Our weekly message: Friday 13 March 2026

We’ll start this week with a couple of reminders of pages on our website you might not check out very often, but it’s useful to know they’re there…

• the Safeguarding page gives you a broad overview of some aspects of safeguarding that we consider carefully – it even includes a list of support services for domestic violence and abuse
• the Join in Beyond School page includes a physical activity guide suggesting out-of-school physical activities available to families in our local area

Next week

A couple of events next week…

On Monday, there’s a topic review session at 2.30pm. This is the second of two drop-in sessions – a chance to look at your child’s topic learning. If you’re coming, please arrive promptly.

The vast majority of children enjoy sharing their learning – it’s a cause for celebration and feeling proud. We recognise there might be one or two who struggle with the change or the extra people – please consult your child’s class teacher if you’ve concerns.

Next Friday is Red Nose Day. (This is a day that wasn’t in our calendar in September because they hadn’t announced the date.) We invite children to come to school wearing red and making a donation.

As always with non-uniform days, please continue to respect our Uniform Policy. Here’s what it says about non-uniform days:

Pupils should dress appropriately and respectfully, 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. 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. Flipflops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.

Personal hygiene

Spirituality and Forest School

St James’ CE Primary’s vision is to be a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. Regardless of whether you have a faith or none at all, developing spirituality plays a role in achieving this for our pupils and our staff, enabling them to flourish.

At St James’ CE Primary, spirituality means a sense of connection: this might mean connecting with ourselves, connecting with others, connecting with the world and environment, or connecting with a greater force beyond.

Our Forest School area is a very special place in our school grounds where children have an opportunity to connect with each other and with nature. It provides a space to develop spirituality. Sarah from Born of the Forest leads
our children in Forest School and she’s finding lots of ‘wow moments’ where the children can appreciate, notice and connect with the world around them.

A quote from Sarah Following a recent session, Sarah says: “We were bird spotters today and shared moments that were exciting, fascinating, and joyful. The robin birdsong and red kites were some highlights. There was a discussion today about the fact that we humans are also animals (which seemed to confuse some), and that we’re all are part of nature.”

A Year 2 pupil recently spoke enthusiastically about their time in Forest School: “Last week, we were litter picking so we could help the environment. I enjoy playing in the mud kitchen with my friends – it’s fun to get muddy!”

We’re very thankful to our PTA (Parent and Teacher Association) who help fundraise and pay towards Forest School so all children at St James’ CE Primary School can take part.

Reception parents survey

There’s a few days left to complete this short survey. for parents of children in Reception – it closes on Wednesday 18 March. It’ll only take a few minutes and your views can make a difference. (If you’d like us to follow-up any of your responses with you, we can only do this if you leave your name.)

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 06 March 2026

This week’s Weekly Message is a busy one…

World Book Day

Have a look at these interesting characters who showed up at school yesterday…

Competing in cross country

Second, all three schools in Sphere Federation had children representing Leeds in the West Yorkshire cross country final at Temple Newsam on Tuesday. Two of our Key Stage 2 children took part.

We’re very proud of our runners who raced in tough, competitive conditions, with the best runners from across West Yorkshire. They both put in 100% effort and were a great support for each other. The children should feel proud of competing at this level.

Our two runners managed to finish in 56th (out of 141) and 22nd place (out of 151) – a fantastic achievement for both.

Thank you to parents who helped with transport and supported at the event.

Reception parents survey

Before that, if you’re a parent of a child in Reception, please complete this short survey. At St James’ CE Primary, we’re always trying to keep getting better and better. Your views help us to do that. The survey will only take a few minutes to complete and you’ve got until Wednesday 18 March to complete. (If you’d like us to follow-up any of your responses with you, we can only do this if you leave your name.)

The rest of this week’s message is an overview about our current half-term topic. It seems long, but just read the sections that apply to your child… 

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term, it’s Computing. We’re developing our knowledge of computers and computer programming.

Computer programming is super. Creating games, animations and solving real world problems is fun, encourages creativity and is challenging! Importantly, the skills the children develop and use are transferable to other subjects and areas of life. For example, the concept of decomposition in programming is concerned with breaking down a large task into smaller chunks. This concept could be used when writing a story, solving a maths problem or tidying a particularly messy bedroom! Debugging is the skill of identifying and fixing an error in a program. It requires systematic, objective thinking and plenty of resilience.

Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. See pages 12 and 13 of our Topic Curriculum Guide.

Years 1 and 2

Children will learn about how technology is used all around us. They’ll begin to consider what a computer is and isn’t.

In programming lessons, they’ll be introduced to algorithms and will learn about how they need to be written in the correct sequence.

They’ll create their own algorithms in ‘unplugged computing’ lessons and will debug errors in their own and others’ algorithms. Next, they’ll plan and create their own unplugged game where they have to create an algorithm to move a character from one place to another using positional language.

Children will then use the same concepts using Beebots – simple robots which can be programmed to move and turn. Finally, it’ll be time to create their own game using Beebots.

Years 3 and 4

Pupils will begin with some ‘unplugged computing’. They’ll create and debug unplugged programs which use sequence and repetition before they then create their own unplugged game which will require some decomposition. Next, pupils will explore how branching databases help us organise and use information. They’ll start by asking and creating yes/no questions to sort objects into groups, learn how to build and structure a branching database, and think about attributes that help with classification. Across the six lessons, they’ll make their own branching databases, plan how to structure them, and compare different ways of presenting information. By the end of the unit they will test their database by using it as an identification tool and think about how similar systems are used in the real world.

Years 5 and 6

Children will begin the topic by reasoning about what makes a computer a computer. They’ll then learn about how search engines work and how to best use them. In programming lessons, they’ll use Scratch to gain a deeper understanding of concepts like sequence and repetition before learning about selection and variables. Some of this vocabulary may sound alien to you. However, before the end of the topic, your child will be able to tell you what they mean and give examples of how they’ve used them in their projects. Some of the projects your children will create are:

• A Spirograph style drawing animation with some potentially psychedelic visual effects!
• A chatbot program which will ask you questions and decide if your responses are correct or not.
• A times table quiz program that will test you on randomly selected times table questions within a set time limit.

How can you help?

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. Our Class News is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

The school library and local libraries have lots of books about coding and computer games which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and computing knowledge.

Finally, try programming with your child. There are loads of programming apps and software available to download, often for free. Here’s a list:

Key Stage 1:

• Beebot
• Code for Life: Rapid Router
• Lightbot
• Scratch Jr

Key Stage 2:

• Code for Life: Rapid Router
• Lightbot
• Scratch Jr
• Scratch

Our weekly message: Friday 27 February 2026

Spring has sprung… It’s felt great to start and end our school day with more daylight and  – even sometimes – a glimpse of the sun! To cap it all, this Sunday marks the start of meteorological spring.

This week, children in Year 3 and 4 have been cooking pitta pizzas in their Cooking and Nutrition lessons. The children have practised their cutting skills and thinking carefully about the ingredients they use to make their healthy snack. They’ve enjoyed eating them too!

To make sure that we can continue to offer this, we asked for voluntary contributions in September for the year ahead. If you’ve not yet paid, please do consider a voluntary donation of £3 to £6 to pay for the ingredients. We really appreciate your donations.

For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum Guide – they include the recipes and background information including the food preparation skills children will practise. (We’re in Year A this year.)

Number challenge

Does your child know their times tables and other number facts? On Wednesday, children did their number challenge for the second time – has your child’s scores improved?

Thank you for all the sponsor money collected.

World Book Day

Here’s a re-cap on an email we sent earlier this week…

Next Thursday is World Book Day. We’ll celebrate with lots of brilliant book-based activities through the day!

We alternate years when we dress up – this year is a dressing up year.
If your child wants to, they can come dressed as a book character or anything else book-related (but please don’t feel the need to go out and spend money on a costume).

In a reading-themed day, children will hear teachers read aloud their favourite stories, spend time in other classes reading with different children and explore new authors and books.

Attendance

Our attendance so far this year is 93.6% – this is quite a bit lower than the national figure for primary schools (94.8%).

Last year, our rate across the year was 95.2%, so we know we can do better! Let’s hope it can rise across Spring 2.

Please continue to check the NHS site, Is My Child Too Ill For School.

Our Christian value focus this half-term is...

…forgiveness.

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.

‘Do not be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, then forgive him. Forgive each other because the Lord forgave you.’ (Colossians 3:13)

Throughout the Bible, God is described as slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin (Numbers 14:18) and Jesus is shown to be uncompromising in his command to forgive. ‘Forgive’, he said, ‘seventy times seven’ (Matthew 18:21), meaning forgive and keep on forgiving without limit.

At St James’ CE Primary, our children are encouraged to forgive each other. Forgiveness is associated with our Positive Relationships Policy. Children have many chances to reflect on their behaviour and make the right choices. Poor behaviour choices are always forgiven without a grudge and we enjoy a ‘new beginning’.

Sometimes, we accidentally break things that belong to ourselves or others. Sometimes, we use something so much it wears out. Some things that are broken cannot be mended, but it’s often possible to mend things that we’ve broken.

Help at home!

When you fall out with one of your friends, you can’t mend that friendship with a needle and thread, or some Sellotape, or glue or a puncture kit or a sticking plaster. Talk together about you can help show forgiveness towards those around you and how you can help mend any broken friendships.

Our weekly message: Friday 13 February 2026

It’s the last Weekly Message of Spring 1. It’s incredible to think we’ve already reached half-way through the school year!

Let’s start off with another St James’ CE Primary good news story…

Super singing

On Tuesday, our choir went to sing at Sheffield Arena with the Young Voices Choir- the largest children’s choir in the world! There were over 5000 children taking part. In the evening, parents came to watch the concert and the atmosphere in the arena was electric!

Chloe, one of our choir members described the event as ‘absolutely fantastic- a once in a lifetime experience’.

Thank you to Mr Nash and Mrs Linton for accompanying the children, and to all the parents/carers who attended.

Staying safe online

Tuesday was Safer Internet Day. Do you speak with your child about staying safe online? Do you check your child’s devices and online history regularly? Do you make sure your child is online only in a busy room, with other people at home around them?

The government is launching a new website on 16 February 2026 to support families and encourage regular conversations about what they’re seeing online, asking simple questions, like ‘who shared this’ and ‘why?’. Based on parents’ main concerns and needs, it provides:

• tips for parents’ conversations with their children
• actions to support each stage of their child’s life
• parental controls information

The website will also feature signposting to trusted resources from charities and third parties, where parents can access other forms of support (like speaking to an expert).

The website will continue to grow and be developed this year, supporting the Online Safety Act and wider government aims.

Check out Kids online safety.

Young artists

Now in its eighth year, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4–18 studying in the UK. Artworks are judged by a panel of artists and arts professionals, with selected artworks displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Click here for more information about the competition. We’ve registered St James’ and now it’s over to you to register and submit an artwork. Submissions close on 4 March 2026 at 5pm.

Policies

Sphere Federation governors have asked me to include a reminder to you all that some key policies are available on our website.

Any docs and content on the website is available as a paper copy if you ask.

We hope you and your family enjoy the Spring half-term break – hopefully, it’ll stop raining at some point… See you on Monday 23 February.

February half term holiday clubs in school

They’re running clubs across multiple schools… the coaches are buzzing to get started, and they’re putting the final touches on an action-packed itinerary full of sports, games, challenges, creativity, and plenty of smiles. Every session is designed to help children stay active, build confidence, make friends, and have an amazing time — whatever their ability.

To book your child’s place, please follow this link: https://pepartner.coordinate.cloud/list

The clubs at Moortown, Scholes, and St James’ are OFSTED registered, meaning childcare payment schemes can be used.

Refer a friend and earn £6.50 credit…

PE Partner can’t wait to deliver another brilliant school holiday club in our schools, helping children be more active, more confident, and happier, more often.

Our weekly message: Friday 06 February 2026

Don’t forget the parent-teacher meetings happening next week on Tuesday and Thursday after school – we’re looking forward to seeing you there.

Also next week…

Number facts challenge

Does your child know their times tables and other number facts?

On Wednesday next week, we’ll be doing the challenge for the first time with no preparation. After this, your child will bring home the challenge, their score and sponsor forms.

Please help your child improve their score for the next part of the challenge which will be on Wednesday 25 February. Help us raise lots of money for our school charity and for PTA – funds raised will be split 50-50.

Safer Internet Day 2026

Next Tuesday (10 February) is Safer Internet Day. This is an annual, global awareness day that encourages children, young people and adults to think carefully about how we use the online world and digital technology.

At home, it can be a powerful annual prompt to refresh conversations about online safety, wellbeing and responsible digital behaviour. Use these top tips for parents and carers from the UK Safer Internet Centre.

Sticking with the staying safe theme…

Blue lights

This week’s Living and Learning theme has been ‘I know the importance of the emergency services’.

Children in Key Stage 1 should watch this BBC Bitesize clip called “The different people who help us’. Have a chat about what they’ve watched. Can your child name any other people who help us?

Children in Key Stage 2 should watch an alternative BBC Bitesize clip: ‘How to make a call to emergency services’. On the same page are lots more short clips in the same series – how to deal with burns, choking, bites and stings… Aim to watch them over the next few weeks.

Attendance matters

Each term , the Department for Education produces a report which analyses each school’s attendance and compares attendance with a small group of similar schools. Here are some highlights from the Autumn term…

1. Across school, attendance on Monday mornings was higher than 13 out of 20 similar schools.
2. Year 4 attendance was higher than 11 out of 14 similar schools.
3. Year 2 attendance was higher than 9 out of 20 similar schools.

