21st July 2026

A Message from Mrs Murphy

Dear Parents, Carers, and Pupils,

On this last day of the academic year, I want to take a moment to reflect on what a truly remarkable year we have had. It has been an absolute joy to watch the children thrive, grow, and achieve so much over the past year.

A Fond Farewell to Our Year 6 Pupils

We would like to wish all our wonderful Year 6 pupils a fond farewell as they prepare to take their next big step into secondary school.

Watching this cohort grow into confident, kind, and capable individuals has been an absolute privilege. They have set a brilliant example for the rest of the school, as highlighted in the beautiful church services they hosted at St James - and then repeated to the whole school this morning- demonstrating just how much they have learned and what they can achieve. At the heart of their self-written contributions were our core school values and our overarching vision: to encourage all children to let their light shine.

End of Term Celebrations

The last few weeks have been busy with fantastic activities to celebrate our successes across the school!

Splash Water Play Day: Our Splash event was a huge success! We were thrilled to host a water play day for the children in celebration of their amazing courage and resilience during the recent hot weather. Everyone had an incredible time cooling down. By popular demand from the children, we have shared the video of MrsCowden and myself taking on the Slip and Slide during our lunchbreak! (you may want to play it on mute!)
Outdoor Celebration Assembly & Mascot Race: We hosted our final celebration assembly out in our school grounds, which concluded with a Teacher Mascot Race. A huge thank you to Mrs. Cowden, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Sykes, Mrs. Michaelides, Miss Kerswill, and Miss Batterbee, who were fantastic sports and volunteered to run in costume! The children absolutely loved it, and we have included the video link so you can enjoy the fun too. (again, mute recommended!)
Firemen Visit for Reception: Reception were treated for a vist from the fire engines last week as they close off their year on learning about people who can help us. They asked some fantastic questions and loved looking at the engine.

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Sports Award

We are thrilled to announce that we have successfully upgraded our School Games Award this year, progressing to Silver!

This award is a wonderful recognition of all the diverse sporting opportunities we provide here at St James, alongside our ongoing commitment to fostering a love for physical activity, healthy lifestyles, and inclusive sportsmanship across the entire school.

Looking Ahead: Exciting Site Improvements

Over the summer break, we have some fantastic updates planned to improve our school environment. As well as investigation works which will hopefully mean that we will be able to replace our KS2 trim trail soon, we also have new gates being fitted. This will change the frontage of the school, hopefully alleviating congestion on the corner of the road and keeping our school safe and secure.

Parent Voice

Thank you to everyone who contributed to our Parent Survey. We will be processing the results and will be sending these out in September with our action plan. We were thrilled with how many positive remarks we received and these were summarised here in this infographic.

Parent Suggestion Box

Thank you also to the four suggestions that we have been submitted on our virtual parent suggestion box. We have been reviewing these regularly in SLT and are taking them on board. These suggestions have driven changes to our management of our lost property, has prompted a deep dive into parental views on books looks and celebration of learning on the parent survey and we will also be considering how we can provide wider updates on the children's learning as the year goes on as a result of these suggestions.

A Fond Farewell to St James Friends: Sam, Becky and Eben

We would also like to share a huge, heartfelt thank you to Sam, Becky and Eben from St James Friends, who are stepping down from their roles this term. On behalf of the whole St James community, we wish them the absolute best and extend our deepest gratitude for everything they have done to fundraise for the school and provide so many memories for the children!

End of Year Thank yous

An incredible school year doesn't happen by accident. Behind every success on the ground is an extraordinary team working tirelessly- both in front of the children and behind the scenes-to provide the very best opportunities for our pupils.

I would like to extend my deepest personal thanks to:

All the teaching staff for their commitment to delivering the very best for their children in all their lessons, which is evidenced by our results this year.
Our Wrap-Around Care Staff: A huge thank you to our Sunrise and Sunset teams, who look after our children at the beginning and end of every day.
Mr. Pearse, whose continuous hard work on site keeps our school running safely and smoothly.
Our Office Team: Mrs. Moore, Miss Rayat, Miss Coombs, Miss Hill, and Mrs. Flower, who keep the school running with their patience, hard work and administrative excellence.
Miss Chadburn, Miss Boyle, and Mrs. Michaelides for their unwavering commitment to our school journey in the SLT roles and their relentless drive for excellence in all that we do.
A very special mention to Mrs. Wales, Mrs. Atkins, and Mrs. Cowden. So much of the support, leadership, and guidance they provide to our teams is unseen, but its positive impact reaches every single corner of our school.

Summer Wishes

Finally, thank you to all our parents and carers for your incredible support throughout the year. Whether you accompanied the children on school trips, donated to collections, attended school events, or contributed to our fundraising efforts, your generosity and involvement are deeply valued.

It is well known that children truly thrive when the school and families work together in partnership. We are so lucky to have such a dedicated community helping us provide a rich, supportive environment for all our pupils.

I wish you all a safe, restful, and wonderfully happy summer holiday. Take this time to relax, recharge, and make brilliant memories with family and friends.

We look forward to welcoming our returning pupils back on Wednesday 2nd September!

Kind regards and happy holidays,

Mrs Murphy

Summer Safeguarding

As we are about to enter the summer holidays, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for all your support in helping to teach your children about keeping themselves safe. Safeguarding is very much a partnership between us at school, the pupils and yourselves at home and through working together we can ensure that our children are educated to be able to make good choices online and when out in the community and be aware of areas where they may be more vulnerable.

We have provided you with some useful links, which parents and carers can use to access support and advice. Alongside this, over the holidays, the DSL email address can be used if you have any safeguarding concerns dsl@stjames-weybridge.surrey.sch.uk. This inbox will be monitored regularly.

Healthy Surrey helps you find services and support for your health
Mindworks Surrey has tips to support your child’s mental health and wellbeing
Hope Service - Parent and carer support is a safe space where you can share your experiences and get support
Family Information Service a directory of your local services
Learners' Single Point of Access - Surrey County Council offers help and support if you have a query relating to a child in Surrey with additional need
Elmbridge Family Centre - Spurgeons Family Centres in Elmbridge offer a wide range of activities and services to support family life, for parents and carers of children

SEND Support

Home Start Parenting Support - Managing Challenging Behaviour

In September Home Start will be running a series of 4 workshops based on our popular 10 week Challenging Behaviour Parenting Course. The course highlights the key messages to enable parents to re-attune with their child, and to overcome any barriers that their child’s behaviour has created between them.

It can act as a standalone programme or as a taster to the full course, or as a refresher for those who have previously completed the 10 week course. The course will run at Cleves School on Wednesday mornings from Sept 23rd.

If you are interested in attending the course, please comptete the attached referral form and return to: crobins@home-start-elmbridge.org.uk

Registration Form for Courses agency referral 2026.docx

4 wk Challenging Behaviour Sept 2026.pdf

Doodle Summer Challenge

There is still time to join the Doodle Summer Challenge

From the 1st of July, Doodle are running two exciting Summer Challenges — the Doodle Maths Challenge and the Doodle English Challenge!

Both Challenges are designed to encourage a few minutes of daily Doodling, promoting healthy learning habits and boosting your child’s maths and English skills.

Most excitingly, they can earn FREE rewards by taking part!

If your child would like to sign up for this challenge - please click here.

St James Church Events

Virtual Suggestion Box

We are incredibly proud of our community and want to make it even easier for you to share your thoughts. We are launching a Virtual Suggestion Box: a digital space for proactive ideas, "big picture" thoughts, or creative solutions. This is for constructive suggestions (e.g., "Could we explore a uniform swap shop?") and the Senior Leadership Team will review submissions once a month.

The link is here: https://forms.gle/KmPeMQ7gebij59Qw8

For urgent or individual concerns regarding your child, please continue to contact the office or teacher directly.

School Lunches - New Caterer

From September, Palmer & Howells (P&H) will become our new school catering provider. Please see below the new three-week rolling menu from September.

Palmer & Howells pride themselves on preparing meals using fresh ingredients wherever possible and offer a varied menu that complies with school food standards. They also have considerable experience in catering for pupils with allergies and special dietary requirements, ensuring that all children can enjoy a safe and nutritious lunchtime experience.

There will be opportunities for parents and children to enjoy tasters in the Autumn Term. A parent taster session has been arranged for 1st October from 2.30pm in the school hall.

Meals will continue to be ordered through the Arbor app.

If your child is moving up to Year 3 in September, they will no longer receive a Universal Free School Meal. Unless your family qualify for Free School Meals, you will need to book and pay from school lunches on Arbor from September. An Arbor parent tutorial for ordering meals can be found here.

Autumn Term Clubs

2026 Club dates and times Autumn Term.pdf

Attendance and Penalty Notices

Weekly reminder - for 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), then you will be liable for a penalty notice fine

1. If you have not incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children in a rolling 3 year period since 19 August 2024, then the penalty notice will be charged at the rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80.00 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.

2. If you have incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/children since 19 August 2024, the rolling 3 year period will be activated from the date of the first penalty notice and the second penalty notice will be charged at the flat rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. There will be no reduction for payment within 21 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.

3. If you have incurred 2 penalty notices relating to this child/children in the rolling 3 year period since the first penalty notice was issued, then you will NOT receive a third penalty notice – Surrey County Council will have no option but to consider a prosecution, per parent/carer per child, in the Magistrates Court under s 444 Education Act 1996.

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.

The St James Attendance Policy can be found here..

Leave of Absence form can be found here.