News

This week’s message (Friday 12 January 2024)

Posted on Friday 12 January 2024 by Mr Roundtree

Welcome to our first message of 2024! It seems a little late to wish you a happy new year, but we’ll do it all the same: best wishes for a happy and healthy 2024. This week’s message has quite a few things, but we’ve tried to keep them fairly short…

Dates for your diary

This Spring term is a short one – just five weeks in Spring 1 and just a day short of six weeks in Spring 2. As always, please check our school calendar to know what’s coming up (amongst other things, a Watch Us While We Work session in Years 1-6 and Stay and Learn sessions in Reception, plus parent-teacher meetings).

Did your child get an electronic device for Christmas?

…If so, then do make sure parental controls are all in place. Here’s a handy guide from the NSPCC.

Attendance matters

Our whole-school attendance for the Autumn term was 94.2%. How does your child’s class compare?

  • Reception – 94.8%
  • Year 1 – 93.0%
  • Year 2 – 96.1% – well done!
  • Year 3 – 96.3% – brilliant!
  • Year 4 – 96.8% – amazing attendance!
  • Year 5 – 87.8%
  • Year 6 – 90.7%

The low attendance in Year 5 and 6 is clearly a concern for us. We know some people in the class have high attendance, but the absence rate means about a week and half of lost learning as an average.

We know that winter is one of the peak times for adults and children to come down with mild illnesses such as colds, coughs and sore throats.

Your child should stay at home from school if they’ve a high temperature (fever) and are unwell, and wait until it has passed before going back.

If they’ve just got a runny nose, sore throat or slight cough – without a high temperature – your child should still attend school. Children should stay at home if they’ve a high temperature (fever) or if they have diarrhoea and/or vomiting – this helps stop the spread of stomach bugs.

If in doubt, check the NHS site: Is my child too ill for school?

Read this BBC article for five top tips to help.

The national attendance rate for primary schools in Autumn was 94.7%. Our figure is just a bit lower here at St James’ CE Primary. Let’s see if we can beat the national figure at the next review.

Talking of attendance…

Don’t forget…

All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher this half-term are entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop voucher!

So, for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% 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 09 February).

DT: Cooking and nutrition

We sent this message earlier in the week, but in case you missed it…

Our updated long-term plans for Cooking and Nutrition were introduced at the beginning of this school year. Last term, your child took part in a practical lesson where they did some cooking in school and were able to eat what they had made. Hopefully, they’ll have come home and told you all about it!

So we can continue to offer this to all children in Years 1 to 6, we’re asking you for a small voluntary contribution towards the cost of ingredients. This will help to cover the costs for the full year – that’s three recipes. We suggest a contribution between £3 to £6, although we really appreciate anything you can offer. Payment for this can be made online on the School Gateway app.

By the way, please remember to tell us if your child has an allergy so that we can adapt the recipes we’ve planned.

The Big Ambition survey

We’ve mentioned this before, too, but we’ve been asked to communicate a final reminder which comes from Dame Rachel De Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England…

I have been overwhelmed by the response the survey has received so far. More than 300,000 children, young people, parents and carers have participated, making it one of the largest surveys of its kind, but I want to give even more people the chance to have their say.

Complete The Big Ambition survey. It closes on Friday 19 January.

Finally, I don’t often offer a personal recommendation, but a highlight of the holidays for me was a trip to the cinema to see Wonka – I loved it! Have a good weekend, whether that involves a cinema trip or whatever you and your family get up to. 

Our Christian value this half-term is…

Posted on Monday 08 January 2024 by Mr Roundtree

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.

Don’t forget…

Posted on Friday 05 January 2024 by Miss Beatson

…our attendance competition.

All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher next half-term will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop voucher!

So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% – their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 09 February).

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

This week’s message (Friday 22 December 2023)

Posted on Friday 22 December 2023 by Mr Roundtree

Following an earlier message this week, this one is just to say all of us here at St James’ CE Primary wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

We look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 08 January. And don’t forget our Attendance Competition… All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher in the Spring 1 half-term will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop vouchers!

An early weekly message (Wednesday 20 December)

Posted on Wednesday 20 December 2023 by Mr Roundtree

This week’s message comes early, and it’s an unusual one because the majority of it is written by Mrs Weekes, the Head of School at Moortown Primary, one of our sister schools in Sphere Federation:

It was great to spend some time chatting to some of the children at St James’ last week – they were all confident and shared lots of positive things that happen in school. I am the Safeguarding Lead across Sphere Federation so the focus of my visit was to find out what the children felt about staying safe.

There are lots of things to talk about when it comes to staying safe. We talked about behaviour; where they felt safe; being online, at school and at home; and how they can keep themselves safe.

They had a really good understanding of what being safe means and knew that they were safe in school. The school rules were discussed and how they help to keep school a safe place. Children also told me what could be done if they, or someone else, was being bullied.

The online chat was interesting. The children shared a lot of great things that they can do online and how it’s great to be able to talk to family and friends using Facetime. However, it was clear that some of them spend a long time online with very little restrictions. It’s important to make sure that your child has time away from screens and that you make these expectations and boundaries really clear.

There’s a lot of things we can do around healthy and safe use of online devices to keep your child safe. One website with useful information is Internet Matters – please have a look and see what else you can do to keep your child safe.

Thank you for your support.

And some words from Miss Beatson:

As we come to the end of term, we’d like to say a ‘goodbye for now’ to Mrs Palmer who is going on maternity leave. Taking over the class is Mr Nash. He has worked as a music teacher in Halifax and more recently has been a member of staff at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, one of our sister schools in Sphere Federation. Mr Nash started at St James’ in September and he has been a great addition to the team here. The Spring term will be his final term of initial teacher training for Mr Nash. To ensure a successful transition, Mr Nash has been working in Year 2 for the last few weeks. We look forward to hearing the wonderful news of a new arrival in the Palmer household sometime in January.

We say a more permanent farewell to Miss Rigley this week. She has been a teaching assistant at St James’ for the last couple of years and is now moving on to pursue a career in dance. We wish her all the very best.

This week’s message (Friday 15 December 2023)

Posted on Friday 15 December 2023 by Mr Roundtree

This week’s message has three healthy-themed messages…

Living and Learning

In Living and Learning sessions, your child has been considering mental health. As we come to the end of this unit of learning, it would be a great time to reflect on this more at home.

Self-care is all about what you can do to help yourself feel better or to keep yourself feeling good. It’s a way that we can look after our own mental health and wellbeing. It can help your body and mind to relax, drift away, or be more energised.

This self-care plan from Anna Freud walks children through a series of steps, helping them to create a simple self-care plan that works for them.

There are lots of different ways you can try self-care: dancing, spending time with friends, playing sports, laughing, drawing, spending time with pets – anything that makes you feel good! We have listed some activity suggestions in this booklet – give them a try and see what works for you.

Let us know what you think…

We’ve recently updated our policy around food in school. Our Food in School policy sets out key points for parents/carers and staff. For parents/carers, this includes guidance around special occasions, birthdays, rewards and the importance of alerting us if your child has a food allergy.

Please let us know your thoughts.

Don’t skip breakfasts

Research suggests that having breakfast every day has a positive impact on diet quality, weight status and even learning. You might like to read this recent article about the importance of breakfast for school children.

 

And one final message, this time from Wetherby and District Foodbank…

Wetherby and District Foodbank is here for anyone who is in need or hardship. All information shared is private and strictly confidential. The foodbank not only provides food and a listening ear but can also arrange free face to face local appointments with Moneybuddies who can help with debt advice and budgeting support. Get in touch with the foodbank: 07840 455725.

Have a good weekend.

This week’s message (Friday 08 December 2023)

Posted on Friday 08 December 2023 by Mr Roundtree

We’ve two full weeks of term left. As we said last week, please do check out our calendar so you know what’s going on in the last week of the year – it’s a busy one!

