This half-term’s Christian value is…

…honesty.

At St James’ CE Primary School, we learn about Christian values that help us to become well-rounded citizens in society. Each half-term, we have a new Christian value that will be embedded into our collective worship and our reflection areas.

What is honesty? Honesty is being trustworthy and truthful in our friendships, our relationships, our school and our community. We understand that we need to be honest and truthful with others when working together as a team. There are challenges for us:

• How can we be honest in our daily lives?
• How can we encourage people to be honest?
• What can we do to fix it if we forget to be honest?

‘Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ (1 John 13:18)

In the Bible, we hear about Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), the tax collector, who was dishonest and stole money from others. Jesus went to visit him and he realised he had made a mistake. He saw the error of his ways. He had a total change of heart and got rid of his dishonest ways to follow Jesus.

Help at home!

Talk with your family about the consequences of not being honest or write a story or draw a picture to show what happens when people are dishonest. Bring it in to add to your class reflection areas.

Snowy weather: school is closed

School is closed today.

The weather situation hasn’t improved enough overnight so we’ve taken the decision to close school today.

Snowy weather

The weather conditions at the moment mean that any sort of travel is tricky. However, the forecast is an improving one. As it stands right now, please expect that that school will be open tomorrow. We’ll keep the registers open for longer so you can travel safely.

We’ll keep you updated online if there’s any further updates.

Finally… Happy new year! We hope you enjoyed a lovely break.

Spring 2025 Attendance Competition

St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to be – and maybe even a lucky one, too!

From Monday, we’re excited to launch our Spring 2025 attendance competition… All pupils with attendance of 97% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop voucher!

So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 06 January to Friday 14 February (six weeks), if your child comes to school 97% or more, their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 14 February).

Remember, arriving late for school counts as an unauthorised absence. This affects a child’s overall attendance figure, and that might mean they lose out.

In the Autumn term , 40 pupils had 100% attendance and 87 pupils had 97% or more attendance – well done to the children and their families!

Our last weekly message of 2024: Friday 20 December

If you came to one of our Christmas performances, we hope you enjoyed it and thank you for your donation. We raised £95 for our school charity: Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Highlights

It’s our last message of 2024! We thought it would be nice to share some of our highlights…

• Mr Freeman: ‘Handwriting and presentation has been impressive. This has been noticed by parents and other adults looking in books across all subjects – the children have really worked hard in daily handwriting and dictation practice. And another: Year 3 have consistently sustained a happy and healthy attitude. They look after each other, show compassion to each other and are willing to help children and staff at any opportunity. Their fantastic manners were noted on our trip to Lotherton Hall by the workshop organisers!’
• Miss Ward: ‘The children in Nursery really enjoyed a particular story this term: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. Their favourite part was going on a bear hunt into our forest school! After lots of searching and recalling key parts of the story, we found the bear! In the story the bear walks away from the family home and looks sad, so the children wanted to invite the bear back to Nursery to enjoy snack time together. We spoke about how it’s nice to be kind and caring towards each other. One of our Christian values is compassion.’
• Mr Kilner: ‘Children in Year 5 and 6 continue to arrive at school happy and healthy, ready to achieve. We’ve seen progress across all subjects and this has been supported with recent assessment results. Our recent Art topic has been a huge success. We’ve even incorporated this Art work with our yearly calendars. Some other highlights include our trip to Leeds Discovery Centre, The Royal Armouries, Tempo FM, Wetherby Town Hall and Wetherby High School (here we continue to build links, helping children with their transition to high school).’
• Mrs Kendrew: ‘My highlight for the autumn term has got to be how well the Reception children have settled into school. They’ve adapted amazingly to school life making new friends and establishing the school values and routines. They really have been shining stars for St James.’
• Mrs Poole: ‘The highlight of this term for me has to be all things related to times tables! It has been wonderful to see children’s enthusiasm for Mastering Number and to demonstrate our learning to teachers from other schools across West Yorkshire. It was also exciting to celebrate many of the children achieving their personal best at the times tables check last week.’
• Mrs Bye and Mrs Palmer: ‘The real highlight of the autumn term in Year 1 has been the children’s fantastic attitude to learning, which has led to amazing progress since their first day. By applying their Christian values to all aspects of their work, they have shown great courage, compassion, and perseverance.’
• Mr Nash:‘My highlight is this half term’s art topic. The children have been really engaged when learning about Georges Seurat and his work, and have been fascinated by pointillism. They’ve loved exploring different mark-making techniques to the point where pointillism has infiltrated our everyday… any opportunity to be artistic has been characterised by pointillism. Move over Georges Seurat!’

…and the highlight from Miss Beatson and me is a simple one: standing at the school gate at the start of the school day and being greeted by happy and healthy children as they arrive at school – it’s such a positive way to start the day! ​Our teachers at St James’ CE Primary have been great, pupils have been great, and parents have been great. Thank you to everyone.

Spring Attendance Competition

Just like last year, we’re excited to launch our Spring attendance competition… St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to be – and maybe even a lucky one, too!

All pupils with attendance of 97% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop voucher!

So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 06 January to Friday 14 February (six weeks), if your child comes to school 97% or more, their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 14 February).

Remember, arriving late for school counts as an unauthorised absence. This affects a child’s overall attendance figure, and that might mean they lose out.

So far this term, 40 pupils have 100% attendance and 87 pupils have 97% or more attendance – well done to the children and their families!

Leeds at Christmas

The ultimate guide to Christmas in Leeds includes a whole host of information about what’s happening over the Christmas and New Year period, such as visiting the Christmas markets across the city centre, family attractions including Northern lights at Temple Newsham and where to see Santa.

Finally, all that needs to be said is have a happy Christmas. We’ll see you all again on Monday 06 January.

Christmas lunch

We’ve had a wonderful final day of term and our tummies are full!

Thank you to all the catering team for cooking a delicious Christmas lunch.

Wishing everyone a lovely Christmas break and we look forward to seeing you all back on Monday 06 January 2025.

Our weekly message: Friday 13 December

Next week’s the last week before we break up for Christmas. It’s a busy week, so please check our school calendar. We’ve noticed a few children appear more tired than usual so make sure your child gets plenty of sleep so they can enjoy the last week.

Keep reading!

Even during all the excitement in the run up to the Christmas holidays, we continue to teach Phonics lessons and maintain as many reading practice sessions as we can in Early Years and Key Stage 1. You can help at home by reading to or with your child during the Christmas holidays. It’s a wonderful way for children to relax, explore their imagination and continue learning. Stories about winter adventures, festive traditions, or magical journeys can spark creativity and deepen their love for books. Reading also strengthens vocabulary, comprehension, and critical thinking, keeping young minds active while school is out. It’s a great opportunity to bond over shared stories or bedtime tales. Encourage your child to pick a book they’ll love – whether it’s about reindeer, snowmen, or elves – and make reading a cosy, fun holiday tradition this Christmas!

Staying healthy in the winter months

The UK Health Security Agency has published advice on how to reduce the spread of winter illnesses.

Please remember to follow NHS guidance to know when a child is too ill for school. Pupils should not miss school ‘just in case’ – they can normally attend school with a cough or cold, but not with a fever or diarrhoea and vomiting.

Talk to your child about staying safe online

Most of us tend to think of our online and offline lives as separate, but children today are growing up with technology and the internet as a natural part of their lives. To them there isn’t a separation. It’s all just life. The internet is now part of the real world.

Talking to your child about what they do online is just as important as asking where they are going when they go out with their friends. It can be difficult starting the conversation with your child about their online activities. Technology keeps changing and you might find it overwhelming trying to keep up with it all, but you don’t need to. You just need to take an interest in what apps and games your child is using. That’s the best place to start. Your child might not want to share anything with you at first, but keep trying.

Having honest and open conversations with your child and speaking to them regularly about what they’re doing online could be crucial in giving your child the confidence to tell you if they’ve seen something that makes them feel uncomfortable or may highlight someone who is wanting to cause harm.

Further guidance is available on the LSCP website as well as information on how to set up parental control on all the devices that your child uses.

Class trip

At St James’ CE Primary, we’ve a schedule of visits for each class in school. This week, it was the turn of the Y5 and Y6 children to go on a visit – they went to the Leeds Discovery Centre and the Royal Armouries:

• ‘At the Leeds Discovery Centre, we found out about Ancient Egypt: we saw some bandages used to wrap up a mummy thousands of years ago.’ Ashton
• ‘We also visited the Royal Armouries. We found out about different wars and we saw different weapons. My favourite weapon was an umbrella gun used in the early 1900s. People would pretend it was an umbrella but really it was a gun.’ Aubree
• ‘The best bit was using a bow and arrow simulator where we could practise our aim.’ Valerie

Wetherby and District Foodbank assembly

Today, we invited Jenny from Wetherby and District Foodbank to lead our collective worship.  She spoke to the children about what the foodbank can provide and how people can ask for help. Jenny explained that the foodbank can also provide financial support in different ways such as support with transport and debt management. We thought it was a great example of compassion which is our Christian value this half term.

If you would like to find out about how the foodbank can support you and your family then please speak with Miss Beatson or you can call 08082082138 to speak with the foodbank directly.

National Santa Dash

On Friday, all children took part in the National Santa Dash. This event was all about having some fun whilst being active.

We’ve decided to extend this event: we’ll be holding an Easter and Summer Dash, too! Our goal is to allow pupils to set some targets and improve on their personal bests through the year.

Here are some photos – enjoy!

Our weekly message: Friday 06 December

Stuck for a gift idea? Check out the National Book Tokens website: book recommendations (for adults and children), activities, and a chance to win a £100 book token!

It’s a busy time of the year but have a look at this Leeds guide for free and low-cost things to do this winter – from opportunities to meet Santa to a chance to enjoy a festive mystery matinee.

It’s the countdown to Christmas, but there’s still lots of learning to prioritise, too. Keeping daily routines helps your child to manage such an exciting time. Please remember to stick with our Uniform Policy.

Measles

Did you know measles is on the rise in this area? Measles is highly infectious. It can lead to serious complications including fits, damage to the brain, or even worse. Unvaccinated children are most at risk of severe complications from measles. Check out this information from Leeds LA, covering symptoms and how best to protect you and your family.

Science

This rest of this week’s message comes from Mr Wilks, our Science and Foundation subjects leader. The message is about what your child’s currently learning in their Science lessons…

Year 1

Pupils are currently learning about different materials. They’re identifying objects made out of different materials and describing them using appropriate adjectives (eg soft, hard, rough, smooth). They’re working scientifically, for example, to investigate whether different materials float or sink.

Next term, they’ll learn about different types of animals. They’ll work scientifically by identifying and grouping animals. They’ll also learn about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.

Year 2

Pupils are also learning about materials. They’re exploring a range of different materials and their uses. They’re explaining why a certain material is or isn’t appropriate for a particular use. They’re working scientifically by, for example, investigating whether different materials are waterproof or not.

Next half-term, they’ll be biologists as they’re learning about plants. They’ll explore the types of plants that grow in the school grounds. They’ll also learn about different parts of plants. They’ll work scientifically by conducting an enquiry into whether plants grow healthier in the light or in the dark.

Year 3

Pupils are learning about rocks. They’re describing rocks according to observable characteristics. For example, does the rock have layers? Does it have visible crystals? Is it rough or smooth? Hard or soft? They’re working scientifically by grouping rocks according to these characteristics.

Following this, they’ll learn about soils and then fossils. They’ll learn about the fossilisation process and a female scientist: Mary Anning.

Year 4

Pupils are currently learning about the different states of matter (solids, liquids and gases). They’re classifying things as solids, liquids and gases. Some of these are tricky, for example, sand behaves like a liquid (it pours and takes the shape of its container) but it’s a solid. Pupils are working scientifically by carrying out an enquiry about how the temperature of water affects the time it takes for ice to melt. As part of this unit, they’re also learning about the water cycle.

Year 5,6

Pupils are learning about electricity this half-term. They’re drawing circuit diagrams using symbols to represent the different components. They’re working scientifically by investigating the effect on different components when the current in a circuit is changed.

After half-term, they’ll move on to learn about light. In this unit, they’ll learn about how light travels in straight lines, how shadows are formed, and they’ll work scientifically by investigating how the size of a shadow changes when the distance from a light source changes.

Help at home

Talk to your child about their learning in class. Check out the Class News pages as they may have some posts about Science learning. Your child may want to recreate an experiment they’ve done at school or have a different question they’d like to investigate. Or, you can look up fun, practical science experiments you can do at home with everyday objects.

Get outside and take notice of the natural world. A large proportion of the primary science curriculum is devoted to biology so here are a few ideas which will support this:

• Talk about plants and animals that you see at different times of the year. Now is a great time to spot deciduous and evergreen trees.
• In December/January look out for winter flowering plants like snowdrops, pansies or camellias.
• Try taking a photo every week from of a green space in your locality. Take it from the same position so that over the weeks and months you can see how the landscape changes.
• Go on a nature walk. Make a list of ten things to try to find on your walk and see how many you can tick off. It’s been three years and I still haven’t been able to tick woodpecker on my list!