Our Christian value for this half-term 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 commandments 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?
Why did the Church Council choose this Christian value?
‘Love is why Jesus came into the world – to send out love.’ (Year 2 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? Or how does Harry Potter show love for those around him, or no longer with him, such as his parents?
Church Council
At St James’ CE Primary, our Church Council is a much-valued part of our school. It consists of two representatives from each class, from Year 1 to Year 6. The Church Council meets frequently to express views and make decisions on the church aspects of our school.
Each year, a new Church Council is elected by staff and students. This half term, our Church Council is being elected. Does your child have an interest in being part of this group?
The role of Church Councillor includes attending meetings with visitors, listening to people’s suggestions and representing the Christian distinctiveness in our school.
Current Church Councillors say you must:
- Be ready and wise to make decisions – sometimes not the decision we want to make but it is a fair decision
- Have skills to look after the church side of our school
- Have good listening skills
- Be confident enough to sometimes lead collective worship and to talk to visitors
Does your child want to be part of the Church Council? Tell them to speak to Mrs Rowley or their class teacher to put themselves forward for the role!
Merry Christmas
It’s been a very busy week! It started with our visit to the care home on Sandbeck way to bury a time capsule. We then had two wonderful Christmas performances, parties, Santa visit and a Christingle service at church! Congratulations to Bailey in year 6! He designed a card, which was chosen by the Mayor of Wetherby, to be his Christmas card this year.
We have had a very successful term; the children and staff have worked incredibly hard. Thank you to all the parents, who have continued to support the school in a such a positive way. We would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. We look forward to seeing everyone again on Monday 7th December 2019!
Learning updates
Going home with your child (Y1 to Y6 only) today are the end-of-term Learning Updates. These ‘mini-reports’ aren’t new – we’ve used these before during parent-teacher meetings.
This year, we’ve listened to what you said in the annual surveys: you asked for more frequent updates on your child’s learning. As a result, we’ve tweaked when we do things a little so you now get an update at the end of most half terms:
- Autumn 1 (the parent-teacher meeting)
- Autumn 2 (the Learning Update)
- Spring 1 (the parent-teacher meeting)
- Spring 2 (the Learning Update)
- Summer 2 (the end of year report)
If you’ve any questions, comments or concerns about the report, please contact your child’s class teacher.
Time Capsule
This morning, year 1-6 visited the Windsor Court care home on Sandbeck way. The new home will be opening in January 2019 and to help celebrate, we were asked to bury a time capsule with artefacts and pictures to represent what life is like now. The time capsule will be dug up in 2078! The care home are holding a cinema morning for children on Saturday 29th December at 10am with festive popcorn, if you fancy taking your children along.
Supporting parents with anxious children
EPOSS Cluster are running a group to support parents with anxious children. The group will give advice and strategies to support your child, provide psycho-education on anxiety and give the opportunity for you to meet parents with similar problems and share ideas.
The first session will be held MONDAY 21 JANUARY
Venue: The House
Wetherby High School
Hallfield Lane
Wetherby
LS22 6JS
Time: 8am-9am.
No need to book, just turn up on the day.
If there is sufficient uptake the group will then run every Monday until the February half-term holiday.
If you would like any further information please call:
Rachel Midgley, Cluster Therapist – 0752 617 2934
Liz Giles, Targeted Services Officer – 0791 278 4637
We keep getting better and better!
We’re the most improved school in Leeds local authority. One of the reasons for this is that we’re an outward-looking school: we work closely with the local authority and with other schools, including as part of Noctua Teaching School.
As a school which has been previously judged to ‘require improvement’, the local authority offered us a full teaching and learning review, carried out by two advisors, one of whom is a trained Ofsted inspector. We’re always keen to hear from others so we can keep improving, and were therefore happy to take up the offer.
Here are some extracts from the report:
- ‘Evidence from the review paints a positive picture of a much improved and still improving school. The Executive Headteacher has been systematic and single minded in his determination to improve all aspects of school life.’
