Red Wednesday
Here at St Peter’s our Vision Statement is “Walking hand in hand with God to make our world a better place”.
On Wednesday this week, St Peter’s gathered for class worship to reflect on how we can fully live out school this vision in the words of our mission statement (below) to use our gifts to make the world a better place. Wednesday 24th November was Red Wednesday, inviting us to stand for faith and freedom for all people all around the world. This is when we can support the global Church and make our own choices to stand up for the rights of our sisters and brothers, no matter who they are or where they are from. We all deserve to be valued and respected, and we can all participate together to make this change.
At St Peter’s we work to live out the mission of our vision with a full Mission Statement of “Walking hand in hand with God, loving Him, loving each other and loving ourselves, doing the best with the gifts He gave us to make our world a better place”.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
Advent and Christmas
As we prepare for the season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas, see below a list of events coming up over the final 3 weeks of term. Sadly, we will not be able to host as many parents as carers to some of these events as we did in the past, but we will be able to do so more than was the case in December 2020.
Advent and Christmas services:
Tuesday 30 November, Years 3 – 6 Advent Service at Church. 10:00am (We will be asking for parent volunteer walkers between 9:00am and 12:00 midday.)
Thursday 2 December, EYFS Nativity 9:30am
Friday 3 December, EYFS Nativity 1:30pm
Tuesday 7 December, Year 2 Christmas Liturgy 10:00am and 1:30pm
Wednesday 8 December, Year 1 Nativity 1:30pm
Thursday 9 December, Year 1 Nativity 9:30am
Tuesday 14 December, St Peter’s Carol Service at Church, 6:30pm
Thursday 16 December, school pupils’ Christmas Liturgy.
Christmas events:
Friday 10 December, Christmas Jumper Day*
Friday 10 December, Year 3 & 4 Friends of St Peter’s Party 4:30pm – 6:00pm
Friday 10 December, Year 5 & 6 Friends of St Peter’s Party 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Saturday 11 December, Years R, 1 & 2 Friends of St Peter’s ‘Breakfast with Santa’
Monday 13 December, EYFS and Key Stage 1 Christmas Lunch
Tuesday 14 December, Key Stage 2 Christmas Lunch
Wednesday 15th December, Panto performances
*Donations to ‘Love Christmas’ themed care packages – details to follow.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
Cowplain Remembrance Window – Honouring our fallen
St Peter’s Catholic Primary School supported our local Coop Funeralcare office with a wonderful Remembrance display. Pupils from year 6 created the beautiful poppies that were cascading down the outside of the window. Out of lots of small crosses the children also created a wonderful large cross, which looks so poignant and so effective.
During the Second World War Blitz, 930 people were killed in Portsmouth, 2,837 were injured and over 6,000 properties were destroyed. The pupils decided that it would be a lovely idea to make memory stones for each person that lost their life in Portsmouth during the Blitz. They painstakingly painted 930 stones and on Wednesday 10th at 11.00 o’clock a group of 10 pupils handed out their memory stones to the community in Cowplain.
Also, some of the children wrote Remembrance poems, which were made into scrolls ready to hand out with their memory stones. A selection of these were read out during the event. Remembrance Day gives people the chance to remember those who fought and lost their lives during the war and to honour their memory. It makes sure that we never forget the past, and those who died didn’t die in vain. With fewer and fewer living survivors, it’s even more important than ever to remember the sacrifices these people made for our freedom. Teaching our children about the importance of Remembrance Day will keep the memories of these brave individuals alive now and in the future.
I would like to personally thank Mrs Pearson, St Peter’s art teacher, and Mrs Jackie Duthie at the Coop Funeralcare Cowplain, for all their hard work and support in organising and creating such a wonderful display.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
We will remember them.
Ever-living God,
We remember those whom you have gathered
from the storm of war into the peace of your presence;
may that same peace calm our fears, bring justice to all peoples,
and establish harmony among the nations.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
With thanks to our Art subject leader Mrs Pearson and Year 6
for our Remembrance display in the prayer garden.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
A happy harvest haul
The pupils, families and staff of St Peter’s rose to the call for a harvest donation with typical generosity and enthusiasm. Enormous thanks to you all for the generous donations pictured here, which have formed the centrepiece for our harvest worships, and which will be donated to the Waterlooville foodbank over half term.
With our best wishes to all families for a restful and autumnal half-term holiday.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
School Uniform Mass
It was great to join with pupils from a host of local schools to celebrate Mass on Sunday morning 10th October 2021.
As a belated way of marking Education Sunday, children of the parish of Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle, St Edmund’s, and other local parishes, were invited to attend Mass in their school uniform. This was a great show of strength with perhaps the largest congregation since the pandemic began.
As well as providing pupils and students to read the bidding prayers and scripture readings, pupils from Year 5 at St Peter’s and Key Stage 3 at Oaklands also produced sunflower artwork for the offertory procession.
I must thank Fr Jeremy for hosting us in celebrating this Mass, and the lay Chaplain at Oaklands Miss Jessica Heath for bringing together the artwork, readers and music for the Mass, which we hope will become an annual event each October.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
Harvest Appeal 2021
Dear Parents and Carers
We know that the last 19 months have been tough for everyone during the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic. We also know that for some vulnerable members of our communities, the challenges of the pandemic simply added further to difficult situations that they were already facing. For many, these struggles and challenges will only get worse in the coming winter months.
One way that St Peter’s would like to offer assistance to our community neighbours who find themselves in these situations is to donate tinned, packet, dried and long-life food to our local foodbank. We would like this October to have a harvest appeal for donations of as many of the above products as families are able to provide. It would be greatly appreciated if donations could be brought into school over the first 2 weeks of October so that we can prepare a harvest donation display for our children to see, and to serve as a focal point for assemblies before half term. We will then pass all donations onto the Waterlooville foodbank for distribution over the coming months.
With great thanks and best wishes to all families
Mr Cunningham and the St Peter’s staff team.
Going back in time…
This week has seen a welcome return to Deep Learning Days with Year 5 experiencing a World War II evacuee day. Dressed in suitable period costume, pupils learnt bout the experiences of child evacuees during the second war, and had a suitably 1940s lunch (including sprouts!) served to them.
…and even further back in time.
Also this week, the Year 3 classes visited Butser Ancient Farm in Clanfield to learn about the lives of prehistoric people. It is startling to think that as a result of the pandemic this was the first school trip of any significance that these children have experienced at St Peter’s.
Thanks go to the staff and parent volunteers who were able to make these events and trips happen – and here’s to many more to come. Please check the year group websites for photos of these wonderful learning experiences.
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher
Celebrating a new school year
Headteacher
Settling in well
As you can see from these photos, the Year R pupils who began full days of learning this Thursday have settled in extremely well to the St Peter’s family.
The good weather this week has allowed for lots of outdoor learning, with the children making the very best use of our refurbished garden area. The climbing frames and outdoor equipment have been very popular, with great sharing of the resources between the children.
A full day at school certainly works up an appetite, with school lunches on ‘fishy Friday’ going down really well today.
These Reception learners, just like the rest of us, have certainly earnt a restful weekend, so that they can do it all again next week!
Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher