KS2 production

Rehearsals are well underway for the KS2 production. The stage is up (thank you Mr Atkins!) and the children are working hard to add the finishing touches before our performances next week.
The children have worked so hard to learn lines, get the songs pitch-perfect and to create costumes and props. We can’t wait for you to see it!
If you haven’t yet told us if you would like your child to stay in school between the end of the school day and the performance on Wednesday evening please let us know as soon as possible.
Transition To Year 2
Yesterday morning, we had our special transition morning where we met our teachers next year (who are very excited to be with us).
This was a great opportunity for the children to tell us all about themselves and what they enjoy doing most.
Whilst Mrs Bye is already very familiar with the soon to be year 2s, I (Miss Gledhill) loved seeing how positive the children were about themselves, learning and each other!
The children were all fantastic and we can’t wait for September!

Summer
We have a wormery in Nursery so we’ve been on a worm hunt. First we stamped on the ground doing the ‘worm dance’, then we dug as deep as we could. After a long time digging, with lots of perseverance and team work we only found one worm! Luckily the gardening club had more luck and have put five worms in for us to observe.

We’ve been reading the book ‘What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside’ and have enjoyed talking about our own experiences.
- “I made a sandcastle.”
- “I had an ice-cream with my grandma at the seaside.”
- “We went in the sea and got all wet!”

Help at home: Try to use positional language in your day to day conversations and during play. For example:
- Can you put your teddy underneath the box?
- The car is behind the garage.
- The monkey is on top of the tree.
- Put your shoes next to the cupboard.
As you look at illustrations in a story, ask questions such as ‘Where is the cat hiding?’ or ‘What can you see in front of the fence?’
Reading assembly
A brief but huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Ready to Read assembly today. The children embraced the opportunity to show what they’ve been learning this year and it was fantastic to celebrate their progress together.
I’m proud of how far they’ve come and grateful for all your support at home – it plays such an important part in your child’s reading journey.
Help at home by keeping up the great work in year 3!

Living and Learning – I know how to identify drinks that are unsafe for me to drink and I understand some of the affects of alcohol on the human body
We had a great visit from D:Side and were excited to share our knowledge about how to identify drinks with alcohol in and drinks that are not safe for children to drink.

We also wore special glasses that made us feel dizzy. That’s just one of the potential side effects of alcohol we did not think is cool!

Topic – Design and Technology
This week, we designed and built a brand-new chair for Baby Bear! Working brilliantly in our groups, we focused on making sure our chairs were strong and stable. After testing them out, we were thrilled to see that every single chair was able to support Baby Bear’s weight – a fantastic success!


Class trip to Nell Bank
Today we had our class trip to Nell Bank using the focus book Tidy by Emily Gravett.

We have had the best day learning about Pete the Badger who likes things very neat and tidy all the time. We did some litter picking and sorted out the rubbish into things we could recycle and not. We were fantastic at this job because we already do it in our class. Just before lunch we went on a minibeast hunt, we used ‘insect extractions tools’ that looked like spoons to search for minibeast with legs and ones that slither. This was quite tricky because it has been so dry, but we didn’t give up and found a few.

After a quick lunch stop we had the best time in the water area using the water wheels and pumps and then we went for a walk in the woods where we worked in small groups to make some little homes for the baby badgers. We did a great job and the baby badgers were well protected.
We had the best day, it was so much fun!
Fairies At Forest School!

When I grow up…
Rocksteady Music School!
St James had a very exciting visit from Rocksteady Music School this morning. The key focus of the visit was to engage pupils in music, to learn about various instruments and how to play them. We started the morning with a whole school assembly, where the children learnt all about what it takes to be in a band – we also got to sing along to some of the latest hits! Then, KS1 and KS2 had separate workshops where a pupil band was put together in just 30 minutes! There was lots of resilience, teamwork and happiness shared all morning, particularly when learning to keep a consistent tempo!
We are aiming to introduce more musical connections at St James next year. Rocksteady have given us confirmation that children would really benefit from this. There will be a letter sent home later in the week with more information on musical opportunities in September.




