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I can’t quite believe that the half term has arrived! It doesn’t seem five minutes since the class of 2020/21 arrived in September ready for the year ahead. It has been a busy and unusual first half of term and I am proud of all the pupils and staff have achieved. School has been full of energy and excitement this week. It has been wonderful to experience and observe the children and staff enjoying the learning together. On Monday the Year 3 children participated in their first ever House Hockey Competition and on Tuesday it was the turn of the Year 2 children. The children thoroughly enjoyed participating and competing for their house and it was great to see the competitive spirit still alive and well at St Peter’s 2-8. In the final assembly it was announced by Miss Flockhart that the winning house was Walmgate! Thank you to Miss Flockhart and Miss Beaumont for organising these competitions and all the staff who supported the event. Physical activity plays an enormous part in developing both the children’s physical and mental health and this week UK Coaching, the lead agency for coaching
in the UK, has kindly donated a supply of ‘XLR8 Reactaballs®’, as well as accompanying training videos, to our school. The equipment, which is a coaching firm favourite, is a pyramid shaped, soft inflatable ball that bounces unpredictably forcing the user to react to the way it falls, improving hand and foot speed. Ideal training for sports like hockey, netball, basketball and rugby. School teachers and sports coaches have been working hard to keep our children happy and healthy through sport and physical activity during this coronavirus era, and I’d like to thank UK Coaching for thinking of us with this donation and hope the equipment will help our children to enjoy their PE provision even more. On Tuesday we had our first music concert of the year. The Year 2 children entertained us all performing to a wall of parents who were watching via Zoom. Today the Year 3 children also performed to parents and staff watching via Zoom. Children who have peripatetic lessons performed pieces they have learned over this half term and then the year group choirs sang beautifully. I must say all of the children were extremely confident and produced stunning recitals with smiles on their faces. Several children performed for the very first time. Thank you to the parents who were such a wonderful and appreciative audience for all of the children and huge thanks to Mrs Hayden for her organisation of such a memorable concert and to
Mrs Leeman-Brown for her support too. Finally, congratulations to all of our wonderful children who were simply outstanding and such a joy to watch perform. On Saturday we held our very first virtual Open Morning. Mrs Sarah Opie, our Director of Admissions, Marketing and Communications and our Marketing Manager Catherine Hodgson prepared the event and my huge thanks to all of the prospective parents who attended. The school looked stunning on the virtual tour; you can view the tour here. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter there are also short films (and here, and here) that were recently created providing a small glimpse into the life of St Peter’s 2-8 and also a report about our school in the Good Schools Guide here. The one area we can’t replicate on a virtual tour is the magical, vibrant atmosphere the school has as you walk around the stunning classrooms and learning spaces. To that end we are inviting families to visit in person in the evenings and at weekends and in line with Covid-19 guidelines to meet me and have a tour of the school. On Wednesday we had the Main Board Governors’ Meeting via Zoom. Huge thanks to all of the Governors who give up so much of their time so freely to support the development of our school. So much has happened over the term thus far (and it’s only half term!) Exciting learning adventures in and out of the classrooms and creative and imaginative teaching capturing the children’s inquisitive minds, developing depth of learning that they are thoroughly enjoying. Many thanks to all the staff at St Peter’s 2-8, for not only creating stunning environments for the children to learn in but the culture and ethos where each child can be confident, give things a go, be creative and not be fearful of making mistakes. On Thursday Mrs Fiona Franey organised a coffee morning for the worlds’ largest coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer. Staff baked cakes and everyone contributed for this great cause. We will be still eating cake for the next few days – delicious. Thanks to all of the staff and Mrs Franey for organising this wonderful event. Two of our amazing staff Miss Carless and Miss Jeffrey are taking part in Battle Cancer UK City League this month. They are taking part in two CrossFit Battle Cancer workouts back to back and it would be wonderful if they could have our support in raising money to support this great charity. A charity close to the staff’s heart, they chose this charity to donate proceeds to in order for Battle Cancer UK to continue with their excellent work. As little as £5 can contribute towards fifteen test tubes for research into treatments, so any pennies you can spare really do help. Your donation can help in three major ways;
Newsletter No: 6 Friday, 16th October 2020
better diagnosis, better treatments and better prevention. If you can spare any pennies, please follow this link. We are looking forward to running our inaugural holiday club from 19th to 23rd October; please read further information here. If you have booked your child/children onto the activity week you will have received a letter from Miss Flockhart who is organising this exciting event. Half term gives an excellent opportunity to reflect on the past weeks and look ahead to the second half of term. Our processes and safety measures look to be robust and effective but we will keep them under review as circumstances change. We understand that there are a variety of reasons why someone may have a test for COVID. If a pupil takes a test for any reason, please inform the medical centre and remain away from school until the result is received. This will assist in reducing the number of pupils needing to isolate if the test returns positive after a few days and, during such time, pupils will be able to access remote learning. My huge thanks to the whole school community for all their efforts over the past six weeks. Our amazing team of kitchen staff, cleaners, facilities assistants, car park attendants, medical staff, administration staff, teaching assistants and teachers have been fabulous creating astounding environment for the children who we are all here for. Thanks to the parents for all of your continued support, it is very much appreciated by all staff at school. I do hope you all have a wonderful half term break and I look forward to seeing you all back at school in a couple of weeks.