17 June 2022

We’re now a couple of weeks into our final topic of the school year, Design and Technology.

Thinking about the new topic vocabulary, I can begin to use these words at home.

Years 1 and 2:

• design process: the steps that need to happen for something to go from an idea to a finished product
• to plan: to think about and decide how you’re going to do something
• to evaluate: to decide, after careful consideration, how good or bad something is

• felt: a kind of cloth made from wool
• needle: a thin piece of metal or plastic with a point at one end and a hole or eye for thread in the other, used in sewing
• thread: a long, thin strand of cotton used in sewing or weaving

• over stitch / whip stitch: a stitch that circles the edge of a piece of fabric

Years 3 and 4:

• product: something that is designed and made
• function: the purpose of something
• design brief: a description of what a new product should do
• design criteria: the precise features a product must have to be successful
• annotated sketch: a detailed sketch labelled with notes (eg dimensions, materials)

• fabric: cloth or other material produced by weaving or knitting fibres
• binka: a firm piece of fabric with holes in to help beginners to sew and embroider
• over stitch: a stitch that circles the edge of a piece of fabric
• running stitch: a line of small even stitches

• template: a tool used to mark out shapes repeatedly

Years 5 and 6:

• design criteria: the precise features a product must have in order to be successful
• innovative: an adjective to describe new or original ideas
• sustainable material: a material is sustainable if it comes from renewable sources and it does not damage the environment
• dimension: a measurement of something in a particular direction (eg height, length, width)
• aesthetic: something about the appearance (eg something can be aesthetically pleasing)
• running stitch: of a line of small even stitches
• back stitch:  a method of sewing with overlapping stitches to form a solid line of stitching
• applique: pieces of fabric sewn or stuck on to a larger piece to form a picture or pattern
• pattern: a repeated decorative design

When having your discussions at home, you could start by explaining the end goal of this topic. What product are you designing and then making? What materials and skills will be required? Refer to the definitions provided when you’re explaining new vocabulary Challenge yourself to see if you can explain them in your own words.

17 June 2022

This week, we would like the children to learn words that have the consonants s and c together. When these words are pronounced the c sounds like an s.

• science
• ascend
• descent
• scene
• scissors
• scented
• crescent
• scenery
• muscle
• fascinate

A SIAMS inspection

Today in school, we were happy to welcome an inspector for SIAMS – this is the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools. We were last inspected in 2015 – read more about this inspection here.

This was an opportunity to demonstrate all the happy and healthy things we do here at St James’ – happy and healthy learning, happy and healthy playing, happy and healthy achieving and believing.

Thank you to the parents who spoke with the inspector first thing today.

And thank you to all of you for continuing to support our school.

We’ll be able to let you know the outcome of the inspection, and publish a copy of the report, by the end of the school year.

Living and Learning: I recognise that friends and family are important

What makes a family?

As a class we thought about our own family and shared our experiences and came up with a definition to answer the question.

A family is a group of people who love each other, are honest with each other and have a good friendship.

Who is in a family?

We talked about how families are all different and made up of lots of different people such as mum, dad, step-mum, step-dad, sisters, brothers, step siblings, grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and pets.

We read the story about Esma and the time she spends with her grandpa. After, we talked about what they do together and how her grandad shows love and care for Esma.

“He makes her food.”

“He plays games with her.”

“He helps her when she needs it.”

We spoke about other ways he can show he loves and cares for her.

“He can give her hugs.”

“He can read her a story.”

“He can take care of her if she isn’t feeling well.”

Showing we care

Finally, we spoke about how we can show we care to family we live with and to family that live far away.

Family we live with:

“We can help by keeping our toys tidy.”

“Give them a hug.”

“Draw them a picture.”

Family that live further away:

“We can write them a card and draw them a picture.”

“We can give them a phone call.”

Lots of learning

It’s been great to be back at nursery this week. Our new theme is: ‘On the move’ and we’ve been thinking about different types of transport. Some of the children have been making cars and trains from different shaped blocks and bricks and we’ve also had some transport-related number games in our areas of provision both inside and outside. As the last couple of days have been very summery, we’ve taken advantage of the warm weather and have been outside using water to help us learn about letter and number formation and 2D shapes. The children have been making chalked letters and numbers ‘disappear’ by spraying them and painting over them with water. This is an activity you could try at home as it’s good for the development of gross and fine-motor skills. (*For safety reasons, please remember not to re-use bottles which have previously contained cleaning products or chemicals. Cheap spray bottles, which are a different shape and colour to those which contain cleaning products, can be purchased from the gardening section of a well-known budget retailer.)

In phonics, we’ve been segmenting one syllable words like ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ to help us recognise the individual sounds within them. We’ve also been continuing to identify the initial sound in words and have been grouping the sounds together. In our maths sessions, we’ve been talking about ‘our day’ and what we do between getting up and going to bed each day.

Our beanstalks are getting taller (almost as tall as the children) and the beans will be ready to pick and sample soon, as will our coriander. Hopefully, the warm weather will continue next week and we’ll be able to spend lots of time learning outside. With this in mind, please remember to send your child to school with a named hat and a named water bottle.

spellings w/c 13.06.2022

This weeks spellings are focusing on alternative graphemes for the “n” and “g” sounds.

knot

knee

knight

gnaw

knock

gnome

know

knife

sign

All About Animals!

Our new science topic is all about animals including humans. The children correctly named this strand of science as biology.

For the first two weeks we will be looking at food and where animals get their nutrients from.

We looked at different things an animal may eat. We thought about why certain animals eat this and the nutrients they get from it.

This week’s message (Friday 10 June 2022)

And we’re into the last half-term of the year – we hope you and your family had a good half-term break. This week’s message has just two parts: a reminder to complete the annual survey and some important news about classes and teachers next year.

Annual survey

Every year, we invite you to complete a short survey. Your views matter. They help to shape what we do in the forthcoming year(s).

Complete the St James’ CE Primary survey here.

(It’s worth bearing in mind that the survey isn’t the best place to raise individual, specific concerns – hopefully, you’re comfortable to speak with Miss Beatson or a class teacher about these instead.)

Staffing in 2022-23

It’s all change at St James’! In September, there will be quite a few staffing changes…

In July, we’ll be saying goodbye to Mrs Wood in Reception who’ll be going to teach at Moortown Primary School (one of the schools in Sphere Federation). Mrs Wood has been at St James’ for three years and has done a magnificent job in Early Years; I know the children and parents who’ve had Mrs Wood will agree.

Mrs Flynn in Year 1/2 is also moving on, this time to Scholes (Elmet) Primary (another Sphere Federation school). Mrs Flynn has been at St James’ this year and also taught in Reception at St James’ a few years ago. Mrs Flynn has been fantastic in Year 1/2 and the class have made great progress with her as the class teacher.

Mrs Boulton, our Nursery teacher, will be moving to Moortown Primary School. Mrs Boulton has worked hard to create a space where the Nursery children have thrived – she will be missed, too.

Mr Mills is also moving on. He currently teaches the Y5,6 class on Fridays, but is leaving to continue to expand his successful sports coaching business.

We’re excited and proud to welcome new teachers, too…

• Nursery: Miss Ward will be the new Nursery teacher; she currently teaches at Scholes.
• Reception: Mrs Payne will be the new Reception teacher. Some children and parents will already know Mrs Payne: she currently teaches in Year 3 on Thursday and Friday.
• Year 1: Mrs Rowley will returning from maternity leave and join Mrs Palmer in Year 1.
• Year 2: We welcome a new teacher, Miss Kay, in Year 2.
• Year 3: Miss Gledhill, currently teaching in Year 4, will be the class teacher.
• Year 4: Mrs Freeman will move up with her current Year 3 class into Year 4 and Mrs Valentine will be the other Year 4 class teacher.
• Year 5,6: After being the Y5/6 teacher for five years, Miss Beatson will be coming out of class. Mr Freeman (currently a teacher at Scholes and previously a football coach at St James’, too) will be the full-time Y5/6 teacher.

On Thursday 14 July, we’ll be having a transition afternoon where the children will meet their new teacher and visit their new classroom.

As always, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, please do speak with us. Have a good weekend.

Welcome back!

I can’t believe it’s the last half-term. Where has this school year gone?
We’ve dived straight into our new topic, Let’s make a splash!

This half-term, we’ll be thinking about days at the beach – we even have our own beach! We’ll investigate floating and sinking, locate seaside towns on a map, talk about what we see at the seaside that we don’t see in Leeds and talk about seaside holidays of the past.

This week, we’ve been reading Sharing a Shell by Julia Donaldson. The children were great at sequencing the key events from the story.

We used adjectives to describe what our favourite character looks like.

In Maths, we’ve been using the rekenreks to help us with our perceptual and conceptual subitising skills. We know to make sure all the beads are at the right-hand side of the rack. This is called the ‘ready position’. We then get ready, set and push using the ‘one finger push’ method.

With sports day just around the corner, we thought we should start practising.

This week’s chilli challenges have been very successful. Lots of children worked really hard to complete all of the challenges.

We drew sea creatures with wax crayons and watched what happened when we painted over it with a blue wash.

Exploring in our new role-play area.
We made signs to put up in our beach.

We used our observational skills to draw shelfs.

Diary dates
20, 21 & 24 June – Learning journey drop ins
23 June – Moving from Reception to Year 1 parent meeting
5 July – Sports Morning
6 July – Trip to Tropical World – look out for the letter!
7 July – Reserve Sports Morning
8 July – PTA Summer Fair
This half-term is very busy!
Please make sure you’ve noted down the events.

Reminder!
Please don’t forget to sign up to one of our learning journey drop ins. A letter went out on Wednesday.

Home-Link Challenge

10 June 2022

Our first Talk Time of this half term relates to honesty, one of the Christian values.

‘Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ (1 John 3:18)

 I can describe a situation where being honest was hard, but important.

 The situation you discuss at home may have involved yourself or someone else. It could concern a real person or a fictional character from a book, film or TV show that you know well.

You could respond to these questions to support your conversations:

• Why was telling the truth important?
• Did the person tell the truth right away?
• How would telling the truth at a different time impact the consequences?
• What were the possible outcomes of being dishonest or withholding the truth?

Our oracy focus for this half term is liveliness and flair. The following R2s will help you to keep others engaged when you’re speaking:

• Talk with enthusiasm in your voice.
• Use your imagination to think of scenarios to support your viewpoint.
• Maintain a good level of eye contact with your audience.