The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul
This Sunday is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. We were due to celebrate the feast day of our patron saint on Tuesday 30 June with a Mass for all the pupils in school, and ice lollies for all at lunch time.
Instead, I offer you below words and images from a liturgy prepared for us by Miss Keogh, the school chaplain at Oaklands, that you may wish to use at home on Sunday, or on Tuesday when we would have had our school Mass. I also suggest that, if this weather holds, celebratory ice creams should be the order of the day at home to mark our school’s annual feast day.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
On our great patronal feast, we gather together, both near and far, to celebrate as a school community. May this day and the prayers of Saint Peter draw us closer together, even though we are apart. We pray that our school community will be greatly blessed on this day and we will all be filled with joy!
We bring all our prayers to our loving Father, who loves and cares for us.
We pray for the Pope, who follows in the footsteps of St Peter to share the Good News with the world. May Pope Francis always be filled with the Holy Spirit and lead us closer to Jesus.
Lord in Your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
We pray for the whole Catholic Church across the world, which St Peter built through his mission from Jesus. We pray that the Catholic Church will always bring love and the joy of the Gospel to the world.
Lord in Your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
We pray for our school community, that as we celebrate the feast of St Peter, we will be filled with joy. May we be brave to follow Jesus just like St Peter did. May we be filled with hope for when we can all be together again.
Lord in Your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
We pray for all those who are sick and suffering, and for those who have died, especially those who have been affected by the coronavirus. We pray for those who are still alone and those who are afraid.
Lord in Your mercy, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
Lord Jesus, You chose St Peter to take the Good News to the world and to build Your Church. May we, as members of Your Church and the great family of God, always share the Gospel, seek to do good and love everyone as You taught us to. Hear all our prayers, which we make through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Edging back to normality in our churches?
As usual, please see below the links to Ten:Ten for their Sunday Liturgy and daily prayers. In school, we have no collective worship as year groups or the whole school for pupils who are in, but each day this week between 110 and 170 pupils have enjoyed ‘pod’ worship in their classrooms.
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/sunday-liturgy-for-families/
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/homeprayer-2020-06-22/
The national change from the start of this week, though, is that local churches have been able to reopen for private prayer. The Catholic churches in our Pastoral Area are open as follows, but do check individual church websites and newsletters to be sure of daily details before setting out just in case.
Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle, Waterlooville: Every day from 9am – 12 noon and from 4 – 7pm
St Edmund’s, Horndean: Every day from 10.30am-12 noon and from 5pm-7pm
St Michael and All Angels, Leigh Park: Every day from 8.30am-4.30pm
St Joseph’s, Havant: Every day from 10.30am-6pm
St Patrick’s, Hayling Island: Mon, Tues, Fri from 11am-1pm; Thursday from 11am-1pm and 4pm-7pm
Please also contact individual parishes for details such as how the church building may be accessed, and any local health and hygiene requirements they may have in place.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
EAL Bronze Award
We are delighted to announce that St Peter’s has been recognised for its work with children for whom English is an additional language. The school has achieved a Bronze level EAL Excellence Award from EMTAS – the Ethnic Minority and Traveller Achievement Service. We have proven that we meet best practice standards across a range of areas and that the provision for pupils learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) is supportive and enables good progress. Congratulations especially to Miss Atkins who coordinated our EAL work with pupils and worked with EMTAS to achieve this recognition, and who is already well underway in her work to achieve the Silver level award.
As usual now, here are the weekly links to a Sunday Liturgy and daily prayers from the team at Ten:Ten.
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/sunday-liturgy-for-families/
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/daily-prayers-for-home/
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
A new kind of “sort-of” normal
At last, with great excitement and a huge amount of preparation, St Peter’s was able to open its doors more widely to pupils on Monday 1st June.
During the first week after the half-term break, pupils in Year R (aged 4-5), Year 1 (aged 5-6) and Year 6 (aged 10-11) were able to come into school, along with continued provision for the children of key workers and vulnerable children. It was no mean feat to get the school ready, with classrooms rearranged, one way walking systems in place, staggered timings and locations for arrival, pick-up, break times and lunch times, and all this in a setting that was thoroughly deep cleaned from top to bottom in time for the first arrivals.
Meeting the government guidance for a return to school on Monday 1st June has meant that we have used every classroom in the school and member of staff available in order to accommodate just 3 of our 7 year groups along with key worker and vulnerable children. At the same time, we are maintaining a deep cleaning schedule of all rooms in the school over the course of the week so that parents, pupils and staff can have confidence that we are doing all we can to maintain a safe and hygienic setting for them. The staff at St Peter’s are continuing to set learning on-line for children to do at home, and those children who are able to come into school complete those tasks in classrooms of no more than 15 pupils. Plenty of time is also spent outside (what luck this wonderful recent weather) for PE and games lessons, as well as other outdoor learning opportunities covering science, maths and creative subjects.
Whilst it was wonderful to see the children return with smiles (but not hugs!) this week, we are keeping in contact with the pupils in those year groups not yet nominated by the government to return to school even on a partial basis. Phone calls home from their class teachers continue, and we know that through a range of technology (mostly their parents’ devices) the children are keeping in regular contact with their friends from school. In the coming week we will also put into action discussions that have been going on in the Leadership Team about how we can refresh home learning physical resources for children who have completed exercise books over April and May.
So school life enters a new dimension at St Peter’s, once again, and the only thing of which we are sure is that more changes will be on the way for us to handle before we approach anything like a school routine that could be considered normal! We continue to put the children and their welfare at the heart of everything we do, be they in school or at home, and ask for your prayers for the whole school community, pupils, staff and families, at St Peter’s.
As ever, please find links to the Ten:Ten worship resources for this Sunday and the coming week:
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/sunday-liturgy-for-families/
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/primary-subscription/prayers-for-home/homeprayer-2020-06-08/
Please don’t forget to keep sending in a picture of your child’s work each week to the class e-mail address (listed below) and colleagues will reply with a praise phrase for your child, as well as the art blog.
With every best wish to you all, and your extended families wherever they may be.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
The class e-mail addresses are as follows:
Seahorseclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Deacon – Year R)
Starfishclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Conlon – Year R)
Turtleclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Jonas & Mrs Knight – Year 1)
Pufferfishclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Layton – Year 1)
Giraffeclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Osborne & Mrs Sumba – Year 2)
Elephantclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Foote – Year 2)
Hippoclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Shaw – Year 3)
Lionclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Pike & Mrs Atkins – Year 3)
Koalaclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Jackson-Nash – Year 4)
Kangarooclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Honeywell – Year 4)
Cassowaryclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mrs Edge – Year 5)
Kookaburraclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Miss Stapley & Mr Crozier – Year 5)
Penguinclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mr Land – Year 6)
Sealclass@stpeterswaterlooville.hants.sch.uk (Mr Pratley – Year 6)
If your child has art work to show and share that can be done by sending it directly to Mrs Pearson for inclusion on the amazing art blog.