Non-uniform day

One of the things coming up is a non-uniform day on the last day of term – Friday 22 December. Just like a place of work would have standards for a dress-down day, so do we – our Uniform Policy sets out expectations:

Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully for school, even on non-uniform days. Clothes are inappropriate if they, for example, glorify violence, feature bad language, are very short (eg crop tops), or relate to age-inappropriate topics (eg computer games). When consulted (18.03.21), junior leaders described this as ‘setting appropriate’ clothing and clothing that is ‘well-judged’. Make-up (other than face paints as part of a specific costume) is not allowed. Flip-flops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.

Thank you for following our policy.

Get reading

For those who celebrate Christmas, a book or two makes an ideal stocking filler or present. (And for those who don’t celebrate, reading over the forthcoming holiday is an ideal way to spend some time on cold, dark days!) Our Reading Curriculum Guide has a list of what we read in school:

  • page 7 (Year 1 and 2)
  • page 8 (Year 3 and 4)
  • page 9 (Year 5 and 6)

The guide has a list of books we read as class novels and extracts from other books, plus poems and picture books. It doesn’t matter what you choose. You might want to get something by the same author, for example.

And finally, one more suggestion…

Last year, we recommended a play at Leeds Central Library. The recommendation went down well – we had a few families thank us for the suggestion and commented that it was really good value. Here’s the tip again. Check out Cinderella at Leeds Central Library. It’s a pay-what-you-decide family-friendly event suitable for children aged 5+. Hurry though – there are only a few seats left.

Have a good weekend!

Spring Attendance Competition

Posted on Wednesday 06 December 2023 by Miss Beatson

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

Look out for our attendance competition next half term. All pupils with attendance of 96% or higher will be entered into a prize draw to win a £50 Love to Shop vouchers!

So… for the full Spring 1 half-term, Monday 08 January to Friday 09 February (five weeks), if your child reaches a good level of attendance – that’s 96% – their name will be entered into a prize draw. We’ll select one lucky winner on the last day of the half-term (Friday 09 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 80 pupils have over 96% attendance – well done to the children and their families!

This week’s message (Friday 01 December 2023)

Posted on Friday 01 December 2023 by Mr Roundtree

It’s the first day of December and the weather certainly matches the season!

We’ve still a while to go before the end of term and there’s lots of learning and socialising to be done in the next few weeks. The last week of the Autumn term – coming up in three weeks’ time – is always a busy one. Please check our school calendar for all the events happening so you don’t miss out.

Talking of events…

Today’s been a busy one in school.

We started the day with the last of three open sessions for prospective new parents for a September 2024 Reception place. If you know of anyone who has a child start school, please mention us!

And we ended it with another open session – this time for you, our existing family of parents, to check out all the learning in our topics so far this year. If you managed to come along, thank you! There’s another topic review on Monday 18 March, and before then, a Watch Us While We Work session on Friday 26 January.

Just two more things in this week’s message…

First, a quick reminder: if you’ve got any new contact details for you or other contacts, please remember to let us know. We need up-to-date details for the people on our lists in case of emergencies. (The people on our lists are the ones you gave us when your child school – in most cases, this will be three different people.)

Second, here’s an extract from an Ofsted blog

Persistent school absence is one of the most significant ongoing impacts of the pandemic. The latest data shows that nearly 1 in 4 pupils were absent for 10% of school sessions in autumn 2022, nearly double the position in 2019. We remain very concerned about the effect this will have on children.

As the Department for Education (DfE) points out in its blog Why is school attendance so important and what are the risks of missing a day?, we know that the highest attendance rates are linked with the best outcomes at all key stages. Even missing small amounts of education can mean a child misses important sections of the curriculum and may therefore struggle to learn concepts that are built on what they missed.

And it’s not just about the academic opportunities. There’s value in the whole school experience. Learning with peers, enjoying sport and music, building relationships with adults beyond their families, and building friendships – these are the building blocks of well-being and a good life. School contributes so much to this.

It is therefore vital that children are in school as much as possible.

Thank you for helping to make sure your child’s in school. Don’t forget to check the NHS site to decide – in most cases, it’s fine to send your child to school with a minor cough or common cold.

Have a great weekend – stay warm!

Vacancies

Posted on Friday 01 December 2023 by Miss Beatson

We currently have some job vacancies at St James’. Please check out our vacancies page on the website or contact the school office for more information.