Comic Relief
Thank you to everybody who donated to Comic Relief today. We raised £76 for the charity.
This week’s message (Friday 17 March 2023)
This week’s message is a short one, kicking off with a reminder…
Class trips
We want to put a long-term plan in place for class trips.
There are lots of benefits of class trips (a chance to make learning more real or practical, a memorable, exciting change from the typical day…), but we know they’re expensive.
To help us, we’d be very grateful if you spend just five minutes completing this short survey.
Attendance matters
We’ve been sent by Leeds City Council an attendance summary for 2021-22.
St James’ CE Primary attendance was lower than the average for other schools nearby and for Leeds primary schools as a whole.
One of the main reasons for this was the number of children with attendance less than 90% – these pupils are classed as ‘persistent absentees’.
About six in ten absences were due to illness. However, about one in ten absences were not authorised due to a holiday, about one in ten absences were due to arriving late, and about 15% of absences were for unknown reasons.
In 2022-23, we’re starting to see some improvements – please do continue to make sure your child gets to school as much as possible.
Special visitors
Today at Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we’ve been delighted to welcome people from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). Alongside lots of teachers, they visited Mrs Allaway (the Sphere Federation Maths Leader) and a class of Year 4 children to review good practice in Maths teaching. We’re fortunate that Mrs Allaway is a lead teacher for NCETM, regularly supporting teachers in other schools as well as supporting our very own teachers.
As well as Comic Relief, it’s another special day – happy St Patrick’s Day if you’re celebrating!
Have a great weekend.
This week’s message (Friday 10 March 2023)
St James’ CE Primary is a happy and healthy place to achieve and believe. We want to keep getting better and better and a key part of this is to hear your views…
We wouldn’t want our son to attend any other school now! The staff are so nurturing and show great care/interest in my child which reflects in his love of school.
That’s one of the comments from a recent survey of Reception parents – thank you to the 11 parents who took the time to let us know their views. We’ll spend some time now reviewing what was said and seeing if we can act on some of the points raised.
We need your help again – this time for all parents and carers to let us know about class trips.
We’re currently reviewing our curriculum plans. We’re keen to put a long-term plan in place for class trips. Class trips are a highlight for children:
- they’re a chance to get out and about, making learning more real or practical
- after the trip, children enjoy reviewing and remembering what they did
- the writing done after the trip is often really rich in terms of description
- they’re a memorable, exciting change from the typical day
The downside of trips is the expense – we’re very aware that trips aren’t cheap (often due to transport costs). We ask you to make a voluntary contribution to cover the cost, but even then, trips can be expensive for those who contribute and for school. Whilst the contributions are voluntary, we can’t go ahead with a planned trip if we don’t receive enough contributions.
We want to plan a schedule of trips from Reception to Year 6. This is to make sure we plan trips better, so we can closely match the trips with the learning that’s happening in school and to make sure that teachers are clear on our expectations (so that trips are spread out across the years).
To help us, we’d be very grateful if you spend just five minutes completing this short survey.
In the Summer term, look out for the annual survey for all parents and carers, too.
We’ll end this week’s message with another great comment from a Reception parent…
The learning environment in the Reception class is just lovely, and it is obvious through my son’s progress that the children are spent a lot of time with and a lot of thought goes into each child’s individual learning.
Snow update - we aim to open at 10.30am
We aim to open at 10.30am this morning.
This is due to the heavy snow. Staff can’t safely arrive at work on time at the moment. The forecast shows an improving picture, so we aim to open at 10.30am.
Breakfast Club is open for those who regularly attend.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
This week’s message (Friday 03 March 2023)
This week’s message is all about our current topic…
What do we mean by topics?
Topics are the way we teach much of the learning in the foundation subjects (eg history, art, geography, DT). Each half-term topic has a driving subject – the main focus for teaching pupils the knowledge and skills they need. The driver changes with each topic to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum.
Although the learning in each topic comes from the driving subject, there are opportunities for enrichment through other subjects.
