Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our new interactive newsletter format! We hope that this will continue to be informative and will also ease viewing on mobile devices. We will be developing the format as the weeks go on. 

Over the last two weeks we are continuing to receive positive comments about our lunch changes. They are still proving popular to the children and staff. A pupil voice comment which we heard this week: " Best lunch I have eaten all year!" (Chinese New Year Lunch). Thank you to the parents who attended the food tasting. We hope you enjoyed it!

E-Safety has also been a focus at St James over the last two weeks with Governors, Staff and Parents receiving training by our I.T Provider Eduthing. We are awaiting a recorded version of the training that we will be able to share with parents who were unable to attend. 

In other news from across the school: 

Reception braved the cold and spent the day outside learning about winter trees, identifying trees by their buds and stems, weaving on large scale, measuring how long they are and riding bikes. Reception children have been writing their own version of a story this week and have drawn some amazing dragons as part of the process. They have adapted our class fiction book, The Magic Paintbrush, to include all kinds of new heroes to write stories with an overcoming theme.

Year 1 have been learning about great explorers in our History lessons. They have loved learning about Ibn Battuta and Captain Cook so far! 

Year 2 visited Windsor Castle and learnt what it was like to be a knight.

In Year 3, the children have been learning about the lifecycle of plants, multiplication and division, how to write persuasively and the different layers of tropical rainforests.

Year 4 have been learning about States of Matter in Science and continuing their trombone lessons. 

In Year 5, the children have been studying Black and British in our reading sessions, learning about the forgotten parts of British history and its impact. The children have then been able to make links to our literacy book ‘Freedom Bird’ which focuses on America and slavery. Year 5 also had a visitor from the Chelsea Football Club Education Foundation, who delivered a session about discrimination. 

Year 6 have enjoyed a DT day where they designed, made and evaluated a children's playground. They created a range of structures using a variety of tools and materials.

As you can see, there is some very exciting work going on at St James. 

We are busy planning  activities for our STEM week which will be held during the week of 6th - 10th February. If you have any expertise in this area which you would like to share with the children during this week, please get in touch. 

Kind regards, 

Mrs Murphy