St James' C of E Primary School

Last week we had a very special assembly. It was to celebrate all the fantastic singing that happens in our school. Every class joined in and sang songs together and in class groups. We were really well supported by lots of our families and friends and everyone had a lot of fun.

Foundation Stage wrote their own words to the Pirate Song and even showed us their fantastic pictures of pirate ships; Year 2 did an enthusiastic all singing, all dancing version of Let’s Twist Again and didn’t let problems with the backing track get in the way of their performance; Year 3 were brilliant as always and are clearly turning in to a Glee Club all of their own; Year 4 had everyone clapping along with their version of This Little Light of Mine; Year 5 certainly let us know that that there “aint no mountain high enough” and Year 6 that they could “see clearly now the rain had gone”!

We finished this special event with the whole school joining Thomas from Y3 whose fantastic voice started our current favourite song, I have a song to sing which lead many members of the audience to comment that they expected to see him on TV in years to come!

Thank you very much to everyone who sang and everyone who came to enjoy the singing. We had a brilliant time and can’t wait to do it again in the future.

I will put some pictures on the blog next week as soon as we get back from our half term holiday.

Enjoy half term everyone and stay safe!

Mrs M

This week at St James’ we are learning about Shavuot, the Jewish feast of Pentecost. Today some children decorated our assembly table with fruit. Mrs Boulter said that it reminded her of our Harvest Festival!

We are looking at the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and thinking about our school rules and why they are useful. We have been asking the question, “Why do we have school rules?” Perhaps you could leave us a suggestion.

Alternatively, can you think of an extra rule that would be useful in school? Leave a comment below with your ideas or if you are part of our school, leave them on the board in the hall!

On April 23rd, St James’ will be joining with the rest of England in celebrating St George’s Day.

We are doing some investigating to find out who exactly St George was and we need your help!

If you know anything about St George, please add it to our wall below -we will be talking about what we have found out in assembly on Friday. We would also be interested in the different ways that people celebrate the day so do tell us about that too.

This week at St James’ we are celebrating Easter.

Wednesday and Thursday are our Spirituality Days and every class has been involved in thinking very carefully about the Easter story and what it means to us and our community.

Alongside reflective work done in our classrooms, we have all spent time in Church experiencing the Easter Story; in the hall exploring our place in the world through art activities and in the garden nurturing new life.

The Friends of St James have also been running an Easter Egg competition and there have been lots of very eggciting entries! You can see pictures on the Friends section of the blogsite.

Tomorrow afternoon, Thursday, we are completing our celebrations in school with our Easter Service. We will have lots of fantastic singing from Foundation Stage all the way up to the top of KS2 and a very special performance by the World Famous Y4 Recorder Orchestra as well as time to reflect on the messages of Easter.

Everyone is very welcome to come to our school hall tomorrow afternoon at 2.30pm.

Have a great holiday and we’ll see you back all hapy and refreshed after the break.

This week St James are celebrating World Book Day! Amongst other things, we are dressing up as characters from our favourite books and even making our very own books with famous book maker, Paul Johnson.

You can read more about Paul here:

http://www.bookart.co.uk/about_paul_johnson.html

We will post pictures of our books on our blogs so do come and have a look and let us know if you like them!

To celebrate National Sing Up Day, St James’ is taking part in a city-wide singing celebration on Wednesday morning.

Manchester is going for a record attempt for having the most school children singing the same thing on the same day and we are part of this challenge.

So on Wednesday morning we are holding a very special Singing Assembly at 9.10am in the school hall.

Songs include:
If you’re happy and you know it
Dr Knickerbocker
and our favourite, Manchester City, United!

If you want to find out about what everyone else in the country will be doing that day have a look here:

http://www.singup.org/nsud/

This week at St James we are celebrating Chinese New Year. Can you guess what the writing above means? If you can, come and see Mrs Boulter and let her know!

Ancient Chinese legends tell of the Nian, a man-eating beast from the mountains which came out every winter to feast on humans. To scare the Nian away, the people used loud noises such as firecrackers and fireworks, and bright colours, particularly red. These customs led to the first New Year celebrations.

Manchester has one of the largest Chinese communities in the UK, and each year it celebrates Chinese New Year in style. There is a fabulous parade around Albert Square and into China Town with traditional dragon dances, a fireworks display, marshal arts exhibitions and loads of stalls and workshops. This year, Manchester’s celebration to welcome in the Year of the Tiger will take place this Sunday so don’t miss it!

Kung hei fat choi!

At St James’ this we are thinking about the story of Jesus going to the Temple when he was young boy. This is a story about growing up and finding a voice – speaking and listening.

At St James’ everyone has a voice and everyone is heard. This week we are talking about the area outside the Foundation Stage and KS1 which needs to be improved.

We would welcome everyone’s ideas about how this area could be made wonderful for the younger children. (Yes, that means you!)

Please put your ideas on our wall below or, if you are part of the St James’ family, on the Assembly Board during the week.

If you are visiting from another school or another country please let us know what you have in your schools. We would really like to learn from you!

This week at St James’ we are celebrating the Jewish festival of the New Year of the Trees or Tu Bishvat.

There is a saying that a good person is like a strong and fruitful tree that brings happiness to people.

We at St James’ know that we are surrounded by good people who make a positive difference to our lives and this week we are celebrating them.

Add a sticky to celebrate someone who makes a difference to you. Don’t forget to tell them too.

This week St James’ is celebrating the work and the ideas of Martin Luther King.You can read about this remarkable man here:

http://www.thekidswindow.co.uk/kids-pages/martin_luther_king.htm

Martin Luther King dared to dream. What is your dream for our world? Leave your ideas on our wall.