The staff and pupils at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School wish you all a Happy Easter.

Once again this year the pupils and families of St Peter’s have rallied to donate Easter Eggs to Stella Maris to pass onto international seafarers who will be in Portsmouth and Southampton at Easter. 

Pictured here behind well over 250 chocolate eggs are Mr Cunningham, Headteacher, Annabelle, Noah and Blossom, and Patrick Binks.  Patrick visits ships in Portsmouth through his work for Stella Maris, and will be one of several people who will deliver these seasonal treats along with faith materials to seafarers who themselves are far from home and family this Easter. 

Thank to everyone who donated Easter Eggs, and who trusted me to keep them all untouched in my office until they were collected!

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Well done to all of the staff (pictured above) and pupils at St Peter’s for joining in with World Book Day on Thursday 7th March 2024. We are proud to be a school that continues to promote reading, with weekly library lessons, regular opportunities for pupils to borrow books to read at home, and daily class novel readings by teachers.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

The 60 children in our two Reception Classes had a great day of outdoor learning this week thanks to Portsmouth Forest School.  Using our large school field, different learning stations were set up for the children to experience an alternative curriculum.  

The girls and boys made pine cone bird feeders using lard and seeds, wooden necklaces and nature art, and even toasted marshmallows on a real camp fire.  To add to the outdoors feel, all the recent rain meant that the field was really pretty muddy and squelchy in places, so wellies were definitely the order of the day for the children.  Thankfully the rain held off, and a great learning time was had by all.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Well done to all the pupils at St Peter’s on their excellent attendance between September ands December 2023. Not only are we in the top 10% of English Primary Schools for attendance in the autumn term, but at 96.4% attendance, St Peter’s is currently 1.8% above the national average attendance rate for the school year to date.

Thank you to all parents and carers for your commitment to the school and to your children’s education, progress and development at St Peter’s.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

St  Peter’s Easter Egg collection for Seafarers 2024

Please support the local Stella Maris Easter Egg Appeal by donating Easter Egg treats to St Peter’s Catholic Primary School to pass onto seafarers in our local ports over Easter.  Stella Maris, the Catholic charity that supports Seafarers, is planning to give chocolate treats to crew aboard ships in ports along the south coast over Easter. There will be many hundreds of seafarers passing through our ports and far away from home this Easter. It can be a very lonely time for them.

St Peter’s Catholic Primary School has once again this year committed to supporting the Port Chaplains in asking for any chocolate Easter Egg donations. Please give your gifts to the school office, or ask your child to pass an Easter Egg to their teacher, by Monday 18^th March, and the Southampton, Fawley and Portsmouth Port Chaplains will deliver your treats to the ships.  Thank you for any generous donations you are able to offer.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

A thought from Pope Francis for Lent

 Fast from hurting words and say kind words 

 Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude 

 Fast from anger and be filled with patience 

 Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope 

 Fast from worries and trust in God 

 Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity 

 Fast from pressures and be prayerful 

 Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy 

 Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others 

 Fast from grudges and be reconciled 

 Fast from words and be silent so you can listen

Our Monday worship on 5 February took all three readings from the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time.  Typically, our whole school worships tend to focus solely on the Sunday Gospel, but last week was an exception.  The pupils were given a brief account of Job’s life, focusing on his unhappiness when faced with misfortune, before moving onto Mark’s Gospel where Jesus makes better Simon’s mother-in-law.  The perplexing point for the children was that although Jesus had made many people better that day, and so took them out of unhappiness like Job, Jesus decided to move on to preach in other towns of Galilee.  And, when reading St Paul’s letter to the Corinthians in the Second Reading, it is this preaching of the Good News that he feels obliged to do with no option but to share the joy. 

The children were then reminded that when facing challenges like Job, they can put their faith in the Lord for comfort and strength, before going on to spread the Good News of God’s love like St Paul.  (Please note, all this was achieved with 430 children aged 4 to 11 in a Monday morning worship by 9:25 am – quite a start to the week!). 

We at St Peter’s are now all ready for a well-earned half-term break.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

St Peter’s has just launched its “2024 – Waste No More” initiative.  Following ideas raised by the pupils in our School Council, and echoed by members of staff, we are working to cut down our use of resources and energy, and be more efficient with the materials that we have.  As well as reducing waste and helping the planet, this campaign will bring the bonus of cutting costs and saving the school money which can be spent on the pupils. 

As an example, Felt-tip pens will not be ordered any more for classroom or club use – only colouring pencils or crayons which have a longer life and do not leave plastic waste after use.  Pupils and staff will be encouraged to use fewer paper towels, and make better use of scrap-paper and unused sections of exercise books to reduce our paper consumption.  Shortly we will take delivery of new photocopier-printers in school, having negotiated both a cheaper contract and secured machines that are more efficient and are made from recycled plastic.  Staff will also have recycling points for glass jars, as we get through a lot of coffee on a typical school day, and steps will be taken to add reinforced covers to new books we purchase so that they literally have a longer shelf life.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

After the busy schedule of December and all that the season of Advent brings to a primary school, the start of January has seen us settle back into a calmer school life. Part of this return to ‘Ordinary Time’ in the second half of the month has been the return to Liturgies and Masses at school rather than Nativity Plays and Carols Services.

Pictured here is Fr James Lewis celebrating Mass with Years 3 and 4 and their families this week in school.

Fr James admitted to the pupils that Priests aren’t perfect (no mention was made of Headteachers at this point in his homily though) and that on occasions we admit that there are some people we like less than others, choosing instead to spend more time with those we do have common interests with. Using the example of the Good Samaritan, Fr James encouraged us all to try to spend a little more time with those of whom we may be less fond, learning about them and learning to love them as a way of living a Christian life.

Last week the pupils in Year R celebrated their first Year Group Liturgy with Fr Jeremy. A theme of Creation saw the 4 and 5 year old children retell the story of Creation in words and pictures, with a live piece of artwork created by the children during the Gospel reading. As always, my thanks go to Mrs Semple, Oaklands’ Lay Chaplain, for preparing our worships, to Fr Jeremy and James for celebrating with us, and to the families who join us in school as part of the St Peter’s community.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher