Newsletters

Spring 2 Newsletter

Spring 2 Newsletter

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Dear All,

We have reached the end of our second term of the year. The evenings are getting lighter, the sun is shining, and we have some long weekends ahead to spend time with our families. 

So much has been accomplished over the past half term, and I hope you have been keeping up with Dojo to see all that the children are learning. It’s been quite busy here!

In the past two weeks, we have been hard at work preparing for Easter. The children have been making Easter bonnets and learning songs. Reception has already had their Easter assembly, and Key Stage 1 will lead their parade on Friday, which we are all looking forward to. The choir will also be performing. Look out on Dojo for photos and videos.

While we have so many happy things to celebrate in school, I do have some sad news to share. Mrs Finch will be leaving us at the end of this school year. She has been a huge part of the school community for 6 years, teaching children in our year 1 classes, and then in our Reception classes. She is our phonics expert and reading lead - both areas are absolute strengths in our school as a result of her fondness and love of reading, which she has imparted on to our St. James children. 

We thank you, Mrs Finch, for giving so many children the best start to their school life. You will be so missed by us all. 

Have a wonderful Easter break everyone. And thank you for your continuing support of our school.

We will see you on Wednesday 23rd April for the start of the summer term.  

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Poppies have been learning all about festivals from different religions this year and, in addition to Easter, they have learnt all about the Hindu festival 'Holi'. They know Holi is the festival of colour. To celebrate, they had their very own Holi colour party. They made crushed chalk to launch into the air and got very messy with lots of colourful paint. They have also been listening to stories and songs about Holi.

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Reception are outside no matter the weather. We have brand-new puddle suits which makes exploring the weather and mud kitchen great fun in the rain. The children noticed the shapes the raindrops made as they hit the puddles. They noticed circles, too many to possibly count. They explored the capacity of the rainwater in containers, texture changes when adding wet to dry, and they had a great time jumping in puddles making 'gigantic' splashes from varying heights. Learning is so much fun!

Year one has been really lucky to take a trip to 'Suddenly' bookshop in the local community. At St James' we pride ourselves on building a love of reading for our children. They have a wonderful time exploring the books, sharing them with friends and listening to them being read by staff at the bookshop. The children were commended for their terrific behaviour during the trip. We are very proud of them.

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Year two attended the local methodist church to take part in 'interactive Easter'. They had a fantastic time learning all about the Easter story and taking part in the performance whilst developing their knowledge of Christianity and the celebrations of the religion. The children had lots to tell everyone on their return to school. It was a very interesting enrichment of our curriculum.

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We see examples of our school values being shown in everything we do....

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Inclusion:

Poppies played a whole class game of What's The Time Mr Wolf with Mr Nixon. No one was left out of the game. Well done Poppies for thinking about everyone.  

Teamwork:

Our Reception classes worked together to put on a wonderful Easter Parade for their parents and the rest of the school. Well done Reception for working together!

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Kindness:

Our year 2 children have been using IPads to create pictograms. They have had to take turns using the IPads showing kindness to one another. Well done Year 2 for being kind role-models!

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Respect:

These children listened to each other's ideas respectfully when digging in forest school. Well done forest schoolers!

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Next year's term dates are available. Term dates | West Northamptonshire Council Please bear these in mind when booking holidays as the County is fining families for taking term-time holidays.

To have 'good' attendance, the children need to be in school for 96% of the school year. 

This term's Attendance Treasure Chest winners are daisies class! Really well done to you all. You have won the pirate's treasure chest for this term, so you can choose a class treat.

Daisies won themselves 3 coins this term, bluebells won 1 coin, buttercups won 1 coin and dandelions won 1 coin too.

Super attendance means super learning.

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This half-term we have had two big fundraisers- our school disco and the spring tombola. The disco raised £330 and the tombola raised £450. We have also been very fortunate to receive a £250 donation from a St. James past pupil, Peter York. Peter comes to see our reception children each year to tell them about his memories of St. James as a young boy. 

We have purchased £1,000 worth of learning resources for our outside learning areas and forest school. Pictures will follow.

A really huge thank you to everyone who has supported our events and helped to organise the events. Without the fundraising efforts, we would not be able to afford the new resources which the children will access to support their learning.

We have also had a group of volunteers from the Daventry Rotary club in school over the weekends to build a new shed, which is at the back of the school. The shed will store our staging and some PE equipment. Please follow the attached link to see how they got on.

Shed Build at St James - Danetre Daventry Rotary

Upcoming events:

23rd May - Break the Rules day. 50p per rule broken!

17th June - Sponsored Bounce

27th June - Donations for the Tombola- toys / drinks / chocolate

3rd July - Summer Tombola

10th July - End of year disco

We rely heavily on donations. Please keep checking in with our Amazon Wishlist to see if you are able to help. We currently have a few playground items on the SJIS shopping list. Thank you. 

https://amzn.eu/7CjshUH

We have been very fortunate to receive a huge donation of stationery from Amazon- all of which is very much need and utilised. Thank you to Amazon for thinking of us!

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Phone: 01327 702783
Email: FOSJ@SJIS.inmat.org.uk

You would be very welcome if you would like to attend a committee meeting.

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Please remember to order school lunches by 9.30am. Dolce will send out charges if they are not ordered in advance. 

Our children look so smart in their school uniforms. We do have many items for sale so please ask us if you need anything. 

We talk about road and pavement safety with the children. Support them with getting to school safely by using the zebra crossings.

Our school have a FOSJ account with Skitkins. These labels are indestructible for labelling all items- water bottles, clothes, bags. Please use these details: School fundrasing number to add to orders is 19752, as we gain commission. 

The play equipment is not to be used before and after school.

If you know anyone who may be interested in joining our Poppies class in 2025 or 2026, please see the office for a form. We are already so busy for the coming years.

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