Living and Learning: I know what a drug is.
This week, our Living and Learning statement was ‘I know what a drug is’. As part of our learning, Dave from D:side came in to talk to each class about drugs. With the younger children, he spoke to them about medicines and how we can keep our bodies healthy. In KS2, he delivered workshops on smoking, alcohol and drugs.
Following on from this, each class discussed the issues and dangers around passive smoking and what they could do if they felt uncomfortable about it. The NHS website has some excellent information about passive smoking and the risks for children.
Period products
You might have read that the Department for Education has launched a scheme which will provide access to free period products in schools in England. Alongside this, Leeds Council launched a similar scheme a few months ago.
This scheme will ensure that period products are available to young people if they need them, when they need them. This will include supporting those who have started their period unexpectedly, forgotten to bring products with them and those who can’t afford to buy them.
Although there are some restrictions around how many products we can order, we’d like to assure you that the products are in school if your child needs to use them unexpectedly, or has forgotten them, or can’t afford them.
Fab feedback...
Thanks to those of you who visited us this morning for another one of our popular Watch us while we work sessions. We hold these so you can come into school and get a flavour of what we do, which will hopefully help you to support your child at home, too.
- ‘I really appreciated the opportunity. All the teachers are very welcoming.’
- ‘I enjoyed watching the different methods of teaching. This will help us at home when doing phonics and maths.’
- ‘The methods of teaching were excellent. The pupils remained calm and focused.’
- ‘I enjoyed seeing how much pupil interaction there is.’
We're in the Leeds top ten best primary schools!
In case you missed our news story last week…
According to the GOV.UK website, we’re one of the very best primary schools in the Leeds area for per cent of pupils meeting expected standard.
Check out the article in Yorkshire Evening Post.
Tell your family and friends about how good we are!
Is your child in Year 2 or Year 6?
If your child is in Year 2 or Year 6, they’re in the final year of Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) or Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6). This means that towards the end of the year, they’ll be doing end of key stage assessments, often called the SATs.
These short videos help to explain more – just be aware the videos are a couple of years old so some details like dates won’t be accurate.
In the past, parents have said they’ve found the videos helpful. Nevertheless, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, speak with your child’s class teacher or Miss Beatson.
Does your child use TikTok?
If you’re child uses TikTok, read this guide for parents.
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app available on iOS and Android which lets users create, share, and view user created videos much in a similar manner to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It’s main draw, however, is that users can record and upload bite-sized looping videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to popular music or soundbites, often for comedic effect, which can then be further enhanced with filters, emojis and stickers. TikTok has been designed with the young user in mind and has a very addictive appeal. At the beginning of 2019 it skyrocketed in popularity to become the iOS store’s most downloaded app with over 33 million downloads. Estimates suggest that it now has anything between 500 million and over 1billion monthly active users worldwide.
Attendance matters
Well done to Year 5,6 for their excellent attendance this year so far. The class average is 96%.
Children in Foundation 2 are also attending school really well – 95.7%.
It’s really important your child attends school as much as they can so that they can enjoy and achieve.
We're one of the best!
According to the GOV.UK website, we’re one of the very best primary schools in the Leeds area for per cent of pupils meeting expected standard.
Check out the article in Yorkshire Evening Post.
This half-term's Christian value is...
…love.
In Mark Chapter 12, Jesus was asked which of the ten commandments was the most important, to which he replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There are no commandment greater than these.”
The challenge for us is how can we show love to each other on a daily basis. How can we encourage each other? How can we make someone smile? How can we show love for our school and our world?
The Church Council chose peace as a Christian value: ‘Love is why Jesus came into the world – to send out love.’ (Y2 Church Council member).
Home challenge:
Which is your favourite film or book? Think about the main characters in it – how do they show love? For example, Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – how does he show love?
Do everything in love.
(1 Corinthians 16:14)
We love because He first loved us.
((1 John 4:19)
New annual report format
At St James’ CE Primary, we seek your thoughts on lots of things, whether this is straight after an open-session in school like our Watch us while we work sessions, or in the annual surveys in the summer term.
Just before the summer term last year, we also asked for your views on the annual reports. We wanted to make sure we kept the reports as informative for you as possible, and we also wanted to relieve some of the workload for teachers when they write them.
You told us that the aspects of the reports you found most helpful were the teachers’ overall comments and the grades for progress, attitude and attainment – we’ll be keeping these aspects in the new reports (we’re going to make the grades even clearer and use them for attendance, behaviour and effort, too).
Some of the sections will be made smaller or not included. This is based on your feedback, too.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who helped us with this. Do speak with me if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns.