It was a joy to welcome Fr Daniel Agber from St Edmund’s parish in Horndean to celebrate a liturgy with the pupils in Year 1.

In this Year of St Joseph, the children told us all about the qualities and strengths of Joseph, billing him quite rightly as a ‘superhero’ in the life of Jesus.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Thank you to all the staff who enabled the Year 4 not-camping camp to take place on Friday 2 July.

As you will see from the pictures below, there were lots of field activities, sports, challenges and craft on offer.

All of these were followed by fish and chip supper, then marshmallows and stories around the campfire before heading off home for a good night’s sleep (not under canvas!)

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Tuesday 29th June saw the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, which of course in school we celebrate as our patronal feast day.  Normally we would have a whole school mass, but yet again Covid put paid to that.  Instead, Year 4 were able to celebrate mass together (sadly without parents) and Fr Jeremy used his homily to find out all about St Peter – he was bowled over by how much the pupils knew of the life of our school’s patron saint.

Meanwhile our pupil chaplains, under the direction of Mrs Farrell the lay chaplain from Oaklands and Mrs Moore on the St Peter’s staff, put together an amazing Liturgy which was recorded and watched by the rest of the school so that a sense of community in worship was felt throughout the school.

And of course, as is traditional, it was ice lollies for pudding for everyone at lunchtime as a special feast day treat.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Well done to all of the pupils at St Peter’s for an amazing carnival this afternoon.  Our whole school celebration was the culmination of brilliant curriculum learning by staff, amazing art by Mrs Pearson, and the support of all you families for supplying costumes of every colour of the rainbow and more.  Special thanks go to Mrs Edge, our Geography lead, for coordinating the learning and carnival.

We were able to hold our carnival as it was an outdoor event, and we kept each year group bubble separate as you can see from this photo.  It is a great shame that we were not able to host families for this event, so do please look at the Year group blogs to see more detailed news and pictures from Mexico (Year R), Antarctica (Year 1), Kenya (Year 2), China (Year 3), Australia (Year 4), India (Year 5), and Brazil (Year 6).

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

The onset of good weather and summer term 2 has enabled us to run our traditional, and our once in a while, sporting events.

Fitting into the latter category, to coincide with the belated start of the Euro 2020 football tournament, St Peter’s hosted its very own Euro Football day.  In the Year 5-6 combined tournament, congratulations go to the England team that beat Germany in the final on penalties (first time for everything!), whilst Year 4 congratulations go to the Italy team who beat England.  The Year 3 final is still to take place (due to fixture congestion), but Germany will face Italy next week during the Key Stage 2 Sports day.  Great thanks go to Mr Land for organising the tournament, and to all the staff who refereed matches over the day.

And speaking of Sports Days, we were able to host this for Years R, 1 and 2 this week after a fallow year in 2020.  Our brilliant CM Sports staff (https://www.cm-sports.co.uk/) set up all the competitions, so the teaching staff were able to support and encourage our young sportspeople in place of families who were not able to attend due to current Covid restrictions.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

It was a true delight to be able to celebrate Mass at school for the first time in 2021 this week.

Pupils in Year 5 gathered, sadly without being able to be joined by families, and welcomed Fr Mark Whiting from the Hayling Island parish of St Patrick’s.  Making use of the Unity Building, as you will see below, we were able to be together as a year group in a really friendly and unified setting for worship.  The theme of the Mass remained on the recent feast of Pentecost, and how children can go forth to spread the word of God thorough the way that they live their lives every day at home, in school and throughout the community.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Pupils at St Peter’s have been taking part in the Royal Mail “Heroes” stamp design competition during their recent art lessons.  A sample of their work has been displayed in the hall and is pictured here.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

These past 2 weeks at St Peter’s have seen the welcome return of year group liturgies.  Sadly, we are not yet able to host families to join in with our worships and celebrations, but we have been delighted to welcome our parish priests into school once again.  The Year 3 liturgy centred on Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He loves us. Pupils reflected on the importance of looking out for their friends, and how they can all be friends of Jesus, showing love for children near and far in God’s world.  Fr Jeremey brought the wonders of the world to life in his homily by showing children a collection of textiles and a multi-coloured stole made in different countries, and shared his favourite vestment which pictures children from every corner of the globe.

Year 2 meanwhile celebrated their liturgy with the theme of Pentecost, marking it as the birthday of the Church.  And, as with any birthday celebration, there were balloons, banners and party games during the liturgy, in this case pass the parcel.  As each layer was unwrapped, a different gift of the Holy Spirit was revealed and shared with the children.

What a joy to have this type of worship and celebration back in school once again, and we can’t wait for the day when we can host family guests to give praise with us.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Recently, pupils of all ages in St Peter’s undertook a deep-learning week with a focus on Diversity.  As part of their multi-cultural learning, pupils’ art lessons gave opportunities to show their understanding of a range of world faiths.  Our youngest children in Year R learnt about the Hindu festival of Holi and performed their own dance with coloured paint.  Year 1 pupils designed Islamic prayer mats, Year 2 their own Hindu Rangoli patterns, and Year 3 created stained glass windows designs using symbols from the Jewish faith.  Year 4 made dioramas (small models) to show Sikh Gurdwaras, whilst children in Year 5 created stunning art contrasting darkness and light to represent the power and significance of Good Friday.  Year 6 pupils learnt about the significance of the word Shalom in the Jewish faith and created art to symbolise its importance.  The results of their work are show in these 2 incredible displays in school.

Thank you to Miss Honeywell for leading the Diversity Week, and to Mrs Pearson for yet more astounding art work with the pupils.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Even within our year group bubbles, we are seeing a return to normal and taking every chance to share important information with our pupils for their personal and social development.  In the past week, pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 had separate socially distanced (no mosh-pit as you will see below!) mini-concerts and a promotional presentation from staff who work for Hampshire Music Service.  Information has been sent home to the relevant year groups giving details of opportunities for pupils to learn musical instruments in bands from next September.

At the same time, we have also made use of Lee Haywood, our cyber-safety adviser, to speak to pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 about the potential risks and useful safety steps that can be taken when gaming on-line.  Lee is a wealth of knowledge who, as he runs his own local cyber-safety company, is able to stay up to date with the latest developments and get that message to schools in our district very quickly indeed.  He also keeps an eye on local on-line trends, as what is popular in some places does not necessarily pose a risk in other areas depending on what young app users and gamers get into.  Lee led his year group discussions without the use of a PowerPoint or any devices, enabling him to be really responsive to what the children were telling him they were using for on-line gamin and entertaining.  He also gave his presentation outside as our 2 hall spaces were being used for concerts and assemblies, meaning he could speak to groups at a distance in the fresh air and keep it all Covid secure.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher