Merry Christmas!
What a fabulous end to our first term together at Nursery! The children have been a joy to be with since we started in September and we’ve all learned so much over the last 15 weeks. This week, we’ve had lots of fun with Christmas parties, Christmas games, Christmas scavenger hunts and lots of Christmas art. We’ve solved clues to discover Elvis the elf in lots of unexpected places and played rhyming games, shape games and exercised our fine motor skills. The sleigh we designed for Santa has been a huge success; however, we’re hoping he won’t need it as back-up on Christmas Eve as it’s in need of a service!
All of the Nursery staff wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas. Keep safe and enjoy the festivities. We look forward to seeing you all in January.
Christmas party time!
Year 3 and 4 had a lovely time this afternoon partying on down!
We played lots of energetic and noisy games in the hall.
We boogied to Christmas music and made some excellent statues!
After party snacks, we even received a video message from Santa and he magically left a sack of selection boxes in the stock cupboard – and it doesn’t even have a chimney! Thanks, Santa!
This week’s message (Friday 17 December 2021)
The last message of 2021 comes from Miss Beatson, the Head of School…
We’ve come to the end of the term and the last few weeks have been full of festive fun: Christmas parties, Christmas lunch, Christingle at church and a virtual Santa visit. The children have certainly embraced the festivities and it’s been wonderful to see lots of smiley faces. Please visit the class pages on the school website to watch the nativity play and the KS2 Christmas singing.
At St James’, we want the very best for our children and we want them to be happy and healthy learners. One way you can help with this is to ensure your child starts the school day on time. If they’re late, they’ve often missed the important start to a lesson and it takes time for them to catch up. If your child arrives at school after the register has closed, their absence will be marked as unauthorised.
This term has been a time we’ve managed to come together again as a school: we’ve been able to play together in the playground, have lunch together, and have our collective worship as a whole school in the hall. Throughout the term, it’s been lovely to talk with the children about their learning and listen to them being reflective, responsible and resilient – three of our eight Rs for learning!
The children have shown enthusiasm for the topics they’ve been taught and I’ve been amazed by the knowledge they’ve acquired in the recent art topic.
We continue to prioritise reading in school and we have daily reading skills and reading fluency sessions to ensure children make good progress. We really encourage you to read at home with your child as much as you can- it makes a big difference with their decoding, fluency and comprehension skills.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday. Please make sure you stay safe and follow any updated guidance so that you and your families can enjoy a well-deserved rest.
From Miss Beatson and me, and from all the staff at St James’ CE Primary: have a happy and healthy Christmas break.
Christmas party
Yesterday, we had our class Christmas party. The children enjoyed playing some party games and eating some party food. We also enjoyed our Christmas dinner together.
Kandinsky inspired artwork
We have come to the end of our art themed topic learning and the learning has been very impressive. The children have developed their knowledge and skills across a sequence of lessons. In order to showcase their learning, the children created calendars in the style of Wassily Kandinsky.
Abstract art does not represent images of our everyday world. It consists of colours, lines, patterns and shapes and is not intended to represent objects or living things.
Ask your child about the words below. Can they give you a definition? Can they name the two artists we have been studying?
- figurative
- complementary colours
- collage
- warm colours
- abstract
- form
Here are a few of the Kandinsky inspired pieces created by the children.
Finally, Mrs Welsby, Mrs Walton and Mrs Freeman wish you all a very Merry Christmas!
Christmas week
It’s been a very busy exciting last week in Reception.
At the start of the week, the children enjoyed doing some Christmas activities…
Making reindeer food.
We hope you remember to sprinkle your magical reindeer food outside on Christmas Eve.
Having fun (and getting very sticky!) making Christmas decorations.
On Wednesday, Miss Feldman kindly brought in some freshly baked Gingerbread Men for us to decorate.
After decorating our Gingerbread Men, it was time to sit down for Christmas dinner. It was lovely to see the children enjoying their Christmas dinner, laughing together, and pulling crackers with their friends.
After eating our Christmas dinner, the excitement continued… it was time to PARTY! We were amazed at the children’s dance moves. They popped, boogied, and danced the afternoon away.
After some party games, we sat down to eat our party food and watched a video from Santa.
Finally, we hope you have a happy and healthy Christmas. Enjoy spending some quality time with friends and family.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of the Reception Team!
Merry Christmas from Key Stage 2
Please click on the links below to listen to our Christmas singing.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Our final sculptures
This week, we completed our Barbara Hepworth inspired sculptures. After completing our own individual boxes, we put them together to create a group sculpture.
We set out all the sculptures in the school grounds to create a similar effect to Barbara Hepworth’s Family of Man.
“The thing I like about our sculpture is the negative space- it really shows what the sculpture represents. I think the shape of the cut-outs are not just circles- they actually represent the thoughts.” Scarlet
“I enjoyed painting the sculptures but we had to persevere when making the Verdigris colour because it had to be perfect. In the end, our sculpture looked different to the maquette.” Nicholas
Christmas Dinner
What an amazing Christmas dinner we have all had together. The kitchen staff have been beavering away so that we could enjoy our traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings (plus vegetarian option!) 
We all enjoyed sharing a joke or fact from our Christmas crackers.
It was great to celebrate as a whole school family.
Some of our nursery children joined us too!
Key Stage 2 all made party hats to dazzle us with. You may even spot a few sporting a moustache.
So thank you to our amazing staff!
BIG thought – a class debate
Today, in RE year 1 and 2 had a fantastic debate. Before we started we talked about respecting other peoples opinions and that it is okay to disagree with others.
I then gave the children the big thought for the day.
“Only Christians can celebrate Christmas”
The children had some fantastic opinions for and against this statement! We are very proud of how each child respected their friends opinions whilst discussing the ‘big talk’. Some children even changed their mind after listening to their friends views and opinions!
Below are some of the children’s fantastic opinions.
“Only Christians can celebrate Christmas because they go to church on Christmas day.”
“Anybody can go to church, even if they believe something else. My friend is a Muslim and she came to church with me.”
“Other religions can celebrate it too. They can learn about how Jesus was born.”
“Anyone can celebrate Christmas. We need to include everyone otherwise it’s not fair.”
“You can celebrate Christmas because it’s for Jesus’ birthday – anyone can celebrate a birthday.”
“I agree because it’s Christians celebrating Jesus’ birthday.”
“It’s about everyone and celebrating with friends and family – it’s not just about presents.”
“I’ve changed my mind a little bit. Other people can celebrate because that’s kind and including other people.”
