During the week at St Peter’s, the children have welcomed special guests to enhance their learning.

The youngest pupils in the school played host to Fr Jeremy from the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle.  As part of the RE curriculum, Fr Jeremy brought vestments and chalices into school to explain to the children their significance in Mass.  Rather bravely, Fr Jeremy also took questions from the 4 and 5 year old pupils, which ranged from the perceptive to the perplexing!  Thank you Fr Jeremy for helping the children with their learning.

Meanwhile, we had canine company for a recent assembly at St Peter’s.

Havant Borough Council’s Animal Welfare Service team deliver an assembly to help children to learn how to approach dogs with care and caution when out in public, and what to do if they felt worried by a stray dog they may meet outdoors.  Natalie and Jaz from the Borough Council brought along Darcy and Zak as fine doggy models, and many children had the chance for a quick pat of the dogs at the end of the assembly.  Thank you to our local authority for providing the outreach education work.

And that brings to an end a week where we were expecting a new building and lots of snow, neither of which arrived!  Thank you all for your patience and efforts in keeping up to date via parent mail and the school website, we will pass information about the new delivery date for the building as soon as we have it confirmed.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

We continue to monitor the weather forecast. As at 3 pm on Thursday 31st January, we do not plan to close the school on Friday 1st February.

Please make sure that your child comes to school dressed for a cold winter’s day. We recommend wellington boots or stout shoes as well as a warm coat to travel to and from school and for break and lunchtime.

We will keep you informed of any changes.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are carefully monitoring the weather reports this week. Our aim is always to keep the school open whenever possible but the safety of pupils and staff is our priority.

If a decision is made that it is unsafe to open the school for any reason (e.g. snow, boiler breakdown etc.), we will endeavour to advise parents and carers by 7.15 am. Information will be communicated:

1. By email/text on the Scopay communications tool.
2. On the front page of the school website: www.stpeterswaterlooville.co.uk
3. On local Radio Stations (BBC Radio Solent and Wave 105 are the most reliable for this; other stations include Heart South Coast and The Breeze).
4. On the Hampshire County Council Website: www.hants.gov.uk/schoolclosuresEarly afternoon closures:

   If the situation arises that we have to close the school early in the day to ensure that children and staff can get home safely, we will let you know by email/text and also post it on the school website. If your work takes you far from home, please have a contingency plan for someone else to collect your child and advise the school of this arrangement should an early closure be needed.

   Mr R Cunningham
   Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers

The delivery of our new building has been cancelled for Friday 1st February 2019.

The company providing the building, Portakabin Refurbished Ltd, is based in Yorkshire.  This is where the building has been fitted out ready for installation. 

Portakabin have made this decision based on the forecast of poor weather moving across the country overnight, and difficult weather conditions in the north and north west of England, which could make motorway transport of a modular building even more challenging than usual.

Thank you for your help in planning for reduced traffic this Friday.  We will communicate with Portakabin today to rearrange delivery.  We will then let you know as soon as possible when we need to request from you, once again, your kind efforts to limit the number of cars coming onto the school site.

Mr R Cunningham
Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers

On Friday 1st February 2019 we will take delivery of our new building.  This will involve a crane being on site all day, a series of articulated lorries accessing the site during the day, and a fleet of contractor vehicles arriving as well.  All of this vehicle and plant traffic will take up a lot of our car parking space throughout the whole of Friday 1st February.

Because of this, with the exception of vehicles which have a St Peter’s pass for those drivers or pupils with limited mobility or additional needs, there will be no parking spaces on site for parents and carers to leave their cars and drop their children into the south playground in the morning.

For children being dropped off for Breakfast Club or additional provision from 8:00am, car drivers are asked to use the one way route and drop-off walkway alongside the north playground. Extra staff will be on hand to welcome and direct the children into school.

The one way route to the drop-off walkway that runs by the north playground will be opened 10 minutes earlier on that day, at 8:20am, to help ease a possible increase in vehicle use for that option.  For that Friday only, additional staff will be on duty in the north playground to welcome any extra children who would normally wait in the south playground with parents or carers but who instead will be dropped off to the north playground.  Any families that are able to car share and so reduce the number of cars coming into St Peter’s in the morning would be greatly appreciated.

Families who would rather stay with their children on the south playground but normally do this by parking on site are asked to allow plenty of time to be able to park off-site and walk onto St Peter’s grounds.  The timing for the south playground gate will remain between 8:30am and 8:50am as normal.

St Peter’s staff have been asked to car share, use alternative means of transport, park off-site and even offer up their local driveways for colleagues in an effort to reduce the vehicle presence on site as much as possible during the building delivery day.

Collection at 3:15pm will be as normal on foot for all families, with the exception of vehicles which have a St Peter’s pass for those drivers or pupils with limited mobility or additional need.

Families collecting from after-school care at 3:45pm and 4:15pm, and Hip-Hop Club at 4:00pm will need to park off site and access an exit St Peter’s on foot.

I know that these changes will have an impact on families’ travel arrangements for the day, but any possible inconvenience will be long forgotten when the pupils get to enjoy the additional space and facilities that the new building will provide from March 2019 onwards.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Year 5 added to their school experience this week as class 5CW went to Waterlooville Horizon Leisure Centre to begin their swimming lessons. An objective of the National Curriculum is for children to be able to swim 25m by the time they finish the primary phase of their education, and St Peter’s commits to this with lessons for the pupils in the spring term of Year 5.  Making use of trained swimming teachers at the leisure centre, each Year 5 class will have swimming lessons over several weeks to improve their techniques or hit a personal distance goal in the water.  I know that swimming is a popular past time, and the pools in Waterlooville and Havant are very popular with our pupils after school, at weekends and during holiday times.  It was great to note that when I was in the pool last weekend churning out the lengths during my own son’s lesson, I counted 10 other St Peter’s pupils in the water with families or attending lessons – not bad for 9:30am on a cold Saturday morning!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

Happy New Year for 2019 from everyone at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School.

The new term has started at quite a pace, with everyone getting back into a hard working routine from the word go. Year 5 pupils have already taken the first outing of the year with a trip to the Science Centre in Winchester. This visit kicked of their spring term topic of Space, and was enjoyed by all the children. Thank you to the Year 5 staff and parent volunteers who made the trip possible.

Sixth Form students from Oaklands delivered this Friday’s assembly to the whole school. As CAFOD representatives, the students helped out pupils to understand the plight of child migrants across the globe, and how through prayer and charity we can endeavour to improve the lives of those in greatest need. Miss Shaw launched an appeal for our own pupil body to select CAFOD representatives in St Peter’s to further the work we do for that charity.

And finally, ground work has finally begun to prepare for the new building. The modular unit will provide an additional indoor open learning space for our pupils to use as well as the school hall, as well as having a small kitchen for pupil cooking and extra staff work space. We will keep you posted on progress!

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

I am delighted to be able to share with you the totals of our main fundraising efforts this term.

Since September, the children of St Peter’s have raised the following amounts:

Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal £353.18

CAFOD Harvest Appeal £428.79

Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day £277.67

Thank you everyone for the generosity shown to help those in need, reaching a grand total of £1059.64.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher

On Tuesday 4th December, the whole school walked to the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle for our annual Advent Service.  This was a wonderful opportunity to reflect at the very start of the season of Advent the awe and wonder contained within the Christmas story.  Children from every year group took part in leading the service, and the singing of traditional and modern hymns was rousing and uplifting.  Thank you to Fr Jeremy and all who work in the parish for hosting us so warmly, and to the many family volunteers who accompanied the children on foot.

On Wednesday the entire Reception year took to the stage to perform their Nativity play. The Early Years team chose to produce a traditional Nativity play, like the one that you and me had when we were at school! It was a true delight to see children who have been at St Peter’s for only 3 months singing, acting and narrating with such confidence and enjoyment. Great thanks go to all the families who helped the children prepare for the performance, and of course to the wonderful Early Years staff who made it all happen. And of course, very well done indeed to the Year R pupils.

In this coming week ahead, everyone in the St Peter’s community is warmly invited to the Key Stage 2 Carol Service at the Church of The Sacred Heart and St Peter the Apostle on Wednesday 12th December 2018.  The Carol Service begins at 6:00pm and will last for approximately 1 hour.  We look forward to welcoming as many of you there as we can.

Families are asked, where possible, to make use of local car parks in Waterlooville to ease the burden of traffic around the church.  Although the church has a large car park, the more people that are able to park away from the church and make a short walk the better as this is a very popular event.  Possible car parks to use include the free parking at Asda or the Wellington Retail Park by Sainsbury’s; the Waitrose car park is also nearby but does make a charge before 6:00pm.  Please do not park in the residential roads immediately around the church, as local homeowners will need access to their own properties and parking at the end of the working day.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher