Life Skills

There are endless opportunities to develop key skills for life at St Peter’s, through co-curricular clubs and societies and co-curricular activities organised to support our pupils’ learning. Thank you to the organisations and partners who help to deliver training and workshops for our pupils throughout the year.

Road Safety with North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (NYFRS) introduced our Upper Sixth Form to the often shocking reality of road safety. With many of our Upper Sixth Form learning to drive, NYFRS were invited to introduce our pupils to the risks and consequences of dangerous driving.

NYFRS started their visit by asking our pupils what they believed were the main causes of accidents that take place on the UK’s roads. Being distracted by mobile phones, driving under the influence of alcohol and misjudgements when driving, were some of the answers pupils gave, with another cause of vehicle defects, being highlighted by NYFRS. Following their brief talk, the pupils went outside where they were confronted by a staged road traffic scene. A driver and passenger were trapped inside their car, where the Fire and Rescue Service had just arrived at the scene. Pupils then got to see first-hand how rescue services remove trapped persons from vehicles, in this case with the roof of the car being removed.

Restart a Heart Day In October, we invited volunteers from Yorkshire Ambulance Service to run sessions teaching St Peter’s pupils CPR as part of Restart a Heart Day. Over the last three years alone, more than 550 pupils at St Peter’s 8-13 have been trained in CPR. Every pupil at St Peter’s 8-13 has also been taught CPR this year, a valuable life skill which has the potential to save lives.

Young Reporter of the Year Congratulations to Lauren Buch who reached the final 10 of the BBC Young Reporter of the Year competition in January. Lauren’s chosen topic, which focuses on stroke awareness in young people and the potentially fatal effect of steroids and supplements, helped her stand out from the crowd. Lauren, was inspired to enter the competition after her uncle, who was only 30, suffered a stroke in July 2019 from supplement abuse. The BBC Young Reporter competition is open to young people aged between 11 and 18 who want to report on a story or issue which is important to their life or the world around them. The competition received over 2,000 entries and 10 regional winners, including Lauren, were short-listed for the title of BBC Young Reporter of the Year. As a regional winner, Lauren’s story was shared with regional news outlets across Yorkshire. St Peter’s 8-13 All pupils at St Peter’s 8-13 love the opportunity to get busy in the kitchens and, through the Life Skills programme, Mrs Herman has been able to introduce them all to safe working in the kitchen and hygiene rules – all very important skills for the future. The J1 group were able to tie their cookery into their topic on the Vikings and made authentic bread – this was a great experience, although they all decided that modern day bread is definitely better tasting. In J2 to J5 each class has been in and worked on increasingly challenging recipes, aiming to build on the skills learned the previous years.

In addition to these school sessions, Cookery Clubs continue to run twice a week and are so popular they have a waiting list! We must have some budding chefs coming through.