St Peter’s reached the end of the autumn term 2020 still working hard to maintain the traditions of Christmas.  This week the children in Year 2 celebrated a Christmas liturgy, and pupils from Key Stage 2 joined forces to produce an on-line version of our usual Christmas carol service.  Meanwhile, having watched a CAFOD Christmas Assembly that was shared nationwide, our pupils produced their own candles with messages of hope to show the optimism that can be had, even in 2020, when we look to the Light of the World in Jesus Christ.  A display of their work is shown here.

In other news, we did uphold 2 other essential festive traditions in St Peter’s.  Performing to just one year group at a time with the classes seated separately, 2 actors from the Treehouse Theatre Company were able to stage a pantomime for all of our children.  The Elves and the Shoemaker, staged 7 times in 2 days, proved a wonderful end of term treat.  And thankfully, over 2 days (madly the same 2 days as the panto!) Mrs Gray and the amazing catering team laid on Christmas lunch with all the trimmings and a lot of cake for the children.

Thank you for all of the support and prayers for the pupils and staff of St Peter’s over 2020 – we wish you all a happy and holy Christmas, and look forward to a successful and prosperous 2021 at school and in the community.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

The special celebrations of Advent are now well underway in school.  The Year 1 pupils, pictured below, performed their wonderful Nativity play which, as is the fashion and necessity this year, will be shared by video to families in due course.

All the pupils in school watched a special Light of Hope assembly from CAFOD this week, and were inspired to produce works of art showing candles with words of hope written on them.  These will be used to make an in-school display, as well as sharing some for display with local community groups.

Three children received special awards for having their Christmas card designs chosen to be used as the official school and parish cards this year.  Well done to Liberty and Marta in Year 6 and Phoebe in Year 4 for their winning designs.  Thank you as ever to Mrs Pearson for organising the art work, and thank you to all of you who were able to purchase your child’s Christmas designs and raise money for the Friends of St Peter’s.

Please remember in your prayers this week 9 pupils from St Peter’s who will be making their First Holy Communion at St Edmund’s Parish in Horndean.  It will be quirky to celebrate a First Holy Communion Mass in during Advent rather than the height of summer, a bit like a winter wedding I guess, but it will be a special day for all of the families involved none the less.

The festive feel will continue next week with Christmas lunches on Monday and Tuesday (thank you Mrs Gray and the catering team as always), a Year 2 Advent Liturgy, and the production of the Key Stage 2 Christmas Service for broadcast on You Tube by the end of term.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

It was a delight to be able to watch our Year R pupils perform their Nativity play this week, all be it under different circumstances this year.  The children did 2 performances, and for each we were able to invite one other year group to be the audience.  It was strange to see the Year R children performing on the stage at one end of the hall, and pupils from Year 1 and then Year 3 seated at the opposite end of the hall with a 6m gulf between performers and audience, but the show must go on.  The second show was recorded, and that will be available for Year R parents to view on-line in due course.  Thanks go as ever to the staff who prepared the Nativity play and the families who provided costumes, and of course well done to the children of the Reception classes for staging such a heart warming show.

The week ended with STEM day for the children, so check out class blogs for images and reports of the Science and Technology investigations that the pupils undertook.

And finally, thank you for all the cans of food that came into school for Christmas jumper day NEXT Friday 11th December – we will continue to take donations over the course of next week and add them to the Christmas tree after an appropriate time.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher