SEND Coffee Mornings Mr Watson is planning to hold SEND0- themed coffee mornings. This will offer a space to support the needs of your children, share experiences and learn with other parents and also give you all a window into the range of support your...
We are so excited to be launching our Book Club during breaktimes for a fun and exciting way to share our love of reading!
The school reading champions will be leading the club for Year 3 to Year 6 children. The club is for any children who enjoy diving into stories and exploring new worlds.
Every week, we’ll read a new book together, discuss our favourite parts, and share what we’ve learned. It’s a chance to meet new friends who love reading as much as you do, play book-themed games, and discover awesome stories.
So, bring your imagination and come join us at breaktime – we can’t wait to read with you!
Friday 7th February is NSPCC Number Day. We are asking all pupils to dress up in anything maths related. This could be numbers pinned on their top, dressed as a dice or a calculator. The possibilities are endless…
All funds raised from Number Day will help to support vital NSPCC services.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging apps, used by over 2 billion people in 180 countries. It allows you to send and receive messages, as well as make voice and video calls.
You can connect with people individually or join group cats where lots of people can contribute. All you need to set up a WhatsApp account is a phone number.
However, children and young people can easily subvert the restrictions place on its access. Although, rated at 16+, all that is a phone number. All it takes one child in a class to be on WhatsApp, and all the others will wish to join.
This can lead to increased vulnerabilities for children users. The NSPCC has released its own analysis about the dangers of the app.
If interested, please follow the link below:
We are thrilled to announce a fantastic opportunity for our wonderfully talented SJSJ poets! We’re taking part in a national Poetry Competition, where your child’s creative work could be published in a poetry book with other winning entries. Not only that, but if St John and St James has a winning entry, that child will receive a gift bag worth up to £100!
How to Enter:
This is a wonderful chance for children to express their creativity and get recognised for their hard work. The winning poems will be professionally published, and the top entry will also receive a gift bag filled with exciting goodies.
Best of luck to all participants.
Firstly, we wanted to say a huge thank you for all of the donations we have received from you during the Autumn term. It’s been lovely to see how many of you are supporting us with this initiative and to see the children engaging so beautifully with the new provision.
This week, we will be installing our new reading shed in the KS2 playground, which will be one of our ‘cosy cabins’. Therefore, we are kindly asking for any donations of bean bags for the children to sit on, or other comfortable seating arrangements such as gaming chairs, as well as any decorations, such as fairy lights, you feel the children would like to have inside.
All donations should be left in the donation station which is situated in the KS1 playground, or handed into to the main office. Thanks in advance for your support.
As you already know, St John and St James is participating in the OPAL play programme, which is transforming our playgrounds and the way our children play within them. Research shows that play contributes to children’s physical and emotional health, well-being, approach to learning and enjoyment of school. Given the importance of play in children’s lives and current concerns about children’s health and opportunity to access time and space to initiate their own play outdoors, there are considerable benefits for children, parents, school and the wider community from participating in OPAL’s programme.
We are looking for enthusiastic parents to join our play team as Parent Play Ambassadors! We are looking for parents who can support the school to promote exciting and engaging playtimes for all children. As an ambassador, you’ll have the chance to make a lasting impact on our school community, through fundraising ideas, donation ideas and coming up with new ideas for resources which can be used on the playground to encourage creativity at playtime. If you are available, we would also love parent ambassadors to join us on our playgrounds and support the children in managing risk and using their imagination to play with resources provided in a range of ways. If you are interested in this role, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please let the office or Miss Gladstone know if you are interested.
We’re excited to remind you that World Book Day is just around the corner on Thursday, 6th March 2025! This is a wonderful opportunity for our school community to celebrate the magic of books and the joy of reading.
On the day, children are invited to come dressed up. This costume could be:
Their favourite character from a book.
Their favourite author.
A word of their choice.
We encourage you to be creative, used recycled materials and not to spend money on your child’s costume.
Throughout the day, we’ll also be hosting a variety of reading-related activities and events to inspire a lifelong love of books and storytelling.
