Hi my name is Miss Joanne Davies and I am the Community Family Liaison Officer here at St. James Primary School. I have many roles within my job title, I help parents/guardians who are struggling to get their child/ren into school, information and advice for parents/guardians and children who are struggling at home, school or socially and also general concerns that parents/guardians may have.

One of my main roles is supporting attendance.  It is part of my daily job to contact parents/guardians of children who are absent, this is to make sure that their attendance does not fall under our 93% target that the Welsh Government has set. To help with attendance I may send out letters to make parents/guardians aware of their child's attendance and how we can work together to help. I can offer one to one meetings and also coffee mornings to discuss this in a group setting. 

I also run many initiatives within the school for the children to encourage them to come in and see that school is  fun and we are always here to help and nurture them. 

FaCE team

Family and community engagement is a very important aspect of our school community.  The team comprises Mrs. Redmond (class teacher and HWB co-ordinator), Mr. Lewis (deputy head teacher), Mrs. Redmond (class teacher and part of the LLC team).  If you have any ideas or suggestions please speak to one of the team, we are all very happy to take on ideas and explore further opportunities for parental/ family engagement.

Family and Community Engagement team.

As part of the school commitment to engage parent's in their child's learning and development, the FaCE team were created to organise and facilitate opportunities for parents and carers to become fully immersed in the school community.  So far we have organised 'Stay and Play' days, coffee and bacon role mornings, Positive relationship team involving parents, newsletters to give further information regarding what is available in the local area, sport's days, and curriculum overviews from each class.  As a team we want to develop further opportunities to involve parents in the school community.  

Future events planned:

1. Stay and play days.

2. FaCE Newsletter.

3. Reading cafe- trialing from Reception to year 3.

4. Positive Relationships parent group.

5. Parent friendly policies.

6. Clear communication strategy.

Baxter Project

Meet Baxter, our Therapy Dog! He visits every Tuesday to talk to our children who may be going through some emotional times or to increase their wellbeing. The children have one on one time with Baxter and his owner. They have time to chat, play and take him for a little walk. 

Cooking Club

We have been running our cooking club since late September so far we have made, pizzas, cookies and hot chocolates, Halloween Rice Krispie cakes and this week we have learnt the wonder of eggs. We learnt how to make scramble eggs in the microwave, poached eggs on toast and boiled eggs. Next week hopefully we will take some pictures of our cupcakes we are planning to make. 

Lunch Time Snug Club

Some children find the noise and the busyness of the yard at lunchtime very difficult to handle so I offer Lunch Time Snug Club. Any child can attend, some visit regularly and some just pop in if they are having a emotional or hard day. In sung club I offer lego based therapy, sensory toys, puzzles, board games and arts and crafts. It has been a joy to see children arriving looking upset or nervous and leaving with a smile on their face.