Our weekly message: Friday 18 September 2026
Thanks again to all those who entered our Summer Competition. Summer might seem a distant memory, but these creations bring a sunny smile to our faces…
Make sure you check the Class News each week. Since the start of the year, there have been over 28 Class News stories to read across school, from Reception to Year 6!
This week’s message focuses on some specific teaching and learning guides that you might like to check out so that you can support your child at home…
Handwriting
This year, we’ve refreshed the way we teach handwriting. Children have told us that with better handwriting, they feel more confident and proud of their learning! Our Handwriting Guide is easy to follow and a great way to support your child. Check out the guide to letter formation and our three top tips on page 3.
Spelling
We’ve also updated the way we teach spellings in Years 2 to 6. Our Spelling Guide describes how we teach spellings in Key Stage 2, including sequences for teaching different spelling rules and patterns and related lists of spellings to learn.
Feelings First
Last year, some of you attended a Watch Us While We Work session where we showed you a Feelings First session. The feedback from the session was really positive. We’ve prepared this Feelings First Guide to give you an idea of the feelings we cover each half term (page 6) and our simple definitions of each feeling (page 7).
Homework
We’ve made a small tweak to our Homework Guide which reflects a change of routine for children in Key Stage 2: their spellings to learn is now around a two week cycle, with a small test each fortnight.
Relationships and Sex Education
At the start of each year, we like to encourage you to be aware of our Relationships and Sex Education Policy. Later in the year, your child will have Relationships and Sex Education lessons. In those lessons, we’ll talk about anatomical terms and different relationships. However, we might need to use the terms at other times, such as when dealing with incidents of misuse or disrespectful language, and we’ll talk about lots of different relationships at any time of the year, too.
Cooking
Over the course of the year, your child will enjoy three opportunities to prepare food:
- Year 1 and 2: a fruit smoothie, overnight oats, and fruit bars
- Year 3 and 4: egg pot, chopped tomatoes and garlic, and savoury scones
- Year 5 and 6: vegetable and chickpea curry, pasta bake, and bread
We’ve a couple of requests, please:
Most importantly, please alert us to any allergies your child has. We’ll do our best to adapt recipes.
For parents of children in Years 1 to 6, thank you to those of you who contributed towards the cost of ingredients last year. Doing this means:
- we make life easier for you by buying the food in bulk rather than asking for children to bring in their own ingredients
- we can continue to offer this opportunity to learn important kitchen skills
To make sure that we can continue to offer this across the year, please make a voluntary donation. We’ve set up Arbor for quick payments of £6, but you can also call into the office with any donation amount – we’d be grateful for any amount to contribute to costs.
For more about our Cooking curriculum, please check out our Cooking and Nutrition Guide – this includes the food preparation skills children will practise (this is Year B).
All the guides mentioned here (and more) can be found on the purple Learn More pages of our website.
Finally this week… Please remember to update us with any changes to the information we have about you or your child. This includes any changes in health details and contact details.
Compost donations needed!
Our Reception children love playing in the outdoor mud kitchen but we’re running a little low on compost!
If you have any spare bags of compost at home that you would be happy to donate, we would be very grateful!
Thank you for your continued support.
Summer competition
Thank you to everyone who entered our Summer competition – there were some fantastic re-creations of our school logo. It was very difficult for the school staff to decide on the overall finalists. After much discussion, I’m pleased to announce the following winners:
Third place: Samuel
Second place: Cian
First place: Woody and Liyla
Our weekly message: Friday 04 September 2026
It’s been great to see you at the school gates and to welcome the children back to school – and to welcome new children joining us, too. We’ve loved hearing children greet us happily each morning!
Summer competition
Did you enter our Summer competition this year?
Thank you to those of you who did. We invited you to re-create our school logo in some creative way. Today was the deadline to send in a creation featuring our shells logo – we’ll be deciding the winner on Monday.
Attending school
We know the Autumn term can be a time when younger children pick up a bug or two. Check out our Attending School page for advice about when you’re child might be too ill to come to school.
Last year, our attendance figure was 91.9%. Let’s aim for better this year. Watch this short clip (only a minute long) about why attending every day matters in primary school.
Dates
Here’s a list of key events across the year.
For a fuller and up-to-date picture of what’s going on, check out our school calendar.
(Have a look at our weekly Living and Learning theme at the start of each week in the calendar, too – this week, our theme’s been ‘I follow the school rules’ so please talk about these at home.)
A few updates
We’ve updated a some policies recently…
Our Homework Guide includes an update about spellings to learn and a couple of other tweaks (the actual policy on pages 2 and 3 hasn’t changed).
We’ve updated our Positive Relationships Policy to reflect a change in language when adults in school use ‘3, 2, 1, stop’ – check out our new expectations on page 2.
Our policy for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) now includes a policy around resources to support pupils (things like fidget objects).
Finally, we reviewed our Uniform Policy in the Summer term, but it might be worth a re-read to check our expectations, especially for PE days.
Our website
As it’s the start of a new school year, we thought it might be a good time for a quick ‘tour’ of some of the key pages of our website.
The Find Out section is there mainly for the key information you need to know about. Particularly useful pages are:
- the Calendar: at the start of the year, we send home a list of key events across the year but for a fuller and up-to-date picture of what’s going on, check out the calendar (have a look at our weekly Living and Learning theme at the start of each week in the calendar, too – this week, our theme’s been ‘I follow the school rules’ so please talk about these at home)
- Policies and Other Points: this page contains lots of information, including our Positive Relationships policies and our Uniform policy – important ones for you to know about
The Join In section describes lots of different ways that you and your child can get involved, from wraparound care and clubs to any job vacancies we may have. There’s information about our Governing Body in this section, too. (On the subject of governors, please contact us if you know of someone who might be interested in becoming a governor.)
The Learn More page is where to go for ways to support your child’s learning. The Class News pages are always the some of the most visited pages – they help to keep you up to date with what your child’s learning. Other pages give you information about different subjects – Reading, Writing, Maths and other curriculum subjects. If you’re a parent of a child in Nursery or Reception, check out the Early Years page, too.
Next week, we’ll talk about our new topic for children in Years 1-6. It’s a History topic – start asking your child now what they’ve been learning in History! In the meantime, have a happy and healthy weekend.
Our Christian value focus this half-term is...
…perseverance.
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.
This half term, our Christian value is perseverance.
‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’ (Galatians 6:9)
Endurance is needed when standing firm in the face of any difficulty. It is the special gift that we have when life is difficult or painful that helps us not to give up. Difficulties might include hardship, persecution or scorn, although we hope these difficulties do not arise in our school. We use it more in the context of ‘keeping going’ and ‘not giving up’.
Help at home by talking about and encouraging perseverance…
- How can we show perseverance in school?
- How can we show perseverance in home, or in other situations?
- Who do you know that shows lots of perseverance?
- What does perseverance look like to you?
- Tell me about a time when you showed perseverance
Our last weekly message of the year: Friday 17 July 2026
We’ve reached the end of another happy and healthy school year. This week’s message is a long one, but hopefully the headings will help you to read the parts that matter to you…
Have a happy and healthy summer
As we reach the end of another successful school year, we’d like to thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and partnership throughout the year. Your involvement has played an important role in helping our children be happy and healthy at St James’ CE Primary and beyond.
We’re very proud of all that our pupils have achieved and grateful to our dedicated staff for their commitment and care. Together, we have celebrated many successes.
We hope you and your family enjoy a well-deserved, restful and enjoyable summer holiday, creating some happy and healthy memories together. We look forward to welcoming everyone back refreshed and ready for another exciting year on Wednesday 02 September.
Year 2 teaching
As you know, Mrs Bye will be going on maternity leave in 2026-27. Last week, we were successful in appointing an experienced teacher, Mrs Chan, to cover Mrs Bye on the days she works – Thursday and Friday. Originally from France and then California, Mrs Chan has been working in a nearby school for over a decade. We have arrangements in place to ensure a successful handover.
Junior Leadership Team review of the year
As we approach the end of the school year, we asked our Junior Leaders for some of their highlights…
Kiara, Y5: ‘I enjoyed organising the Easter bake sale. We chose new books for the library with the profits we made. This was someone’s suggestion and we acted on it.’
Ethan, Y5: ‘I’m pleased with how we spent the money raised. A lot of people have said they’ve enjoyed reading the new books.’
Kupa, Y3: ‘It’s been good reading out our class suggestions in meetings and we’ve acted on them by sharing ideas for playground equipment. I’ve enjoyed being in the JLT because we can help the school.’
Freddie, Y4: ‘We had a big discussion about hot food in the after-school club. Miss Beatson has told us that hot food will now be on the menu in September which I’m happy about.’
PTA annual report
A big thank you to our PTA for all the help they provide us across the year. They’ve just released their 2025-26 annual report.
Swimming lessons next year
We’re making an exciting change to how children access swimming lessons.
Currently, children in Year 4 go swimming. With travel included, it takes up a large part of the afternoon for a relatively short weekly lesson.
Next year, we’re installing a pop-up pool! In the Summer term, a purpose-built, temporary swimming pool will ‘pop up’ on the playground. Children in Years 3 and 4 will benefit from an intensive 3 week block of lessons where they will swim for 45 minutes every day with fully qualified, external swimming instructors. There may be time for older children to swim, too. We’re confident this change will mean even more children can learn to swim whilst also saving on learning time lost throughout the year.
We understand this may seem like fewer lessons overall. However, the intensive, daily format has been shown to significantly boost children’s progress. Here’s why:
- Faster skill development: Swimming every day builds confidence and skill without the gap between weekly lessons that often leads to forgetting.
- More time in the water: Without the need for travel, children get more meaningful lesson time.
- Less disruption to learning: A concentrated block avoids weekly interruptions across the year, protecting curriculum time.
- Improved outcomes: Qualified instructors can better tailor lessons to each child’s needs, helping more pupils learn to swim and develop water confidence.
We’re sharing this facility with another school, alternating each year. This means that in 2026-27, we have the pool and then in 2027-28, we’ll have a year off. Across the two year cycle, all children in Years 3 and 4 will benefit.
Look out for more details nearer the time.
The rest of this email has a summer theme, starting with a couple of reminders…
Summer competition
Over the summer holidays, we invite your child to re-create our school logo in some creative way – maybe a painting, a collage, even a mobile.
It could be anything – the only rules are:
- it needs to be ‘display-able’, so we can put it on display along with the other entries
- it needs to show our shells logo in some recognisable way (but the more original, the better
To enter, your child needs to bring along their pieces of art in the first week – no later than Friday 04 September. Entries will be displayed in a St James’ CE Primary shells logo display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.
Summer savings
This is a reminder of something from a previous message…
The Great British Summer Savings scheme starts next week. Running from 25 June to 01 September 2026, its aim is to help families feel a bit less squeezed this summer.
The scheme includes reduced VAT on days out, including tickets at attractions like soft play, adventure centres and theme parks, children’s tickets for theatres and cinemas, and children’s meals in restaurants. Children aged 5 to 15 in England will also be able to travel free on local bus services throughout August.
Summer Breeze fun club
Join the Breeze team for arts, games, sports, food and…inflatables!
There are four Breeze Healthy Holidays Fund Days happening this summer. Choose from:
- Wednesday 22 July: Shaftesbury Fields
- Thursday 23 July: Millshaw Playing Fields
- Friday 24 July: John O’Gaunts, Rothwell
- Monday 27 July: Whinmoor Warriors Rugby Club
You’ll need to register with Healthy Holidays before they can book. If you’re not already registered, you can do this now. To book visit the Healthy Holidays website and search for the event group name ‘Breeze Healthy Holidays Fun Day’ and select your preferred event from the list.
Summer reads
Stay reading right through summer. Check out these recommended reads, or simply take a trip to a nearby library!
If you do go to the library, look out for Read to the Beat. It’s great opportunity for children to maintain their reading levels during the summer holidays and build on their love of books, which will help them in school and later in life.
And how about some Reading Bingo? Download a printable reading challenge for the summer holidays.
Summer support
Wetherby’s Community Cafe and Advice Hub is open every Friday, 10am to 12noon at St James’ Church Room, Church Street,. Wetherby. It’s a welcoming community space offering:
- free refreshments
- family-friendly activities and toddler area
- information and support
- access to Citizens Advice
- signposting to local services
- toddler area
Wetherby and District Foodbank is available here:
- Barleyfields Community Centre, Wetherby: Tuesdays and Fridays, 10am – midday
- Tadcaster Community Cafe and Advice Hub, The Barn: Wednesdays (term time), 10am – midday
- Tadcaster Methodist Church: Wednesdays (school holidays), 10am – midday
- Wetherby’s Community Cafe and Advice Hub, St James’ Church Room: Fridays, 10am – midday (food parcels aren’t available, but you can obtain a referral plus support from a range of services)
If you need emergency help with food, ring 07840 455 725 and leave a message.
Free Family Activities and picnic food for the summer holidays
Wetherby and District Foodbank is running a series of free community events during the summer holidays:
Market Scavenger Hunt & Picnic Giveaway: Families can take part in a free scavenger hunt around the market, with the chance to win a picnic hamper.
Thursday 23 July 2026 – Wetherby Market Square, 10am-2pm
Thursday 20 August 2026 – Wetherby Market Square, 10am-2pm
Community Picnic Events: Free food, refreshments and activities for local families.
Friday 24 July 2026 – Community Café & Advice Hub, St James Church Room
Friday 21 August 2026 – Community Café & Advice Hub
For more information contact: office@wetherbyanddistrict.foodbank.org.uk
Sphere Summer of Smiles...
Our weekly message: Friday 10 July 2026
What a busy week! We’ve seen some great performances…
This week, Year 5 and 6 put on a wonderful performance of ‘Gladis Baker, Gladiator’. The children entertained us: they made us laugh, they made us sing and they made us all very proud. Thank you to Mr Kilner and Mr Freeman for helping the children put on a wonderful show (and thanks to Lily’s mum for the pic!).
Year 2 showcased some wonderful reading yesterday in their ‘Ready to Read’ assembly. They demonstrated fluency, prosody and comprehension skills through a variety of texts. The children are now ready to take off with their reading as they transition into Year 3.
Dodgeball success
Some children in Years 3 and 4 took part in the Nerf dodgeball finals last week. This event saw them faced with finalists from other schools in a thrilling, action-packed showdown. The pupils had to show teamwork, resilience and a range of fundamental movement skills to succeed. We’re pleased to say that St James’ CE Primary came out victorious overall, winning the trophy for our local area!
Moving on…
Sadly, we’re saying farewell to two members of staff this year.
We’d also like to thank Miss Gilliland for her dedication and hard work during her year teaching here at St James’ CE Primary, and her time here previously as a student teacher. We’re grateful for the positive impact she has had on our pupils and school community over the past year. We wish her every success and happiness as she begins her exciting new teaching adventure abroad.
Non-uniform day
Next Friday is the last day of the school year. We’ve recently updated our Uniform Policy, but the content about non-uniform days remains the same:
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, junior leaders described this as ‘setting-appropriate’ clothing and clothing that is ‘well-judged’. Make-up…is not allowed. Flipflops or high-heeled shoes are not allowed, even on non-uniform days, because they’re dangerous when running.
What perseverance!
Perseverance is one of our Christian values.
Mr Kilner took part in an endurance running event last weekend. During Endure24, runners try to complete as many 5 mile laps as possible over 24 hours. Mr Kilner completed 20 laps, completing 100 miles in 22 hours and 45 minutes. He was raising money for the charity Tommy’s – the pregnancy and baby charity. Well done, Mr Kilner!
Our summer competition
For the past few years, our summer competitions involved taking a pic – this might be a pic of a letter spelling out ‘HAPPY’ or ‘HEALTHY’, a pic of ‘extreme reading’, or a pic of a ‘hidden’ smiley face.
This summer, it’s time to get even more creative. Over the summer holidays, we invite your child to re-create our school logo in some creative way – maybe a painting, a collage, even a mobile.
It could be anything – the only rules are:
- it needs to be ‘display-able’, so we can put it on display along with the other entries
- it needs to show our shells logo in some recognisable way (but the more original, the better
To enter, your child needs to bring along their pieces of art in the first week – no later than Friday 04 September. Entries will be displayed in a St James’ CE Primary shells logo display in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.
Have a happy and healthy weekend – stay cool!
Our weekly message: Friday 03 July 2026
This week, your child received their end-of-year report. We hope you find it a helpful summary of your child’s learning journey, perhaps with one or two areas highlighted where you can support at home.
Sports day
Also this week, we had our 2026 Sports Day. It was another fantastic event. We’re so proud of all the children taking part in the races and well done to team Brazil for achieving the highest score overall!
2026-27 classes
This section is a repeat of an earlier email, in case you missed it…
On Wednesday, your child spent the morning with their new class teacher for September. It was a great opportunity for the teachers to spend some time with their new class and for the children to experience learning in their new classrooms and get to know their new teacher.
The class teachers for next year:
- Reception: Mrs Kendrew
- Year 1: Mr Nash
- Year 2: Miss Ward and Mrs Bye – we’re recruiting someone to cover for Mrs Bye whilst she’s on maternity leave
- Year 3: Miss Hopper – we’re excited to welcome Miss Hopper to our happy and healthy place to achieve and believe!
- Year 4: Mrs Poole
- Year 5: Mr Freeman
- Year 6: Mr Kilner
Key Stage 2 assessments (SATs) results
Yesterday, we received news from the Department for Education about the SATs results:
Schools were due to receive their results on 7 July 2026. However, results will now be available on 16 July 2026.
I appreciate that schools have been waiting for these results and that this delay will be frustrating… The delay relates to the readiness of the system used to make results available to schools. Importantly, this delay is not due to any concerns about the quality of the tests or the accuracy of results.
It certainly is frustrating. we’ll aim to get results to parents and carers as soon as we possibly can.
As always, we hope you have a happy and healthy weekend.
Our weekly message: Friday 26 June 2026
It’s been a hot week and the children have coped incredibly well. The adults in school have been working hard to make the children as comfortable and cool as possible. Thank you to the PTA who kindly bought all the children and staff ice-lollies – they certainly helped cool us down.
Children across school are busy practising their sewing skills in their Design and Technology lessons. We’re looking forward to seeing the final products.
Key Stage 2 children are in the middle of rehearsals for the end of year production. It’s sounding and looking great – the audience are in for a real treat!
Tremendous times tables
Every year across England, children in Year 4 do an online Multiplication Tables Check. Last year, the national average was 21 out of 25. Just over a third (37%) achieved top marks.
At St James’ CE Primary, our Year 4 pupils have achieved an average of 23.3 out of 25 – way higher than last year’s national average.
Just as impressive, 41% of pupils got top marks – 25 out of 25.
Amazing! Well done to all our Year 4 pupils and thank you for your support at home.
Leeds SEND WhatsApp channel
Leeds has launched a new WhatsApp channel for families to find out more about the Leeds local offer. There’s news about Local Offer developments, SEND service updates and information about events for families. Join the WhatsApp channel here.
Earrings
Last week, we let you know about our updated Uniform Policy, so you’ve plenty of time to start thinking about any changes ready for September. This week, we’d like to focus on just one part of the policy – earrings.
Discreet (small, not brightly coloured) stud earrings are allowed. However, earrings can cause serious injury: imagine a bang against the ear… serious accidents occur as a result of contact between pupils wearing earrings or studs and other pupils or equipment, thus damaging the ear, or where items of jewellery have caught in apparatus and torn the ear lobe.
We expect your child to remove earrings before PE lessons and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by your child. If they’re unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.
Please consider the risk of injury during other active times such as an after-school club or class trip.
If you do want to pierce your child’s ears, please do so at the start of the summer holidays so sleepers and studs can be removed in September.
Have a happy and healthy weekend.