Okay, so I have to admit that Christmas is on its way, and nowhere more so than here at St Peter’s.  As I have worked in my office this week, I have heard the regular rehearsals in the hall of Year R singing away for their nativity play called ‘Christmas with the Aliens’ and Year 1 and 2 belting out the songs for their nativity performance ‘Christmas Counts’.  These are special events which live long in the memory of the children and their families alike, so if you are fortunate enough to be able to come to see any of the performances, prepare to be dazzled.  As I mentioned in a much earlier blog, I am conscious that not everyone is able to attend such performances due to work commitments, but remember that you do support your children wonderfully well by the preparation and encouragement you give in providing costumes, rehearsing lines, and listening to song practices again, and again, and again!

Not to be left out, our Key Stage 2 children have their Carol Service on Tuesday evening 6th December at 6:00pm at Sacred Heart Church.  I took the decision to use the parish church so that we had a space big enough to host a large number of people in one go and in quite some comfort.  Although this is principally an event for Key Stage 2 children and their families, please do not feel that younger siblings need to stay away, we just did not want to make families feel obliged to keep littler ones up if they are starting to tire at the end of term having done their own performances in the daytimes.  Everyone will be warmly welcomed, and having heard the music rehearsals today from my office, it is sure to set the right mood of anticipation and joy for the season of Advent.

The St Peter’s community will also take the opportunity of the school Advent service on Tuesday to bid a proper and thankful farewell to Fr Kevin Bidgood, as he will be moving to St Francis’ Parish in Ascot in the New Year.  We are all grateful for the faith, prayer and joy that he has brought into our school during his time as Parish Priest in Waterlooville.  We wish him well in his new parish, and look forward to some good tips for Royal Ascot in June!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

If you have already read my introduction to the November newsletter, you will know that I am quite particular on distinguishing Advent and Christmas.  I almost enjoy the build up, anticipation and preparation for Christmas as much as the great festival itself.  To mark the start of Advent in school, Patrick and Isobel Flynn, our local CAFOD representatives, gave a wonderful assembly on how CAFOD World Gifts make a telling difference to the lives of those in need around the world.  The children were able to clearly see how even the smallest of donations can add up to a gift which can improve the lives of the poor, the needy and those seeking refuge from war and persecution.  CAFOD World Gift catalogues will be coming home in children’s bags should you wish to make personal purchases as part of your Christmas shopping.  Alternatively, the web-link for CAFOD World Gifts is

https://worldgifts.cafod.org.uk/

Children have also been asked, if possible, to bring in just a few pennies each so that class groups can try to raise enough money for a small gift which we will purchase through the school.  We are not asking for large sums of money, so please don’t break the bank, but if there is a change jar that the children can tap in to, then all contributions will be gladly received.

I must also thank the many colleagues and parent helpers who have taken children out on trips this week in all types of weather!  The support of the St Peter’s community is always valuable in adding to the education we provide for the children.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

My time this week has been dominated by pupil progress meetings.  Myself and my senior leadership team have spent time with each class teacher analysing the progress made by children to date and, more significantly, ways in which that progress in learning can continue and accelerate over the remainder of the academic year.  This is a valuable exercise which works in complement with the recent parents’ evenings to ensure that each pupil has their school performance carefully monitored.  What the meetings have revealed to me is just how well the class teachers know your children, and the depth with which my teaching colleagues understand the strengths and needs of individual children in their class.  I felt privileged and humbled to be working alongside such strong professionals who commit each day to the education and well being of our pupils, and am looking forward to the next round of meetings in February 2017.

I will admit, though, that I had to slip out of one such meeting to take part in some ‘hot seating’ with the children in Year 2, an experience which proved to me that in a school there is no such thing as an ordinary day.  Having spent 15 minutes being interviewed as George ‘The Smartest Giant in Town’ (a modern classic story book by the simply brilliant Julia Donaldson), I was returning to my office with just one shoe on and my tie undone (now you have to read the book!) when I saw Year 5 pupils in the hall taking part in a PE lesson of fencing! Yes, fencing!  This reinforced to me the richness of the education the children at St Peter’s receive, and I must offer thanks to all of my colleagues who go the extra mile for the learning of our pupils, your children.

And so to the weekend; if the England batsmen are still in the game in India when the England rugby players take to the Twickenham turf against Fiji at 2:30 on Saturday, I will be amazed!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Today, 11th November 2016, marks Armistice Day, and I know that many St Peter’s pupils will be taking part in Remembrance events with parishes, voluntary organisations and clubs on Sunday to complement the Service of Remembrance we held here in school today.  Thanks go to Mrs Luter for the organisation of the service and especially to Mrs Knight and a Year 6 pupil who sounded the Last Post, making a great impression upon our pupils.  I used my whole school worship at the start of the week to launch our Royal British Legion fundraising in school, and given the amazing demand that led to us running out of all our poppies and related merchandise, I have requested double rations next year!  Thank you to all of the pupils who have contributed in any way to the fundraising in support of the Royal British Legion.

In keeping with remembrance, I know that many of you will have been keeping in your prayers this week the family of our Year 6 pupil involved in the traffic accident last Thursday 3rd November.  I am please to be able to inform you that the pupil, surrounded by family, cards and gifts, is making a very good recovery through the expert care of the great medical teams at Southampton General Hospital.  I have been asked by the parents to thank the St Peter’s community for their support and kindness during such a challenging week, and I was able to inform the family that Bishop Philip, whom I met today, has remembered the family in his prayers this week.  Thank you all.

Finally, and sticking with remembering the important messages of life, the children this week all had the opportunity to watch a theatrical presentation called ‘The Power of One’ to reinforce the anti-bullying message that is so important in the successful and harmonious existence of a large community.  Teasing and bullying can occur in any organisation, be that an adult workplace as well as a children’s school, so we at St Peter’s will work hard to prevent its occurrence.  However, where it may occur, children and families need to be reminded that reporting it to staff promptly is the correct thing to do, and we will work as hard as we can towards reconciliation and education for the benefit of our pupils.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

This week at St Peter’s has been dominated by one event which took just seconds to occur but which had a significant impact for one family in particular, and the whole St Peter’s community.  As many of you will be aware, a pupil from Year 6 had a bicycle accident on the way to school on Thursday morning which also involved a car.  Swift and caring action by members of the public, an outstanding response from the full emergency services team, and brilliant care by the medical staff in the specialist paediatric unit at Southampton General Hospital all resulted in the pupil receiving the immediate treatment so urgently needed at every stage.  However, all of these efforts would have been in vain had the pupil not been wearing a cycle helmet.  Without that piece of kit, the outcome to Thursday morning’s event is likely to have been gravely different.  I ask you all, please, to reinforce to all of your families and friends who cycle to please wear helmets.  They do save lives.  One saved the life of our year 6 pupil!

Our prayers are with the pupil and the family, and the St Peter’s community will rally round in the way it does to offer comfort, friendship and support during what will be a long process of recovery.  Please keep the family in your prayers this weekend and beyond.

I wish you all an enjoyable weekend, with safe enjoyment of an organised public firework display on Saturday if you can drag yourselves away from Strictly!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Where have the last seven weeks gone?  The time since the early days of September has really flown by, and so much has been achieved by the pupils and staff at St Peter’s school that it is wonder to think how it all gets fitted in!

This last week has been no exception, and I am getting used to the fact that primary school pupils just never stop!  So, in the last 6 days, Year 2 pupils walked to Waterlooville to undertake History field work, Years 3 and 4 walked to The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and St Peter the Apostle to celebrate Mass, all the children in Years 1 to 6 had an assembly with representatives of the NSPCC, with pupils in Years 5 and 6 following these up with a dedicated hour long workshop per class, some pupils from Year 1 went with Mrs Evans to take part in a Tri-Golf festival at Horndean Technology College, and a selection of pupils from Year 2 were taken by Mrs Spicer to a football Festival at Southdowns College.  How the whole school then had enough energy to embrace the brilliant activities of 6C day I do not know, but congratulations go to the children in Year R who began the 6C day by joining in their first whole school assembly.  The pupils have certainly deserved a well earned half term rest, and I must thank all of the staff who work in any capacity at St Peter’s for making so many wonderful opportunities available to the children every single day.

