This week’s message (Friday 24 February 2023)

As a teacher, the year is punctuated with school-related milestones, most obviously the different terms. After just one week away, it’s remarkable how different Spring 2 feels – we’re arriving and leaving work in the daylight, spotting signs of Spring on our way. As you travel to and from school with your child, talk about the changes in the seasons: daffodils, daylight, leaves on trees… Being mindful like this can have a really good impact on our emotions.

Industrial action

Earlier in the week, we emailed you about the forthcoming industrial strikes planned across a series of dates:

• Tuesday, 28 February
• Wednesday, 15 March
• Thursday, 16 March

As it stands right now, it looks that our school will be able to remain open.

However, please remember that all workers, including teachers, have the right to take industrial action without prior notice. This means we might have to close some classes at the last minute. As such, it would be advisable to prepare for some disruption on the days listed here just in case.

Attendance matters

For the school year up to Friday 10 February, our attendance figure was 93.1%. This is higher than when we last talked about it – great news!

• Reception: 93.3% – doing well
• Year 1: 94.8% – the highest in school!
• Year 2: 93.5% – doing well
• Year 3: 92.8%
• Year 4: 89.6% – let’s hope this rises over the rest of the year
• Year 5: 92.9%
• Year 6: 94.0% – well above average

Good attendance is important:

• regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically
• regular attenders cope better and benefit from school routines, school work and friendships
• regular attenders find learning more satisfying
• regular attenders are more successful in transferring between primary school, secondary school, and higher education, employment or training
• statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and absence below 95%

Thank you for helping us increase our attendance rate. Please continue to make sure your child is getting to school on time every day.

Have a good weekend, whatever you get up to.

Our Christian value this half-term is...

…forgiveness.

In our 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.

This week’s message (Friday 10 February 2023)

We’ve reached the end of the Spring 1 half-term. Thank you to everyone for attending the parent-teacher meetings this week.

Staying healthy…

Next half term, our Living and Learning sessions return to the theme of mental wellbeing. MindMate supports mental health and wellbeing – check out the resources and support that’s available for parents and carers.
As always the associated weekly Living and Learning statement can be found on our school calendar.

Sticking to the theme of health, find out more about Play Streets, Junior Parkrun and Park Play in this short video.

Staying safe…

This week’s seen us mark Safer Internet Day – talk to your child about what they’ve learnt about in school. To help support staying safe online, have you got parental controls switched on? Check out this easy to follow guide. Read more information about parental controls.

Does your child have additional needs?

Over the next few weeks, Leeds SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service) is running some virtual information sessions aimed at providing parents/carers with information, advice and support on SEND topics. These will cover topics that they’re frequently asked about, and there’ll also be the opportunity to ask relevant questions at the end of each session. Dates/times for these are as follows:

SEND support in schools
Monday 06 March, 5.15pm
Wednesday 15 March, 1pm

EHC needs assessments
Thursday 02 March, 10am
Monday 20 March, 5.15pm

Section I appeals
Monday 27 February, 5.15pm
Wednesday 08 March, 1pm

Refusal to assess appeals
Monday 13 March, 5.15pm
Tuesday 21 March, 10am

To book a place or for more information, check out their website.

Over the holiday, please keep encouraging a love of reading: books, comics, websites, recipes… Have a happy and healthy half-term.

Lunchtime and Breakfast Club staff required

We’re currently looking for lunchtime and breakfast club staff to supervise our children at our friendly school! Lunchtime hours are 12.00pm – 1.15pm Monday to Friday (6.25 hrs per week) and Breakfast Club hours are 7.30am – 8.45am.  Please contact Mrs Quirk at stjamesfinance@spherefederation.org for further details.

Safer Internet Day

Today is Safer Internet Day–  a worldwide event that is celebrated each year in February to raise awareness of online issues. This year’s theme is ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’. 

We’ve been celebrating how great the internet is and talking about our favourite things to do online. We’ve also been exploring online issues and how to deal with them. Some of these issues include online bullying, fake news, scams, and seeing things that make us feel scared or uncomfortable.

In Foundation, they’ve been reading the story Penguin Pig by Stuart Spendlow. It’s a wonderful story with key messages which reinforce staying safe online.

Years 1 and 2 joined together this afternoon to play games in the hall which involved discussing different online scenarios and what to do in different situations.

Years 3 and 4 explored a website  all about staying safe online. They found out about age appropriate websites, games and apps. Quite a few children were surprised to find out that Tik Tok has an age rating of 13+.

This afternoon, I watched an engaging lesson in Years 5 and 6, where the children were reading online messages on a gaming platform which showed an example of online bullying. The children were excellent at identifying why the messages were an act of bullying. They then had to re-write the messages making sure they were positive and kind.

The key message for all our children today has been to tell a trusted adult if they feel unsafe, unhappy or uncomfortable online. It would be great if you can continue these conversations at home, too.

This week’s message (Friday 03 February 2023)

At a recent meeting of headteachers, we did a quick straw poll: which year group has been most impacted by Covid lockdowns? Well over half of the headteachers said Year 3, and to a large extent we’re finding that, too. No matter what year group, the best way to keep supporting your child is to make sure they’re reading every day and practising number facts. This week’s message comes from our Reading Leaders…

Early reading and phonics

We’ve already done nearly half a year’s worth of phonics in Reception and Year 1 – plus two assessments. We’re very pleased with progress and hope you can see how fluent children are when they’re reading to you at home. Year 2 children have been reviewing their phonic knowledge with an increasing focus on writing and spelling.

It’s all about repeated practice when learning how to read. If children are not reading words with fluency and automaticity (automatically), they probably just haven’t had enough practice. Re-reading to increase fluency, add prosody (rhythm, intonation, expression) and develop comprehension is why we read the same book or text in school all week. Extra reading of the same text at home is a brilliant way to celebrate children’s success and for them to continue to refine all these elements.

You really can help at home by ensuring you give your child the opportunity to read their school reading book or eBook. We’re the ‘expert readers’ so reading to them (at bedtime, for example) is just as important.

Reading in Key Stage 2

This half-term, your child is ‘solo reading’. They’ll be bringing home a book to read that they’ve chosen – usually from our school library. It’s really important that your child is reading this book regularly alongside an adult and that they bring their signed Reading Record into school every week.

Whilst regular reading is the most crucial aspect in a child’s development, there are other things you can do to help at home, too:

• talk about reading
• be a reading role model
• visit a local library / book shop
• ask your child what they’ve read at school
• regularly practise spellings (spelling and reading use the same skills – recognising patterns between letters and sounds)

Industrial action

This week saw the first of four days of industrial action by the National Education Union. Our school was unaffected. There are three more planned days coming up:

• Tuesday, 28 February (Northern, North West, Yorkshire and Humber regions)
• Wednesday, 15 March (England and Wales)
• Thursday, 16 March (England and Wales)

Workers don’t have to advise their employer if they plan to strike or not. Our advice remains the same: it might be wise to arrange childcare on these days in case your child’s class needs to close. We’ll keep you updated as much as we can.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in person for next week’s parent-teacher meetings. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

Attendance competition

Last week’s attendance winners were Year 2 with 96.8%. Well done to all the children in the Year 2 class.

This week’s message (Friday 27 January 2023)

I can’t believe we’re almost into February already! Safer Internet Day is coming up on Tuesday o7 February. What’re you doing at home to help your child stay safe?

Is your child a gamer?

Check out this guide to keep safe whilst using online software and games. from SWGfL. With advice on reporting and blocking, online socialisation and the considerations on online gaming, the pamphlet can be a useful basis for a conversation about staying safe online when gaming.

Is your child a fan of Fortnite?

Since its release 2017, Fortnite has had a mass appeal for children. This means children are exposed to multi-player chatting with strangers, and financial exploitation via the game’s spend-to-gain-advantage operating style – this allows children to use real world money to gain perks and costumes.

Fortnite has the potential to lead to criminal blackmailing and coercion of nude exchanges by online ‘friends’ posing as children. Internet Matters has published a guide to understanding the game and its terms.

Is your child connected to virtual reality?

Research has shown that two thirds of the UK public lack confidence that child safety is a priority in the metaverse, with 71% of adults expressing doubt in tech companies prioritising children’s safety. However, the study also revealed over a fifth of adults would buy their child a VR (virtual reality) headset if they could, despite these concerns.

To help you understand this new, fast changing issue, the NSPCC has published a guide to both the Metaverse and VR headsets.

Is your child happy and healthy online?

It’s become more and more common for people – including children – to talk to strangers online. A small amount of these relationships turn out malicious – we need to be aware of the dangers if they do.

Children and young people may find it difficult to understand when an online relationship turns out to be a bad one. The Information Commissioners Office, the UK’s information rights agency, has published guidance on what to look for when online relationships turn sour.

And finally, remember some advice from last week, too:

• check devices regularly alongside your child – doing this means that your child can moderate their own behaviour and have regular opportunities to talk about things that might be concerning them
• keep the devices downstairs – the more ‘public’ space means that children make the same good choices they would do in ‘in real life’ and have plenty of opportunities to talk about what they’re doing and seeing

Attendance competition

Each week, we’re having an attendance competition. The class with the highest attendance percentage wins a class reward. Since the start of Spring term, Reception, Year 1 and Year 5/6 have all won the competition. Let’s see if Year 2, Year 3 or Year 4 can win next week!

This week’s message (Friday 20 January 2023)