Reception places for September 2025
Applications for a Reception place for September 2025 can be made from 01 November 2024 until 15 January 2025. Guidance on applications can be found on Leeds City Councils You Tube video
A quick guide to school admissions
If you’d like to come and look around our school the next open sessions are on Thursday 14 November at 1.30pm and Friday 29 November at 9.30am.
Please remember that you still need to apply for a Reception place even if your child attends St.James Nursery.
Thanks
The Nursery Team
It’s nearly time to elect our new junior leaders
We have recently launched this year’s Junior Leadership Team election process. Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Here are some of the qualities our junior leaders think are needed to be an effective JLT member.
- use the 8Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
Last weeks’ whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections on Thursday 24 October. For children who want to stand in the election, they will have the chance to share their speeches in class on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Well done to all our current junior leaders who have represented their class so well this year. Remember, you can stand again in the election.
DT: Food Technology
Today, we made a fruit smoothie. First, we read the recipe together, looking at the ingredients and the instructions on what to do.
Before we began we made sure we had clean hands. We used a knife to carefully slice the banana. Next, we weighed the berries and added them to the jug. After, we measured out the milk and poured in the milk. Mrs Cairnes used the blender to blend the ingredients together. We all drank the smoothie and gave a thumbs up or thumbs down to show if we enjoyed it or not.
Help at home: Would you do anything differently if you were to make the smoothie again? e.g. change the fruits, add yoghurt (we didn’t use yoghurt at school), add some honey?
Can you make the smoothie at home?
As chemists we have been investigating solids, liquids and gases
In Science, we have started a new unit of learning all about states of matter. Our first lesson focused on identifying solids, liquids and gases. We started with some mystery bags that we had to observe closely.
We made observations about the properties of the samples with a particular focus on whether they had a fixed shape. We had great fun taking the samples out of the bags to see if they had a fixed volume.
Help at home: We like to use actions to help us to remember our learning and we have created gestures for our key words: solid, liquid and gas. Challenge us to teach you the gestures for the key words and play the game we played in class where one person says an object and the other person has to respond with the gesture for whether it is a solid, liquid or gas.
If your child likes an extra challenge, discuss objects which are harder to categorise such as toothpaste, shaving foam and slime. Are they a solid, liquid or a gas? Can they convince you?
As mathematicians we have been adding ones to 4 digit numbers
This week Year 4 have started a new unit in maths with a focus on addition and subtraction.
We started the learning by practising adding between one and nine to a number. We started with 2 digit numbers and worked up to 4 digit numbers. We showed great teamwork with our partner when using double sided counters and place value charts to look for a pattern.
We noticed that the digit in the ones column always changes, the digit in the tens column sometimes changes and the digit in the hundreds column sometimes changes.
We will be moving on to formal methods of addition and subtraction (often called column method) but it is really important that we all notice when there are calculations that we can do in our head. Looking for patterns and being able to imagine the numbers will help all of our amazing mathematicians to calculate efficiently.
Help at home: If you would like to consolidate this learning at home you could watch the video from White Rose Maths with your child: https://vimeo.com/729667222
You could also challenge your child by choosing a 4 digit number and asking them to add between 1 and 9 to the number. The children are really good at spotting the tricky ones where they will need to exchange. If you want to make it more like a game why not try this random number generator (https://numbergenerator.org/random-4-digit-number-generator) and challenge your child to do as many examples as they can in a minute. Can they score higher than you?
Leaf Man
It has been another fun filled week in reception this week, our focus book has been Leaf Man by Elois Ehlert.
We’ve enjoyed exploring the season of Autumn. We went on an autumn walk to collect some leaves and found lots of different colours and shapes. We even went to see the hedgehog that tried to come into school.
Help at home: Go on an autumn hunt and see if you can spot signs of autumn like acorns, pine cones, squirrels conkers and more. Don’t forget to send in some pictures to add to our seasons display.
Poetry Picnic
This week our poem was Five Little Pumpkins.
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, ‘Oo, it’s getting late.’
The second one said, ‘There are witches in the air.’
The third one said, ‘Well I don’t care.’
The fourth one said, ‘Let’s run, run, run.’
The fifth one said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’
But oooh went the wind, and out went the light,
And five little pumpkins tumbled out of sight.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) h, f, b and l. We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; the.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Maths
In Maths, some of our teddies have been arguing over who has more things. we have used the stem sentence
“… has more than..”
“…has fewer than…”
The activities this week have focused on developing the skill of comparing as children have been encouraged to look carefully and use the language of comparison to describe sets of objects.
‘Fewer than’ is used rather than ‘less than’ because the focus is on countable things.
Next week our focus book is Potion Commotion by Peter Bentley and Sernur Isik.
Help at home – bottles.
Please can we ask for some donations of bottles to help with a potion themed challenge next week. Thank you for your support.
Have a happy and healthy weekend and please don’t forget to email any pictures from home to stjames@spherefederation.org thank you as always for your support.
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon and Miss. Feldman and Mr. Smith.
It’s pumpkin season!
This week in Nursery we have explored our senses carving pumpkins. Before we cut them open, we asked the children what they already knew about pumpkins..
They are for Halloween – Avery
You can find them in the supermarket- Oria
I went pumpkin picking with my Mummy, Daddy and Daisy. It was in a big field and Daddy put them in his trailor – Blossom
I think it will be soft inside- Elliott
It grows in the field- J
Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem solving and creativity. It helps to build nerve connections in the brain. It’s also a wonderful experience for children to develop their fine motor skills, picking out the pumkin seeds supports pincer grip, strengthening those muscles ready for early writing.
Help at home: Pick a pumpkin, whether it be from the supermarket or out in the fields, this is a fun activity for you to enjoy with your child at home!
Notice: Just a reminder that Friday 25 October we are closed for a training day.
Have a happy and healthy weekend!
The Nursery Team
Our new spellings focus on the days of the week, each containing one of our Phase 5 sounds: “ay”. The children will have their test on Friday 8th November.
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
- Sunday
Help at home
- Practise writing each day of the week, reminding them that days are proper nouns and need a capital letter.
- Say the days aloud together, emphasizing the “ay” sound.
- Use flashcards.
- Look, say, cover and check!
Regular spelling practise at home can make a real difference!
Living and Learning: I take part in democratic decisions.
This week, our living and learning statement is:
I take part in democratic decisions.
Over the half term, we’ve learnt lots about democracy already (through our history topic). We found that democracy originated in Athens during their Golden Age (800-500BC). We also know that democracy means ‘power to the people’ – a fitting name indeed!
In our country, we’re beginning to understand what voting means and how new laws are written. The children have understood that, when voting for a new prime minister, areas often vote for a leader to represent them.
Next week, our whole school will be taking part in a democratic vote to nominate new members for our Junior Leadership Team! In class we’ve spoken about what makes a good leader and some questions we might (and might not) ask to find out who to vote for. Here’s a few examples below:
Good examples:
Are you confident talking to lots of people?
Are you kind to everyone around you?
Are you a good listener and will you let everyone have a say?
Questions to avoid:
Who’s your favourite footballer?
What’s your favourite dinner?
Help at home:
Encourage your child to try out for a place on the Junior Leadership Team! Help your child create and practise a speech to persuade their classmates to vote for them. What characteristics someone might need to be a good leader? How could you show them off to your class?
Reading Record
Just another little reminder to encourage your child to read weekly at home. Your child can complete reading activities in their reading records. Please sign to say that they have been heard read. It would be great to have 100% of children reading at home and completing activities.
Recently, some children have written a letter to their favourite author – a really creative way to display their understanding of what they have read.