I mentioned in the October Newsletter http://www.stpeterswaterlooville.co.uk/index.php/letters/newsletters/995-newsletter-october-2016/file that the school community said farewell to Mrs Diane Price after over decade of service.  I am delighted to be able to inform you that Mrs Patricia Pelling will be taking up post as the Pastoral Leader and Parent Support Worker from Monday 31st October 2016.  Mrs Pelling has a career history based in primary education and educational psychology, and will bring to the role a great range of very strong skills and attributes.  In due course she will make arrangements to introduce herself to the members of St Peter’s community, and I am sure that she will be extended the same warm welcome that I myself enjoyed in September.

I do hope that all the children and their families are able to take the opportunity of the half term break to have a well earned rest and spend some quality time in each others company, and are ready return to school at 8:50 am on Tuesday 1st November.

Enjoy the holiday!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Another busy week has flown by at St Peter’s, and autumn now seems to be encroaching upon us.

The children amazed me this week with just how well they conducted themselves for our fire drill on Thursday.  Our new site manager Mr Chapman was very impressed with how silent, sensible and well behaved the children were as they evacuated the buildings in two minutes flat and were gathered in alphabetical class lines on the field just four minutes after the test alarm sounded.  Well done to everyone!

Deacon Mark from Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle joined Year 2 to celebrate a wonderful liturgy on the topic of Creation, and it was great to see a hall packed with children’s extended families.  I know that it is not easy for parents and carers to attend events during the working day when professional and other family commitments need to be met, so please do not forget the many other ways that you already support your children in these activities by practicing their readings, preparing props or costumes and asking about how it went at the end of the day.  We can’t always be everywhere we are needed, but I know that your children and our school really benefit from your on-going support in a range of ways.

Onto more serious matters, I am mindful of a worrying new ‘craze’ that has migrated to these shores from America around people dressing as clowns to scare others.  The link below is designed to reassure you and your children that the distasteful acts are taken seriously by the authorities, and anything which may take place which upsets your children should be immediately reported.

https://www.hampshirealert.co.uk/da/157595/Statement_on_clown_craze.html

Furthermore, the internet has been the vehicle for spreading the clown ‘craze’, and the link below takes you to two films from a project completed at the Spring Arts Centre in Havant in September.  The films are pitched at Key Stages 1 and 2, and give a useful stimulus to age appropriate discussions with your children about staying safe on-line.  I also think that the Key Stage 2 film has a look about it that makes it appropriate for students in Years 7 and 8, so if you have older children they too could watch and discuss.

http://thespring.co.uk/news/keeping-safe-online-schools-project

Mr Austin will run an e-safety workshop at 2:30pm on Thursday 10th November for parents and carers, and another will follow shortly afterwards at a late afternoon / early evening time (see comments above on the pressures of combining work commitments and school events!).  More details of these will be shared in the newsletter and via parent mail.

With my best wishes for a restful weekend

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

This week has seen the pupils of St Peter’s go the extra mile to ‘Brighten up the Harvest’ as part of the year’s CAFOD harvest fundraising campaign.

The children dressed up brightly on Thursday to raise money for CAFOD and bring a wave of red, white and blue colour throughout the school, combining fundraising with our American theme day when they enjoyed some state-side treats served in the canteen.  The pupils were delighted with an indulgent lunch and a great selection of donuts for a very special treat, so my thanks go to Mrs Gray and her team for working so hard to serve such a lunch to the children.  The bright clothing raised over £360 for CAFOD, so thank you to the parents and carers who funded this across the school.

The fundraising continued on Friday with a Year 5 cake sale (motivated in part by the masses of goodies left over from the recent Runway’s End trip!) taking place under the sharp supervision of Mrs Edge, Mrs Moore and Miss Rayson, raising over £130.  To balance out the calories, not that children count them!, pupils in Year 6 ran afternoon outdoor activities and challenges that children in other year groups could take part in, and Mrs Turner’s and Miss Stapley’s classes raised over £100.  Well done to all of the children who took part.

To make sure that the children knew exactly what they were raising all the money for, we were lucky enough to have an assembly presented to the children by Patrick and Isobel Flynn representing CAFOD.  With the aid of garden tools, an overflowing vegetable trug and a box of worms, Patrick and Isobel helped the children to understand the importance of supporting our sisters and brothers in Bolivia as part of this autumn’s CAFOD harvest campaign.  http://cafod.org.uk/

Not to be left behind, and thanks to the efforts of Mrs Luter, the staff at St Peter’s have also raised over £80 for Macmillan nurses through the coffee (and cake!) mornings, which in truth lasted over 5 days in the staff room!

So, in the space of just a week, St Peter’s has raised over £670 for good causes in the UK and abroad; a true demonstration of faith, compassion and commitment towards those in need.  Thank you to all who contributed in any way to these campaigns.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

This week started with a special event made possible by the generosity of the Friends of St Peter’s.  I was lucky enough to be joined by our guest of honour Mrs Daley, a grandparent helper who has been listening to children read at St Peter’s for over 15 years, and Mrs Woolhead representing the Friends of St Peter’s, for the official opening of St Peter’s Secret Garden.  The refurbishment of what was The Mary Garden was half funded by the Friends of St Peter’s, and we now have an exciting and vibrant outdoor learning space.  The children of Year 1 joined us to cheer the official opening party as the ribbon was cut, and then were keen for us all to clear out of the way so that they could get stuck into the learning activities prepared for them by Mrs Osborne and Miss Shaw.  The new garden also shows the importance of supporting the Friends of St Peter’s in their school fundraising projects; please see the September newsletter for urgent information on keeping this valuable body going over this school year.

What, then, of the Mary Garden, you may ask?  I have decided that I want our outdoor places of spirituality and reflection to be positioned in the very heart of the school, representing how the St Peter’s community holds their faith in Christ at the centre of all that we do.  To that end, over the winter plans will be drawn up to devote spaces in the central courtyard garden to areas for prayer, worship, reflection and spiritual teaching.  More news on that project as it develops and then takes shape in the spring and summer.

As a younger man in my student days I back-packed around America, trekked in the Nepalese Himalaya and scrambled all over the French Alps.  In my teaching career, I have taken part in and led trips to Berlin, Santander, Paris, the Loire and Iceland, helping teenagers to discover the joy of travel and the fun of adventurous pursuits.  It was only with this pedigree, therefore, that I felt brave enough to take on the greatest challenge thus far: 2 nights away with Year 5 at Runways End!  What a superb adventurous training facility Hampshire County Council has, and our Year 5 children were so lucky to be able to experiment with new outdoor pursuits and take on new challenges to push themselves to the limit (mine being caving, which took some courage for me to take part in!).  So once again, massive thanks go to all the staff who stayed away from home, arranged the trip paperwork and provided the transport for the Year 5 trip.

With my very best wishes for a restful weekend (with Europe retaining the Ryder Cup if you are a golf fan),

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

As I write this blog, the children are enjoying as much outside time as possible in this wonderful, crisp and clear late summer sunshine.  Please be sure to keep a check on outdoor clothing the children may have so that they are well prepared for any turn in the weather that may be around the corner!

Surely the greatest beneficiaries of this wonderful weather have been our Year 6 adventurers who have spent the week at Stubbington Outdoor Centre.  I was lucky enough to join them on Tuesday evening where, upon my arrival, I found them all working hard on their journals!  We all had a nature talk from a friend of the Outdoor Centre who showed slides of his own animal photographs taken over many years, and then after supper we crept into hides to watch foxes and badgers feeding at very close quarters!  Aside of this, the children have completed activity courses, built animal hotels and visited the beach, all making for a fantastic week away.  Watch out for exciting updates on the Year 6 Blog.  Great thanks goes to all the colleagues who have put amazing work into organising and running the trip; more than most they deserve a restful weekend!

At the other end of the age spectrum, we hosted our first of three Open Mornings for prospective Year R families looking to start with us in September 2017.  Details of the next two Open Mornings in October and November are on the school website home page, and we are also making plans for an Open Evening to welcome families who cannot get out of work commitments to visit the school during the teaching day.  If you know of any families who would like to visit, do please pass on the details.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher