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27 September 2019

Focus : ee, ie, ea, ey, y, e-e

We have been continuing to learn words which have the ‘ee’ sound. On the grid that is glued into your book find as many words as you can which use the ‘ee’ sound and put them into the correct column.

Hint: use last week’s spellings if you are struggling to think of words.

20 September 2019

This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect and is due on Thursday 26 September.

This week, we have been identifying and using a range of adverbs in our writing.Adverbs are words which add more information to verbs. They can be about time, manner and place. Sometimes they end in -ly but not always.

Your child has a sheet to complete on identifying and using adverbs.More information on adverbs can be found here.

13 September 2019

This week’s homework is Practice Makes Perfect and is due on Thursday 19 September.

Practice Makes Perfect is useful homework when something has been taught in school but needs consolidation. The work should be fairly straightforward for your child as there should be no need for new learning, so just some encouragement from you is needed. However, it would be a great time to get your child to teach you – they should be able to explain the key points or processes.

This week, we have been representing number using models of 100, 10 and 1. Your child has a sheet in their books to complete on representing numbers using the models for 100s ,10s and 1s.

The annual survey is now closed

Thanks to all parents / carers who completed an annual survey. The deadline for this was yesterday. School leaders will now start looking through the feedback and this will help tell us how we can keep getting better and better.

We can’t guarantee to meet the needs and wants of every parent / carer, but we do assure you that we consider all the points raised and aim to act on specific points that are raised by many, or a useful idea raised by just a few.

Last year, based on your feedback, for example, we changed how we update you about your child’s progress so that you get five updates over the year: a parent-teacher consultation in Autumn 1 and Spring 1; a Learning Update ‘mini-report’ in Autumn 2 and Spring 2; and a final end-of-year report in Summer 2.

We’re looking forward to reading your views.

14 June 2019

Focus : -ly endings

This week, we have been studying the -ly endings to words. Often adding -ly to a word will change it from an adjective to an adverb. There are a few ways to add -ly to a word. Sometimes the spelling changes; sometimes it doesn’t.

Your task is to come up with as many -ly words as you can and sort them into groups according to how the original word is changed.

For example:

• gentle – gently
• happy – happily
• frantic – frantically

See how many of each type you can find.

Living and Learning: I know the difference between being proud and showing off

This week, the children thought about what they are proud of and why.  We talked about how it can be difficult to say what we are proud of sometimes and how it takes confidence.  Everyone has lots to be proud of!  During circle time, the class took turns to say what they were proud of and also what they think other children in the class are good at so giving each other a boost!  The class then wrote thought bubbles to share what they are proud of. Comments on these thought bubbles included: “I’m proud of my football skills because it makes me unique” and, “I am proud of my dancing because I practise a lot and even though I’m not the best and dancing, I am still proud of what I can do so far”.  Some really thoughtful and reflective comments from Year 3 and 4. Well done – you have lots to be proud of!

Fab feedback

At St James’ CE Primary, we regularly seek the views of others. Last month, we let you know about feedback from a Leeds Health and Safety Advisor (news article on 31 January 2019, deriving from a Health and Safety inspection) and a Leeds Early Years Advisor (news article on 15 January 2019, deriving from a visit to the Early Years class).

In January, we also collected the views of staff for the second time in recent years. We asked staff to complete a survey with questions that Ofsted use during inspections (very much like the survey we ask parents and carers to complete in the Summer term). The survey was completed by ten staff (in any role – premises staff, lunchtime supervisors, teachers, teaching assistants…). Here are some key findings:

100% of staff agree that our school has improved since it was last inspected, with 86% believing the school has improved a lot. (These percentages exclude three staff members who are new to school and can’t comment on improvements since the inspection). Comments include: ‘Massive improvement. Staff morale is so much better.’ and ‘Much better – more consistency and support, much better atmosphere around school, and a team ethos.’

We’re really proud that in other statements, 100% of the staff who responded agreed with the following statements:

• Pupils are safe in our school, with 80% strongly agreeing.
• Leaders support staff well in managing behaviour.
• Leaders do all they can to ensure the school has a motivated, respected and effective staff.
• St James’ Primary is well-led and managed.
• I feel well supported working in this school.
• Leaders and managers are considerate of my well-being: ‘Leaders are supportive and understanding when there are problems in a teacher’s personal life and make sure to check in on teachers.’
• Being in a federation benefits me/my role in school.

Of the four remaining statements (such as ‘Being in a federation benefits this school.’), no staff member disagreed but one or two expressed no views as to whether they agreed or not.

Finally, we asked for any strengths and areas for further improvement…

Strengths

We asked staff to comment in an open-ended question about the strengths of our school. Some of the many strengths they mentioned are:

• ‘Great staff and caring ethos.’
• ‘Staff work well together as a team.’
• ‘Pastoral care and senior leadership.’
• ‘Dedicated teachers and parent partnership.’
• ‘Absolutely amazing head of school. She is so supportive. I feel that my role at school is greatly appreciated.’
• ‘Promoting positive behaviour and Christian values.’
• ‘The effort and team playing of staff which is resulting in better results for children.’
• ‘The federation which we’re part of.’

Next steps

We’re always wanting to keep getting better and better. There were far fewer suggestions for areas to develop, but, based on the survey, our next steps are to keep improving behaviour management for all staff and to keep developing positive partnerships with parents / carers that help to support the pupils in our school.

Thank you to all staff who support our school, with special thanks to those who completed the survey.

08 February 2019

Focus : the -ture sound

Learn these words for a test next week. For each word: speedwrite it three times; draw it as a pyramid word, and use it in a sentence.
mixture
fracture
adventure
nature
creature
furniture
mature
capture
venture

Safety week

We have had lots of exciting visitors this week. Our focus was how to make safe choices and look after ourselves.

We learnt about staying safe around strangers as well as safety at home and in school. Road Safety was also covered by a workshop that explained how we should behave on the road.

The NSPCC brought buddy in to see us and we found out about or right to speak out. We also learnt the Childline number song.

Dogs Trust came into our class with Peg. We found out about dogs and how to read their behaviours.

D-side taught us all about our own bodies and what we need to do in order to look after them. We talked about a healthy diet as well as how sleep can affect our leaning.

This has been a very informative week and we will continue to think out making safe choices.

8 February 2019

This week’s spelling homework is a spelling task and is due on Thursday 14 February.

Year 1 words

Year 2 words

Choose one of the following activities to complete using your spelling words.