St James’CE Primary School

We are looking to appoint a temporary Nursery Practitioner to join our team on the 6th March for approximately 12 weeks. This is an exciting opportunity to join a flourishing team. For more information, please contact the school office. https://mynewterm.com/jobs/148300/EDV-2026-SJCEFS-78849

Squirrels class were excited to welcome adults to their Parent Share this afternoon. Our DT learning this half term started with an y exciting visits from a year 4 parent who we were incredibly grateful for sharing her knowledge and even clothes and items she had made herself. Squirrels class led the afternoon, all standing up and reading short sections to describe our learning journey this half term. Parents joined in with finishing off the sewing on the children's final product and were impressed by the wonderful sewing skills. They were proud to present all they had done and celebrate their success - well done Squirrels class.

What a fantastic party! Everyone had a brilliant time at the St James' PFA school with Outalimits discos. It was a delight to see everyone dancing their hearts out for the whole evening. As always, a huge thank you to all the parents who helped to organise and support the event giving all of our children a brilliant time with dancing the nice away with their friends.

We had a wonderful day with Dorset Creative Dance who came to run dance classes for the whole of St James' from our youngest to our oldest. The adventures varied from class to class but they all had a fantastic time! We are looking forward to welcoming Dorset Creative Dance back in the Spring 2 to run an after-school club every Tuesday.

Year 4 enjoyed our visit from Mr Stevens who works for Wessex Water. During the afternoon, we explored on average how much water we use each day and discussed water efficiency. Working in small groups, we were challenged to see which group could turn the dirty water into clean water through creating our own filters. Lots of great teamwork was shown and the children listened brilliantly.

Our Reception class have been learning about technology from the past. This week we had a focus on music and talked about record players, cassette tapes, CD's and digital music. Mrs Hardyman brought in a record player and a very old record of 'The Jungle Book'. We enjoyed seeing how the music was played and had a great dance too!

Our Nursery children have been looking at the classic story of Jack and The Beanstalk this week, they've had great fun building castles in the clouds, planting beans, collaging beanstalks, and re-enacting the story in the hall with Mr Lawford using the sports equipment to climb the beanstalk and jump from the top!

It was once again a privelege to welcome Kate from Life Education Wessex & Thames Valley to St James' for a series of workshops in all classes. SCARF is our PSHCE scheme and today's focus was All About Me, Our Feelings, Expressing Gratitutude and Protecting our Body and Mind, The children had a wonderful day and loved meeting Harold, the SCARF giraffe.

Our Nursery children were so excited for the first of our new weekly Forest School sessions this morning. The children put on their waterproofs and wellies and carried their backpacks with their drinks in, all promoting independence and school readiness. These sessions are completely child led; giving them the freedom to explore, be creative, build resilience and grow a love of nature!

This weekend is the last chance to complete Reception 2025 applications. If you've not done your application yet or still sat on the fence, there is still time for a quick tour at St James' First School before the deadline closes.

We had a wonderful Christmas Party day celebrating the end of term together. The school was alive with festive cheer with crafts, games, dancing and of course a fantastic Christmas lunch. A huge thank you to all the team for making our term a success. Have a wonderful Christmas break and we will see you all in 2026.

It was standing room only at Holtwood Methodist Church for our annual Christmas Nativity. Well done to both Foxes and Nursery for putting together such a wonderful morning for us all to enjoy. The story of The Little Fir tree follows the adventures of a small fir tree who was seemingly all alone and forgetten as the other trees in the forest had been cut down. However, the woodcutter had other plans and she became a special tree, adorned with a star for all to see and witness to the first Chistmas. The final song encouraged all of us at this season to let our lights shine brightly. A special thank you to the Reception team, led by Mrs Walker and Nursery team who worked tirelessly to ensure everything ran smoothly.

We are super proud of Owls class for singing out in the community this morning. We started our tour at Stewarts Garden Centres in Broomhill where we were joined by parents and visitors off for some Christmas shopping. Our second stop was at Verwood House Care Home where the children sang a collection of 8 songs for the residents as well as giving them Christmas cards they had made. It brought us all joy to see the residents singing along to their favourite Christmas tunes and no doubt kindling some wonderful memories.