St Piran's Magazine

The Millstone

Headmaster’s Introduction Contents

Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. At the end of the 2021-22 academic year we celebrated the courage shown by our staff, governors, parents; but most of all our pupils. We continue to applaud every one of them and the hope they bring to us all for the here, the now and the future.

In a year when we saw a return to so many more of our in-school events, visits, residentials, and we welcomed visitors through our doors again, it is now time to showcase St Piran’s and the energy and life behind our gates which we are all so proud of. Join me in enjoying some of the highlights of our year in this edition of The Millstone.

Head Boy and Head Girl

OUR HEAD GIRL THIS YEAR IS LANA WOLFENDEN AND OUR HEAD BOY IS HARRY BARK-JONES.

Harry’s recollections of his time at St Piran’s.

St Piran’s School’s motto is ‘Inspiring Confidence’ and during my 8 years here, I have certainly grown in confidence, both academically and personally, through the many great experiences and opportunities that the school has given me.

St Piran’s is excellent at giving everyone a chance to perform, from playing the piano at music concerts to singing as part of the Chapel Choir. My acting career started on a high with the role of Joseph in the Reception nativity play, but I was soon demoted to a lowly shepherd in the Year 1 production of ‘The Christmas X Factor’ and a further demotion in Year 2, to a camel! Things improved in Year 3 when I played Gary Barlow in the Middle School Spring Presentation of ‘Back to the Future’ and performed a Take That song with my other band members! It was great fun. But nothing beats performing with the rest of Year 6 at the amazing end of year production. Dressing up is not my favourite thing to do but over the years, I have been a French man, a Mexican, an Egyptian, Harry Potter, a Disney character and Where’s Wally, to name but a few!

Further confidence builders are the school and residential trips. I have good memories of the tractor ride at Odds Farm in Nursery, watching penguins at Marwell Zoo in Reception and visiting Windsor Castle in Year 2, avoiding the tourist cameras who were intrigued by our unusual blazers! Mill on The Brue in Year 4 was a bit daunting as this was my first residential trip, but I thoroughly enjoyed all the activities, especially the zip wire! We have recently had an amazing 5 days at Battisborough House where I loved the surfing and gorge walking. At times, we all had to push ourselves out of our comfort zone, but we all felt a huge sense of achievement having done things which we perhaps wouldn’t normally be brave enough to do.

Over the years I have played in many football, rugby and cricket matches and I was lucky enough to play in the regional hockey tournaments in Year 4 and Year 6. We are so lucky here to be able to swim at a young age. When I started in Nursery, I couldn’t swim and I was very nervous of the water. I remember wearing as many buoyancy aids as I could fit on, but gradually, I gained the confidence to swim independently and unaided. Once I had mastered how to swim above the water I even made it into swim squad in Year 3. Mrs Burnage always said that all St Piran’s children leave Year 6 as independent, confident swimmers and she was most definitely right.

I have really enjoyed my role as Head Boy and the experiences that the role brings. It has taught me a lot about leadership, responsibility and of course, it has given me confidence.

Lana reflects on her years at St Piran’s. There are of course many happy memories and incredible opportunities this school has given me, and I will always look back at my time here with great fondness. It has, without a doubt, prepared me in the best possible way for the next chapter in my life. One of my earliest memories of St Piran’s goes right back to before I was even a pupil here when I was 4. I used to come here with my mum to drop my older brother off and at first, I couldn’t wait to get away, but over the next couple of years, I found myself not wanting to leave so quickly. I enjoyed watching the early risers play tennis on the astro, hearing the laughter around the millstone and seeing everyone quickly disperse to where they needed to be. The teachers would give me a friendly smile and wave and so by the time Year 3 came and it was my turn to join St Piran’s I couldn’t wait to follow in my brother’s footsteps.

Some of my favourite moments have to be from our brilliant school productions. Who could forget our ‘Back to the Future’ production? Where we enjoyed music from different eras and my own class transformed into 1950s rock and rollers and jived to the rendition of Peggy Sue. After missing out on our Year 4 production, this year’s X Factory leavers’ production totally made up for it and we’ve had so much fun taking part front and backstage. My time here has really helped me come out of my shell. I remember doing my first piano performance and feeling so nervous but was gently encouraged from the side. Despite the sticky fingers, I made it to the end! And I used to get struck with fear every time I saw a list of maths questions to complete but Mrs Bailey made it fun and helped me get my rock legend status in Year 4. Although I may not have gained much extra height since then, I have certainly gained the courage to overcome challenges, with help from special teachers every step of the way.

And let’s not forget the online learning which now seems like a distant memory. Nothing beats being in school with teachers and friends, but Mr Sales and the teachers did the most fantastic job delivering school into our homes during Covid. I’m sure a lot of us will forever remember Mr Barker’s infamous wake up and shake ups and I personally have great memories of Mrs Bersier’s ‘insane kitchen beat’ tasks where we had to make instruments from vegetables!

I must also mention the fabulous sports. It’s been incredible to play, watch and learn amongst some brilliant sports people and I’ve been lucky to share some great successes along the way too… like the hockey tournaments at Hall Grove and St Edward’s, winning the IAPS gymnastics competition and reaching the National Trampoline finals. There have been

like sub-zero temperatures or questioned some of the rules in cricket, but it’s been these sporting experiences that have taught me resilience and given me confidence but most importantly where I’ve seen us cheer and support each other …. whether we’re winning or losing.

The last year has been a whirlwind of excitement and activities…. and I have loved every second of all the opportunities the school continues to provide for us. We’ve had inspirational themed assemblies, carol services, clan music competitions, theatre trips and a surprise Legoland trip. And of course, St Piran’s day where I was delighted that my clan, East, FINALLLY won the Millstone race: I couldn’t have been prouder, and it was a lot of fun to share the victory with the younger children.

And what a way to end the year with being able to share an amazing week with friends at the residential in Devon. We had so much fun climbing, coasteering and camping under the stars. Thank you to all the teachers for making this such an unforgettable experience!

Wow, what a journey we have had! We’ve shared many moments of fun, laughter and worry here and there but I am so fortunate to have shared it with such a fantastic year group. To Mr Sales and the teachers, thank you for believing in a timid, sometimes clumsy and over excitable girl. It’s been an absolute privilege.

Introducing our leaders! St Piran's

Year 6 are our best ambassadors for St Piran’s and role models to all other pupils. We choose a leadership position for each one of them at the start of the year which reflects their skills and strengths. They always rise to the challenge, fulfilling their new roles and learning along the way. It is always a proud moment to appoint them in our red carpet assembly.

PREFECTS (BOYS)

Charlie Jagger

Will Chambers

Balraj Dhinsa

Soren Chambers

Ethan Currie

PREFECTS (GIRLS)

Lilly-Rose Holmes

Katie Bulgin

Carolina Jeronimo

Maisie Capel

Maya Sandal

BOYS’ SPORT CAPTAINS

Anirudh Premkumar

Charlie Jagger

Harri Walker

Oscar Owens

GIRLS’ SPORT CAPTAINS

Lily Edmonds

Milla Savidge

Lilly-Rose Holmes

Katie Bulgin

Emily Bulgin

SWIM CAPTAINS

Joshua Greenough

Grace Mallalue

Remi Spencer-Jones

Eliza Cannon

DIGITAL LEADERS

Aadi Batta

Sebastian Harrison

Dylan Reiz

Remi Spencer-Jones

Carolina Jeronimo

Anirudh Premkumar

PEER MENTORS

Rhoderic Parker

Finley Woodland

Ethan Currie

Balraj Dhinsa

Thomas Hocking

Karol Pietrusinski

Rupert Davies-Carr

Maya Panesar

Ria Singh

Grace Mallalue

Mathilde Vacher

Maya Sandal

Maisie Capel

ECO COUNCIL

William Hicks

Ethan Currie

Rory MacDonald

LEARNING COUNCIL

Zain Rashid

Riya Srinivas

Karol Pietrusinski

SAFETY COUNCIL

Anna Ayling

Rupert Davies-Carr

Dylan Dev

WELLBEING COUNCIL

Sohan Singh

Isabella Sales

Nia Petersen

EAST CLAN LEADERS

Lana Wolfenden

Eliza Cannon

Finley Woodland

Thomas Tudor-Morgan

NORTH CLAN LEADERS

Sam Buckley-Souki

Siddharth Raj Krishnamurthy

Emily Bulgin

Annabel Gaselee

SOUTH CLAN LEADERS

Lily Edmonds

Riya Srinivas

Jason Moir

Simon Bradley

WEST CLAN LEADERS

Jake Richmond

Soren Chambers

Alyssa Cretegny

Teniola Alabi

HEAD OF CHAPEL CHOIR

Lyla Foulds

HEAD OF ORCHESTRA

Teniola Alabi

HEAD CHAPEL MONITOR

Archie Rotundo

CHAPEL MONITORS

Jacob Hourd

Oscar Owens

Damien Adams

Anna Ayling

Maisie Capel

Maya Sandal

Maya Panesar

LRC/AR LEADERS

Alyssa Cretegny

Lyla Foulds

Damien Adams

George Fergusson

Thomas Hocking

TTRS LEADERS

6B Joshua Greenough

6C Harry Bark-Jones

6G Balraj Dhinsa

SCIENCE LEADERS

Filippo De Dominicis

William Chambers

Aarav Batta

Jacob Hourd

ART LEADERS

Aadi Batta

Ria Singh

George Fergusson

DRAMA LEADERS

Isabella Sales

Ria Lucking

Olive Dev

Peer Mentors

Distinctive in their purple hats, our Year 6 Peer Mentors successfully completed their training in December and were excited to start supporting our younger pupils at playtime during the Easter Term. Drawing on teamwork and engagement, their skills make our Peer Mentors a friendly face and a welcome presence on the playground.

Christmas Term

designed by Talia Cretegny

Year 5 head to Osmington Bay

A residential week kicked started our term and Dorset warmly welcomed us with beautiful blue skies!

Fun with activities such as Aeroball and Buggy Building followed by an exhilarating game of “ambush” around the PGL site fostered team work and collaboration on our first day.

A day at Durdle Door meant we were treated to an outdoor geology lesson from Mrs Bambridge. We explored Lulworth cove and in the afternoon, we all aimed arrows in archery and donned our harnesses for the climbing wall. Trying rifle shooting, giant swing and trapeze gave us the chance for new experiences and a day trip to Weymouth is not complete without a visit to the beach and an ice cream! Sand World had some amazing sculptures to explore and try

Greetings from Osmington Bay Wish

Life Skills Week

Through real world experiences, workshops, plus hands-on and face-to-face group work, the week for Year 6 in September engages each individual, helping to prepare for their last year with us and equipping them with skills which will open doors to the next stage of their lives.

Dinosaurs at school!

An encounter with a real dinosaur, Reggie Rex, gave Year 1 children a great deal to talk about! All as part of a visit from the Travelling Natural History Museum, they made cast fossils and met various animatronic dinosaurs as part of their ‘Once Upon a Time’ topic, learning all about palaeontologists, fossils, and dinosaurs.

Friendship Week

A highlight for PSHE this term was Friendship Week with the theme #OneKindWord.

Throughout the school we discovered the power of words and how positive words can be uplifting and so good for our mental health. It was a pleasure to see the children write positive words on their token frisbee and then pass them to each other - a visual representation of passing kind words to each other.

ONE KIND WORD CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

Being aware of others and showing kindness and empathy is an important quality we aim to instil in our children. Supporting charities, both national and local, throughout the school year, brings into sharp focus how we can help those who are less fortunate than ourselves. At harvest time and at Christmas, we help out local charity The Link Foundation. Food donations came flooding in for the charity, and for local foodbank, One Can Trust, at our harvest celebrations and there were many kind donations of unwrapped toys for the charity to pass on to needy children in December. A collection at the end of our Carol Service raised £449.35.

We got our sparkles out for Children in Need this year and Pudsey took centre stage for our non-uniform day raising £620.

Remembrance

Throughout the school, classes created wreaths in honour of Remembrance Day for our Head Boy and Girl to lay in Chapel.

Our children showed respect and empathy at this time of year when we pause to reflect. Our Prefects chose to create purple poppies, showing their commitment to the significance of the poppy. One of our parents came in to talk to the Nursery children about his job as a soldier.

Historical Highlights

As usual it has been a busy period historically speaking, with trips out to Ufton Court to see what the Tudors got up to, and a Roman day, and a day spent looking at objects that were around during the Great Fire of London. Object handing is always instructive and interesting and gives children a flavour of the types of things that people used in the past, whether a Roman oil lamp or a palaeolithic hand axe hundreds of thousands of years old.

Year 2 were taken back to London in 1666 in their London Then and Now topic and learned so much from their fabulous History Off The Page Great Fire of London day.

Roman Day guided Year 3 through life in Roman times and helped us to create some super craft items, all whilst learning about the Roman period. Thank you to all our wonderful parent helpers, too!

Year 4 topped off their topic learning on Tudors with an interactive and thoughtprovoking visit to Ufton Court.

Roman Day

Roman Day

Tudors

Tudors

Tudors

The stage is set!

Developing speech and language skills, confidence to perform, encouraging self-belief and creativity; pupils are keen to have a go and express themselves in many ways in our drama department engaging in their learning with such energy. It was a busy term setting the foundations for some fantastic drama and performance this year!

Year 6 pupils delighted us with their dedication to the novel ‘War Horse’ through dramatic medium, practical exploration, poetry and accelerated creative writing. This term has offered many thematic and theatre learning opportunities, especially with the process of adapting the novel to the stage; the art of puppetry; the history of World War One, and the horse and its essential role in human civilisation.

Supporting our Year 5 pupils to develop their spoken language and listening skills, this term’s studied novel was ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. Lessons contained much to challenge and inspire the mind, offering an exploration of the key themes, events and characters in the book, utilising a range of drama-based exercises and group discussion.

Using the novel ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ as the stimulus, Year 4 delivered some exciting exploration into character, improvisation, devising and ensemble work during the term. It’s been incredible to introduce Year 3 to the wonderful world of creative drama this term. Creative drama is an improvisational, non-exhibitional, process-oriented form of drama, where participants are guided to imagine, enact, and reflect on experiences real and imagined. This term, many of the learning styles and higher order thinking skills have been utilised in a creative drama lesson… and it’s FUN!

Real World Geography!

Learning beyond the classroom is of vital importance and helps the children to make sense of geography in the real world. A flooding workshop, run by Professor Sarah Dance from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading gave Year 6 the chance to try a virtual reality flood experience, learning about flood barriers on a flood simulation table, looking at satellite data, using a thermal imaging camera and trying to be crowned champion at Rivers Top Trumps!

We think Father Christmas enjoyed his school lunch with Mr Sales!

Grotto Greetings!

We were very surprised to find the woods looked like the North Pole with a special visitor waiting for us! Father Christmas read us a lovely story and answered our questions while some of our older children interviewed the big man himself.

Early Years played lots of Christmas based games, had lots of festive stories and had a visit from some Kindness Elves.

Christmas all wrapped up

The children enjoyed some long-awaited Christmas activities, including the wonderful pantomime at South Hill Park, a magical Christmas afternoon with ‘smores and hot chocolate, and the Christmas parties with the inimitable Mr Barker! Early Years were excited to get on a coach to Norden Farm to watch ‘Kipper’s Snowy Day’ while our oldest pupils, including our bell ringers, prepared for the Carol Service at St Luke’s taking some time for reflection.

Christmas lunches came with crackers and hats and we posted cards to each other with our festive greetings. The trees lit up down the drive brought some cheer to our mornings and dark afternoons

Christmas Performances

Sparking snowflakes, cheeky elves and jolly snowmen dazzled the stage with their superb performances as Lower School took to the stage for ‘Santa’s Setbacks’. The children showed bravery, creativity and great dancing skills!

Nursery Butterflies, Nursery Bumble Bees and Reception were able to join together this year and stage the production of ‘The Nativity’. We all learnt new songs, had lines to say and had great fun being on stage. It was wonderful to be able to perform in front of an audience this year and the children shone with confidence. Nursery Caterpillars put on a superb singa-long show that was recorded for their parents to see.

Easter Term

Spring in Early Years

We kickstarted the term with a bang after some motivating and energetic outdoor provision and practice training!

Our shiny new classroom ‘Robins’ has been specifically designed to house our 3-year-olds, whilst our 2-year-olds remain as Caterpillars in White Lodge. All children settled into nursery life quickly, never failing to astound us with their boundless energy and sheer resilience to join in and have fun every day.

January blues were swept away as children and staff across the school arrived dressed in their favourite book character outfits for Book Week! Much fun was had across the department as children shared treasured stories from home and acted out well known narratives.

Children have been out and about on spring watch, looking for blossoming trees, opening bulbs and frogspawn in our school pond. Both Reception and older Nursery children have opted to have frogspawn in their classrooms so they can observe the life-cycle of the frog for themselves.

Reception aged children were treated to a visit to Braywick Nature Reserve where they were able to explore sensory pathways, go pond dipping and toast marshmallows to their hearts content.

As the term came to a close, we were thrilled to be able to invite Mummies or someone special into school to celebrate Mother’s Day. Children welcomed their guests with a hot drink and a delicious pastry, before treating them to some special songs and favourite stories.

We rounded off the end of term sharing the story of Easter and participating in some very exciting Easter egg hunts!

Learning with Technology

Year 3 and 4 children received their 1:1 laptops and have embraced using them across all subject areas and now they are an embedded part of their learning environment, enhancing their skills in new and engaging ways. This year’s Pupil Digital Leaders have been keen to support their peers and IT across the school.

I have enjoyed being a digital leader this year because I helped lots of people and I learnt how to use lots of different programs. I loved using Canva for the Jubilee magazine, and I’ve loved learning how to use Pixton, Kahoot and lots of other exciting programs.

Francesca Norminton (Year 5)

The children have been busy with their learning in IT lessons; creating presentations, sustainable worlds, animated e-books and our Reception children began their coding journey using the Beebots.

focusedInternetSafetyDay on the theme ‘All funandgames?’Children activitiestookpartinmorningandengagedin manyusefuldiscussions throughouttheweek.

Year 2 took their coding to another level with a fabulous Moon Landing Coding

Adventure event led by Jeni Trice, the founder of ‘Get with the Program’. They were whisked away on an adventure to the moon and once they had correctly coded the robot to land on the moon, they had many coding challenges to face with their own rover robot.

“I thought it was great. I loved the robot it was really funny and I learnt lots about coding.” Dexter Douglas (Year 2)

“I loved it so much, it felt like I was actually programming a robot to the moon even though I knew it was a person.” Ophelia Parkes (Year 2)

“It was really fun as we got to imagine going to the moon and being in a tiny space module.” Annabelle Blackwell (Year 2)

Technology is used in most of our lessons as one of our Year 5s explains:

We use Century Tech in maths, science and English for our homework. Spelling Shed in English for our spelling tests and practising our spellings over the week.

We have used Fresh Paint in art to draw our landscape paintings.

In English we used 3D paint to design our own butterfly.

We used Book Creator for our projects. We also used Video Editor in our projects to create our videos. One thing I would like to mention about that is that you cannot create or edit a table in Book Creator.  This was quite important for my project, so I had to copy and paste from Excel.

We used Excel in IT lessons to create our Roller Coaster plan and we also used it in science to do gestation period tables. We also used Power Point in science to present our projects.

Matthew Brown (Year 5)

Our Year 5s have been busy sharpening up their entrepreneural skills by designing and financing their own Theme Park using Microsoft Excel. They have then been able to bring their theme park to life using Minecraft, giving all their friends a tour and allowing them to explore and experience the theme parks as visitors. They thoroughly enjoyed coding using Microsoft Micro:Bits, even coding special celebratory messages for the Queen’s 70th Jubilee.

We’ve used our laptops by doing digital art for art and we particularly liked Excel and Minecraft theme parks in IT and Minecraft Jannah and Janet. We’ve also enjoyed our projects on Book Creator and Spelling Shed to practise our spelling for English. Seterra is another fun activity for geography. MyMaths is fun for maths.

Bella Pizer and Theo Bambridge (Year 5)

Our Year 6s created some fantastic news reports using Adobe Creative Cloud Express, developing their video editing skills. They had to work as a team with specific roles and create a voice over for their news report, focused on an area of climate change. They have thought carefully about an original #GoZero idea and will be submitting their final videos to Sky Studios The Edit competition with the hope of winning some amazing prizes.

Year 3s have learnt many new skills when creating their own Rainforest comic books using Book Creator, adding their own images, audio and videos. They have also loved creating their own interactive maps using Thinglink.

I love using ‘busy things’ in IT. We can learn exciting things about lots of different subjects. I like to help my friends to get onto it, and together we can understand more.

Nathan Cretegny (Year 2)

The anticipated green screen topic in Year 4 was a triumph and the Year 4s relished their opportunity to be budding film creators, using iMovie to create their own movie trailers.

Making a Mural

In March, author and artist, Petr Horacek came to talk to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 about his books and his drawings. The children created animal drawings using oil pastel and these were put together, culminating in a colourful, energetic collage which is now on display in school.

Reception meet the Park Rangers

What a wonderful trip to Braywick Nature Centre Reception had! Ranger Rosie explained to us that we would be using all our senses to explore the nature around us.

Ranger Tom gave us all a pot which we used to collect some herbs and leaves from around the garden to create our very own ‘cocktails’ - we used some thyme, mint and bay leaves.

We stood around a tree in the woods in a circle and closed our eyes to see what we could hear. We heard lots of different birds and even some squirrels hiding in the trees.

Ranger Rosie took us for ‘a walk in the clouds’ which meant we all had a mirror which we placed under our nose; we then looked down into the mirror and walked around whilst looking up at the sky in the mirror. We could see the tall trees and the clouds in the sky.

At the campfire, Ranger Tom showed us how he starts a fire and the special bark you need. It was very exciting to see the fire being lit. We each had a turn using a long stick to toast our marshmallows in the fire.

Mrs Jenkins, Reception Teacher

Castle Crusaders

As part of their topic on knights, Year 2 were fortunate to be able to visit Windsor Castle where they saw the State Apartments, Queen Mary’s Doll’s House and had a Knight’s workshop along with a guided tour of St George’s Chapel.

St Piran’s Day

We can’t forget St Piran’s Day which was celebrated in traditional fashion once more in our black and white clothes, as the Millstone Race took us across the ‘sea’ in our clans, much to the delight of this year’s winners, East clan! Teamwork amongst different year groups was strongly in evidence and it wouldn’t be St Piran’s Day without a traditional Cornish fayre. The menu included Hevva Cake, Cornish Fairings and traditional Cornish Pasties.

Mr Sales and Mrs Taylor, our Chair of Governors,

Book Week Grows Our Imaginations

The children, both at home and in school, enjoyed the opportunity to involve themselves in some special events to mark St Piran’s Book Week, including our fabulous dress-up day! The growth- themed texts focussed on a child’s desire to impact on the natural world around them through rewilding, and on building a sense of community through interacting with nature. Each beautiful story developed children’s knowledge of the importance of plants, trees and flowers to people and wildlife in the local community and engaged children in positive acts of change to support rewilding in their local area.

We delved into workshops, shared booked, enjoyed handwriting, drama and immersed ourselves in a world of imagination in our nature-themed week.

Lower School children went on a magical jungle adventure using their imaginations to act out being an elephant, monkey, and various jungle creatures along the way. They even learned the language of banana! Thanks to ‘Perform’ for delivering such a fun-filled workshop!

We loved this story by Millan Colton in 2Wi

Year 3 chose Fantastic Mr Fox as their Roald Dahl literacy topic and worked on designing book covers, writing stories and letter writing.

Some of the letters written to complain about the farmers!

We began with a fabulous visit from ‘Aesop’s Touring Theatre Company’ who taught Year 3 all about fables with their performance. Year 3 wrote their own versions of ‘The boy who cried wolf’.

As part of World Book Day, Upper School were delighted to spend some time in our outdoor classroom listening to former pupil and author, Ian Young, as he read an extract from his book ‘Cry of the Norwolf’. A wintry January afternoon warranted the lighting of our fire as we gathered outdoors to listen to his story and learn more about his time as a pupil at St Piran’s in the 1980s.

With a new buzz in the air, the English department welcomed Spelling Shed, a unique spelling scheme. Pupils across Years 1 – 6 have loved the motivation and competitive spirit offered by Spelling Shed which has made spellings enjoyable and engaging using the interactive and helpful spelling games.

On Thursday we dressed as our favourite book characters!

We picked up a pen and demonstrated how our handwriting has improved by entering a competition with our neatest writing! This year’s worthy winners were:

Year 1 Winner

Ekrit Singh 1M

Year 1 Highly Commended

Rose Harris 1S

Year 2 Winner

Emma Purcell 2W

Year 2 Highly Commended

Millan Colton 2Wi

Year 3 Winner

Anya Zaman 3KH

Year 3 Highly Commended

Zayyah Wright 3KH

Year 5 Winner

Isabella Pizer 5L

Year 5 Highly Commended

Arian Bajaj 5L

Year 6 Winner

Carolina Jeronimo 6G

Year 6 Highly Commended

William Chambers 6B

Rose Harris 1S

Ekrit Singh 1M

William Chambers 6B

Isabella Pizer 5L

Emma Purcell 2W

Science Week

Science Week allowed Upper School to become engineers for the day, exploring Mars and future rover technology. We had some fantastic rover designs, with children debating the best way to power a rover on Mars.

Year 5 showed great maturity and followed the rules of the lab with a practical half term, finishing with the much-anticipated elephant’s toothpaste. Much mess was made and much fun was had!

We also made slime and tested different ratios of ingredients and its consistency.

Our science Leaders have been busy supporting science around the school and spent the morning with EYFS, planting sunflowers and learning all about materials.

With spring beginning to appear, children gained the opportunity to take responsibility for a wide range of plants, and we looked forward to watching them grow. There were also eggs incubating which we watched with anticipation before chicks arrived in the summer term!

In Science Club, our mini engineers have been making marble rollercoasters and we have seen some complex designs that even the biggest thrill seekers would become queasy on!

Miss Cowley, Head of Science

Year 1 explored the Look Out Discovery Centre

Year 6 challenged their teacher to compete in their wire loop game. She lost!

French Day

All the children participated in a wonderful French Day. A visiting theatre company treated us to an interactive workshop entirely in French and the children joined in with customary enthusiasm!

Upper School children learned about French scientists and presentations.created

Their singing of the Marseillaise in assembly amongst a sea of red, white and blue outfits, costumes and flags nearly took the roof off the St Piran’s Centre! Many of the children bravely sampled the ‘escargots’ and ‘moules’ kindly prepared for them by the catering team, and some even enjoyed them!

All the staff worked incredibly hard to make the day special and memorable.

Ms Lowe, Head of MFL

Middle School Entertain Us

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

A farmyard of animals made their journey to Tippet Hall for Year 3’s performance of Jack and the Beanstalk. How exciting it was to perform on stage to our parents again and show off our talents as well as developing our self-belief and communication skills.

THE GREATEST SHOW!

Year 4’s Easter term was summed up brilliantly by their bright and energetic performance of The Greatest Show. Everyone showed pride, courage and creativity to learn their lines, their songs and their actions and they should be very proud of their achievements.

Summer Term

International Day

Celebrating the diversity of our world and the culture and colours of other nations, Lower School adorned costumes, tried different foods and even learned some salsa moves as part of their International Day.

Jubilee Celebrations

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been our Queen for 70 years – we celebrated the Platinum Jubilee with pride and happiness, and of course a street party!

An abiding image of the term is the delight and anticipation on the faces of children and staff alike as we enjoyed our ice creams at the Jubilee celebrations at St Piran’s. Our fantastic catering team pulled out all the stops to provide us with a feast to share and the street party was a jubilant celebration of togetherness, colour and costume; something that we do so well at St Piran’s.

We collaborated to make a fantastic Jubilee fabric wall hanging for 2022.

And we had our very own photo booth with the Queen!

Two of our pupils had an unforgettable experience in the Queen’s home town of Windsor:

“Me and my sister were invited to have tea with the Mayor in Windsor to celebrate the Jubilee. We were welcomed by the Mayor and the Town Crier and had time to look around the museum in the Guildhall. My favourite exhibit was the very old woolly mammoth tusk. We then went upstairs and made crowns to wear whilst we enjoyed a drink and a special jubilee cupcake. Thank you to the mayor for inviting us, we had a great time!”

Theo Bambridge, 5L

Costumes ranged from red, white and blue to something far more regal!

Early Years celebrated the Queen’s jubilee with art work, treasure hunts and letters written to Her Majesty. They were very excited about the street party lunch and ice cream van visit!

Early Years

Our smallest pupils in Early Years have perhaps grown the most, not only by looking at their measurements to see how tall they have become, but by planting outdoors to watch sunflowers, beans and carrots shoot up too! Much time has been spent in our woodland area noticing the changes around us in nature.

Nursery had an opportunity to nurture some baby animals as the farm came to visit us. The children loved the hands-on approach with the animals. They all wanted to take the baby rabbits home!

Nothing makes our Reception children realise how big they are more than a visit to Bekonscot model village – they were like giants as they spotted the landmarks and little people beneath them! Visiting the shop to spend their money was a hit!

The end of term was busy with Nursery’s pirate party morning, woodland celebrations and splash day fun.

Father’s Day breakfast was a wonderful event and it was lovely to see so many daddies join us for the occasion. There were lots of games played and the children were so proud when showing their dads around their classrooms.

Super Secret Mission….

A treat awaited Year 6 in their last weeks of their time at St Piran’s as they were recruited to a special secret mission! Believing they were practising departure procedures for their forthcoming residential trip, a coach actually whisked them off for a surprise day trip to Legoland! Well done to the parents for keeping the secret! They had a superb day out!

Whata blast!

Nothing brings learning to life quite like a hands-on workshop, and what better way to explore a classic poem than to end ‘The Highwayman’ workshop with historical gun shots and gun powder! Year 6 had a blast with Time Capsule Education exploring Noyes’s poem.

Memories and Memoirs

Past pupils who left before 2000 were invited to return to their prep school for a lunch and tour by some of our best current Year 6 ambassadors, soon to be St Piran’s Alumni themselves. Our team of bell ringers played on the stairs for our visitors and we were treated to a wonderful lunch by our catering team after some nostalgic trips down memory lane as stories were swapped of St Piran’s days past and present.

We had some fantastic feedback from our visitors who thoroughly enjoyed their day with us.

“..such a wonderful day at the Alumni lunch. It was wonderful to catch up with some of my contemporaries…The two guides who showed my group around the school, were wonderful and so enthusiastic and cheerful, especially with old dinosaurs like me telling stories and anecdotes! Please congratulate them.”

“St Piran’s is alive and doing so well! Hope to be back sometime in the future.”

“I just want to write a letter to thank the school for putting on a wonderful school reunion - the food and wine were excellent hotel quality and the guided tour by the very smart and humorous 11 year old tour guides was a hoot, my two friends who accompanied me were also very impressed. I actually thought it was a very cool idea to get some of your pupils to guide us around. Although the school has changed in so many ways since I was a pupil it’s obvious that it is in good hands. Once again many thanks for organising this and even giving us a bag of souvenirs to take home (you guys think of everything)”

Devon delights departing Year 6

ST PIRAN’S YEAR 6 LEAVERS

Destination: Battisborough House, Devon

Outward: 27th June 2022

Return: 1st July 2022

“Making memories to last a lifetime!”

Mill on the Brue 2022

A huge highlight for Year 4 was their residential trip to Mill on the Brue. Throughout their three-day visit to Trendle Farm in Somerset, the children enjoyed a sun-soaked and adrenalin-filled programme of activities.

Zooming down the famed zip line, to hurtling down hills on grass toboggans, the children demonstrated courage, teamwork and perseverance from start to finish.

They enjoyed making their own pizzas in the outdoor oven, became acquainted with the friendly farm animals, and enjoyed the delicious food on offer, all of which was grown on site and locally sourced.

For many, it was their first time away from home and their first experience of such challenging activities like the leap of faith, involving climbing up and launching off an eight-metre-high pole to punch a large, suspended ball in the air.

We could not be prouder of the positivity and resilience that they showed and we hope that this wonderful experience will be one that the children remember for a lifetime.

Year 4 Teachers

The X Factory

Working with creative passion and dedicated motivation, Year 6 achieved the performance of a life time during their leavers’ production. ‘The X Factory’ came to life with our amazing pupils showcasing their talents and passion on and off the stage. As quoted from the show: ‘There’s loads of technology involved in a production, like lighting, sound, video. It goes on!’

Congratulations to all involved for making the production the biggest success!  A new head teacher, Simon Trowel, is appointed head of St Piran’s with the intention of making the school into a breeding ground for young super stars who will one day be on TV reality shows and dominate show business forever!

New ‘super-teachers’ are brought in from the world of ‘show biz reality TV shows’ and include: Will.I.Was, Cherri Cola, Dusty Barrel, Bruno Macaroni and Craig Rebel-Cardboard. Bant and Beck, the northern comic duo, are also appointed as the ‘Superstar Announcers’.

When the staff and pupils decide to fight back, fun and frolics ensue making this an extremely entertaining show for all to enjoy!

Music

It’s been a busy year for the music department this year.

We have run two Chapel Choirs, one for Year 6 and for Year 5, and both have sung beautifully at the weekly Chapel services. We have also seen the inaugural Clan Music Competition, which was hotly contested, with more than 100 children taking part. West were crowned winners in the final held in March. It’s also been a delight to start Informal Concerts, in which any child who wishes to perform is given a platform, and to have the first rehearsals with the St Piran’s Orchestra. Year 2 have had the opportunity to try the violin in their class music lessons and we continue to provide instrumental lessons with our team of peripatetic teachers. We have also had very successful and enjoyable productions across the school with superb singing from all.

Mr Horton, Head of Music

Art & Design

YEAR 1

Year 1 experimented by adding ink and rock salt together. They used this method to add texture to the background of their lovely lighthouses!

YEAR 2

Year 2 had fun producing alien paintings and practised their figure drawing skills to produce Floating in Space drawings. Following on from this, they used wooden dowel, string and paper to make beautiful space mobiles.

Flowers were the theme for the start of the summer term, and the children spent time investigating the visual features of a tulip. They observed the work of Vincent Van Gogh’s sunflowers and made beautiful mixed media images of their own.

We made a variety of exciting creations as part of our learning about London; royal crown portraits, London buses drawings and painting a Royal Guard.

Learning about Andy Warhol and Pop Art, they coloured in photographs of themselves in bright colours to make their own Pop Art Gallery!

Daniel Savitsky

YEAR 3

The Rainforest theme helped to inspire some wonderful, Henri Rousseau

‘Surprised’ collage compositions and pupils used their colour theory understanding to develop beautiful ink paintings of animals found in the rainforest.

YEAR 4

To tie in with their ‘Around the World’ learning Year 4 spent time looking at artists from around the world including Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama and David Hockney. They used a variety of materials and techniques and had fun making their own exciting creations inspired by starry nights, roosters, cartoons, dots and colourful landscapes!

Exploring Egyptians, Year 4 made striking pot paintings and learned about colour blending with watercolours, using these techniques to create impressive scarab beetle paintings. They studied the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, practising their drawing skills and observing his anatomy sketches. The children enjoyed looking at Tudor portraits and costume, using collage materials and their own photographs to make Tudor inspired self-portraits. For the second half of the term, children observed and discussed the imaginative work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo. They used collage and pencil crayons to make fun fruit and vegetable portraits of their own.

Wilfred Palmer

Ella Corbett

Aurelia Hargroves

Max Walker

YEAR 5

Pupils spent time learning about the colourful, expressive landscapes created by the Fauve artists.

Using charcoal and chalk, Year 5 created shell drawings and learned about various printing techniques. They created wave ink drawings and collages in response to The Great Wave painting by Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai.

ISA ART COMPETITION

Pupils from Reception to Year 5 entered artworks into the UK-wide Bee Inspired ISA Art Competition. Well done to Millie Easton who came 1st in her age category.

Mia Littley

Scarlett Pettifer

Millie Easton 5W

YEAR 6

Year 6 began the year quite literally with a ‘Pop’ spending time observing and learning about the Pop Art movement. Their sports shoes developed into large, vibrant acrylic paintings!

Eliza Cannon

Year 6 Kachina Dolls made using empty bottles and paper maché.

The Native American art topic developed their 3D skills and they worked in teams to create life size Totem Poles out of cardboard.

Design Technology

It has been another creative year in Design and Technology at St Piran’s. The highlight for me has been seeing the children embrace our new 3D Printer using CAD/CAM technology. The students have designed and made colourful acrylic clocks, hanging wooden thermometers, bookmarks with circuits, felt monsters, tote bags and notebook covers.

Y5 repeat pattern notebooks

Y5 monsters

Woodwork club has also seen many children flourish in the workshop, gaining new skills and confidence. We made picture frames, toy cars, bug hotels and bird boxes.

In cooking and nutrition, the students have been learning about the importance of a healthy and well-balanced diet. I have really enjoyed and appreciated the many photographs of what the children have been making at home too, and I hope the cooking and baking skills they have learnt will stay with them for many years to come.

Dr Grover, Head of Design Technology

Sport at St Piran’s

This year the children have had the opportunity to perform in a variety of sports and have demonstrated passion and determination when participating. Their performances have been amazing, they have shown a high standard of skill and should be very proud of what they have achieved.

FOOTBALL

All of the boys enjoyed many competitive fixtures and improvements were made throughout the term. We competed in over 50 matches in total after some matches were cancelled due to Covid. A highlight was the U11A team’s performance at the ISFA tournament where they showed great skill and commitment. Year 2 also enjoyed their first competitive football fixtures. Not to be outdone by the boys, the girls have also enjoyed playing football this year and even secured second place in the IAPS girls’ football.

HOCKEY

This Christmas term saw all the girls working hard and developing their hockey skills. Year 3 girls have started their hockey journey strongly and between the 3 teams they have played 23 games and have only lost 2, which is fantastic. Year 4 enjoyed numerous fixtures and tournaments, resulting in all the girls getting a medal. The skill and determination of Year 5 has meant they only lost 2 fixtures out of their 18 this term and they should be very proud of this! The final season of St Piran’s hockey for Year 6 did not disappoint with some fantastic progress made and between all the teams, 80% of matches were won. Our girls came runners-up in the Berkshire County Hockey Tournament, earning silver medals and then in the following regional round they were placed 3rd!

GYMNASTICS

A highlight of the Christmas term was the IAPS gymnastics competition; all the boys and girls performed to such a high standard with superb teamwork and we were so proud of them. U11 girls won the team event! Our U9 boys’ team came 2nd, U10 girls’ team 2nd and we were rewarded with some wonderful individual medal placings.

NETBALL

The girls from Years 3-6 have played over 100 netball matches between them and recorded some excellent results with each team only narrowly losing a couple of games. We had an outstanding achievement in the IAPS netball, finishing as runners up in the regional event and then 3rd at the national finals out of 203 schools all over the country - the highest we have ever finished!

RUGBY

Following a great turn-out for our pre-season rugby training, all of the boys enjoyed many competitive fixtures and improvements were made throughout the term. We competed in over 50 matches in total after some matches were cancelled due to Covid, but a highlight was the U11A team’s performance over the season and especially against Hampton Prep in an exciting back and forth match which we manged to win by a couple of tries.

U8s had a successful tournament, with the As winning all of their group games and drawing the final so St Piran’s and St George’s Weybridge were joint winners.

TRAMPOLINING

We’ve travelled around the country with our trampolining teams this year as they have bounced their way to success. In the BSGA National Trampoline Competition, our teams got through 2 rounds to reach the finals, which took place in Macclesfield on Saturday 12th March.

SPORTS DAY

Sports Day was a great success and luckily we missed the heavy rain! The children all showed great skill and pride in the activities and there was great competitiveness showed in Reception’s sports day, with everyone trying to win and get the most points!

The U11 Boys were placed 3rd and won a fabulous trophy and medals - congratulations to Dylan Dev, Rupert Davies-Carr, Joshua Greenough and Oscar Owens.

Our U11 Novice Girls Teams were placed 6th and 9th in the country –a special well done to Elyssa Sikkens, Milla Savidge, Lily Edmonds, Olive Dev and Lilly-Rose Holmes, Scarlett Pettifer, Lana Wolfenden and Evie Nicholson.

May’s IAPS Trampoline Competition brought us some excellent results again. Up against other competing schools such as Lambrook, Royal Russell, St Faith’s and Millfield Prep, our A teams were in the Cup competition and the B Teams were in the Plate Competition. The girls U9A and B teams came first as well as our U9 boys’ team, along with some great individual medals. The U11B girls came 2nd and U11A girls came 3rd with particular congratulations to Milla Savidge who achieved 2nd place individually out of 57 competitors. The boys gained a first place with their U11B team and 2nd place for the As. This was a fantastic achievement!

Mrs Fricker

The children were fantastic, getting involved with all the activities, with the bouncy obstacle course being a firm favourite! Our parents came to watch and some even had a go throwing javelins!

CRICKET

Our girls’ teams had a successful season with our oldest players achieving second place at the IAPS tournament. The boys U8s have two unbeaten teams and are ever-improving. Those who came to watch will remember the thrilling 1-run win against Holme Grange and our U9C and D teams’ unbeaten season. Also, yet to lose, our U10B team! We’ve made great use of our new MUGA facility and have enjoyed joining together in mixed teams. Well done to all for the effort and improvements made in cricket this year.

SWIMMING

The efforts of the children in their lessons, clubs, Piranhas sessions, galas and biathlons this year has been astounding! Our dominance in the pool is something to be incredibly proud of and continues the St Piran’s legacy as a strong swimming school.

The National Schools Biathlon finals brought us an U11 boys’ team title as well as some respectable 5th places for U9 and U10 boys and a silver medal for our U9 girls. There were excellent individual performances too.

In the Christmas term, out of the 7 galas against schools such as Lambrook, St John’s Beaumont, Davenies, Crosfields and St George’s Windsor, we won 6 and only conceded by 6 points to Crosfields on a narrow defeat. It has made our early morning squad sessions worth it!

Well done to all our pupils who have tried their hardest; gaining a personal best time, a new certificate or even swum a length for the first time – all are worth celebrating and I am delighted with each triumph, whether large or small.

At this year’s Maidenhead Swimarathon in January we collaborated to swim over 1800 lengths in our hour and raised over £1300 for the Lions Club.

Early Years children have had lots of fun working on their stroke development and water confidence and gaining their new certificates while Middle School took part in their exciting inaugural swimming galas at Braywick. Year 5 learned and developed synchronised swimming routines whilst Year 6 took on a new skill learning water polo and we had some excellent water polo workshops from our visitor, Hope Kannor.

worked diligently at their technique, many achieving new levels and almost all children having a go at a length or many more! Our Middle School children have worked hard at swimming in their pyjamas as part of their lifesaving module and many children in Year 4 attended a fun workshop as part of National Drowning Prevention Week.

After school and on Saturdays, many St Piran’s children swim and this adds to the excellent work we do within the school day. In the last few months, we have had galas for Years 2- 6; with mostly wins and only one loss by 2 points, the strength and depths of our squads is demonstrated. We have had placings at all of the Marist biathlons, many Year 5 & 6 boys and girls participating in the national

We had over 40 pupils compete at both the National Modern Biathlon Finals and the National Schools’ Modern Biathlon Finals at Bath University. We have had some excellent individual performances and personal best runs and swims including coming away with bronze team medals in U9 boys and girls and U10 boys and girls - an outstanding achievement!

By the end of the summer term, it is so wonderful to see the numbers of Early Years children who have progressed and are now swimming with reduced aids and renewed confidence. Pupils of all ages have

triathlons as well as the teams and individuals who represented the school at the IAPS swimming national finals at the London Aquatic Centre. Having three medallists as well as so many PBs was a true highlight.

Our Year 6s finished with a wonderful clan water polo tournament! As well as our superb swimming teachers throughout school, I would like to thank my Year 6 swimmers and in particular, my captains this year. Keep swimming!

Miss Holloway, Head of Swimming

Speech Day

It was a great pleasure to welcome our guest of honour, Charlie Walker, to this year’s Prep Speech Day, riding in on his bike! At a time when we must all look to non-fossil fuels to protect our planet, his story is a remarkable one of human endeavour and courage, using human propulsion to navigate this extraordinary world. Charlie has travelled over 50,000 miles by bicycle, foot, horse, raft, ski and dugout canoe. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a 2021 Scientific Exploration Society Explorer Award winner amongst other accolades and his story was one of inspiration and hope to us all.

This was our first Year 6 who have truly been able to lead across the school. From Science and Outdoor leaders working with our youngest pupils, to Peer Mentors on duty at break-times, Sports Captains leading events, Drama Leaders supervising a drop in drama club, Art Leaders championing women in art as part of Art Week, Digital and Social Media Leaders at the cutting edge of technology and a drive to become a Microsoft Showcase School, TTRS & LRC Leaders delivering much coveted awards in assemblies and digital learning pathways, Diversity and DT Leaders looking at the school afresh, Councillors leading our four councils in a new Board Room,

Prefects broadcasting our MET News, Chapel Monitors leading Services and Clan Leaders taking assemblies, they have all taken on their responsibilities

Excellent places at independent and state schools, national finalists in hockey, netball, cricket, gymnastics, trampolining, swimming and girls’ football alongside the highest grammar school pass rate the school has ever known might be easy measures to talk about, but they do not do this Year 6 real justice. It is the young people they have become that matters. They all have the Xtra Factor, never average and always exceptional. Each and every one of them can walk tall as they leave St Piran’s.

Behind you are all your memories, Before you are all your dreams, Around you, are all who love you Within you, is all you need.

LEAVERS’ DESTINATIONS

DAMIEN ADAMS Sir William Borlase

TENIOLA ALABI Cheltenham Ladies’ College

ANNA AYLING Sir William Borlase

HARRY BARK JONES Reading Blue Coat

AADI BATTA Abingdon

AARAV BATTA Abingdon

SIMON BRADLEY LVS

SAMUEL BUCKLEY SOUKI Pangbourne

EMILY BULGIN Kingswood School, Bath

KATIE BULGIN Kingswood School, Bath

ELIZA CANNON Furze Platt

MAISIE CAPEL Luckley House

SOREN CHAMBERS Sir William Borlase

WILLIAM CHAMBERS Sir William Borlase

ALYSSA CRETEGNY Collège de Bois-Murât, Switzerland

ETHAN CURRIE Sir William Borlase

RUPERT DAVIES CARR Royal Grammar School

FILIPPO DE DOMINICIS Reading Blue Coat

DYLAN DEV Furze Platt

OLIVE DEV Sir William Borlase

BALRAJ DHINSA John Hampden

LILY EDMONDS The Abbey

GEORGE FERGUSSON Abingdon

LYLA FOULDS The Abbey

ANNABEL GASELEE The Marist

JOSHUA GREENOUGH Reading Blue Coat

SEBASTIAN HARRISON Shiplake

WILLIAM HICKS Luckley House

THOMAS HOCKING Reading Blue Coat

LILLY ROSE HOLMES Sir William Borlase

JACOB HOURD Reading Blue Coat

CHARLIE JAGGER Reading Blue Coat

CAROLINA JERONIMO Piper ’s Corner

RIA LUCKING Leighton Park

RORY MACDONALD Shiplake

GRACE MALLALUE Newlands

JASON MOIR Desborough College

OSCAR OWENS Shiplake

MAYA PANESAR Newlands

RHODERIC PARKER Sir William Borlase

NIA PETERSEN Luckley House

KAROL PIETRUSINSKI Desborough College

ANIRUDH PREMKUMAR Queen Elizabeth Barnet

SIDDHARTH RAJ KRISHNAMURTHY St. Paul’s

ZAIN RASHID Reading Blue Coat

DYLAN REIZ John Hampden

JAKE RICHMOND Crosfields

ARCHIE ROTUNDO Pangbourne

ISABELLA SALES The Marist

MAYA SANDAL The Abbey

MILLA SAVIDGE The Abbey

RIA SINGH Wycombe High

SOHAN SINGH Furze Platt

REMI SPENCER JONES Reading Blue Coat

RIYA SRINIVAS Wycombe High

THOMAS TUDOR MORGAN Reading Blue Coat

MATHILDE VACHER The Abbey

HARRISON WALKER Sir William Borlase

LANA WOLFENDEN The Abbey

FINLEY WOODLAND Shiplake

Meet our Pupil Parliament!

4 councils make up our Pupil Parliament: Eco, Learning, Safety and Wellbeing. All help to make a difference to the way we work together at school, with their reps making valuable contributions to their meetings.

LEARNING COUNCIL

Year 3 James Spotswood

Remy Galloso-Marsham

Svea Baker

Year 4 Scarlett Milborrow

Livvy Truman

Austin Gleeson

ECO COUNCIL

Year 3

Aradhya Aggarwal

Oliver Clutterbuck

Elin Bergman Bailey

Year 4 Avaani Sehmi

Jake Milborrow

Ben Tomlinson

Year 5 Aurora Taylor

Beatrix Plumb

George Leach

Year 6 William Hicks

Ethan Currie

Rory Macdonald

The Eco Council continue to work hard to both promote a more sustainable environment alongside nurturing and encouraging an appreciation for nature. Setting up recycling stations in every classroom, the Eco Reps have also helped enrich the whole community to stop and think more carefully about the world in which we live with their ‘New Beginnings’ photography competition.

Year 5 Antony Vazhappilly

Sanaa Fergusson

Isabel Greenough

Year 6 Zain Rashid

Riya Srinivas

Karol Pietrusinski

Learning Council have discussed the school’s leadership habits and the foundation of our Motivation, Engagement and Thinking, especially how they are involved throughout our day at school, including in assemblies, the playground and our classwork, as well as the recruitment of new staff who will teach us.

We came up with a questionnaire for all the children about their learning at school - questions ranged from what time we all go to bed and get up and whether we eat breakfast to how well we think we learn at school and whether we like the lunches. From this, we went back to our classes to discuss some of the answers and looked for a few solutions or improvements. We went to the Head Chef to discuss some of the snacks and lunches that were our favourites and some of the ones we think should be replaced, as well as some other ideas that we had gathered together. She was very responsive to our feedback and we have already noticed some changes as we have moved towards the end of the year.

We have all enjoyed being part of the Learning Council and feel we have played an important part, and made a difference, in raising the profile of some important areas for discussion and review.

WELLBEING COUNCIL

Year 3 Georgie Fuggle

Anya Zaman

Charlie Woodward

Year 4 Ellie Dix

Scarlett Owens

Georgia Welch

Year 5 Talia Cretegny

SAFETY COUNCIL

Year 3 Eloy Marra Bayraktar

Olivia Capel

Fred Goldstone

Year 4 Jace Ralfs

Ryan Mahajan

Evie Ashton

Year 5 Mia Littley

Sebastian Fordham

Ariana Kumar

Year 6 Anna Ayling

Rupert Davies -Carr

Dylan Dev

Safety Council launched a competition to design a road sign for our zebra crossing with lots of colourful entries to make us safer.

Ryan Mahajan: I liked being in the safety council because we got to design a new road sign for the school and we voted which one to use. We also thought of cool zebra crossing ideas and designed them on paper. I really like the awesome interactive meetings. I like safety because I like to make sure everybody safe when we use electronics. Being in the Safety Council has inspired me to look after my two brothers more.

Ariana Kumar: One of the highlights about being in Safety Council this year is making the crossing rainbow more noticeable so that people don’t just run across it without looking both ways. One of my achievements this year in the Safety Council is helping others when they fall over, produce a cut or hurt themselves.

Seb Fordham: In Safety Council you get to host and judge competitions, make new friends, improve the school’s safety and spend MONEY.

I love Safety Council because our meetings are always fun and enjoyable.

Isobel Leach

Katy Tudor-Morgan

Year 6 Sohan Singh

Isabella Sales

Nia Peterson

The Wellbeing Council have had another busy year and at the heart of everything they have done, is the want to help the mental health of those in the St Piran’s community. Highlights of being on the council range from delivering assemblies, to raising awareness of our new staff team of Mental Health First Aiders, our ‘Blaze Squad’. They are proud of helping to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and have driven the introduction of our new concern box outside Matrons’, where their peers can write their worries if too shy to share verbally.

Not only have they supported others but have reflected on the impact being on the council has made to them with Nia Petersen saying: ‘People have grown by being on the Wellbeing Council’. Over time the members have realised the impact they can make so that “people aren’t lonely and we can help by making them happy”.

St Piran’s Society

Social events back in full swing!

Back with a bang, our Bonfire and Fireworks night kicked off the start of half-term in October! Families joined together for an evening of marvellous sparkle, good company, delicious food and drink.

Bringing back our first summer ball since the pandemic was a huge success and a warm welcome return to some fun and fundraising with our auction raising in excess of £27,000 towards projects for school. The Mad Hatter and White Rabbit kept us in order as part of this year’s Alice in Wonderland theme while we danced the night away to a live band and enjoyed an epic evening!

Thank you, as ever, to our parents who make up the St Piran’s Society and without whom such fabulous social events and fundraising for our children’s school would not be possible.

Our Society parent volunteers helped transform our woodland to a grotto for Father Christmas as Christmas grew nearer; the children loved their outdoor festive experience!

At St Piran’s we place great emphasis on the importance of love and being kind. Valentine’s discos hosted by Mr Barker offered all our children the opportunity to dress up, play games and show off some memorable dance moves with their friends and teachers!

Staff News

Our staff are a huge part of what makes St Piran’s thrive and it is always with gratitude and fondness that we say farewell to those who leave us for new challenges. This year, we waved goodbye to the following staff who will all be fondly remembered particularly by those who of us who worked with them.

As the Christmas Term came to an end, two of our popular Middle School teachers, Mrs Sam Cartwright and Mrs Catherine Mayor, left us to continue their career development. Mr Ricky Harvie was a familiar face to many in his roles supporting the wellbeing team, games department, St Piran’s Centre and Extended Day teams and moved on to a new lead role providing pastoral provision for children.

So many children have benefitted from the care and nurture of Mrs Andrea Lewis as Extended Day Manager over her 11 years running our wraparound care and we were sorry to say goodbye. Mr Dale Adams was a familiar friendly face at drop-off and pick-up times as part of our Maintenance Team helping us to get to school safely and he moves on for a new career.

In Upper School, we said ‘au revoir’ to Ms Catherine Lowe who stepped down from her role as Head of Year 5 and Head of MFL this year after 8 years at St Piran’s leading our language department. She organised one last fantastic French Day for us all to enjoy before leaving and we are extremely grateful to her for inspiring us all to be better linguists! Our Maths Department has benefited from the leadership of Mrs Sara Wadsworth for the past 4 years, particularly with involvement in many maths challenges and a hearty push on our Times Tables Rock Stars results! We thanked both of them for their service, commitment and dedication to the school and wished them well in their new ventures.

Our Middle School teaching assistant, Miss Heather Armstrong chose to move on for a career change, exploring marketing and technology and we thank her for her kindness and assistance in her time here. In Early Years, we bade farewell to Mrs Linda Fox, Mrs Jacqueline Lyons and Mrs Debbie Pearson, all familiar faces to our youngest children and who will be missed for their care, patience and dedication to the children.

The association with St Piran’s runs especially deeply for Mrs Liz Kennedy; a former parent at St Piran’s, wife of a governor, and a French teacher here for 12 years, she retired at the end of the year for a welldeserved break. Our groundsman, Mr Pete Webb also retired this year after an incredible 20 years maintaining our beautiful surroundings at St Piran’s.

As well as welcoming some new babies to some of our teaching staff this year, we also celebrated the wedding of Mr Barker and Miss Linley!