects by the sounds they begin with.

Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week.  Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small

Forest school

Today saw the return of Forest School for our Year 6 children. We had a wonderful afternoon emersed in nature: exploring, creating and learning. The children (and Mr Kilner) made friendship bracelets, build dens, played and honed their bushcraft skills – it was a fabulous end to week two.

It has been such a positive start to the year; the children continue to conduct themselves in a polite, positive and calm manner.

Have a lovely weekend.

Philosophy Friday – What makes a good school?

Philosophy is thinking deeply.

Every Friday, we start our day with some time to wonder and ponder.

We’ve a different question each week – there’s no obvious right/wrong answer and no underlying moral message. All children are given the opportunity to contribute their ideas and give reasons for their thoughts.

The children had some lovely responses. A good school is a place where:

People are kind to each other.
– Imogen

You can have fun with your friends.
– Ella D

You can learn about numbers.
– Darcey

People share.
– Arlo

Help at home by discussing this week’s Philosophy Friday question with your child.

Reading Records

This week in Year 3, we have been talking about the importance of regular reading and keeping our reading records up to date. Reading records must be signed by an adult each week, and they help us to celebrate the children’s progress in Book Club every Friday.

Homework can be based on your child’s eCollins book, as this is the same text they are reading and practising fluency with in class.

This week’s task (15/09/25) is called ‘Step into their Shoes’. The children should imagine themselves as one of the characters in their book and think carefully about what that character might be feeling or thinking. This helps us to practise inference skills and deepen our understanding of the story.

Please use the template provided below to support your child with their homework. We are looking forward to seeing the children’s brilliant ideas and sharing them in Book Club on Friday!

Best start in life

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has written a letter to parents with a focus on ensuring children have the best start in life. It signposts parents to the best start in life website – there’s information on Best Start Family Hubs and support with your child’s early health and learning.

Maths – Column addition

We’ve started the year reviewing column addition. What great mathematicians we have in our class!

Today we have been adding two numbers using equipment to support our understanding about what happens when the column sum is greater than 9.

Help at home – play schools! Ask your child to be the teacher and ‘teach you’ column addition.  They might want to make paper tens and ones or draw them. Please let me know if they have been a great teacher and I can reward them with a golden ticket!