St James E-News
25th November 2021
Welcome to the St James Primary School's E-News, a weekly roundup of the latest goings on at the school.
Latest Headteachers Blog
Dear Parents,
Firstly, a big thank you to our new PTA for getting up and running so quickly and organising the outdoor Christmas Fair for Wednesday 8th December. The fair begins straight after school and, to get you in the Christmas mood, the school is holding a carol concert from 2.30pm, when each class will sing a carol to you. Please do come along! There are also a couple of special PTA days coming up, when the PTA will be seeking donations for the fair. And if you have a little spare time to help the PTA on the day of the fair, please email Kayte Burns kayte_burns@hotmail.com , even if you can only volunteer for a short time. The money raised is used to maintain and run the school swimming pool and buy resources for the school so please give the PTA your support.
A second big thank you to Emma Bayley, who is once again running the PTA Christmas Tree shop, where orders can be placed for a real tree supplied at a discount by Oxenford Farm. Further details can be found here. The deadline for orders is tomorrow and the trees can be collected from school on Saturday, 4th December.
It has been lovely to welcome parents back into school for our Open Classrooms this week and there are more scheduled for next week (alerts to remind you beforehand will be sent our via the St James Primary app). We know that it has been very hard for parents to appreciate and see the work the children have been doing in school whilst the pandemic restrictions have been in place so we will be holding Open Classrooms termly for the forseeable future.
Finally, you will hopefully have noticed that we have slightly changed the format of the E-News. We have listened to your feedback and removed the need to click to access the newsletter and have put everything into email format. We are also changing the day the E-News comes out, from a Thursday to a Friday. We hope that this will make it easier for you to find out what is happening in school, but please give us your feedback.
Best wishes for a lovely weekend,
Valerie Elliott
School Notices
- PTA Accessorise Your Uniform Day, Friday 26th November - this Friday the
children will have the chance to dress up their usual school uniform with fun accessories, Christmas or otherwise, such as hats, deely boppers, wigs, feather boas - they can use their imagination. In return the PTA are asking that you bring in a bottle of some description for the Bottle Tombola at next month's Christmas Fair. Please leave the bottles at the collection point in front of The Hub, (the former Children's Centre). Please don't bring bottles into school. - Drop in sessions with our Home School Link Worker, Helen Owen - The role of the Home School Link Worker (HSLW) is to support families with a range of issues at home or at school. This includes offering support with:
Parenting challenges and/or access to courses/information
Families who are experiencing difficult times (e.g. financial concerns, illness, separation, addiction, domestic abuse, bereavement etc.).
Helping complete forms such as: Disability living allowance, school trips etc
Helping families access additional support or resources
1:1 sessions are available on Wednesdays. To book an appointment email Helen on hslw@st-james-elstead.surrey.sch.uk or ring the school office to request a call back.
- Lighting the Christmas Trees - This village event, organised by Our Elstead, will take place on the green at 5pm on Friday 3rd December. There will be
mulled wine/orange/apple juice and mince pies on offer. - PTA Christmas Tree Orders, Last Day for Orders is Tomorrow! - A sample tree will be available to see outside the school from next week. Prices are as follows: 4ft: £30 or 5ft: £38, 6ft: £46 and 7ft: £54. Last day for orders is Friday 26th November. Collection is from the school on Saturday 4th December between 9 and 11am; trees will be netted. Please see the letter on the Parent Portal for more information.
- PTA Christmas Jumper Day, Wednesday 8th December - the children are invited to wear Christmas jumpers to school instead of their school sweatshirts. The PTA are seeking a cash donation (suggestion £1) towards the Christmas Fair taking place after school that day.
- Have you discovered the St James Mobile App? - The app allows parents to keep up to date with all the
latest news, dates, photo galleries and more all in one handy place on their phone. Parents can also receive push notifications and subscribe to alert groups that give reminders about class or school events. The app is free to download so please give it a try! Please click on the picture to learn more about this useful communication tool.
Covid-19 Information
- Please remember; if your child (or a member of your family) has Covid-19 symptoms please do not send your child to school - Please immediately arrange a test for your child and inform the school office as soon as possible. Please do not send your child to school at least until you receive the test result and not before they are well
- NEW COVID-19 INFORMATION FROM PHE - In response to the transmission of variants of concern, Public Health England (PHE) South East, is advising all close contacts of COVID-19 cases to get a COVID-19 PCR test (ideally 5 days after exposure or day five of isolation) whether or not they have symptoms of coronavirus COVID-19
- Weekend Results: It is very important that you continue to notify us of Covid-19 test results still over the weekend by using the below email address which is monitored out of school hours.
results@st-james-elstead.surrey.sch.uk
A negative result will require a confirmation from the school before your child and siblings can return to school. Please do not send your child back to school until we have been in touch with you.
Letters this week
The following classes have had letters uploaded to the Parent Portal this week. Note: You will need to login to view this area.
- Penguins
- Kestrels
- Eagles
- Whole school
News Blogs
Blog of the Week: Click on the picture below to find out why Miss Graham visited us in school last week and what award Kingfishers were very excited to receive.
Click below to view all the latest News Blogs:
Dates for your diary
View the school calendar for the latest information
Advertising Hub
Please see latest from our advertising hub:
School Meals
View this weeks school meals menu: