Sphero coding!
Recently, Year 1 and 2 enjoyed a visit to Wetherby library to participate in a coding workshop using Sphero balls and iPads.
The children used the Sphero app to programme their robot. They programmed it using drag and drop actions and even changed the colour of their Sphero. Sphero was sent flying across the library and the children learnt to weave the robot around a maze.
Fantastic Creative Homework
This week, year 1 and 2 were given the creative homework task: I can show what I know about a country. They could choose any country they wished and present this in any way. Here are a few of our creative homework with a wide variety of countries represented.
Leavers’ Service
Thank you to Reverend Stroma and St James’ Church for hosting our year 6 leavers’ service last week. It was a special afternoon where the children reflected on their primary school years together. We are incredibly proud of our year 6 pupils.
Fabulous Library Visit!
Yesterday afternoon, Year 1 and 2 visited Wetherby Library. Have a look at some of the comments the children made and the pictures of them using the library. They were much more confident in how to use the library this time and more focussed on choosing books that suited/interested them.
Ellie – The library trip was great. I got one of my favourite books called ‘I’ll never let you go’.
Lilly – It was fun walking down the library and getting a Harry Hill’s book.
Jack – I like going to the library because I saw a book that I liked about Kart Racing and Mr Wicks liked it too
Harley – It was really fun and I picked a book about fires, police and bees.
Joe – I like going to the library because there are so many books that I would like to get from there.
Daisy-Mae – I liked going to the library because I found some Beast Quest books and I got to get a Molly Broomstick book. I saw a book about a clown but there were no words in it so I think it would be a good book to make up my own words for the story.
This half-term’s Christian value is…
…peace.
Every half-term, we focus on one of our six Christian values.
Peace is about positive harmony and healthy relationships between people. It involves spiritual as well as material security. Peace is a state of true wholeness, a state of well-being.
This value promotes harmony, stability and security within the school and local community.
Why did the Church Council choose this Christian value? ‘Because when Jesus was sent down there was peace.’ (Year 2 Church Council member)
St James’ Head of School post
As you will know, Miss Beatson has been Acting Head of School since September in the absence of Mr Williams.
A recruitment process to find a permanent Head of School culminated yesterday, Monday 19 March, in Miss Beatson’s permanent appointment.
The recruitment was rigorous. Two governors were involved as well as me, the Head of Federation. Also involved was an advisor from the Diocese in order to provide an external viewpoint and the perspective of the Diocese, since St James’ is a Church of England school.
Miss Beatson has a great passion and enthusiasm for supporting all staff and pupils in school, and I know parents also respect her and value the great relationship she has built up with them.
She and I are looking forward to continuing to make sure St James’ CE Primary keeps getting better and better.
Well done to Miss Beatson!
Learning workshops
Thanks to the parents and carers of Year 2 and Year 6 children who came to school this week for a workshop around supporting their child’s learning at home. We’re really pleased to see people taking the time to learn how you can best support your child at home.
Here are two examples of the great feedback we got:
- ‘We found it very informative on what [our child] should expect and how we can support her and help learning.’
- ‘It helped us as we understand the SATs papers more thoroughly. This will enable us to support her better to achieve positive results.’
Watch a short video about the Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs) here.
12 January 2018
This week’s spellings homework is a spelling list. It’s due in on Thursday 18 January.
Have a look in your child’s book to see which spellings they have.
- Group 1: in, is, it, as
- Group 2: was, you, they, are, my
- Group 3: like, so, do, come, some, were, there, little
- Group 4: grow, grew, fly, flew, bring, brought, fight, fought, teach, taught
Town Hall visit
Today, the School Council visited the Town Hall, to look at proposed plans for playing areas in Wetherby. They were asked for their views and opinions to help developers design the best possible parks they can.
Here is some feedback our school council gave the planning team:
- “I like the swings in the spider web park because they look like they go really high.”
- “I like some of the ideas for the slides because there were different sizes so all ages could use them.”
- “I thought in one of the parks they could have a big slide as well as a little slide.”
Are you interested in a career in primary teaching?
Our teaching school partner, Pudsey Primrose Hill Primary, writes:
Pudsey Primrose Hill, a strategic partner of Noctua TSA, are the Lead School for School Direct (Salaried) and School Direct (Fee Paying) and work in collaboration with Educate Teacher Training.
We have a partnership of schools across Leeds and Bradford who work together to deliver the School Direct route into primary teaching.
We have created a ‘learning on the job’ style programme with trainees allocated to one of our partnership schools for the academic year.
Trainees carry out a six week second school placement, also in one of our partnership schools.
We offer both Salaried and Fee Paying programmes and have delivered Initial Teacher Education for over 8 years.
If you are interested in attending the Information Event on Wednesday 4th October , please book a place using the contact details below.
Our information event will begin with a short presentation at 6pm followed by the opportunity to ask questions and speak to school direct
trainees past and present.
We look forward to meeting you there!
Phone: 0113 2574129
Email: kathryn.dickson@pudseyprimrosehill.co.uk