We wish all of our Class 6 pupils good luck and success as they end their school life at St James’ and move on to the next part of their education at various secondary schools around the county.

We also say goodbye to Mrs Chilcott and Mr Thomas who have been ‘more than supply teachers’ at St James’. Mrs Chilcott has taught here since 1995 and Mr Thomas since 2002. They have taught most children across the school at some time. We wish them a long and happy retirement.

We also say goodbye with thanks to Miss Richards who has taught Class 6 since half term and wish her well as she travels abroad.

Once again, many thanks for making my first term at St James’ so enjoyable and for making me feel so welcome. I wish you all a very happy and safe summer holiday and look forward to seeing you all again on September 6th.

Yours sincerely
Kathy Weston

I urge you to put child safety before time and convenience at the beginning and end of the day. There was a ‘near miss’ on Wednesday when a van was forced to reverse to allow a car to pass and very nearly knocked over a child! Please park a road away in favour of causing a problem on Vicarage Road.

Thanks to all those who came to the recent meeting to hear about our progress in addressing the Ofsted key issues, as well as to express and listen to viewpoints regarding Site Safety and Communication. I think everyone found the meeting helpful. If you weren’t able to be there, the notes taken are on display in the glass-fronted display box at the main entrance and are also available on the school website.

Specifically regarding the safety of all children, it was agreed that parents who wish to wait until their child goes into school in the morning, would be asked to move inside the gates, leaving them visible at all times. Some parents drop children off and it is therefore vital that the school gates are visible to ensure that no child can leave the site unseen. I would add to this a request that, should you need to discuss anything important with the class teacher, please do so before the bell goes. The children can get very impatient when lined up and waiting for the teacher to take them in. It is important for us all that teachers are allowed a prompt and calm start to the morning’s learning.

Regarding the start of the day, please remember that children should not arrive at school too early as there is no adult supervision outside until 8.45 am.

As I indicated at the Parents’ Meeting on 18th May, I am keen to hold regular meetings to ensure that communication is as open and transparent as soon as possible. With this in mind therefore, a second meeting is planned for next Tuesday at 7.30p.m. at the school. The main areas for discussion will centre on:

▪ Ofsted Key Issues – progress to date
▪ Site Security
▪ Communication

If you have strong feelings about any of the above subjects and would like to be involved in discussions and decision making, please come along. Alternatively, if you are unable to be there but would like to express your views in writing, I would be keen to receive these. I look forward to seeing many of you next week.

Kathy Weston
Acting Headteacher

A big thank you to everyone in any way involved in Saturday’s successful Summer Fete. It was great to see everyone coming together for the good of St James’. Please be assured that the time and effort you contribute really is appreciated by staff and children at the school and allows the children to enjoy and do many things that the school budget would not allow. We would also like to thank Mr Duhig and Hyundai for donating lots of footballs.

Dear Parents

As we enter the last half term of the academic year, there is so much to fit in. The meeting in Bristol with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate which Paul Towner and I attended was very informative and told us that we can expect our first Ofsted Monitoring Visit any time from July onwards. In the meantime here are a few of the ways we are addressing the Key Issues for improvement outlined by Ofsted:

• 7 lessons were observed on 25th May by myself and Dave Beddard (Local Authority, all of which were satisfactory and above. Following these, a programme for individual staff development has now been put in place.

• A selection of children’s work has been examined with a view to ensuring that all marking is effective and all pupils will have clear targets for improvement in reading, writing and mathematics in the coming week.

• Records to monitor progress of all children in these areas of learning are now in place and are being discussed regularly. Some children are receiving focussed intervention group work to address any areas where progress is felt to be an issue. You will be informed if your child is involved.

The Annual Report has been modified to be more informative. There will also be clear information about your child’s levels of attainment in English and Maths (for Year 6 this will probably be later than reports due to external marking.)

The notes from the meeting held on Tuesday 18th May to discuss the Ofsted report are in the glass fronted display cabinet outside the main door and a Parents’ Forum meeting is planned for Tuesday 29th June at 7p.m. which will be held in school.

Start of Day

Thank you to parents of children in Class R who are supporting us in developing the children’s independence by saying goodbye in the playground.

As there are several members of staff in the playground from 8.50 am, one of whom will be at the gate at all times, this means that you will be able to leave your child knowing that they are supervised, should you need to get to work or an appointment. Again, I ask that you help us in our need for a prompt start to the morning by letting the children line up on their own as soon as the bell goes.

“Stationery for Schools” from Ryman helps families to support their schools by providing them with access to much needed stationery supplies. For every £5 spent a 50p Ryman voucher is earned for our school. These vouchers can be collected and exchanged for credit for the school to spend with Ryman. The address of the nearest Ryman store is 19 Eign Gate, Hereford. Also when shopping on line your vouchers will be automatically generated and sent with your order, then please give these to St James and make sure you tell your friends!

Thanks to our shopaholic parents who have shopped until they have dropped through easyfundraising.org.uk for the good of St James School PTFA.

If you shop online and haven’t tried it do have a look and shop through easyfundraising.org.uk. You are bound to find most of your favourite shops here because you can choose from over 2,000 of the UK's best-known retailers including many popular names such as Amazon, Next, Argos, John Lewis and HMV.

You can nominate St James CE Primary School to receive a contribution from the shops you have bought from. It really is easy to do and on average the school will receive 3% of what you spend. Tell everyone you know – relatives, friends. Make sure you choose St James Hereford as there are several PTFAs with similar names.

NB It doesn't cost a penny extra to shop and raise funds for the PTFA using this site, and as many retailers now give extra discounts when you buy online, you can even save money!

Please bring into school any unwanted good quality school uniform that your child may have outgrown, as the P.T.F.A. would like to sell them at a stall at our School Fete on the 19th June. Buying recycled uniform is easier on the pocket and eco-friendly!

We would like to thank all parents who use our mobile number to text or phone-in their child’s absence. The system is working well, so please continue to use it! Just to remind you, the number is 07794261716

On the 17thMay Class five had a visit from the fire service. We were split in to three groups. Then we went around different activities to learn about different things.

The first activity was learning about where to put smoke alarms and where not to put them. You should put them in the hallway and landing but you should not put them in the kitchen.

The second activity was how to make a 999 call and what to say. We pretended we were making a 999 call and to help us, we had scripts to follow.

The third activity was to learn an escape plan. There was escape plan A and escape plan B. Escape plan A was to touch your door handle with the back of your hand. If it is not hot you should be able to go straight down stairs and out of the front door. Escape plan B is if the door is blocked or the door handle is hot, you should go to the safest room and close the door and use towels or blankets to keep out the smoke. You then need to open the window and shout ‘FIRE!’

The visit was interesting and has made us all think about the dangers of fire.

By Molly Kedward & Charlotte Strike

Comments

Class 3 have been learning about the Romans and on May 12th they had a visit from the Hereford Museum. The children wrote about the visit:
‘I enjoyed being an archaeologist and a slave. I ground rosemary and someone else ground fennel, and someone else sage.’ Gethin Teague.
‘I had fun grinding herbs in a mortarium. The herbs were fennel, rosemary and sage. I liked watching the herbs get smaller. I made a mortarium out of broken up bits.’ Josef Everard.
‘Today I learnt about the Romans, I learnt that the Romans used clay pots as cooking pots, the Romans had lots of slaves, and that a mortarium is a Roman mashing pot. I learnt what it was like to be an archaeologist and what it was like to be a slave. We ground sage, fennel and rosemary.’ Daniel Beddoes.

It has been a very good start for the Summer Term as the following children have all received a Headteacher’s award for working very hard, showing improvement and for various other achievements. Well done!

Alfie Paton, Noah, Bellerby, Bethany Bradley, Ruby Portis, Connor Duhig, Diloja Jeyanand, Keeley Davies, Tommy Bishop, Sophia Allen, Rees Newton-Sealey, Edward Pritchard, Ryan Harris, Pamela Scott, Evan Harris, Aimee Hattersley, Lauren Williams, Vivi Morley, Artie Campbell, Jeremy Dijkens, Liberty Jones, Paige Delaney, Archie Laws, Jacob Fish, Afika Matli, Josh Hider, Josh Williams, William Morris, and Ryan Phillips.

We have just given each class teacher £100 to spend on something of their choice for their classroom. Watch this space to see what they buy.

The school have just received over £200 worth of books which they chose from the Scholastic Book Club. This has been paid for using the vouchers that we received from your Book Club orders from this year so far. Please keep ordering since this is a really good way for the school to get new resources for the classrooms.

CR - £40.80
C1 - £39.45
Thanks to those who have made, bought and consumed.

Class 3 and Class 5 are currently taking part in ‘Moving Targets’ (a dance and drama project). On Friday April 23rd Class 3 visited Point 4 which is situated at the Royal National College for the Blind and on Wednesday April 28th Class 5 visited the The Courtyard, this gave both classes the opportunity to spend the whole day at an exciting venue for their first workshop. The Moving Targets project is being led by Mrs Laura Gale (a dance and drama teacher). The workshops will continue in school for several weeks and the children will perform their routine to the rest of the school on June 11th.

Class 5 will visit The Courtyard again for a morning workshop on Wednesday 23rd June. On Wednesday the 30th June they will take part in a Moving Targets performance, with Lord Scudamore Primary School at The Courtyard in the evening, more details to follow nearer the time.

Good attendance and punctuality are vital for your child’s success at school and will help to establish positive life habits necessary for their future success.

Herefordshire Council is responsible, by law, for making sure that pupils of compulsory school age attend their school regularly.

St James CE Primary School works very closely with the Education Welfare Service in
regularly monitoring attendance and punctuality. Our School Attendance Policy includes statutory legislation from the DCSF and we work hard to implement and support this.

Please could we remind Parents/Carers that the school bell is rung at 8.55am. Your
child/children should be present in the playground, ready to come into school, when the bell rings and registration begins. Regular lateness can be very unsettling for children.

However, if you are unavoidably late bringing your child/children to school, please ensure they are signed in at the office.

The end of our School day is 3.30pm and we would expect Parents/Carers to be on time to collect their child/children, it is very distressing for children when they are late being collected.

Thank you for your support and cooperation in helping us to ensure your child’s school experience is positive, rewarding and caring.