St Peter’s 8-13 Andy Falconer

Pupil numbers have continued to rise, reaching nearly 400 pupils, and the school has waiting lists in all year groups.

It has been wonderful to be able to get the school back to relative normality since the last edition of the Cross Keys Magazine a year ago. The staff and children were incredible at ensuring that we made the most of whatever Covid restrictions were in place. Year group bubbles in the summer term did mean that we could not do everything in the way we wished, but the staff were fantastic at adapting things to ensure the children could do as much as possible. We were able to finish the 2020/21 academic year gathered together outside as a school for the first time since Covid started for the end of year prize giving, which was a wonderful celebration of all that the pupils had achieved.

September saw us start the academic year with everything up and running as normal apart from whole school assemblies and chapels. We have had full sporting fixture lists and been able to take part in sports tournaments again. The J3s performed ‘Bugsy Malone’ in front of an audience of parents rather than an online recorded performance, and the J5s performed ‘The Tempest’ at the Leeds Playhouse as part of the national Shakespeare Schools Festival.

There have been more music ensembles playing each week than ever before, with over 350 one to one instrumental lessons taking place each week. The York Minster choristers returned to singing their normal range of services each week, along with special services including Richard Shephard’s service of thanksgiving. Many children had to selfisolate at some point and so teachers were teaching hybrid lessons where most children were in the classroom but some at home online via a webcam. This was a very tiring way to teach but they were able to ensure that the children at home were involved in lessons as much as possible – the teachers really have been heroes throughout the pandemic. We do continue to get quite cold as all the windows and doors have to be open for ventilation as part of our Covid precautions!

It was lovely to be short-listed for the TES Prep School of the Year for the second time in the last few years, in recognition of all that the teachers and pupils have been doing.

Andy Falconer Head of 8-13