Our children often leave school sweatshirts and other clothing around the school and it is very difficult to find the owner. Attached to the newsletter is an order form for woven name tapes. If you would like to order name tapes for your child’s school clothing, a proportion of the sales value will go to the PTFA. Please make cheques payable to St James Primary School PTFA.

For information about our nine fun packed play days during this year’s summer holidays, please enquire at the school office for a booking form or see Miss Cope for details.


Monday 10th August – Friday 14th August
Monday 17th August – Thursday 20th August

Relief Lunchtime Children’s Superintendent (1.25 hours per day)
Salary: HC2 £1,771 - £1,922
We are looking to appoint a Relief Lunchtime Children’s Superintendent, to cover for sickness/absence. The role involves supporting and supervising children whilst playing and assisting with their lunches.

All vacancies that involve working with vulnerable adults and/or children will be subject to a Criminal Records Disclosure at Enhanced Level.

For further information please contact the School Office and apply in writing.

We have had several concerns raised by staff and parents and these are:

• Children are riding scooters in the middle of the road on the way to and from school
• Children are still running, walking, riding scooters through the church grounds and many cars arrive and depart at that time of day
• Children are riding bikes to and from school without helmets

Please ensure that your child travels to and from school safely, our children are very precious!

As St James CE Primary School is a ‘Healthy School’, please do not send sweets such as hard boiled lollies, to school in your child’s packed school lunch. Our Lunchtime Supervisors have reported that some children have been bringing them in their lunch boxes! Thank you.

We would be very grateful if all parents/carers could check their child’s/children’s hair regularly by wet combing with a fine comb and hair conditioner. If lice are found, continue to comb using a hair conditioner until the lice and their eggs have gone. Your local pharmacy or doctor can also advise you of a treatment to clear them away.

• Seek shade between 11am and 3pm
• Cover up outdoors –wear a t-shirt with sleeves to protect shoulders
• Wear a hat – wide brims protect face and neck
• Use factor 15+ sun cream, reapply every 2 hours and don’t forget the tops of the ears
• Drink plenty of water
• Wear sunglasses to protect the eyes from UV light
• Provide/make use of shaded areas

We are always looking for new ways and opportunities to raise important funds for PTFA. We have signed up to an innovative fundraising programme called Money to Schools, which recycles used inkjet cartridges, toners and old mobile phone and turns them in to cash for the school.

Money to Schools not only develops the children’s sense of enterprise but also teaches them about the importance of recycling and how we can protect the environment. Mobiles phones and inkjet cartridges if dumped in landfill sites, can take 1000 years to breakdown.

This fundraising initiative also allows us to raise funds – the more mobile phones and cartridges we collect, the more money we will receive in exchange for these products.

You can support our Money to Schools fundraising programme by donating your own empty printer cartridges and mobile phones. We have a collection box for these items in the reception area. So if you normally put empty cartridges in the bin or have an old mobile gathering dust in a drawer please drop them into the box. The funds we raise can be used for vital resources and equipment.

Getting your workplace involved in the programme can generate even more funds for the school as well as benefiting the business - log on to www.moneytoschools.com to find out how. To sign up, all your employer has to do is to quote our account number (STJ006) and call 01372 751 170.

We look forward to receiving your support for this fantastic fundraising initiative and have sent home a Freepost recycling envelope to get you started.

WANTED! Have you any (good quality) old comics for our playground box? We would be interested in sports magazines and younger children’s comics – please hand them to Mrs VanDenAkker. As we develop our playground activities, it would great to have some more picnic blankets/rugs for the children to use – if you have any you could spare could you please let us know?

On Friday 5th June, the whole school took part in our annual ‘Fun Run’, held on the Castle Green. We were very lucky with the weather and the children enjoyed themselves. Welsh Water Authority provided bottled water for the children to drink. May we ask for sponsorship money to be sent into school as soon as possible. Funds this year will go towards our proposed building extension, which will provide more teaching space for our children.

Yu-gi-Oh cards are now banned from school because they are causing too many problems; please ensure your child/children do not bring them into school.

The Value of the month for May was Caring. Class 6 led our assembly on Caring on Wednesday 20th May . They explored the idea of being a good neighbour through what we do not just what we say. They told the story of Mrs Pink and her neighbours and thought about which ones were really caring and thoughtful.

Mrs Darcy set us a challenge to do something caring during the week and here are some of the things we did:-

• Gave money to Christian Aid
• Looked after my baby cousin
• Learned to take better care of my friends
• Made a cake for my mum’s birthday
• Cleaned out my rabbit’s hutch
• Took my mum a cup of tea when she was ill
• Helped an elderly lady across the road
• Went to the shop to get tablets for my dad

Here is our prayer:
Dear God Let us try to be thoughtful in whatever we do. Teach us to be helpful and supportive to others Help us to help others, not for the reward it brings But because we know we are doing the right thing. Amen

The Governors of St James met this week and discussed School Security as an area of concern that has been raised by parents. Two specific issues of concern were discussed by the Governors; the risk of intrusion onto school premises by unauthorised persons during school hours and the risk of pupils leaving school premises unaccompanied or unauthorised during school hours.

Following the expression of concern by some parents, the Headteacher and Governors requested a risk gap analysis of school security from the Advisor in Occupational Health and Safety to the Governing Body.

Risk levels within the school, the grounds and the surrounding area were reviewed and calculated using methodology from the DofE Guide, ‘Managing School Facilities – Improving Security in Schools’.

You will be pleased to hear that the assessment showed that St James to be low risk. Included within the report there are some recommendations, which the Governors have agreed to implement as soon as possible.

The school needs to maintain and regularly review current control measures.

• Ensure that both sets of gates are maintained unlocked to facilitate rapid evacuation through gates nearest the church and ease of emergency services access through the central gateway.
• Clear signage of the main door is recommended to reduce risk of visitors wandering too widely when looking for a way in.
• Review visitors access control whenever this is affected by contractors or other non-routine events.
• Remind staff of the importance of challenging unrecognised persons.
• Ensure that parents are informed of the school’s security policy in the joining information for new parents.
• The school’s security measures are already included as part of staff induction and routine training. This could be reinforced with a written guide for new staff on their responsibilities, particularly with a written guide for new staff on their responsibilities, particularly with regard to challenging and escorting visitors.
• Governors have a statutory requirement to report annually on school security – a review of school security, including an updated assessment of community and buildings risk, should be built into this process.
• Any failure of these control measures should be reported to the headteacher who will investigate the cause of failure and implement remedial action. Such failures should be recorded and collated for consideration as part of an annual review of school security measures by the Governing Body.
• Investigate feasibility of repairing or repositioning the hinges and closure system for the existing gates to ensure they are easily openable at all times but can be fastened securely against accidental opening.
• Provide clear signage requesting that the gates are closed at all times during the school day.

The warmer weather is at last here and the children are taking their sweatshirts off and then often leaving them behind at the end of the school day. Please would you check that your child’s name is in his or her sweatshirt, so that we are able to return them to their owner. Also remember to name drink’s bottles!

Class 3 having been learning about the Romans and on April 27th they had a visit from the Hereford Museum.

The class were shown Roman artefacts and dressed in togas.

Congratulations to Mr & Mrs Gale on the birth of Elliot on 27th April. A little brother for Amelia Grace.