Celebration of Learning Assemblies  - Congratulations Year 5!

In other news over the fortnight, we have begun our season of Celebration of Learning assemblies with a spectacular assembly by Year 5 this week. They wowed the parents and staff with all their learning from the year which included: poetry, science, computing, writing, art, design and so much more! The children wrote their own scripts and it even included some jokes!  Congratulations to all the children and thank you to all the parents who came to support them. 

Please do consult the diary dates to ensure you have the date for your child's assembly. 

Weybridge Community Festival

It was lovely to see so many families supporting the local businesses at the Weybridge Community Festival on Saturday. St James Choir performed on the main stage and sounded amazing. Mrs Cowden even got to do a solo on stage with her performance group and wowed us all with her talent. 

Thank you to the Friends of St James who ran the stall at the fair and to the team of Friends who were there at 8am on Saturday setting up and decorating the stall with the artwork made by the children. Their efforts were worth it as St James came first in the stall decoration competition.  Thank you again for your time and support for the school.

Warm welcome 

We would like to welcome Mrs Barnett to the school office team. Those who have been in school this week would have seen her smiling face at the front desk. 

Parent Survey 

As we reflect at St James on the past year and look ahead on our school improvement journey, we would like to ask Parents to once again complete our parental survey. This is open to parents in Reception to Year 6. Please do share your views. In September we had 109 completed questionnaires so it would be fantastic if we could exceed the number of parents who take part to provide us with valuable parental incite to help us create our School Development Plan for next year. 

The survey is accessible from here https://forms.gle/HyF91XCQwZJFenN1A  and will be open until the 17th of July. 

Parent Helpers request. 

As you will be aware we have the the summer fair on the 15th July and this looks set to be an exciting event. Whilst the Friends are putting in a lot of work to arrange a memorable event, I understand they are still in need of volunteers to work at the stalls throughout the weekend.  There are currently gaps in coverage for some of the stalls so please contact your class reps if you are able to offer any time. 

Kind regards,

Mrs Murphy 

Last week Mrs Murphy was lucky enough to have a helper for the day as Ella (Year 3) joined her as Headteacher for the day.  They held an assembly, did learning walks of the school and Ella did a pupil interview to find out children's views on this year at St James. 

She even had the opportunity to write a section of the newsletter. Please see below. 

   Hi my name is Ella  and I was headteacher for a day.  First we saw year 4 doing trombone . Then, we saw Key Stage 1 doing sports day practice. After that we saw year 6 making shadow puppets .  After that, we gave headteacher awards to Mr Sawyer and all the kitchen staff . Next, we went into Woodpeckers class.  Later we saw year 4 doing a Sikhism workshop  and  we went into Snowy Owls class. Finally, I led a group of 6 people and asked them " how has the school improved this year?". 

Thank you Ella for being such a great addition to the SLT for the day. 

As you may be aware we are currently reviewing our Behaviour policy. 

 Thank you to all the parents who have contributed their thoughts and to those who attended the Behaviour Forum this week. 

One issue that we have identified is that children put themselves under significant pressure to achieve a platinum by the end of the year. As we are keen for the platinum award to be motivating to children, we will be changing the system to allow a rolling system of the silver, golds and platinum awards over the year. This will mean that children who do not achieve a platinum by the end of their current year will carry on with their Silver and Gold total as they move into the next academic year.  

Not only will this reduce the end of year pressure to achieve the platinum award but also opens up the possibility for children to achieve more than one in an academic year, which will be  an additional motivator.  Thank you for your support. 

On Tuesday 20th June, 28 Year 3 and 4 children took part in the First Maths Challenge (FMC).  The FMC has been specifically created to give all pupils, UK and worldwide aged between 7-9, the opportunity to take part in a fun Mathematical Challenge.  The FMC offers children a chance to complete interesting, enjoyable and stretching questions which draw on all of their mathematical knowledge.  

The children behaved beautifully and enthusiastically and I would like to congratulate them all on their efforts, achievements and engagement in the event. 

Year 6 had a fantastic time on their residential at Brenscombe last week. The sun was shining for all the three days and the children, and staff, had lots of fun.

Thank you to Mrs Powick, Mrs Littleproud, Miss Franklin, Mr Sawyer, Mrs Kennedy, Mrs Wales, Miss Fraser, Mrs Lawrence and Mrs Wong who all volunteered to attend this trip. 

 Platinum Awards: 

R Chicks:  Dylan

Y1 Robins: Elara / Robert

Y2 Kingfishers: Finlay / Benedict / Noah / James / Lorena / Gracie / Olivia / James G /Alias / Yoana / Tom

Y2 Woodpeckers:  Livia

Y4 Kestrels: Henry / Arthur / Isla / Erin

Y5 Kites: Evie 

See website for more dates. INSET Days have been set for the academic Year 2023/4. More information can be found on the website here: https://www.stjames-weybridge.surrey.sch.uk/term-dates-1/