We’re in the Leeds top ten best primary schools!
In case you missed our news story last week…
According to the GOV.UK website, we’re one of the very best primary schools in the Leeds area for per cent of pupils meeting expected standard.
Check out the article in Yorkshire Evening Post.
Tell your family and friends about how good we are!
Is your child in Year 2 or Year 6?
If your child is in Year 2 or Year 6, they’re in the final year of Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) or Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6). This means that towards the end of the year, they’ll be doing end of key stage assessments, often called the SATs.
These short videos help to explain more – just be aware the videos are a couple of years old so some details like dates won’t be accurate.
In the past, parents have said they’ve found the videos helpful. Nevertheless, if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns, speak with your child’s class teacher or Miss Beatson.
Does your child use TikTok?
If you’re child uses TikTok, read this guide for parents.
TikTok is a video-sharing social media app available on iOS and Android which lets users create, share, and view user created videos much in a similar manner to Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. It’s main draw, however, is that users can record and upload bite-sized looping videos of themselves lip-syncing and dancing to popular music or soundbites, often for comedic effect, which can then be further enhanced with filters, emojis and stickers. TikTok has been designed with the young user in mind and has a very addictive appeal. At the beginning of 2019 it skyrocketed in popularity to become the iOS store’s most downloaded app with over 33 million downloads. Estimates suggest that it now has anything between 500 million and over 1billion monthly active users worldwide.
Attendance matters
Well done to Year 5,6 for their excellent attendance this year so far. The class average is 96%.
Children in Foundation 2 are also attending school really well – 95.7%.
It’s really important your child attends school as much as they can so that they can enjoy and achieve.
We’re one of the best!
According to the GOV.UK website, we’re one of the very best primary schools in the Leeds area for per cent of pupils meeting expected standard.
Check out the article in Yorkshire Evening Post.
This half-term’s Christian value is…
…love.
In Mark Chapter 12, Jesus was asked which of the ten commandments was the most important, to which he replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There are no commandment greater than these.”
The challenge for us is how can we show love to each other on a daily basis. How can we encourage each other? How can we make someone smile? How can we show love for our school and our world?
The Church Council chose peace as a Christian value: ‘Love is why Jesus came into the world – to send out love.’ (Y2 Church Council member).
Home challenge:
Which is your favourite film or book? Think about the main characters in it – how do they show love? For example, Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – how does he show love?
Do everything in love.
(1 Corinthians 16:14)
We love because He first loved us.
((1 John 4:19)
New annual report format
At St James’ CE Primary, we seek your thoughts on lots of things, whether this is straight after an open-session in school like our Watch us while we work sessions, or in the annual surveys in the summer term.
Just before the summer term last year, we also asked for your views on the annual reports. We wanted to make sure we kept the reports as informative for you as possible, and we also wanted to relieve some of the workload for teachers when they write them.
You told us that the aspects of the reports you found most helpful were the teachers’ overall comments and the grades for progress, attitude and attainment – we’ll be keeping these aspects in the new reports (we’re going to make the grades even clearer and use them for attendance, behaviour and effort, too).
Some of the sections will be made smaller or not included. This is based on your feedback, too.
Thank you to all the parents/carers who helped us with this. Do speak with me if you’ve any questions, comments or concerns.
Taking pics at our productions
As we approach the time of year when many of you will be visiting school to enjoy our Christmas production, we thought it would be useful to send an extract of our Online Safety Policy (even though this new version is still in its draft format):
Staff and parents are reminded at least annually (eg during an assembly or performance) about the importance of not sharing digital images and video without permission, due to reasons of child protection, data protection, religious or cultural reasons, or simply for reasons of personal privacy.
We appreciate that families will treasure photographic/video memories, and the general rule is that parents and carers may take photos and videos of the children in their care, for personal use only. There may be rare exceptions to this, and parents / carers will be made aware in advance of particular events where no filming etc is possible.
When parents capture footage or still images of their children, there is a strong possibility that other children will also be visible or audible. For this reason, no such content should be shared publicly.
Live streaming, whether public or private, cannot be permitted on streaming platforms or ‘live’ features (e.g. Facebook Live) to stream events/circumstances as they occur. Parents / carers may be asked to leave the premises or event if this takes place.
Parents will be provided with clear direction by a senior member of staff in order to comply with this policy around public performances.
You can read more about this in an article written by a barrister specialising in education law.
Our new school charity is…
The charity was chosen with a double dose of democracy! Following Talk Time homework where your child will have discussed charities at home, a discussion in class took place, and then a class vote to decide which charity the class nominated.
Then, the school council discussed the short-list and then voted again on behalf of the school.
St James’ CE Primary will support this charity for the next 12 months. One way it will raise money will be to ask for voluntary donations for the performances we hold through the year.
Community Week
We’ve had a busy and exciting week at St James’, learning all about community. We’ve thought about our school community, local community and wider community. Throughout the week, we’ve had lots of visitors and activities taking place. Some of these included Leeds United Foundation who spoke to us about how they support the community and how their values link with our own school values and vision; Wetherby in Bloom and Friends of Sandringham explained to us about the fantastic volunteer work that helps our local community; Salvation Army told us about the work they do to help people around the world and in our local community; Year 3 went litter picking at the local park to help keep Wetherby tidy; Year 5/6 had a DT lesson at Wetherby High School; Safer School Officer; Fire Service and much more. Thank you to all the children who brought in photographs of themselves in the local area and those who brought in an item for identity day.
