Very well done to the Year 5 Prayer Garden team.  On Thursday, 12 pupils from Year 5 took part in a Dragons’ Den style competition to bid for a grant to create our new prayer garden.  The plan is to create a space for worship, reflection and religious teaching in the middle of the school, using the L-shaped courtyard, so that our faith can be seen as visibly central to our community.  The high quality presentation secured a £400 grant for our project.

The presenting team was just a selection of the excellent pupil work that has gone into this project in recent months, led by Mrs Turner and Mrs Edge, and comprising a much larger group of children.  The presentation will be made in the summer term to Governors and the Friends of St Peter’s to boost the funds, and we hope to present to parishes at the end of weekend masses in due course.

All the pupils involved in the project were celebrated in front of the whole school during assembly this morning, and we look forward to seeing the project come to fruition.

The Year 5 Prayer Garden Team Presenting

Bishop Phillip providing valuable feedback

The Team, the Bishop and the cheque!

And, as spring starts to appear, some memories of a snowy school from March 2018

The courtyard where the Year 5 plan to create our Prayer Garden

The Year R garden

Too snowy for climbing and sliding!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Year 2 provided the spiritual highlight of the week with a calming and reflective liturgy on their Lenten promises. Through Scripture readings and acting, the pupils reminded us of how Jesus resisted the temptations of the Devil before beginning his public ministry. After the children shared some of their Lenten promises, the adults were invited to commit a promise of their own to paper. Amazingly, with over 60 children and about the same number of adults in the room, the Year 2 pupils gave us 25 minutes of prayer, song and worship which served as a peaceful oasis in the midst of a busy week. Well done and thank you to all of the pupils and staff involved.

This week has been especially busy for the younger pupils in our school. Year R trekked off to Staunton Country Park Farm, and managed to come back without any extra animals or too much mud. Extra animals, you ask? Well, the population of Year R grew by 9 this week with the annual hatching of the chicks. A selection of pupils from Year 1 took part in a locally organised racquet skills competition with other primary schools, and lobbed, volleyed and smashed their way to first place. Well done! Year 2 had two great curriculum enrichment visits in the form of guest speakers: Mrs Sumba from Year 3 spoke to the pupils about her experiences in Kenya to help with their ‘Where in the world?’ topic, and the Head of History from Oaklands, Mrs Cunningham, spoke to the pupils about what makes for good historical enquiry and writing when she gave the pupils feedback on their Titanic diaries.

I will sign off, however, by reserving judgement on whether it will be a Happy St Patrick’s Day this weekend until I see how the English rugby team get on at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Our Lenten journey continued this week as Mrs Knight led Monday Worship focusing on how important it is to stand up for something that is right. Using the Gospel reading of Jesus clearing the traders in the Temple, the children reflected on how to respect what is special and treasured in the world. Even though we may feel that we are only standing up in a small way, combined efforts can lead to big results. This message was followed through in my assembly on Friday when the pupils had a sneak preview of their art work on our murals from the life of Christ. More news to follow on these as the next stage of the project develops.

To take the shock off working a full week this week (where did that snow go?), the whole school spent Friday afternoon enjoying an amazing ‘Off by heart’ poetry competition. Several weeks ago, all pupils were given booklets of poems to learn, and then each class and year group conducted heats to pick the best recitals from amongst their peers. This project culminated in a show in which pupils from every single year group performed in front of the whole school, staff and invited guests. It really was a wonderful show, and speaking as one of the judges, it was exceptionally hard to pick the 3 winners from the different age categories. Well done to all the pupils who took part in the heats, and to those who made it to the final, and special congratulations to the age group winners. Three cheers for the staff who performed their own favourite poems (though not off by heart like the children had to!), and of course massive thanks go to Mr Crozier for organising the event.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

This week has come to a premature close due to the adverse weather!  We did really well to have a full school learning day on Thursday 1 March, but alas the snow, ice and safety of our community meant that a Friday emergency closure was needed.

However, we did pack a lot into just 4 days.  On Wednesday, the school choir represented St Peter’s at the Mayor of Havant’s Fair Trade coffee morning at the Church of The Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle.  It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talent in our school, and support a worthwhile cause in the local community.  Thanks to Mrs Knight, Mrs Chapman and Mr Chapman for making the event happen.

Thursday saw World Book Day marked in school with a wonderful range of costumes to show everyone favourite book characters.  A reading marathon was arranged between the classes so that there was no stop reading going on from the start of the day to the earlier end of the day!  Thank you to Mrs Domblides and Mr Crozier for organizing our World Book Day events.  Also, a special thank you to Mrs Gray and the catering team for a Witches inspired lunch.

Finally, may I fully encourage the children to make the best of this snowy weather and be prepared to come in on Monday morning 5 March with plenty of tales about their experiences and adventures over this longer wintry weekend.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher