Welcome Back!
I hope you’ve all had a restful break and have enjoyed a positive start to 2026.
As we start the Spring Term, I thought it might be useful to let you know what’s coming up.
Things to remember each week
| Monday | PE
Spelling Test |
| Tuesday | Swimming (not the first week back – PE lesson will happen in school instead.) |
| Friday | Library book swap
Reading records checked in Book Club |
Important dates this half-term
| Wednesday 14th January
9.00 – 9.30 a.m. |
Watch Us While We Work
Pop in to class and join the children in their learning. We will be looking at reading, maths and Feelings First. |
| Monday 19th January
6.00 – 6.30 p.m. |
Staying Safe Online
Parents’ Zoom meeting. |
| Thursday 5th February | Year 3/4 trip to Yorkshire Museum |
| Tuesday 10th February and
Thursday 12th February |
Parent-Teacher Meetings |
| Full details are available on the school calendar. | |
Our learning this half term
- Reading – We’re looking forward to finding out what happens at the end of our class novel and will continue developing our inference skills in our daily reading sessions. We will continue to explore the work of different authors in our weekly Book Club.
- Writing – We’ll start the term exploring what makes a good recount before writing our own.
- Spelling – See the weekly homework sheet for details of the words we will be focussing on.
- Maths – We’ll be consolidating our understanding of rounding before looking at some more challenging addition and subtraction problems.
- Times Tables – We start our ‘Going for Gold’ sessions and focus on two key facts each week (see the homework sheet for the facts of the week.)
- History – We’ll be exploring the key historical concepts of power, invasion and innovation through our study of the Romans.
- PE – The class will be very excited to know that our game focus for this half-term is dodgeball.
- RE – We’ll be thinking about how people (of different faiths and no faith) express spirituality.
I look forward to another action-packed and fun-filled half-term. If you have any questions or I can help at all please do let me know. You can grab me at the end of the day at pick-up or by calling or emailing the School Office.
Mrs Poole
That’s a wrap!
As we reach the end of 2025, it’s hard to believe how quickly this term has flown by! It’s been a lovely, festive finish this week, packed with special moments and lots of smiles.
One of the biggest highlights was a visit from Father Christmas who spread plenty of cheer and excitement. The Christingle service was another memorable moment, bringing our whole school family together to celebrate and reflect on what we value about this time of year. There was also the Christmas party – a perfect way to unwind and enjoy each other’s company – and a jolly Christmas lunch!
Thank you for all of your support and positivity in 2025. I hope you all have a relaxing, joyful holiday and I look forward to seeing you in 2026! 🎄✨
Living & Learning – I can give and receive compliments
This week we’ve been thinking about the power of compliments. Compliments are wonderful to receive and lovely to give. We thought about how “I like your hair” might not be as meaningful to someone as “I admire how creative you are.”
Fortunately, Year 4 had lots of compliments to share with each other. Here are some of the most popular words used:
We also thought about how we might react when someone compliments us. We talked about how we might feel embarrassed but how we also might respond by saying thank you, smiling or giving a compliment back.
These are the words we thought of when we thought about how we might feel when someone gives us a compliment:
Help at home: A well-placed compliment can make someone feel valued, seen and appreciated. For children and adults alike, receiving genuine praise can boost self-esteem and strengthen emotional well-being. You could play a compliments game at home, taking it in turns to compliment someone in your family. Challenge your child to explain what makes a compliment a meaningful one.
Food Technology – Tomato and lentil soup
This week, Year 4 have loved making tomato and lentil soup in Food Technology.
We thought carefully about how to keep ourselves safe.
- We washed our hands to make sure we used good hand hygiene to help keep us healthy.
- We wore aprons to protect our clothes.
- We used the bridge cutting method and the claw cutting method to cut up our ingredients to keep our fingers safe.
- We were very careful near the hob which got very hot!
The soup was a hit in the taste test – we hope you will enjoy making the recipe again at home!
Help at home: Next time you are peeling or cutting vegetables, ask your child to show you how they have learnt to do this safely.
Reading – Authorfy
Year 4 LOVE Authorfy!
Year 4 may have mentioned special challenges and videos with authors that they’ve enjoyed in Book Club. Highlights so far have included:
- understanding more about why Onjali Rauf writes the books she writes by listening to her Q&A videos.
- designing our own laser-inspired level in response to a challenge set by 13 story treehouse author Andy Griffiths (see photo below).
- creating our own front cover design to Barb the Brave.
Rumour has it that to celebrate the National Year of Reading in 2026, Authorfy will be making many of their resources free to families to access at home. You can read more about the National Year of Reading here.
Topic – Art – Colours
We’re looking forward to welcoming you in to class on Friday (28th November) for our Topic Review. When you come in, we can’t wait to share with you what we have learned about complementary, warm and cool colours.
You’ll see some of our work so far on our Art Working Wall. Here is a sneaky peek:
Help at home: Look at these pieces of art shared by the Tate – can you see how the artists have used complementary colours? Tate – Complementary Colours
In class we’ve learned that complementary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel. This paragraph (taken from the Tate) provides another interesting observation that your child might want to explore.
In colour theory complementary colours appear opposite each other on colour models such as the colour wheel. The colour complement of each primary colour (primaries are red, yellow and blue) can be obtained by mixing the two other primary colours together. So the complementary of red is green (a mix of yellow and blue); the complementary of blue is orange (a mix of red and yellow); and the complementary of yellow is violet (a mix of red and blue).
L&L – Anti-bullying week
Earlier this week, Year 4 took part in Odd Socks Day as part of Anti-bullying Week.
What is bullying?
We started by talking about what bullying actually means and how it is different from being rude or mean. We learned that:
-
Being rude is when someone says or does something hurtful, as a one-off and is unintentional.
-
Being mean is when someone hurts another on purpose, as a one-off and is intentional.
-
Bullying is when someone hurts someone, intentionally several times on purpose.
What can we do?
We discussed what we should do if we see someone being bullied including:
- tell a trusted adult,
- stand up for others safely, and
- be kind to everyone.
We learned about the different roles people can take in a situation where someone is being bullied. You can learn more about this here: Anti-bullying Alliance video
The children shared excellent ideas about how they can help make our school a happy and healthy place for all.
STOP
Year 4 showed wonderful compassion during our discussions showing that they truly understand that kindness and respect matter everywhere all the time.
Help at home: Together, watch the video about the different roles in bullying situations. Discuss what bullying is and what your child should do if they’re being bullied or think someone else is either in person or online.
Me & My Money Week
Our first week back has been jam packed with new and exciting learning! This week has been one of our themed weeks all about money! We’ve had a variety of sessions where we’ve learnt a lot about money, different ways to pay for things, saving, fundraising for charity, how our values and advertising can impact our decision making and the cost of everyday items. We can’t wait to show you all of our learning when you come in for our Topic Review on 28th November.
A trip to Antarctica
One of the most fun sessions was an online live lesson offered by HSBC where we planned a trip to Antarctica thinking about the difference between our wants and our needs. We had a budget to stick to and it was tough making decisions between our competing wants.
Help at home – the children were shocked to learn the average monthly cost of household expenses such as electricity and food shopping. Next time you go food shopping, you could challenge your child to use a calculator to add the cost of the food as you put it in your trolley. If they want a bigger challenge, they could use rough prices and add the amounts in their head.
Cross Country
Today, a whopping 52 of our KS2 pupils took part in the Leeds Easy Cross Country event. This event provides opportunity for young people to take part in a competitive running event, with routes through to Leeds and District finals. St James pupils conducted themselves really well on the trip and the high levels of perseverance/resilience from our children were definitely on show! Years 3 and 4 had a 900m race to complete, and the Year 5 and 6 pupils had a 1500m race. Every single pupil from St James ran and finished their races – we are so proud of everyone for this. Some pupils managed to get into the top 20 and may reach the finals in a few months! Here are some pictures of some pupils after their races.