- ‘…the staff team […is…] working in harmony to provide the best for each pupil.’
- ‘It is clear to the review team that an ethos of continuous improvement pervades the school.’
- ‘Governance has improved considerably since the last inspection.’
- ‘Lesson observations supported by book-looks and data analysis evidence the impact of improved teaching over time.’
- ‘There is a warm but stimulating atmosphere in the classes and pupils are well motivated to learn.’
- ‘In Y5/6, the teacher’s expert knowledge of English was used to good effect to stimulate writing based on ‘The Highwayman’. Constant reference to modelling and sharing work using the visualiser ensured every individual child was clear about success or how to improve their work further.’
- ‘In Y3/4, the teacher and well informed teaching assistant didn’t miss any opportunity in providing incisive feedback to the class in order to improve outcomes…’
- ‘…in Y1/2, the teacher’s clever use of ‘The Lonely Beast’ was used to support the children’s diary writing. Here, it was good to note how pupils… were building stamina to write at length.’
- ‘Neat presentation in books accompanied by high productivity supports the improvements in pupil achievement and progress over time.’
- ‘In maths, teachers plan for pupils to develop their fluency whilst exercises in reasoning provide pupils with opportunity to explain their thinking and learning. In both KS1 and KS2, the teaching of maths was highly effective. The effective use of practical resources to support learning was another key feature of improved teaching practice in maths.’
- ‘In reading, the introduction of dedicated reading sessions is beginning to have an impact on pupil outcomes. Pupils spoke eloquently about how the school helps develop their love of reading, citing strategies… as all having a positive impact on their learning.’
- ‘Meanwhile, writing outcomes at expected are improving and are now virtually in line with national and above at the greater depth standard. The conscious decision by leaders to demand an application of reading, writing and maths across the wider curriculum has contributed to these successes and the team felt this was key to the ever-improving standards across the school.’
- ‘The school’s consistent approaches to discipline guarantee the children knowing exactly where they stand.’
- ‘In a meeting with School Council pupils, they evidenced how the school is supporting them to be reflective learners. The group reported how they enjoyed coming to school and the opportunities afforded to them…’
- ‘The Federation Early Years lead has provided expert guidance on what high quality provision actually looks like and how it impacts on children’s early development and attitude to learning. Leaders have ensured that the different areas in early years are inviting and attractive.’
- ‘In the 2-year old provision area… adults supporting children were adept at asking pertinent questions and encouraging co-operative play.’
Well done to all the staff and pupils; thank you to parents and carers for continued support.
Christmas coffee morning
A reminder that we are having a Christmas coffee morning tomorrow at 9am. There will be tea/coffee, mince pies and Christmas crafts to do with your child. Mrs Small, our learning mentor, will also be around to have chat with.
Wetherby News
We feature in the Wetherby News this week, to celebrate the fact that we are the second most improved school in Leeds (by our KS2 outcomes) and to tell people about our recent visit from The Town Mayor, Cllr Galan Moss. We are very proud to show how fantastic and successful our children and the school are to everybody in the local community!
Our school charity
On Friday, we all reviewed our whole-school homework on charity. We shared examples of charities we know and which charity we thought would be good to support this year.
Children brought some fantastic ideas to the table and could confidently speak about why they had chosen a certain charity. Some children liked the work the charity did, whereas some children had been directly affected by their chosen charity.
Through good discussion and then a democratic voting process to reinforce British values, we narrowed a large list of charities down to just a few which were taken to School Council for the final vote: Cancer Research UK, Starlight, The Leeds Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, St Gemma’s Hospice, the NSPCC and many more.
Last year, our whole-school charity was Unicef– an international children’s charity. The School Council felt that this year it might be a good idea to support a national or even a local charity. After three different votes, we finally settled on our whole-school charity to be Dogs Trust. The voting was extremely close.
The School Council were happy with the overall decision and are looking forward to organising fundraising events!