Helping out our environment
To end the last half-term, Years 5 and 6 decided to write a letter to Miss Beatson in hope to transform our school gardening area into a fresh, healthy space. This came about from our Geography topic – we had been working hard in learning the importance of plants, trees and green spaces around us.
Thankfully, our letters were a huge success! We spent an afternoon in the lovely rain, getting our hands dirty and working as a team to improve a part of our school. The children thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and we’re really proud of our achievement. Here’s some photos below of the garden area, before and after the transformation!
Reading: Tom Palmer
This year, some children at school attended an online workshop with author Tom Palmer. Tom Palmer has been in touch to let us know about some local events he is attending in half term.
Message from Tom
For children and families – I am also coming to Leeds on Thursday 2 November 2023 :
* Farsley Book Festival – 10am-11am more here
https://trumanbooks.co.uk/event/flf-kids-day
* Chapel Allerton Library – 2pm
* Pudsey Community Hub and Library – 4pm
Living and Learning: I respect others
Our Living and Learning statement last week was…
I respect others
Year 5 and 6 have been learning about equality and discrimination. We have looked at many scenarios where an individual (or group) was being discriminated against. We discussed what these reasons might be and what we would do to change the world if we could.
Then, we had a look at the Equality Act (2010) and our protected characteristics that we can’t be discriminated against. Pupils were mature, engaged and active in this learning, which resulted in some fantastic discussions and advice for others.
Here are the nine protected characteristics:
- sex
- sexual orientation
- gender reassignment
- disability
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- religion or belief
- race
- age
We will continue to focus and test ourselves on these characteristics throughout the year.
Help at home:
Have regular conversations with your child about the nine protected characteristics. Ensure the children fully understand what discrimination could look like, and who they could talk to for help/advice.
Spellings for the first half term
Below are the 40 spellings for this half term. Please continue to learn these at home. There will be a test every Friday on 8 random words from the list. If your child is finding it difficult to learn the words, have a look at our Super Spelling Strategy document on the school website – it’s got some great ideas!
Living and Learning – I use the 8 R’s to help me learn.
Years 5 and 6 have had a fantastic second week back at school. Pupils’ behaviour and general attitude to learning has been brilliant – I can already see children making serious improvements across many subjects!
On Monday, we had our first official living and learning ‘circle time’. In this session, we get and give the opportunity for all pupils to have a voice and to listen to others. For this session, our focus was using resilience in our lives, which suits with our Christian value this half-term (perseverance), too.
All pupils responded really well and provided advice for others to overcome and succeed in different scenarios. I have since seen pupils using resilience, and many more of our 8 R’s, in school time.
Help at home:
Have conversations with your child on things they may be finding tricky in and out of school. See if you, or they, can come up with some solutions to tackle this issue by using our 8 R’s.
Pupils have also had their first set of homework sent home. Please complete the following with your child:
- times tables practice
- spelling practise (choose around 8 words per week)
- arithmetic practice (use the questions your child wasn’t sure of on their tests, which they should bring home
- read regularly with your child and sign their reading record
Welcome Back!
As we come to the end of our first week back at school, both Mr Nash and I (Mr Freeman) are super proud of each and every one of our pupils. Not only have the children come back to school calm and settled, their fantastic attitudes and willingness to learn has made our first week a great success.
We are both looking forward to a fantastic year in Year 5/6 and we know the children are, too.
A few notices to make you aware of…
Spelling – You’ll notice that the spelling has changed slightly on the homework sheets. There’s no longer a specific list spellings to learn. Instead, there are a list of spellings that the children need to learn within the first half-term. On a Friday each week, there will be a spelling test. We will keep track of our scores and support children with their misconceptions as soon as they may happen.
PE days – Our nominated PE days are on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please ensure your child comes to school in the correct PE kit for these days.
Homework books and reading records – Today, your child has been sent home with a purple homework book and a white reading record. There’s no pressure to bring the homework books back in every week, but we do need the reading records signed by an adult and shown to use every week. This is so that we can keep track of the amount of reading the children are doing at home and whether we can further support in any way.
Please feel free to contact myself, or Mr Nash, if you have any questions!
Year 6 leavers’ dinner
We’ve had a lovely dinner this evening at Ask to celebrate our fabulous Year 6s. Great company, great food and lots of ice-cream!
Living and Learning – Being Healthy
Last week, Y5,6 enjoyed Being Healthy week.
We Zoomed another Y6 class and asked them qestions about being healthy in their school.
Some questions that were asked were:
- What is on your school menu?
- What after school clubs do you do?
- Do you have any green spaces in your playground?
We also talked about being healthy online, and how it can affect our physical, mental and social health.
Help at home by discussing how to stay happy and healthy at home.
Robin Hood And The Sherwood Hoodies
Wow! I’m sure everyone will agree that KS2 put on a fabulous performance of Robin Hood And The Sherwood Hoodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
They have worked extremely hard by learning their lines, singing songs and making props.
There are some incredible young actors amongst us at St James’, and most of all, we had so much fun putting the performance together!
Sports Day!
A massive thank you to everyone who came and supported yesterday at Sports Day.
We kicked off in the morning with EYFS and then carried on with years 1-6 in the afternoon.
A huge well done to all the children who took part and showed courage, resilience and lots of determination. The signs made in the classes looked fantastic as well.
Congratulations to the blue team who scored the highest amount of points!!!