Well done to pupils (and parents) in Year 2 and 4! Thank you to everyone who helps to make sure their child attends school with no unnecessary absences.

Finally this week…

St James’ Church – vacancy

We’ve been asked by our friends at St James’ Church to let you know there’s a vacancy for Parish Office Manager. Read more about this vacancy.

For further details please contact Rev Matthew Peat:

• telephone: 01937 529875
• email: wetherbyvicar@gmail.com

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 30 January 2026

We’re fast approaching the end of half-term, marking the half way point of the school year. Despite the dark and cold mornings (this morning being one of them!), it’s lovely to see our children coming in happy and healthy with a smile on their faces.

2026-27 training days

Last week, we let you know that the 2026-27 holidays are in our school calendar. We can now confirm the five training days are all confirmed and in the calendar, too. They are:

• Tuesday 01 September 2026
• Friday 02 October 2026
• Friday 23 October 2026
• Monday 07 December 2026
• Friday 28 May 2027

There are three in Autumn 1 half-term because this is a long half-term (eight weeks), giving children a chance to have a couple of longer weekends to rest.

Bird watching

Also last week, we mentioned the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch – the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. Our Year 3 children wasted no time in getting involved…

A happy and healthy place to work

As well as welcoming helpful constructive questions, comments and concerns, every year we invite you to complete a survey. We do the same with staff – sometimes just teachers and sometimes all staff. Here are a couple of comments from this year’s survey of teachers:

• ‘Regular check-ins are meaningful and consistently followed up. I feel listened to and supported, and I feel strongly that wellbeing is viewed as a priority in our school. Introduction of new initiatives is workload-friendly.’
• ‘I really appreciate the personalised feedback/support/challenge… I feel valued as a part of the team at St James’ and the wider Sphere Federation. This has a positive impact on my wellbeing’

St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to learn and also to work!

Happy, healthy and safe

Do you have to use a car to drop off and collect your child? The best way to travel to and from school is to walk, scoot or cycle. If you do drive, please remember to drive and park up with respect and care…

Hallfield Lane is being used so much for parking:

• sometimes residents can’t get out of their own driveways
• emergency vehicles would not be able to access if needed
• it’s dangerous for families who are walking to and from school

If you park on the double yellow lines or zigzags anywhere round school, this causes danger to our children, pedestrians, and other drivers. Please don’t park on them or across the road from them. Read more about these road markings and the law.

Freemans Way and Ceres Road are both alternative roads to park on, This will help congestion on Hallfield Lane (and walking at least park of the way is healthier, too!).

We know that the lack of parking is frustrating but please help us to keep the environment safe, our children safe and show that we consider the residents who live around school. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

You might want to report a problem to Leeds City Council – the more who do so, the more likely something will be done. We suggest using the link to Report a Traffic Management Issue – it only takes a minute.

Charging, remissions and outstanding payments

We’ve recently updated our policy. Check this out, especially if your child attends wraparound care, after-school clubs or Nursery, or has tuition for an instrument. Main updates are around what we do if we’re waiting for a payment for these services.

Have a happy and healthy weekend.

Our weekly message: Friday 23 January 2026

This week’s message is a busy one. However, most of the sections are short and the last two sections are just suggestions…

Online safety Zoom

Did you attend Monday’s Zoom session – Online Safety Workshop?

• If you did, thank you. We welcome your feedback
• If you didn’t, you can watch a recording

Watch us while we work

Talking of feedback, thank you for the feedback following our recent Watch Us While We Work session.

• ‘It was good to see the children being able to have an open conversation about their feelings and learning about the different types of feelings.’
• ‘An interesting session listening to the children understand the feeling of guilty’
• ‘It was a great Watch us While we Work today!’

2026-27 school holidays

Leeds school holidays can be found here, and they’re now also in our school calendar. What’s missing at the moment is the dates of the five training days which schools take – we’ll be confirming these shortly and we’ll let you know soon.

Absences in term time

You all know we don’t authorise holidays or trips away in term time. You can be fined or face legal action for taking your child on holiday during term time. Since September 2025, there have been 1,841 penalty notices issued to families in Leeds.

We’re able to authorise an absence if it’s unavoidable or exceptional:

If your child is genuinely ill, that’s unavoidable (check the NHS Is my child too ill for school?). However, if your child has had numerous absences, we can ask for evidence of an illness or simply not authorise the absence.

If you need to be absent for something exceptional, like a wedding of a close relative, please ask for a form to request the absence is authorised. We may ask for more details so we can be clear about the absence. (And please remember – the absence must be exceptional, so a second absence is unlikely to be classed as exceptional, even if it’s for a different reason.)

Big Garden Birdwatch

The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch starts today. It’s the world’s largest garden wildlife survey. It’s simple: spend an hour watching the birds in your patch, between 23 and 25 January, and record the birds that land!

Half-term suggestion

We can’t believe there are only three weeks left of this half-term before the half-term holiday. Fancy something different? Maybe consider something new, like climbing – there are sessions in Leeds and Harrogate – or something more traditional, like football.

As with all clubs and holiday activities, we strongly recommend you check out the provider’s safeguarding policies and practices. Check out the four questions you should ask – they’re at the foot of our Our extra-curricular activities page.

Our weekly message: Friday 16 January 2026

At St James’ CE Primary, we treat everything around health and safety seriously. One aspect of this is to make sure we do regular fire drills. Similar to this is to practise lockdowns and invacuations. Put simply, a lockdown is when people must stay where they are and an invacuation is when people must all go inside, possibly to the same space. We’ll be doing one of these practices next week. We explain to children reasons in a child-friendly way – for example, that this might be if there’s been a report of an angry dog or if there’s a building on fire and there’s too much smoke. 

The rest of this message is about this half-term’s topic…

What is this half-term’s topic?

This half-term, we’re historians. We’ll be developing our understanding of Britain’s past and the wider world. Children will use enquiry skills to answer questions about the past that require opinions. They’ll be ‘time detectives’, using sources of evidence to help them answer these questions. Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. See pages 23, 24 and 25. 

Years 1 and 2

In this topic, children will learn about how toys and games have changed over time. They’ll develop chronological understanding by sequencing events in their own lives before learning about how toys and games were different during their parents’ and grandparents’ and great grandparents’ childhoods. They’ll look at similar toys from different times and try to sequence them chronologically using logical reasoning. They’ll use photographs and other sources of evidence to identify changes and similarities.

The key historical concept which we’ll explore in this topic is innovation. An innovation is an improvement or replacement for something

Years 3 and 4

In this topic, children will learn about the Roman Empire and its invasion of Britain. It will examine how life changed for the people living in Britain at the time of the invasion. They will learn about the Celtic warrior, Boudicca and how she resisted the Romans. Children will also consider what we know about Boudicca, how we know it and whether we can trust it.

They’ll learn about the amazing inventions and advances that the Romans brought to Britain. Finally, they’ll find out why the Romans left Britain and who the Anglo-Saxons were.

There are two key historical concepts which we’ll explore in this topic: empire and invasion. An empire is a large group of countries or states ruled by an emperor or empress. An invasion is when a country or region is invaded by an armed force. 

Years 5 and 6

In this topic, children will learn about Viking Britain and an Early Islamic Civilisation centred around the city of Baghdad around 800AD.

During this period of time, Baghdad was the largest city in the world and was the centre of the world’s trade routes. Trade between Vikings and Baghdad happened and provides a real link between these two societies.

Through studying the Vikings, children will again learn about how people invaded and settled in Britain. Invasion is also relevant as it brought an end to the Islamic Golden Age.

The Islamic Golden Age was a period of great innovation. Learning and knowledge was key to their success. They built the world’s first hospitals, universities and observatories, as well as studied writing from scholars around the world. The contrast with Viking Britain during the Dark Ages is stark!

There are three key historical concepts which we’ll explore in this topic: trade, invasion and innovation. Trade is the exchange of goods and services, initially for other goods and services, and then for money. An innovation is an improvement or replacement for something. An invasion is when a country or region is invaded by an armed force.

Help at home

Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. The class news page of the school website is a good place to go to find out more about what the children are doing.

Find some books from the library which match what the children are learning. This will be quite easy for children in Key Stage 2 as there will be plenty of books about Roman Britain and Viking Britain. You should also be able to find some about the Islamic Golden Age. For children in Key Stage 1, look for some books about toys over time. However, any book that looks at how an aspect of life has changed over time will be good. For example, you may find books about shopping, houses, transport, holidays. These will all help your child to sequence chronologically and explore similarities and differences.

Watch television shows about history. Horrible Histories is great – regardless of your age!

Finally, don’t forget on Monday, we’ve an online session to support you to help your child stay safe online. This is important: very frequently, we’re made aware of unsafe behaviour amongst children when they’re online at home. Join in the Zoom session using the link that has been emailed to parents/carers.