No 7. 3 December 2021
Christmas Term
ST PETER’S 8-13 NEWSLETTER Firstly, congratulations goes to Miss Leaver (art and DT teacher) on the birth of her son, Clark. They are both doing well and getting used to a new way of living. Four of our U13 girls (Phoebe E, Raya H, Alice A and Clara R) qualified for the national finals in the English Schools Swimming Association Championships. It was held at the Aquatic Centre in London, in the same pool that the London Olympic swimmers competed in. They finished 6th and 10th in the whole country in the free and medley relay competitions – an incredible achievement. This is the result of probably thousands of hours of training over the years, mainly with York City Baths Club, and their determination and skill really shone through when it counted. The Minster choristers were singing in the first big service at York Minster since Covid started, with the magical candlelit Advent service on Sunday evening. They sounded superb, also as a result of huge amounts of training and practice. It will be wonderful for the rest of the school to be able to hear them sing in the Minster during our own Carol Service on the second last day of term. Our Christmas Music Concert was on Monday and so nice to have an audience of parents for them to perform in front of. Almost one third of the school were involved in the concert, with soloists through to the sinfonietta. Thank you to Mrs Craven, Mr Edwards and all of the peripatetic music teachers for bringing it all together, and of course to the children for playing so beautifully. J1 had great fun doing a variety of Viking based activities last week, whilst our J5s were out in York on the ghost walk as part of their English work on gothic literature.
Our Seven Key Values are Friendship, Trust, Wisdom, Compassion, Endurance, Humility, Hope Collaboration and Empathy... We held another very successful boarding taster night with festive gingerbread making, Ultimate Frizbee in the dark (with light-up Frizbee), Wentworth Manhunt, FIFA tournament on the PS4, table tennis and board games a plenty. If you are interesting in being informed of our next taster night please email Mr Sharp.
Thank you for the new Christmas presents that have already been donated to the Salvation Army’s appeal. Our sleigh in reception (built and decorated by our talented art and DT technicians Miss Paver and Mr Wilkinson) is slowly filling up. On Wednesday we had our first pupil Mental Health & Wellbeing Group breakfast meeting, including pupils from J3 to Upper Sixth. The purpose of the group is to work together to ensure we are providing the best possible provision to support the mental health & wellbeing of all our pupils. The group will meet once every half term to identify what strategies and provisions are working well, identify barriers that they face when it comes to accessing help and come up with new ideas to support our pupil body.
Our Dance Club experienced the unexpected last week when they performed at the Yorkshire School's Dance Festival at York University. A couple of schools dropping out meant that they were asked to work out a new routine in just 45 minutes with Explosion Street Dance Crew from Leeds! All agreed it was a wonderful opportunity and they succeeded in putting together an excellent piece for the festival later in the day. They performed it alongside their rehearsed contemporary dance. Ms Veasey was so proud of their willingness to step in and help as well as their exemplary behaviour and joyful attitude. A brilliant event and thank you Ms Veasey for all your work in helping the girls. Andy Falconer Head Twitter: @andyfalconer Instagram: @andyfalconer_
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St Peter’s 8-13 Learning Habits Collaboration, Creativity, Curiosity, Embracing Challenge, Empathy, Flexible Thinking, Initiative, Perseverance