Newsletter : 10th May 2024

A Message from Mrs Murphy

Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been lovely to see some sunshine across the week and the children and staff have all been in great spirits and enjoying their outside time.

Over the last two weeks we have seen St James compete in the Cross Country at Notre Dame. Well done to everyone who participated and were all fantastic ambassadors to the school. We could not attend these events without the commitment of the staff, so I would like to say a huge thank you to Mrs Yellowlees, Mrs Cowden and Mrs Mattingly who gave up their Saturday to support the children.

Mrs Cowden and her choir performed at Morrisons last week as part of their Music Week. The children sang beautifully and brightened up the day for many shoppers. The St James choir will also be attending the Oatlands Fair this Saturday. They are due to perform at 2.45pm so if you are in the area and want to come to support them, it would be lovely to see lots of friendly faces in the audience.

Year 6 SATs next week

It is that time of year again when Year 6 get to demonstrate all their learning from KS2 in the End of Key Stage SATS tests. The children and staff have all been working so hard to prepare themselves for the tests. As a school, we are so proud of all our Year 6 children and wish them all the best of luck in the tests.

Class Shuffles

We have confirmed with parents and carers that we will be shuffling the current Year 2 and the current Year 4 ahead of these children moving up in September. If you are a parent in these year groups, you would have received a separate email about naming three friends your child would like to be with. We will guarantee at least one of these choices.

There are no plans to shuffle any other year groups other than the current Year 2 or current Year 4 this year.

Uniform

We have noticed that there are a number children who are not following our school uniform guidance. Please could all parents and carers take note of the expected uniform and ensure that their child is coming to school in the appropriate uniform.

Gardening club request

Mrs Lawrence and Mrs Procter and their gardening club would like to request donations of vegetable seedlings for the allotment area. If you are able to donate these, please make contact with the office. Thank you in advance for your support in this.

Mobile phones on school site

Please could I remind all parents and carers that mobile phones should not be used on our school site. This does include on the playground at pick up times.

Thank you, as always, for helping keep all the children safe.

And finally, in other news: Wildlife at St James

As we have such amazing grounds here at St James, that are home to lots of wildlife, we regularly see a variety of wildlife enjoying our school site when the children are in class. This week however has been particularly busy with animal visitors with three orphaned ducklings being rescued from the field, and blue tits emerging from the bird box on the playground. As you can imagine, this caused lots of excitement amongst the children, and staff and has prompted us to consider how else we can support the wildlife to thrive. We would therefore welcome any donations of bird boxes that could be put up around the school to encourage further nesting.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend.

Best wishes,

Mrs Murphy.

Attendance

Just to remind parents/carers that if they take their children out of school without authority for 5 or more days (which do not have to be consecutive), they will be liable to receive a penalty notice. Currently the amount payable under a penalty notice is £60.00 per parent/carer per child if paid within 21 days. Thereafter the amount increases to £120.00 if paid between 21 and 28 days. If the penalty notice remains unpaid after 28 days, the Local Authority will consider a prosecution in the Magistrates Court.

Please note that penalty notices are issued per parent/carer per child so a family of two parents and two children will receive 4 penalty notices. Surrey County Council is not responsible for authorising pupil absence and therefore cannot withdraw any Penalty Notice requests without the written permission of the Headteacher.

Sporting News

Year 5 and 6 Girls Football Competition at Burhill Primary School

Fourteen girls from St James represented the school at an Inspire Football festival at Burhill school on Thursday 9th May. The festival was played in a 7 a side format in two groups. St James had 2 teams, one in each group. Both teams represented the school values throughout the festival, cheering on others and putting in lots of effort on what turned out to be a hot afternoon.

St James Team 1 played against Cleves 1 drawing 1-1 with Lottie H scoring, Bell Farm winning 1-0 with Ava D scoring, Grovelands with Evelyn S scoring and Burhill ending in a 0-0 draw. St James Team 2 first played Burhill 2 and drew 0-0, then played Cleves 2 and lost 1-0, then onto an excellent 1-0 win against St Charles with Evie B scoring and their final game versus Bell Farm ending 0-0.

The girls playing were Isobel W S, Ava D, Hettie F, Mia H, Evelyn S, Tula P, Lottie H, Olivia G, Evie B, Sofia C S, Indie B, Dolly Rose S, Summer T, Flora B.

Well done to all.

Reading

KS2 Writing Challenge

The KS2 children have really stepped up to the challenge of improving their sentence openers and we have some great sentences across the School. We even have some children in Year 1 and Year 2, taken on the challenge and I have been so excited to see their excellent writing this week. Thank you to the parents and carers who have been encouraging this at home too. We have seen this shine through in their spelling sentences homework.

Safeguarding

Support for parentsWhatever family life brings, we're here to help with advice and support for parents and carers.

Support poster.pdf

Family Centres Surrey | Family and Children’s ServicesAt our Family Centres in Surrey we have a dedicated team of experienced Family Support Workers with a wide range of knowledge and experience.

School Spring/Summer Menu

Please find below the new Spring/Summer menu from our school caterers, Twelve15. This is a three week rolling menu. All children choose from one of the three meal options at the start of each school day.

If your child is in KS2 and has a school meal, please remember to pay for and book their meals in advance using the SCOPAY app.

Special Lunch - World Bee Day - Thursday 16th May

To acknowledge 'World Bee Day' on Thursday 16th May 2024, Twelve15 have organised a special lunch menu on this day. Please see the menu below.

If your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2, they are entitled to receive a free school meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals Scheme so you do not need to do anything as you child will automatically receive a meal for that day.

If your child is in KS2 or usually has packed lunches from home, but would like to have the special lunch on Thursday 16th May, you can order your child's lunch by signing into SCOPAY going to Balances, Dinner Money, Top up balance, Calendar and then select the correct day.

If you are entitled to free school meals you do not need to select top up balance, just go straight to Calendar.

Please can we ask, if you do need to order your child's lunch, you do so by Monday 13th May.