St James E-News

14th October 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,

Thank you to everyone who sent in Harvest food donations yesterday, these will be given to the Elstead Food Bank. Please see the message of thanks from Rev Hannah in her letter on the parent portal as well. It was lovely to be back in the church, singing Cauliflowers Fluffy and reminding ourselves that this is what a primary school is all about. I'd also like to thank Mrs Duke for baking an amazing Harvest loaf, which she made the previous night!

You are probably aware that our school caterer Twelve15 is still trying to fill the vacancy of school cook, which arose when Michelle left. If you know of anyone who would be interested in the role, the details are in our school notices below.

Finally, as mentioned last week, we do have a small number of Covid cases across the school. We are constantly reviewing the measures we have in place and sadly next week we will be suspending whole school assemblies as a precautionary measure. I hope that by the time we return after half-term, things will have calmed down. I have written a more detailed letter about how we plan to move forward with regard to managing suspected and positive cases.

Finally, at the PTA AGM on Monday a new committee was elected and they are Kayte Burns, Justin Radford and Claire Slightam, all with children in Y2. I am sure you will get to know them over the next few weeks and months. Thank you to the former committee of Janine, Kate and Verena for all their hard work, particularly recently in very difficult times.

Best wishes for a lovely weekend,

Valerie Elliott

School Notices

Individual school photographs - contact sheets for the children's school photographs were sent home this week. Please ensure that you place orders by 25th October to guarantee free delivery. The letter with further information is available on the parent portal on our website.
Parent consultations, week commencing 18th October - the deadline for choosing your appointment online has now passed. If you haven't yet booked your appointment, please call the school office.
Term-time caterer vacancy at St James Primary - please click here to see the advertisement for the current Twelve14 vacancy at our school.
Advertising Hub - don't forget to check the Advertising Hub where we share information about external clubs and events that may interest you. There is a link further down this page.

Covid-19 Information

Please remember; if your child or a member of your family have Covid-19 symptoms please do not send your child to school - Please immediately arrange a test for the symptomatic member of your family and inform the school office as soon as possible. Your child and all members of your household will need to self-isolate at least until you receive the test result.
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.