At last, we are able to take full groups of pupils to the Horizon Leisure Centre in Waterlooville for swimming lessons again after the lifting of Covid restrictions.  Pupils in Year 5 will each have 6 one-hour swimming lessons to either build water confidence, improve technique, or refine skills dependent upon their swimming starting points.  As you would expect, all of this takes place under the guidance of the great swimming instructors at Horizon.

As well as this excellent opportunity to develop a vital life skill, the children also get to experience that traditional weekly competition – will it be the boys or the girls that win the race to get changed first each week?!

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

The pupils’ return to school this week reflected a range of emotions.  The joy of seeing friends, that lament of holidays being over, the shock of dark early mornings, and the relief of a return to routines.  It was always the plan to mark the Feats of the Epiphany on Friday with a school worship to conclude the Christmas season; this week, however, we added liturgies to mark the life and death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  As a community, we reflected in our Epiphany worship on how we looked to both Benedict, and his successor Pope Francis, as a guiding light for our journey of faith on earth in the same way that the Magi followed the star to the stable.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

As this autumn term draws to a close and the season of Advent leads us rapidly and relentlessly to Christmas, the St Peter’s school community once again showed generosity of spirit in donating treats for the Love Christmas campaign.  Children were invited to wear Christmas jumpers to school, with a request to bring in treats which could be shared with families in the local community for whom the festive season may not be overflowing with festive goodies to enjoy at home.

Pictured here are some of our Junior Chaplains who gave up their time to gather and sort the many items that were donated to school on Christmas jumper day.

Thank you to everyone who donated and so helped St Peter’s reach out to our neighbours and friends in need this Christmas.

From all of the staff at St Peter’s, we wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

It’s Nativity play time again, and here at St Peter’s we are back in full flow after cancellations, recordings, live link-up and audience limits over 2020 and 2022.  Pictured here is a very excited Year 1 cast in their dress rehearsal for ‘Everyone loves a baby!’, and Year R, after just 12 weeks of full-time school, put on a lovely Nativity play for their proud parents, carers and families.

Pupils in Year 2 celebrated an Advent liturgy with their families, which drew upon Bible readings and saw children and adults making pledges to celebrate Christmas in the true fashion.  In the coming week, at 6:30pm on Tuesday 13 December, St Peter’s will celebrate its Carol Service in the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle.  All parishioners are warmly invited to join this celebratory event with the school community.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

On Tuesday this week 350 pupils from Years 1 to 6 trooped to Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle church in the crisp November air to celebrate St Peter’s annual Advent Service.  Beautiful singing, wonderful reading and emotive acting brought the service, and the season of Advent, to life for the school community.

Fr Jeremy and Fr James provided a wonderful dialogue which took the pupils from car repair manuals to the Bible message of Christmas.

Thanks go especially to the many family adults who volunteered to walk with the pupils to and from the church, and to the school staff who bring so much to the children at St Peter’s to nurture their faith.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Mrs Pearson, Art Lead at St Peter’s, led a group of pupils in a specialist workshop focused on print designs with the help of a specialist local company.

The pupils were able to take the whole process through from initial ideas to draft designs to finished products, shown here on display in school.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

My Wow Work Wall is filling up with brilliant pieces of learning from children in all year groups throughout the school from this first term.

There is still space for more to come from the children … which I expect will have an Advent and Christmas theme from here on in!

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Thank you to our librarian Mrs Porter who has produced our remembrance display for this year.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Pupils in Years 3 to 6 gathered on 1^st November for a liturgy in celebration of the Feast of All Saints.  The Sermon on the Mount was read out by pupils who then went on to explain how these saintly virtues may look in our everyday lives.  We have worked hard this year to bring the lives and examples of the Saints into a real-world context for our pupils.

A key feature of this has been the introduction of a House System at St Peter’s, with each House named after a Saint; St Teresa of Calcutta, St John Paul II, St Oscar Romero and St Elizabeth Hesselblad.  Each of these Saints from the twentieth century lived lives of service and devotion from which we at school can draw teaching and examples as we work with the saints of tomorrow – our pupil learners.

This week has been quieter in school, but noisier in the Botley area, as Year 6 have been away on their annual week-long residential at Fairthorne Manor.

In what has been glorious autumnal sunshine for the most part, the pupils have enjoyed a great range of outdoor activities, here for example using pioneering skills to build a swing that was so strong even Mr Land and myself got to have a go (after the pupils, of course!).  Hop over to the Year 6 blog for more detailed updates on their adventures this week – all that I need to add is my thanks to the colleagues who have led both the Year 6 trip, and the recent Year 5 residential trips to the Sustainability Centre, which are reported on the Year 5 blog.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher