This week’s message (Friday 21 October 2022)

As I write this at 7.30 on Friday morning, I can hear the sound of pouring rain – let’s hope the half-term is drier so we can get out and about! This week’s message has a last minute reminder, a safety message, and some information about our Autumn term topics.

School day

There’s only a few hours left to complete this short survey about changes to the school day. We’ll close the survey at 5.00pm today – just a couple of hours. At the time of writing, 43 of you had submitted your views – thank you for taking the time to pass on your comments.

Firework safety

With many organised events cancelled due to tight budgets, West Yorkshire Fire Service is fearful that this may mean more families try to replicate a display, and that this may pose a greater risk to the safety of our children. Please speak with your child about the dangers of fireworks.

At the same time, it’s worth discussing the important role firefighters play in our community – in recent years, there’s been an increase in attacks on firefighters.

We’re all historians

This half-term, we’ve been historians. It would be great if you encourage your child to continue their History topic at home.

Children in Years 1 and 2 learnt about a significant British historical event: the Great Fire of London. Your child learnt about life at the time of the Great Fire of London. They discovered where the fire started and how it spread so quickly and the innovative ways that it was extinguished. Importantly, they thought about the different sources of evidence that helped us answer these questions, including Samuel Pepys’ diary. Finally, they learnt about the significant changes that occurred as a result of the fire, such as legal changes about the way houses were built and the beginning of a fire service in London. Link your discussions about firework safety with the history behind this event. Check out the Fire of London website – a great way to support and deepen children’s learning.

Ancient Greece was the topic for our Year 3 and 4 children. Your child began by sequencing periods of British history and seeing where the ‘golden-age’ of the Ancient Greek civilisation sits alongside British history. They then learnt about two contrasting city states: Athens and Sparta. Your child learnt about the type of government these states had and what the lives of the people living there were like. Ask your child about the influence that Athens has had on the world (they might mention democracy, mathematics, philosophy, literature, culture…) and how the civilisation ended. For a rainy half-term diversion, a visit to Leeds City Museum (next to Millennium Square) would be great because it has some Ancient Greek exhibits.

Children in Years 5 and 6 learnt about Stone Age to Iron Age Britain and contrasted it with Ancient Egypt. Your child began by looking at and creating timelines to gain an understanding of chronology. They learnt about the advances and innovations that occurred during the New Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They then learnt about the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and contrasted this with what was happening in Britain at the same time. Speak with your child about the differences– it’s a stark contrast! As before, a trip to Leeds City Museum would be a great half-term day out – it has some Ancient Egyptian exhibits, including Nesyamum, the 3,000 year old Leeds mummy!

We’re all artists

Next half-term, we’re all artists. As well as creating some masterpieces, we’ll look at the work of various artists, architects and designers. To gain a head start, encourage your child to check out the work of our featured artists and designers:

• Years 1 and 2: Georges Seurat and Bridget Riley
• Years 3 and 4: Sir Christopher Wren and Zaha Hadid
• Years 5 and 6: William Morris and Orla Kiely

Have a happy and healthy half-term break. Remember, the first day of next term is a training day: see you all on Tuesday 01 November.

Living and Learning

This week, our Living and Learning statement has been I take part in democratic decisions.

We talked about what being part of a democratic decision means – making a choice through a vote. We’ve taken part in many democratic decisions in our classroom, such as choosing a book for story time and choosing which dance to do if we have Wake Up Shake Up in our classroom. Yesterday, we took part in our biggest democratic decision so far this year! We voted for our Junior Leadership Team (JLT) class representatives.

Some children stood in front of the class and gave a speech on why they would be a good member of the JLT. We had some fantastic ideas in Year 2! After, we had a ballot in the hall where everyone voted for the person they would like to be our JLT representative.

Our Final Week In Ancient Greece!

What a busy half term. Year 3 have done incredibly well settling into Key Stage 2 and should be very proud of themselves!

To finish our history learning about Ancient Greece, we made some pottery inspired by the Ancient Greeks. The children did a great job at sculpting their clay to construct their own pot.

We also had a debate about the better city state. The children had to decide if they would rather be a citizen in the forward-thinking, artistic state Athens or the warrior state Sparta! We joined with Year 4 and lots of children argued their points very well.

We have been learning about the history of democracy, which we know originated in Athens and was a new style of government.   This linked with our Living and Learning statement this week:

“I can take part in democratic decisions.”

We put this to practice during our annual Junior Leadership Team election. The children thought about who would make a good representative for Year 3 and voted for their choice.

The new JLT will be announced during collective worship tomorrow!

Why not ask your child what they enjoyed learning about in our history lessons this half term? Some of the key vocabulary we learnt included:

. chronological order

. golden age

. periods of time

. democracy

. citizens

Week 7

Hello everyone! I can’t believe we are coming to the end of our first term at school. As always we have had a busy week in Reception.

This week we have been been learning more about Henri Matisse. We have learnt about his life and his amazing artwork. We used our sequencing skills to re tell the story of his life and even had a try at creating our own piece of Matisse inspired artwork!

We were so inspired by the different colours we saw in the different pieces of artwork we decided to create some leaves using watercolours. We used our scissor skills to cut out the leaves and then carefully mixed the paint with water and watched how the different colours were made.

Our PE lesson was very colourful this week. We took advantage of the lovely Autumn weather and went outside to do some ribbon dancing. We loved making different movement shapes with our bodies and the ribbons.

A big thank you to everyone for reading our e-books. We hope you are enjoying the stories.

I hope you all have a safe, happy half term break and look forward to seeing you in November!

Mrs Payne

Living and Learning – I can make democratic decisions

This week, we have been discussing in class what it means to be part of a democratic decision.

We had a vote on who the two new Junior Leadership Team (JLT) representatives from our class would be. Some children gave a short speech on why they would be a good member of the JLT and what they wanted to see more of or change within our school. Afterwards, we had a secret ballot in our classroom where we all voted for the person we wanted. We discussed how sometimes things might not go our way but we have to be respectful to the decision.

Super Sentences

Year 4 having been working hard with their writing. To compliment our History learning about Ancient Greece, the children had to put themselves into the shoes of a Greek Warrior and write a recount.

What is a recount?

A recount is written in the past tense about events that have happened. Examples of texts that are recounts include: diaries, an account of a school event or trip out, an historical account of events, letters and postcards, newspaper articles and retelling well-known stories. The class enjoyed listening to the children’s author Michael Rosen who gave us his top tips on how to write an engaging recount.

Share this at home by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re0pCqUZu9w .

We had some fantastic, descriptive sentences and accurate use of adverbs and prepositions. After editing their work, some of the children enjoyed reading their recounts to the rest of the class. This was a good opportunity to focus on some of our oracy targets: to read with volume and prosody. Can your child tell you the definition of the word prosody?

Here’s a selection of our work.

After that, I went to the market which was taking place between four statues. These had been carefully sculptured by our citizens.  Noah

Finally, I felt happy because I was home.  Adrian

The Parthenon towered high above me.  Summer

Patiently, I stood waiting on the boat.  Evie

As I walked carefully up the steep steps, I saw a gold statue in front of the building.  Amelia

As I walked up the hill, I spotted my best friend soaring high above. Gracefully, he landed on my arm.  Kamile

The boat drifted gently across the sea. It was taking me home.  Lilly

As I approached Athens, I felt joyful to see my homeland.  Murielle

Proudly, I stood on the dusty path watching the people around me.  Ashton

In front of me stood eleven, magnificent columns. Sadly, I thought about my friends who had been lost in the war.  James

Standing on the step, I studied the statues which stood proudly shining in the sunlight. War can take its toll on a man!   Ralph

Well done, Year 4!

Mark making madness!

Nursery have been getting very creative this week. We have continued with our conker rolling with paint and have started to look at how colourful Autumn leaves can be. We have used our leaves to do rubbings on paper using large crayons to explore the marks they can create. We took our mark making on to a larger scale and used our giant chalks to transform our outdoor space.

Reminder!

Don’t forget you can send in your photos to our email address so the children can talk about what they have been doing over the weekend.

stjamesnursery@spherefederation.org

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Ward

spellings 14th October 2022

We will be learning about adding the suffixes ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ to a root word:

– answer/ answered/answering

– arrive/ arrived/arriving

– call/ called/ calling

– think/ thought/ thinking

– smile/ smiled/ smiling

Year 3 love reading!

We have been enjoying our sessions to develop our love of reading in class. This happens through our weekly ‘book club’ sessions and on Friday mornings, where we visit the school library. The children have access to fiction books which can be taken home and non-fiction, which are good to ‘dip’ into during short reading sessions.

The children have been sharing their favourite books and discussing their preferences when choosing books.

I’ve loved seeing the comments about home reading in Year 3’s reading records. Please make sure you leave a short comment when reading with your child.

Reading: If this is the answer, what is the question?

During our daily reading lessons, your child continues to learn about comprehension – hunting for answer in a text.

Each week, we have one specific text that we read and read and read each day. Re-reading is a great way to become more familiar with a text and helps make us better readers.

This week, we’ve been reading about invertebrates. Check out the challenge we had a go at this week: if this is the answer, what is the question? Devising and posing our own questions helps us to really get to know the text as best as we can.