Read more about the intent, implementation and impact of our topics.
What is this half-term’s topic?
This half-term, it’s Computing. We’ll be developing our knowledge of computers and computer programming.
Computer programming is super. Creating games, animations and solving real world problems is fun, encourages creativity and is challenging! Importantly, the skills the children will use and develop are easily transferable to other subjects and areas of life. For example, the concept of decomposition in programming is concerned with breaking down a large task into smaller chunks. This concept could be used when writing a story, solving a maths problem or tidying a particularly messy bedroom! Debugging is the skill of identifying and fixing an error in a program. It requires systematic, objective thinking and plenty of resilience.
Each phase has age-related specific knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they’ll learn, use and apply across the topic. See page 13 and 14 of the curriculum statement document.
Years 1 and 2
Children will learn about how technology is used beyond school in our homes and all around us. They’ll begin to consider what a computer is and isn’t.
In programming lessons they’ll create animations in Scratch Jr by creating and debugging algorithms. They’ll then continue to use Scratch Jr to create an interactive quizzes.
Years 3 and 4
Children will reason about what exactly makes a computer a computer. Is a games console a computer? Is a TV a computer? Is a bedside lamp a computer? Next, they’ll learn about inputs and outputs and identify different examples of them in everyday technology.
They’ll then be introduced to Scratch and will learn how they can add or change sprites and backdrops and then begin to experiment with making their sprites move. They’ll look at programs created on Scratch and use logical reasoning to explain what will happen when these programs are run. They’ll learn about the importance of sequencing in programming when they recreate a well-known melody. Finally, they’ll create their own ‘band’ on Scratch by programming different instrument sprites to play sounds.
Years 5 and 6
Children will learn about what a computer network is and that the Internet is an enormous computer network. They’ll learn about the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web. In programming lessons, they’ll be introduced to BBC Microbits – pocket sized computers which they’ll program to do lots of different things. This will allow children to gain a deeper understanding of concepts like sequence, selection and variables. Some of this vocabulary may sound alien to you. However, before the end of the topic your child will be able to tell you what they mean and give examples of how they’ve used them in their projects. Some of the projects your children will be making are:
- a magic 8-ball style program which will give you an answer to all your questions!
- a compass so you can confidently find your way to school in foggy conditions!
- a pedometer to count the number of steps they’re making
How can you help?
Talk to your child about what they’ve been learning in class. The Class News page is a good place to find out more about what your child is doing.
The school library and local libraries have lots of books about coding and computer games which your child will be able to borrow and develop both their reading skills and computing knowledge.
Finally, try programming with your child. There are loads of programming apps and software available to download, often for free…
Key Stage 1
- Daisy the Dinosaur (Apple only)
- Beebot
- Tynker Junior
- Scratch Jr5
Key Stage 2
- Lightbot
- Tynker
- Scratch Jr
- Scratch
Finally, and importantly, talk to your child about our Being Online: Acceptable Use Agreement. (Page 8 is the one for early Years and Key Stage 1 children and page 9 is for older children). Discuss whether the points that are listed apply to being online at home as well as at school.
World Book Day
Yesterday, we celebrated World Book Day by doing lots of fun reading activities. We had a teacher swap session where teachers went to read to different classes; we had a class swap where the older children went to read with younger children; parents in Nursery and Reception were invited into school to read with their child; and children brought in their favourite bedtime book to read with their friends. Each child was given a £1 book voucher to spend in bookstores or supermarkets.
Got Talent?
It’s time to celebrate all the weird and wonderful talents of the children of St James’!
St James’ Got Talent 2023 is here!
Be sure to encourage your child to brush up on their football skills, work on those dance moves or rehearse those jokes! Any talent goes for St James’ Got Talent!
From singing or hula hooping to impressions or footy tricks – be ready to audition for the only talent contest around..! Children can perform as a group or go solo – anything goes!
