Our Community

Compassion is one of our seven school values, and we encourage our children to care for others and take an active interest in the world beyond St Peter’s School. This year our pupils have organised an extraordinary range of fundraising events to support their school charities.

St Peter’s 2-8 The children at St Peter’s 2-8 supported several charities this year, including the Little Princess Trust and Sport Relief. They also enjoyed participating in intergenerational music workshops in care homes and created a reverse advent calendar for the homeless. Crazy Hat and Hair Day St Peter’s 2-8 celebrated Crazy Hat and Hair Day in style in October 2019. The children learnt about The Little Princess Trust, a charity which provides free real hair wigs to children and young people, up to 24 years, who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions. The charity also funds pioneering, life-saving research into childhood cancers. A special thank you to Miss Beadle who raised a staggering £1,400 and donated 16 inches of hair! Reverse Advent Calendar In December, children at St Peter’s 2-8 brought in different items each day to support homeless people in the city of York. Hundreds of donations were received, from toiletries to scarves and gloves, and distributed to those in need living in our local community.

Colour Run On Friday 13 March, St Peter’s 2-8 participated in a sponsored Colour Run in aid of Sport Relief. The children raised an amazing £500, which will help change the lives of many around the world. The day was a huge success, which was clearly evident from the big smiles on the children’s faces. It was an extremely colourful afternoon!

St Peter’s 8-13

Busking We enjoyed festive busking in the foyer every morning in December from 8.00am to raise money for York Teaching Hospital Charity. We had a different musical ensemble and seasonal repertoire every morning, all making money towards our goal of refurbishing the parents’ room on the children’s ward. Book Covers for Charity J5 pupil Anna Calvert raised a fantastic £725 by making and selling book covers. The funds were split between her own chosen charity Destiny Children and our school charity York Teaching Hospital Charity. Anna had help from her two best friends working through their breaks and lunches to sell the products she made with her mum at the weekends. Her sales included a custommade denim laptop case with an electric green lining for Mr Falconer (charged at double the usual rate of course!) Charity Glow Walk The St Peter’s 8-13 Charity Committee organised a “Glow Walk” on Thursday 31 January to raise money for their chosen charity, York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The glow walk provided a great opportunity for the whole school community to come together. Hot drinks and biscuits were provided for those who were cold upon return! “Glow” items were also on sale for everyone to wear during the walk, which made for an impressive walk in the dark. Children’s Heart Surgery Fund J2 pupil Elizabeth Gee raised an incredible £2,681.80 for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund after embarking on a sponsored swim with her classmates. Elizabeth, aged 9, was inspired to raise money for the charity after spending many weeks on ward 51, the Children’s Heart Ward at Leeds General Infirmary, as an inpatient in 2017 and 2018. When she returned to school in 2018, Elizabeth raised money for portable DVD units for the ward with a cake sale. In 2019 she shared her idea of a sponsored swim with Mr Nathan Savage, Head of Sport at St Peter’s 8-13, who helped to co-ordinate the fundraising initiative. Every child in Elizabeth’s year group joined in the sponsored swim in the school pool, aiming to swim as many lengths as they could in 1 ½ hours. The original goal was to swim the length of the English Channel but the children surpassed their target and swam a total of 3,588 lengths (56 miles). Kindness and Books Library Assistants at St Peter’s 8-13 organised a fundraising campaign with the theme of ‘Kindness and Books’ to raise money for York Teaching Hospital Charity. Pupils and staff posted cards for 20p each in the Post Box in the reception area, nominating a friend to receive a brandnew copy of one of their favourite books, raising a total of £42.40.

St Peter’s 13-18

Community Action In December, our Community Action team spread Christmas cheer by organising and hosting an event for 75 senior citizens from the local area. Attendees enjoyed afternoon tea at St Peter’s with musical entertainment, bingo, a raffle and carol singing. One pupil said: “it is wonderful for the older community of York to get together, catch up, deepen connections and celebrate.” Miss Chapman, Head of Community Action at St Peter’s, praised the pupils for planning this event. They also organised a party for children from The Island, a mentoring service for isolated children experiencing difficulties with their mental, emotional and social wellbeing. Wellbeing In addition to supporting our local community, we place the wellbeing of our pupils and staff at the heart of everything we do at St Peter’s. This year, the Listening Space opened its doors to pupils and staff and a number of staff across the school completed a mental health qualification in Young People’s Mental Health. The weekly Pastoral Newsletter and Isolation Olympics also helped pupils to feel connected throughout the lockdown period.