11 minute read
Learning 2-8
Clubs & Societies
There are over 80 different co-curricular clubs and activities at St Peter’s School. Children at St Peter’s 2-8 can choose from up to 30 activities, with the choice and variety of activities increasing as they move through the school.
Our extensive co-curricular programme has continued to thrive this year, despite the challenges posed by year group bubbles and another national lockdown. Debating, Duke of Edinburgh, CCF, Eco Club, Keystone, Community Action and Radio 627 all continued online, alongside a variety of other co-curricular activities in sports, music, drama and the arts.
CCF The Combined Cadet Force battled against the odds in the autumn term to ensure that their newest recruits could celebrate their passing out parade. After returning to school in September they trained weekly, with activities including drill and weapon handling. Following a successful training schedule, the newest five recruits received their berets on Tuesday 13 October with a special passing out parade at school. Promotions to Lance Corporal were awarded to Ella and Lucas, with Lucas being named ‘Best Recruit’. The parade would have traditionally been held in the summer after their final exercise, but the recruits were unable to finish their training earlier in the year due to lockdown restrictions. The recruits joined a team of 22 cadets at St Peter’s in the Fifth and Sixth Form, and were joined by Fourth Form pupils who began their basic training after October half term.
The CCF also continued to meet weekly over Zoom during lockdown in the spring term. In addition to short lessons on military topics, cadets were encouraged to take part in the weekly Contingent Challenge, in the form of a military themed puzzle to solve. Thankfully, the CCF were still able to enjoy their annual camp from 15-16 July. Fourteen cadets took part in the CCF Annual Camp, which was reduced to two nights this year with a day training at Driffield Training Area followed by an overnight camp in the school grounds. The cadets demonstrated excellent teamwork during all of the challenges presented to them and enjoyed the opportunity to put their recently acquired skills to practice. Lance Corporal Ella said: “I love CCF because it is completely different to other cocurricular activities. Through CCF I have developed important teamwork skills and made new friends. I really missed drill over the summer, so it has been great to get back to training this term.” Debating The Debating Society returned to socially distanced, face to face debating in September, with pupils tackling topical, controversial and sometimes satirical topics to develop their research, debating and public speaking skills. Three pupils from St Peter’s School also reached the Grand Final of the ESU Churchill Public Speaking Competition 2021. Third Form (Year 9) pupils Victoria, Eliyah and Evie became Regional Champions following the regional round of the ESU Churchill Public Speaking Competition on Friday 19 March.
The regional round, which was hosted online via Zoom, featured six teams including two teams from St Peter’s School, and teams from schools across the North East. Evie was named Best Speaker of the round with a speech entitled ‘Is Social Media Still Guilty of Limiting Our Political Viewpoint?’
Meanwhile, Eliyah and Victoria were Questioner and Chair respectively for the speech entitled ‘Man is born free, and is everywhere in chains’ (Jean-Jacques Rousseau). The prestigious ESU Churchill Public Speaking Competition, sponsored by the International Churchill Society, is the largest such contest in England and Wales, with around 400 teams. Each team comprises a speaker, questioner and a chairperson. The different roles allow pupils to practise and excel in different skill sets, and the competition’s unique format, which pairs the speaker from one school with the chair and questioner of another, encourages quick thinking and relationship building.
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Duke of Edinburgh Working towards the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award can be a life-changing experience. Pupils discover new interests and talents, have fun with friends and develop essential skills for life and work. 132 pupils have completed practice and qualifying Duke of Edinburgh expeditions this year, despite restrictions on school trips. There are five sections to complete the Gold level, including the Volunteering section which encourages pupils to give time to help people, the community or society, or the environment. Pupils are encouraged to look to their local area to complete the volunteering section of their award.
All pupils must set up their own volunteering initiatives, giving at least one hour of their own time each week over twelve months. Many of our pupils have had to adapt and find new volunteering opportunities due to Covid-19 restrictions, whilst others have been inspired by volunteering activities which have arisen as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hannah from the Upper Sixth volunteers at the York Covid-19 vaccination centre at Askham Bar, whilst Upper Sixth pupils Holly and Maddie volunteer in the Royal Voluntary Service Café at Foss Park Hospital. Other pupils who have identified innovative ways to volunteer include Megan, who tutors a girl from the Ukraine on Zoom; Emily, who helps a young individual develop her skills and confidence when playing the piano; Charlotte, who goes litter picking in her local village; and Melissa, who has been volunteering with Kent Mapping Online to put local businesses in Kent ‘on the map’. Keystone Despite lockdown restrictions, budding journalists in the Sixth Form successfully published the latest edition of Keystone, our pupil-led school magazine. Keystone is a periodical written and edited by Sixth Formers interested in the creative arts and contemporary culture at St Peter’s School. All liaison with the publishers, design, editing and distribution are the responsibility of the pupil team, led by a designated chief editor. This year, the production of the magazine was delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but the pupils continued to collaborate remotely using cloud-based software to produce a professional quality magazine. Keystone - The Covid-19 Edition, with its iconic front cover, explores topical issues from Black Lives Matter to mental health, and is a snapshot of life as a young person in the years 2020-21.
In recognition of their hard work, the magazine went on to win the ‘Rising Stars 2021 Award’ at the Shine School Awards in August, the most prestigious school media awards in the UK! Sirius Society This year we launched a new society for pupils interested in furthering their involvement in academic pursuits beyond the classroom. The Sirius Society, named after our Headmaster of 1094, is a pupil-led society for pupils who want to generate ideas for talks, trips, discussion groups and clubs that will further their understanding of subjects and inform vocational choices.
Sirius means ‘bright, shining star’ in Latin and the Sirius Society provides a platform for our pupils to shine. The Society is chaired by a Lower Sixth pupil and supported by Ambassadors who have a particular passion for certain subjects or vocational areas such as Law, Medicine, Engineering or Marketing.
Ambassadors are encouraged to organise events and discussions alongside teaching staff specialists for the benefit of all pupils at St Peter’s 13-18. On Tuesday 24 November, pupils enjoyed the inaugural Sirius Society event. Pupils joined a Motorsport Engineering Q&A with Old Peterite Jonny MacGregor (Queen’s 2002) for their first Academic Extension Talk via Zoom.
Drama
It has been another difficult year for Drama pupils and teaching staff, with a number of performances postponed or restricted due to year group bubbles and national lockdowns. Still, teachers and staff in all three sections of the school have worked hard to deliver a number of outstanding productions this year. The show must go on!
Ho Ho Ho What A Show Children from St Peter’s 2-8 performed a number of Christmas shows for family and friends to enjoy at home. Over 235 children took part in five performances in December, which were livestreamed using a special streaming service. The login details were shared with parents who were able to watch the shows remotely.
Nursery sang a selection of Christmas Singsongs whilst Reception performed Ho Ho Ho What a Show. Year 1 chose an alternative nativity called Prickly Hay whilst Year 2 performed The Nutcracker. The performances concluded with Year 3’s production Lights, Camel, Action, featuring dancing camels and a tango dance between shepherds and their brooms.
Mr Phil Hardy, Head of St Peter’s 2-8, said: “It is so important that the children can feel the magic and wonder of Christmas at school, and at St Peter’s 2-8 we transformed our main hall into a film set allowing children from Nursery to Year 3 to each perform their Christmas show.”
38 J5 pupils rehearsed for their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Drama Workshops In the autumn term, pupils at St Peter’s 8-13 learnt a range of techniques in their drama lessons, from monologues to characterisation. Pupils watched lockdown monologues before creating their own duologues to be performed to their class. Pupils were encouraged to think about facial expressions and pauses when performing their duologues.
Our younger pupils enjoyed a special Mr Men and Little Miss drama workshop. The children were asked to choose a character and act out their chosen adjectives. Following the workshop, pupils wrote their own books and created new characters based on different adjectives. This was a challenge as there are already 79 Mr Men and Little Miss characters!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 38 of our J5 pupils spent the autumn term rehearsing for their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Despite disruptions to the rehearsal schedule, the pupils successfully stage managed the production, complete with costumes, sound and lighting. The final performance was recorded and shared with their peers on Wednesday 9 December in the Shepherd Hall. Drama teacher Ms Bev Veasey, who co-ordinated the production, said: “I think that the disruptions to rehearsals and delayed performance times has really bonded the group. There was no way we were going to be cancelled without a fight and I am immensely proud of the way the cast and crew maintained their enthusiasm despite the project overrunning by three weeks.”
The Shakespeare Schools Festival is the world’s largest youth drama festival. Schools who participate perform half-hour abridged versions of Shakespeare’s plays in local, professional theatres all over the United Kingdom, with 20,000 children participating each year. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory At St Peter’s 8-13, the whole of J3 are usually involved in a large-scale musical production during the Easter Term. Usually, rehearsals start in December and pupils practise all the way up to Easter. This year pupils put on their own adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in just three weeks! Due to Covid the production did not involve any singing, and Ms Veasey was also unable to cast and rehearse in the usual way, holding the auditions online instead. Pupils even made their own props and costumes due to theatrical hire places being closed due to lockdown.
90 pupils (4 full classes) were involved in the production, which was split into four parts so that each of the J3 classes had their own section of the story to tell.
The performance was recorded by Mr Falconer so that family and friends could watch the show from home. Ms Veasey was particularly pleased to see the finished production, as she gained special dispensation from the Dahl Trust for the J3s to perform the play during lockdown. Practice Makes Perfekt At the end of each academic year, all J1s participate in a play in which every child has a speaking part. The production usually involves a number of songs and dances, and although the pupils were unable to sing this year due to Covid-19 restrictions they certainly made up for it with lots of dancing! The production of Practice Makes Perfekt involved 70 pupils and was filmed by Mr Falconer for parents to enjoy at home. The J1s performed in front of a live audience of J2s, who thoroughly enjoyed the production.