Auditions from 12:30 in the Y4 classroom
Key Stage 1
Tuesday 28th Feb
Thursday 2nd March
Year 3/4
Tuesday 7th March
Thursday 9th March
Year 5/6
Tuesday 14th March
Thursday 16th March
Successful acts will perform at the Live show on the evening of Wednesday 29th March 2023 where we’ll celebrate the best talent at St James’!
This week’s message (Friday 24 February 2023)
As a teacher, the year is punctuated with school-related milestones, most obviously the different terms. After just one week away, it’s remarkable how different Spring 2 feels – we’re arriving and leaving work in the daylight, spotting signs of Spring on our way. As you travel to and from school with your child, talk about the changes in the seasons: daffodils, daylight, leaves on trees… Being mindful like this can have a really good impact on our emotions.
Industrial action
Earlier in the week, we emailed you about the forthcoming industrial strikes planned across a series of dates:
- Tuesday, 28 February
- Wednesday, 15 March
- Thursday, 16 March
As it stands right now, it looks that our school will be able to remain open.
However, please remember that all workers, including teachers, have the right to take industrial action without prior notice. This means we might have to close some classes at the last minute. As such, it would be advisable to prepare for some disruption on the days listed here just in case.
Attendance matters
For the school year up to Friday 10 February, our attendance figure was 93.1%. This is higher than when we last talked about it – great news!
- Reception: 93.3% – doing well
- Year 1: 94.8% – the highest in school!
- Year 2: 93.5% – doing well
- Year 3: 92.8%
- Year 4: 89.6% – let’s hope this rises over the rest of the year
- Year 5: 92.9%
- Year 6: 94.0% – well above average
Good attendance is important:
- regular attenders make better progress, both socially and academically
- regular attenders cope better and benefit from school routines, school work and friendships
- regular attenders find learning more satisfying
- regular attenders are more successful in transferring between primary school, secondary school, and higher education, employment or training
- statistics show a direct link between under-achievement and absence below 95%
Thank you for helping us increase our attendance rate. Please continue to make sure your child is getting to school on time every day.
Have a good weekend, whatever you get up to.
This week’s message (Friday 10 February 2023)
We’ve reached the end of the Spring 1 half-term. Thank you to everyone for attending the parent-teacher meetings this week.
Staying healthy…
Next half term, our Living and Learning sessions return to the theme of mental wellbeing. MindMate supports mental health and wellbeing – check out the resources and support that’s available for parents and carers.
As always the associated weekly Living and Learning statement can be found on our school calendar.
Sticking to the theme of health, find out more about Play Streets, Junior Parkrun and Park Play in this short video.
Staying safe…
This week’s seen us mark Safer Internet Day – talk to your child about what they’ve learnt about in school. To help support staying safe online, have you got parental controls switched on? Check out this easy to follow guide. Read more information about parental controls.
Does your child have additional needs?
Over the next few weeks, Leeds SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service) is running some virtual information sessions aimed at providing parents/carers with information, advice and support on SEND topics. These will cover topics that they’re frequently asked about, and there’ll also be the opportunity to ask relevant questions at the end of each session. Dates/times for these are as follows:
SEND support in schools
Monday 06 March, 5.15pm
Wednesday 15 March, 1pm
EHC needs assessments
Thursday 02 March, 10am
Monday 20 March, 5.15pm
Section I appeals
Monday 27 February, 5.15pm
Wednesday 08 March, 1pm
Refusal to assess appeals
Monday 13 March, 5.15pm
Tuesday 21 March, 10am
To book a place or for more information, check out their website.
Over the holiday, please keep encouraging a love of reading: books, comics, websites, recipes… Have a happy and healthy half-term.
Lunchtime and Breakfast Club staff required
We’re currently looking for lunchtime and breakfast club staff to supervise our children at our friendly school! Lunchtime hours are 12.00pm – 1.15pm Monday to Friday (6.25 hrs per week) and Breakfast Club hours are 7.30am – 8.45am. Please contact Mrs Quirk at stjamesfinance@spherefederation.org for further details.