Social and emotional News

Looking back at our final weekend of school before the holidays, albeit the strangest one we have had to date, we managed to have lots of fun.

We were meant to have our Hotdog Day, which no child wants to ever miss at St Peter’s, as well as a camp out on the school fields. The St Peter’s Families decided that something like ‘Lockdown’ was not doing to deter us from making these events happen, we would all just need to be a little more creative.

The annual St Peter’s Movie Night took place on Saturday, 7 May under a glorious Autumn sky. Hundreds of children enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of adventure as they bounced around, dived down, slid across and laughed on the 16 giant inflatables.

We started our third Flexible Learning Programme (FLP) on Tuesday and once again the boys have been fully engaged. Every time we run these programmes we are amazed at the level of thinking and questioning from the boys. Again this week, boys have opted to stay in at break to work on tasks!

On Wednesday, 16 March our little boys in Gr 0 got to show off their new school to the special people in their lives. Grandparents travelled from far and near to be part of this exciting morning at St Peter’s and the boys spent many hours practicing their songs and creating artwork for the event. We started with a lovely Chapel Service, Father Richard using a spectacular science experiment to teach us the true meaning of Easter. Our grandparents got a glimpse of the time we spend in our school Chapel and enjoyed the entertainment our Gr 0 boys provided.

Anybody can pick up a phone or a tablet these days and google ‘Easter’ to get the latest and greatest up-to-date trends and info. So to bore you with the facts that are already at your fingertips is a waste. You can find the meaning and a blow-by-blow description of each moment of the Easter Story on the net. Some of it is a morbid fascination to find out how gruesome the facts actually are or how it was possible that one man endured so much.

Choice of high school has the potential to create much anxiety for parents. This becomes evident in the Grade 6 year where parents are making the final decisions and girls and boys attend interviews at the schools of their choice. In some cases parents place unnecessary pressure on their children and set unrealistic goals during this time. The Grade 6 year is comparable to the Grade 11 year in high school, where pupils are under pressure to perform in the classroom in order to be accepted at the university of their choice.

A peer mediation initiative was introduced in 2014 as part of the Grade 7 St Peter’s Individual Growth (SPIG) leadership programme. The goal of the mediation programme is to reduce conflict, creating a safer environment and to provide the Grade 7 boys with problem solving skills.

St Peter’s Prep Schools held a civvies day today and collected still water for charity as payment for wearing civvies.  Hundreds of bottles were donated and were collected this morning by H2O 4 Hooves and Heels.

The Junior Prep camp out took place in the third term of 2015. This was the first joint camp out with both the Boys Junior Prep and Girls Junior Prep families attending so it meant that both fields were full of tents and people.There was added excitement around the event as South Africa played a crucial game in the Rugby World Cup against Scotland.

This week was observed as Mandela Week.  The theme was:  ‘It is not about us and them, but all of us’.
 
The St Peter’s boys and girls responded, in true St Peter’s style, to the Community Partnership’s call for clothing, shoes, blankets, etc. for those in need.  The Boys and Girls Junior Prep pupils decorated a skip with beautiful artwork that depicts the hands of hope which was used to collect the donated clothing. By this morning the skip was overflowing.