Community Week
We’ve had a busy and exciting week at St James’, learning all about community. We’ve thought about our school community, local community and wider community. Throughout the week, we’ve had lots of visitors and activities taking place. Some of these included Leeds United Foundation who spoke to us about how they support the community and how their values link with our own school values and vision; Wetherby in Bloom and Friends of Sandringham explained to us about the fantastic volunteer work that helps our local community; Salvation Army told us about the work they do to help people around the world and in our local community; Year 3 went litter picking at the local park to help keep Wetherby tidy; Year 5/6 had a DT lesson at Wetherby High School; Safer School Officer; Fire Service and much more. Thank you to all the children who brought in photographs of themselves in the local area and those who brought in an item for identity day.
Consent
We recommend two videos which talk about the issue of consent.
We do suggest you watch them first. You might not feel they’re appropriate to show your child, but they should help you to feel better prepared to talk to your child about the notion of consent, and they might also be useful for an older child.
Tea and consent comes from Thames Valley Police – it likens sexual consent to agreeing to a cup of tea, or not agreeing, or changing your mind.
Consent for kids is an American clip – it gets across the message in a very matter-of-fact way (as long as you can cope with the very American accent of the narrator!).
Fab feedback from Leeds United
We’re all enjoying a community themed week at St James’ CE Primary this week. We’re learning all about identity and community.
As part of the week, we welcomed Mathew Everett, Primary Education Lead from Leeds United Foundation. After his visit, he sent us this complimentary email:
Thank you so much for the opportunity to support ‘My community’ themed week at St.James; I was made to feel welcome by all staff and children. It is evident that the school values are embedded into daily school life and clear to see that the children fully understand and work toward the school these in all areas of the curriculum. It really is a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe.
Look out for a competition coming up soon in school where children will link Leeds United values with our own Christian values – the winner will receive four tickets to a Leeds-Sheffield Wednesday game in January.
Watch us while we work
We recently invited parents and carers into school to watch some fantastic learning in action! We had some wonderful feedback:
“I enjoyed seeing how the children are taught so I can use the same methods to help at home.”
“I liked how the lesson wasn’t just sat but the children got up and moved around.”
“Lovely positive encouragement from the lovely teachers.”
Our next watch us while we work session will be on Wednesday 22 January, 9am-10am.
A new edition of #Ditto
#Ditto is a downloadable e-safety magazine for schools, organisations and parents to keep you up to date with risks, issues, advice and guidance related to keeping children safe online, with a view to enjoying and learning about technology.
There’s a lot of interesting information in the November edition. We especially liked the articles on Deepfakes, Influencers and Notifications and Immediacy.
Read your way to a happy and healthy life
We can all agree that reading is important, but do you realise just how important reading actually is?
The Reading Agency outlines the powerful impact reading can have for your child, for you and for society.
The benefits of reading for pleasure for your child (and you!):
- Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s cognitive development – their brain power – than their parents’ level of education.
- Reading for pleasure is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio-economic background.
- 16-year-olds who choose to read books for pleasure outside of school are more likely to secure managerial or professional jobs in later life.
- Having books in the home is associated with both reading enjoyment and confidence. Of children who report having fewer than 10 books in their homes, 42% say they do not like reading and only 32% say they are ‘very confident’ readers. For children who report having over 200 books at home, only 12% say they do not like reading and 73% consider themselves ‘very confident’ readers.
- Children who read books often at age 10, and more than once a week at age 16, gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.
- Reading extensively and for pleasure at home can increase literacy skills at a greater rate than through formal lessons at school.
- Incomes are higher in countries where more adults reach the highest levels of literacy proficiency and fewer adults are at the lowest levels of literacy.
- An online poll reveals that regular readers for pleasure report fewer feelings of stress and depression than non-readers, and stronger feelings of relaxation from reading than from watching television or engaging with technology intensive activities.
- Studies have shown that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and a greater ability to cope with difficult situations.
- Reading for pleasure is associated with better sleeping patterns.
- Adults who read for just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to report greater life satisfaction.
We’re often asked how you can support your child more at home. We think one of the best ways to help is to make sure you build into the daily routine some time for reading. For many families, this is a bedtime story every night just before lights out.
Happy reading!
Fortnite – staying safe
As you know, we like to keep you updated as much as possible with how you can keep your child safe when they’re online. This is an ever-changing world and, unfortunately, it’s impossible to keep up with all current issues but there are some ways we can help. Over this year, we’ll communicate to you some factsheets about popular games and apps with some hints and tips about how you can support your child in staying safe.
The first one is some guidance around the game, Fortnite.
As always, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, please chat to someone in school.
Living and learning in our happy and healthy school
Although it’s not yet in primary schools’ National Curriculum, most primaries provide pupils with learning around aspects of Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE), and also citizenship (in fact, sometimes, you might see or hear the abbreviation PSHCE) and financial education (I’ve even spotted the abbreviation PSHEE – Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education). Sex and relationships education (SRE, although sometimes the terms are swapped around: Relationships and Sex Education – RSE) also falls under this PSHE umbrella term. As you can see, all these abbreviations can get really confusing!
At St James’ CE Primary, we cover all this in a weekly subject which is popular with both pupils and their teachers: Living and Learning.
Read more about Living and Learning on our Health page and in our age-related expectations. You can also check out the weekly Living and Learning theme in our calendar – they show for each Monday during term-time.
Living and Learning: democracy
On the last day of half term, the school councillors for this year were elected. The children read aloud and listened to speeches in their own class. Then the children went into the hall to vote for their class representatives; this was a very fair and democratic process. Congratulations to all the children who will be school council representatives for 2019-2020.
Our Christian value his half-term is…
…perseverance.
Perseverance is needed when standing firm in the face of any difficulty. It’s the special gift that we have when life is difficult or painful that helps us not to give up. Difficulties might include hardship, persecution or scorn, although we hope these difficulties do not arise in our school. We use it more in the context of ‘keeping going’ and ‘not giving up’.
Why did the Church Council choose this Christian value?
‘Because Jesus always said to try our best.’ (Y4 Church Council member)
Home challenge
Talk about perseverance together…
- How can we show perseverance in school?
- How can we show perseverance in home, or in other situations?
- Talk about a time when you showed perseverance.
‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’
(Galatians 6:9)