St James E-News

9th December 2022

Welcome to the St James Primary School's E-News, a weekly roundup of the latest news and events at the school

School Notices

High levels of Sickness in School - We continue to have a large amount of sickness in school currently with a variety of bugs. Please help us to minimise the spread of these illnesses by only sending your child to school if they are well. Please read the latest information on the parent portal regarding symptoms and treatment for Strep A. If your child has a stomach bug, please ensure that they do not return to school until 48 hours (2 days) after the last episode of either sickness or diarrhoea as they will still be infectious. Eg, if a child is sick at 11am on Tuesday, they can return to school at 11am on Thursday
Christmas Performances - thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas performances this year. We hope that you enjoyed them. thank you to everyone who donated to our collections, we have raised over £420 which will help towards the cost of our next production.
Nearly New or Pre-Loved Toys - Mrs Pickering will be running a nearly new toy stall at the Christmas Fair next week. If you have any toys in good condition that you can donate, we would love to have them. Please bring them to the school office.
School Meals Menu – Following a review of the new menu introduced this half-term, our caterers, Twelve15 have made a few changes. These have been reflected on the Weekly Menus page on our website.
Inter-House Competition - The Big St James Quiz 2022 - our annual school quiz will now take place on Thursday 15th December. Please send the children to school in their house tee-shirts on this day.
Exciting News from St James Church - A Weekly 10.30 am Contemporary Service with Children's Group. From the 15th of January 2023, we are launching a weekly 10.30 am Sunday service at St James Church. This will be a contemporary morning service with a band and children's groups. This new service will be in addition to the monthly 10.30 am family service and the traditional communion services we offer at St James and across the parishes. Please could you answer the following short survey to help us with our planning and preparation? It should take 2 minutes to complete.
https://forms.gle/ppArsUH2tdXVvtd76
Christmas Lunch - Children who do not usually have a school dinner are welcome to join in with the Christmas lunch on Wednesday 14th December. Please remember to book their lunch by Monday 12th December. The letter with information about Christmas lunch and Christmas parties is on the Parent Portal.
Lost Property - Over the past 5 weeks the office has accumulated a vast amount of unnamed school uniform, water bottles plus 2 coats, items of underwear and gloves. All of this will be on display in The Gazebo on KS1 playground from Monday. Please check to see if any of your child's items are there. Any unclaimed items will be disposed of at the end of term. Please ensure that every item that your child brings in to school is clearly named so that lost items can be returned to their owner as soon as possible. Please see below for one suggested option for naming your child's items. Stamptastic
Additional Financial Support for Families - We are aware that some families may be experiencing additional financial challenges at the moment. If you are in this situation, we may be able to help you access some financial support. You can email our Home School Link Worker Helen Owen - hslw@st-james-elstead.surrey.sch.uk with regards to this. Parents can also check to see if their children have become entitled to Free School Meals, this not only means that school meals are free for qualifying children in KS2 (Years 3-6), it can also provide additional funding for the school to support those children until they move to Secondary School. Please speak to the school office, in confidence, if you think you may qualify, regardless of which year your child is in. FSM claim forms can be found here.
All-Age Christmas Carol Service 6pm Friday 16th December - all our families are invited to join a Carol Service at St James' Church Elstead

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. 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.

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.

Puffins
Whole school

PTA News

PTA Christmas Fair Thursday 15th December 3.15 - 5pm. This year's Christmas Fair will be held straight after school. Collect your children as usual and then come in through the office to join the fun! Due to rising prices and the impact of inflation affecting so many of us, we are changing the focus of this year's Christmas Fair. It will no longer be about raising a lot of money for the PTA, and will instead be held as a fun event for St James Primary pupils. As many of the stalls as possible will be free of charge. There will still be some of the favourites that we will charge for, including the Bottle Tombola and Pick a Present, so that we can recoup some of our costs for the event.
If you can lend a hand during set up or during the fair itself, please do let us know. The school staff are doing a wonderful job in supporting us, so any extra help we can get from the parents would be well received - please sign up here!

Please click on the link below to find out about activities planned for this term.

View the latest PTA News