A Message from Mrs Murphy

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Thank you to all the parents and carers who came to school this afternoon to view the children's books. It was lovely to see so many of you on site and I hope it provided you with an opportunity to see how much progress they have made in the last term. We continue to be very proud of them all. 

We have been very busy here at St James with lots of school events this week. 

• Great Athletes visit 

We started this week with our visit from the Olympic athletes on Monday. The school hall was filled with music and laughter of children and adults from 9am as the whole school took part in their activity circuit to raise money for Great Athletes. 

They they were treated to an inspiring assembly by Courtney Orange, who spoke about having an "I can do it!" attitude and spoke about how our school values can support children achieving their dreams and aspirations. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported this event by collecting sponsorship. As of this morning, I am thrilled to announce that the school has raised a staggering £3,068 at this event. This is such an amazing achievement from St James and we will look forward to spending these donations on some new sports equipment.

If you would still like to sponsor your child, you can donate online by following this link and searching for the school name: https://sportal.greatathletes.org/events/landing . All money will need to be delivered to the school office or paid online by Monday 7th October.

• Harvest  Pause Day 2024

This year our Harvest pause day focus was on Prayer and creating Prayer spaces in our classrooms. These spaces will welcome children and adults to give thanks for all that we have. In creating the practice of daily gratitude we will support the wellbeing of those in our community as well as positioning us to pray for and give to those who do not have what they need.

During the morning, Year 1 and 2 visited the church to share their pause day with Father Damian. Reception and KS2 remained in school and completed a range of activities which they then had the opportunity to share with other year groups.

• Fond Farewells and Welcome Back

Today we bid a very fond farewell and good luck to Mrs Hilton as she leaves us to start her maternity leave and prepares to welcome her new baby. We wish her lots of luck and St James fondness at this very special time. Last week, we said farewell to Mrs Yellowlees, who has been a great member of the team over the years, and we wish her luck in her next adventures. We are pleased to announce the return of  Mrs Buttaci who has rejoined the St James teaching assistant team. Mrs Buttaci will be working within Woodpeckers, across the school and will also continue to work within our wrap around care provision. 

Other Announcements and requests 

• Coats

As you will have noticed, the weather is turning colder so we would  like to remind all parents to ensure that their child has a named coat with them each day. The children will go outside in all weather, with the exception of heavy rain, to keep them active and provide brain breaks from the classroom so appropriate outdoor clothing is needed.

• Email Communication with teachers - Please could we kindly remind parents to reference the information provided by class teachers in newsletters and in the daily bulletin before emailing the school to ask a question. Over the last week alone, my teachers have had to write over 100 emails to individual parents, and in many cases, these responses have included information already communicated through our main school communication channels. This does take a lot of time and can take time away from the core teaching duties which make so much difference to the children. Due to the email requests being excessive in some year groups,  I will now be monitoring this on a weekly basis as strive to ensure an effective communication system with parents yet be supportive to my Teacher's wellbeing. Whilst all staff at St James are always keen to deal with your concerns, please could I ask parents to reflect on whether this is an urgent request or whether questions can wait until the parental consultations scheduled for the week of 14th October. 

• Collection on the Junior Playground 

Please could I remind parents to ensure that their child is dismissed by the teacher at the end of the school day on the playground. All class teachers do need to ensure that all children go home with the correct adult. I understand that some parents are taking their children from the lines as they walk to their dismissal point, which does add additional pressure to teachers as they ensure safe dismissal processes. I have asked all teachers to try to get to their dismissal points promptly for 3.15pm which hopefully will reduce the pressure on parents collecting. 

• Abandoned bikes - Please be aware that there are two bikes on site that have been left for a while now. One purple and one Police themed. Can you please collect ASAP if they are yours. 

Please find below the lunch 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.

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