We can’t wait to see the fantastic costumes and share the joy of reading with everyone!
Want to make a difference at St John & St James’? The PTA is looking for enthusiastic parents to step into key leadership roles!
Open Roles:
⭐ PTA Chair – Lead and coordinate PTA activities, work with school leadership, and inspire parent involvement.
⭐ Communications Lead – Manage newsletters, updates, and announcements to keep parents informed.
⭐ Nursery Rep – Represent nursery parents, share feedback, and encourage involvement in school events.
Get involved, meet other parents, and make a real impact!
Interested? Please contact your Year Group PTA representative by Friday 28 February.
We are pleased to announce that the annual Hackney RE calendar competition has commenced for 2025-26. Last year, over 120 entries were received across the borough so thank you to all children who participated. The calendar is sent to every school in Hackney and is a celebration of Religion and Worldviews teaching and learning in our schools. It also includes important dates of upcoming religious festivals and secular commemorations which help us when planning assemblies and collective worship. It aims to support pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development beyond the RE classroom.
All the artwork is selected through a borough-wide poster competition, which is open to all pupils across KS1-KS3 in Hackney Schools. This year’s Religion and Worldviews theme is on ‘Festivals and Celebrations’. The entries can show religious and secular festivals and celebrations to reflect Hackney’s diverse communities.
Entries:
Please note that ALL entries (originals only) should be:
If entries do contain some text, please check words have the correct spelling before submission. The closing date is Friday 28th March 2025 and all entries should be sent to:
RE Calendar Competition
Claire Ramalli
School Improvement Team
Hackney Education
Hackney Service Centre
1 Hillman Street
London
E8 1DY
Mr Watson is our school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead.
If Mr Watson is not available, you can always speak to one of our school’s Deputy Safeguarding Leads:
| Name | Class | Reason |
| Leonardo | Year 1 | For looking after the classroom with care and thoughtfulness. |
| Nevaeh | Year 1 | For using excellent vocabulary in literacy. |
| Asiya and Sofia | Year 2 | For working independently and confidently to complete maths tasks. |
| Caleb O | Year 2 | For completing all of his tasks. |
| Ishaq | Year 3 | For great knowledge of 3D shapes. |
| Fatimah | Year 3 | For working independently during maths and being a great support to her partner. |
| Ruben | Year 3 | For outstanding behaviour and for being a fantastic role model. |
| Teddy | Year 3 | For incredible scientific thinking. |
| Jake | Year 4 | For amazing effort with his handwriting in lesson and handwriting intervention. |
| Maya | Year 4 | For being a positive reading role model. |
| Max | Year 4 | For fantastic positive attitude in the classroom and making sure everyone is doing the right thing. |
| Alicia and Dominic | Year 6 | For taking pride in the classroom and being so helpful. |
| Eda and Raheem | Year 6 | For excellent effort in reading. |
| Khloe | Year 6 | For producing a fantastic poem. |
| Raheem | Year 6 | For amazing effort with his handwriting in lesson and handwriting intervention. |
Year 6 have really been enjoying their Science Unit – Animals Including Humans. We have learnt all about the circulatory system, looking at three important parts: the heart, arteries and veins. We understand the function of each of these areas and have even learnt why......
This week in Year 5, we were writing a character description based on our writing text, “ Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan. Our writing focus was using colons and semi colons and using show me don’t tell me phrases to replace......
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This year in Year 1, our highlight has been learning how to write Acrostic poems! We studied different types of poetry to see what made acrostic poems unique and then applied what we learned to our own poems about Moths or Butterflies. We spent time......
This week, Reception introduced a new key text: The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. We have had lots of fun retelling the story and joining in with known rhymes throughout. We had a special delivery of chocolate-scented playdough and the children have loved being creative in designing......
In RE this half term, Nursery are exploring special clothes in different religions. On Monday, we had two special visitors from SAINT church, Keziah and Vera, who came into class to show us special clothes in Christianity. Firstly, the children identified special clothes around them......