Dear Parents & Carers,

Welcome to the start of our new academic year and Autumn Term 2018.

We are looking forward to another full and exciting year ahead. We hope to maintain and further develop the rich curriculum which is at the heart of school life at St James the Great. We are delighted to let you know, that even in these increasingly challenging times for school finance, we will be continuing the specialist music provision which benefits all classes as well as ensuring that every child in Years 5 & 6 get the opportunity to learn how to play a brass instrument and perform as part of an ensemble. We will continue to look for excellent opportunities for the children to show off their skills both within our own school and parish community and at venues such as last year’s Tower of London Music festival.

New this year, we will be working with Westminster Cathedral Choir School in a year-long project. Our modern foreign language offer is strengthening with an additional specialist, Mandarin speaking, member of support staff and plans for some very exciting curriculum developments in this area. Our Financial Education programme goes from strength to strength and this year we aim to be recognised as a Centre of Excellence in this area. Please join our school’s Saving Club; it is a very real way of teaching your child about the value of money.

We are delighted to inform you that along with our specialist sports coaching, which is well established in the school, we will again be offering specialist dance teaching for three classes . We believe that even though we love being in our school, there are amazing opportunities for the children to learn and experience from: in our local area; London; and indeed further afield. We describe this as building the children’s ‘cultural capital’ as well as their resilience. All classes will benefit from a trip, at least each half term which is related to their learning; two year groups will again have the opportunity to attend residential school journey and one year group will learn how to sail a boat.

We are a very special part of a very special parish and as such we will always look for ways to bring us all closer to the love of God. That is our greatest ambition for this year. Please read our weekly ‘Newsletter’ and keep in touch.