Our weekly message (Friday 05 July 2024)

Friday 05 July 2024

With just two more weeks left of the school year, it’s time to start thinking of our Summer Competition!

Summer competition

Each year, we invite you and your child to take part in our Summer Competition. We’ve asked for pics to show extreme reading, happy and healthy, smiley faces… This year, we’re inviting you to think about our name. More specifically, take a pic of one particular letter in ST JAMES, but one which is hidden away or created in some unsual way.

Each letter is for one year group in school. This list refers to current years, with children in Nursery and Year 6 sharing the first S…

The winning entry will be a letter that’s been ‘found’ or created in an unusual way. There’s a £10 book token for one winner in each year group.

To enter, email your pics to stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org by Friday 06 September. Enter ‘Summer competition’ as the subject. All entries will be displayed in school, and there are prizes for our favourites.

Here’s an idea to get you thinking…

Uniform

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve featured our updated Uniform Policy to help you to start preparing early for the new school year. Please read the latest version.

This week, we’re looking at what our policy says about jewellery…

Only discreet (ie small, not brightly coloured) stud earrings and items that are absolutely required by a religion are allowed. Advisors recommend no earrings are worn for PE; therefore, we will ask your child to remove earrings before the lesson and put them back in after the lesson. This will be carried out by the child. If they are unable to remove or put their earrings back in by themselves, they must not wear them on the day they have PE.

A watch or step counter is allowed. Any device that connects to the internet (eg a smart watch) or that can record (including taking photos) is not allowed for safeguarding reasons. Such items should be left at home, but can be handed over at the start of the day. Refer to the Positive Relationships Policy for more details of items not allowed.

We don’t accept responsibility for any loss or damage to an individual’s property.

Staying safe

Next week is another Living and Learning themed week: Staying Safe.

The themed week is a good opportunity to continue to think about healthy, active and safe ways to travel to school.  Children are encouraged to travel to school in a sustainable way, keeping safe along the way. For a chance to win a £10 Love2Shop voucher, we’d love to see their active travel staying safe photos, maybe using a traffic crossing or wearing their bike helmet (send photos to stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org). Photos should be sent by 4pm on Thursday 11 July and winners will be announced on Friday 12 July.

Our Living and Learning statement is I make safe choices, including online. Check out these tips for helping children stay safe online.

Next week is also the Key Stage 2 production: Wednesday at 1.45pm and Thursday at 6pm.