Goodbye...
…to our Year 6 children! We all wish you lots of success at high school.
Election of a parent governor - voting now open
We recently wrote to all parents and carers regarding the Parent Governor vacancy, and to seek nominations. As the number of nominations received exceeds the number of Parent Governor vacancies, it is now necessary to hold a ballot.
There are seven candidates and you may vote for one candidate only. The ballot can be accessed via https://goo.gl/LUCBGF
The ballot closes at 12 noon on Tuesday 18 July 2017.
The attached letter provides full details of the voting process and the candidates’ statements.
David Roundtree, Head of Federation
EPOSS Summer Holiday Programme
The EPOSS Extended Services summer holiday activity programme still has places available.
There’s something for everyone: cooking, multi-sports, snorkelling, lifesaving, water polo, synchronised swimming, athletics, racket sports, Gaelic football, squash, arts and crafts and even a ‘Little Mix’ party!
Take a look at the EPOSS Extended Services brochure and download a booking form to reserve a place for your child today!
Raffle winners
Did you win a prize at the PTA Summer Fair this year?
Unclaimed raffle prizes are for the following tickets:
- pink 576
- yellow 511
- pink 586
- white-blue 426
- white-blue 406
- white-yellow 411
- green 566
Congratulations!
Summer Disco
The PTA invites you to a summer disco on Tuesday 18 July, 6.00pm – 7.30pm.
All our children and parents / carers are welcome to attend. There will be lots of fun and games as well as plenty of refreshments and hot dogs available.
Entrance to the disco is £1 per child and adults are free. All funds raised will go to the PTA to save for equipment in school.
Children from Foundation, Years 1, 2, 3 and 4 must be accompanied by an adult. Children in years 5 and 6 may attend alone if we have signed permission.
Please complete and return the slip (see the letter sent home on Monday 17 July) to the school office before Tuesday 18 July along with payment.
Children's Day 2017
Children’s Day 2017 takes place at Headingley Carnegie Stadium on Sunday 16th July. The gates for the event will open at 10am and close at 4pm; admission is completely free for everyone, as are the activities when inside the ground.
Families attending the event can make a suggested donation of £3 per adult and £1 per child attending on entry; all proceeds will support the work of Leeds Rhinos Foundation and Yorkshire Cricket Foundation.
Supporting your child through a bereavement
Talking about bereavement with children can be hard. There’s a series of books that might help children learn about a number of sensitive issues. One book in the series is Frog and the Birdsong by Max Velthuijs, Andersen Press.
The book concerns Frog, who one autumn day discovers a blackbird lying motionless in the grass. Worried, he asks his friends what can be the matter. Very gently and simply, the animals begin to understand the meaning of death and the beauty of life in this moving story.
Wetherby and District Foodbank
The Wetherby and District Foodbank is available throughout the summer holidays for parents who have difficulty providing meals for the children, especially those who are usually supported with free school meals.
When the school is closed you do not need a voucher but can go straight to the foodbank where they will be pleased to help you.
The foodbank is open every Tuesday and Friday from 10am until midday.
They can be found on Barleyfields Road in the Youth Centre – the flag will be flying!
Our summer production
The St James’ CE Primary summer production is now less than a week away! Tickets have been going fast – thank you for showing so much interest and enthusiasm.
Spare tickets will be released on Monday based on your requests on the ticket form. If you have not already asked for tickets, please ensure that you do so by Friday.
Thank you for to those parents who have already sent in costumes for the production. Please make sure costumes arrive in a named bag by Friday.
Thank you for your continued support.
Apps update
A few days ago, we told you about a new SnapChat feature…
SnapMap lets users track other people’s location in real time – it shows exactly where people are in as much detail as the actual house. This might sound like a great idea, but just think about how vulnerable this could make a child using SnapChat. Within the feature, there is ‘Ghost Mode’ which enables you to hide your location. There are two ways which this can be turned on:
- Pinch the screen when you’re in selfie mode to bring up the SnapMap. Then, click the ‘Settings’ icon in the top right hand corner and set the phone to ‘Ghost Mode’.
- Click on ‘Snap Maps’ – ‘Settings’ – ‘Ghost Mode’.
Whilst we’re talking about apps, be aware of these ones, too…
Musical.ly and Live.ly are two other apps to be aware of. Musical.ly is a popular app where users can sing along to popular songs and upload them to the site. Live.ly is made by the same company and is a live streaming app where you can broadcast and communicate with others. This is a platform where comments and requests can be left for the users about their videos but, sadly, this has opened up inappropriate communication where young users are being asked to remove clothing and are being exposed to sexually explicit comments. Musical.ly also has some privacy controls which can be accessed via the settings option.
Roblox is a user-generated massive multiplayer online social gaming platform. Roblox’s chat facility has caused some concerns with parents reporting inappropriate comments to children.
Guidance for children using Roblox safely can be found via their safety/help page:
Check out the security information. Read the parents’ information.
It’s important that you talk to your child about using these apps. Most importantly, if they get a question or request that makes them feel uncomfortable, they should speak to a responsible adult immediately.