School Bell St Philips Catholic

Our Year 6 children have been working with Chichester Festival Theatre over the last year. The company have been coming into school and running workshops. As part of the program, the children were given free tickets to go and watch ‘Private Peaceful’ at the theatre. The play which is adapted from Michael Morpurgo is a story about a family of young teens who go to war. It was a late night for Year 6 children and in some parts a sad tale but they really enjoyed the experience and for some, it was their first time going to a theatre production. It really was an emotive and engaging show with wonderful acting.

Year 5 attended the Chichester Planetarium as part of their topic on Space. The children were able to look at where the planets are in relation to one another in the solar system and work out sizing and distance. It is a great resource to have so close to us and really helps to bring their learning to life.

Year 6 have been learning about the Titanic as part of their ‘Storms and Shipwrecks’ topic. At the beginning of February, they visited the Sea City museum in Southampton. There were many interactive activities such as: steering the ship and stoking the boilers. They even learnt about a local man from Arundel, who had been on the ship. They participated in a series of workshops, which included: learning about Morse code, how to keep a ship afloat and examining artefacts. A fun and informative day was had by all.

Events

We celebrated World Book Day in March. The children and staff wore costumes of their favourite book character. We had some fabulous costumes and the children enjoyed various book related activities throughout the day.

They were able to find out the winning book from the WSCC library competition (and were delighted to know it was our school choice of winner too) and they were able to go to a different classroom to hear a story read by a teacher different to their own. The teachers all pitched their book very well so it was a difficult choice for some children. At St Philip’s we place reading very highly and children know how important it is to love reading. World Book Day is an excellent way for us all to celebrate what we love.

Science Week took place in mid March, we had the opportunity to enjoy the wonders of science in many different formats. Each class carried out experiments over the week and there was a competition for all children to enter. The competition was ‘Grow Your Own Scientist’ where children were able to use a fruit or vegetable to make their own well known scientist, mathematician or engineer. Some of the entrants definitely looked like the scientist! We had some great entries. At the end of the week we welcomed Hope’s mum into school to deliver an assembly. She is a Science teacher and delivered an exciting assembly which involved loud bangs, exploding foam, hair standing on end, blasting rockets and smelly, shrinking eggs! All things children love and all linked to science.

Reception Class had a week of Bikeability where they were learning how to ride balance bikes. The instructors came in and spent time with the little ones encouraging them to develop balance and co ordination. Year 6 will have their Bikeability later in the year where they are taught bike safety and how to ride safely on the road. There has once again been many different sporting events, the Year 3/4 girls won gold at the Gymnastics Locality event, our two teams did very well at the hockey event securing third place and the Year 4 football teams thoroughly enjoyed their friendly tournament at Riverbeach primary school. In Dance, our Dance group represented the school at an event at SPH. The girls looked the part and performed their routine brilliantly. They went on to perform in a weekend dance show too.

Wider Learning and community

We recently held a Spirituality Day. This is an annual event where each class moves around the school, spending time with different class teachers all linked to the theme of ‘Growing’. We also hosted The Chaplaincy Team from St Philip Howard secondary school who ran a session for classes. With mental health concerns becoming more and more apparent in the community, we felt it was important to raise awareness of how to promote good mental wellbeing. We do this regularly throughout the year but Mental Health Week is a great vehicle to really promote suggestions and ideas. We encourage the children to keep themselves active and healthy but also recognise that it is okay to be worried or anxious about things and what they need to do to get help and support both in school and at home.

We held a talent show at school at the end of March. Many, many children signed up and spent time rehearsing at home for the event. The standard was amazing – so many talented dancers, musicians, comedians, gymnasts and singers. The audience ranging from Reception Class to adults were all spell bound. It is so wonderful to see the confidence and skill of our children.

In May we started our annual swimming lessons at the Lido. Children from Years 1 to Year 6 all have the chance to access 9 weeks of lessons at the pool. The children are lucky enough to be able to walk there and back and the pool is lovely and warm. We were again invited to take part in Maypole Dancing in Arundel Orchard. Year 4 have been attending this event for a number of years and were delighted that it resumed again after Covid prevented it from taking place for the last two years.

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