St. Peter's CofE Primary School

Starlings Year 4 Enjoy Reading and Creativity at the Library
This morning, our Starlings Year 4 children had a wonderful opportunity to visit Harrogate library with their class teacher, Mrs Pywell. The visit was packed with excitement as the children explored the shelves, chose books to enjoy, and listened to engaging stories that sparked their imaginations. As part of the visit, the children learned about the fascinating history of the library, including its upcoming 125th anniversary celebrations. To mark this special occasion, they created colourful bunting that will feature in the celebrations a fantastic way to leave their creative mark on this milestone event. Mrs Pywell shared her thoughts on the visit:
“It was inspiring to see the children so enthusiastic about reading and learning. The library is such a valuable resource for our community, and today really showed how it brings people together.”
The children also discovered how the library serves as a community hub, offering far more than just books. From events and activities to spaces for learning and connection, the library is a place where everyone can come together.
https://stpeters.ycst.co.uk/%f0%9f%8c%9f-love-learn-shine-at-the-library-starlings-explore-and-create-%f0%9f%93%9a/

🦉Sparrows Class at St Peter’s Primary School have truly embraced our vision of Love, Learn, Shine today as they explored the fascinating world of owls!🦉

In English, they have been reading The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark, a story that inspires courage and curiosity two qualities that help us shine every day. To make their learning even more exciting, they welcomed experts from the Harrogate Birds of Prey Centre, who shared incredible facts about these amazing birds.

The highlight of the visit? Meeting two beautiful owls Luna and Puck. Some of us even had the chance to handle them, an unforgettable experience that sparked wonder and respect for wildlife.
Thank you so much we thoroughly enjoyed learning more about these amazing birds.

📚📖🩷Children in Year 5 Eagles and Ravens have truly embodied our school vision of Love, Learn, Shine through a magical writing project inspired by the beautiful book My Pet Star. Using the story as a springboard, the children planned, wrote, edited, illustrated, and published their very own imaginative stories.🩷📖📚
What made this project even more special was the way they shared their creations. With great excitement and pride, the Year 5 Ravens and Eagles children read their stories aloud to children in Early Years, who were captivated by the creativity and storytelling. It was a heart warming moment of connection across year groups, with older children showing care and thoughtfulness for their younger audience.

🌍💡In geography, the children in Starlings Class took a deep dive into one of the most important topics of our time, climate change💡🌍.
With curiosity and care, they explored what climate change means, how it affects our planet, and most importantly, what we can do to help.
The children reflected on the theme “The climate is changing, what about you?”, thinking about the small, everyday choices we can make to protect our world. From switching off lights to reducing plastic use, their ideas were thoughtful and inspiring.
To bring their learning to life, the children created powerful posters that shared their messages of hope and action. Each poster was a colourful call to change, showing how even the smallest steps can make a big difference.
This learning links beautifully to our school vision of Love, Learn, Shine – showing love for our planet, learning about global challenges, and shining as responsible, caring citizens of the world.
Well done, Starlings, your voices matter and your creativity is helping to shape a better future.

✏️✍🏽This week, the children in Herons Class have been on a creative journey, developing their sketching skills through focused practice and imaginative application. Before diving into their final animal-themed artworks, the children spent time exploring a range of sketching techniques as standalone skills. These included tonal smudging, stippling, hatching, cross-hatching, cross-marking, and scumbling. ✍🏽✏️
Each technique was introduced and practised carefully, allowing the children to understand how it could be used to add texture, depth, and expression to their drawings. The classroom buzzed with concentration and curiosity as the children experimented with each method, building confidence and control in their mark-making.
Once they had mastered the techniques, the children applied them to create highly detailed and imaginative sketches of animals. The results were truly impressive — full of character, precision, and creativity. It was wonderful to see how each child brought their own ideas to life, using the skills they had practised to enhance their final pieces.
This thoughtful and structured approach to art reflects our school vision to Love, Learn, Shine. The children showed a love for learning new skills, took time to practise and refine their techniques, and shone brightly through their expressive and accomplished artwork.
We’re incredibly proud of the effort and creativity shown by Herons Class — their sketching work is a fantastic celebration of artistic growth and imagination

🎨🖌️🌊This week our hardworking and creative Year 5 children from Ravens and Eagles have been diving into the world of Japanese art, taking inspiration from the legendary ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai and his iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.🌊🖌️🎨

The children explored the dramatic movement, bold lines, and vibrant coluors that make Hokusai’s work so famous. They learned how this 19th-century masterpiece captures the power of nature and the resilience of humanity, with Mount Fuji standing calm in the distance as towering waves crash in the foreground.

Using a mix of techniques—painting, collage, and digital art—our young artists created their own interpretations of the Great Wave. Each piece reflects their creativity and individuality, while staying true to the spirit of Hokusai’s original work. From swirling seas to imaginative skies, the results are truly breath-taking!

🎵🎶On Wednesday children in Year 5 from Ravens and Eagles brought music to life in a special concert for Owls Class, showcasing their growing musical skills and confidence.🎶🎵
The classroom was filled with rhythm and joy as the children performed a selection of songs using Glockenspiels and BoomWhakers – two instruments that have become firm favourites in their music lessons.
From steady beats to melodic harmonies, the Year 5 children demonstrated not only their technical progress but also their enthusiasm and teamwork. Owls Class were a wonderfully attentive audience, clapping along and clearly enjoying the vibrant performance.

🍂🍁🌰 Children in Kingfishers Class have been embracing the beauty of seasonal change as part of their science learning this term. 🍂🍁🌰
With autumn all around us, they’ve been exploring what it means to observe and how we can spot the signs of the season in our everyday surroundings.

After a lively classroom discussion about the different signs of autumn from falling leaves and changing colours to chillier mornings and migrating birds the children headed out into the school grounds to become nature detectives. With clipboards in hand and eyes wide open, they carefully observed the world around them, noting down their discoveries.
From crunchy leaves underfoot to bare branches and golden tones, the children were full of excitement as they recorded their observations. This hands-on experience helped them connect classroom learning with the real world, encouraging curiosity and a deeper understanding of the natural environment.

It was lovely to see how the children showed a love for nature, a passion for learning, and a chance to shine through thoughtful observation and discussion.

📖✨On Tuesday our Year One children in Kingfishers Class enjoyed a wonderful trip to our local library which is less than a minute’s walk from school. ✨📖
The visit was packed with excitement, learning, and creativity, as the children explored the world of books and celebrated a very special milestone.

Armed with their very own and our class library cards, the children were thrilled to borrow books of their choice, discovering both fiction and non-fiction titles that sparked their imaginations. They also learned how the library works from how books are organised to the systems that help them find their favourites. As the library celebrates it's 120th birthday in January the children also helped create bunting to decorate. It was a brilliant way to build independence and a love of reading.

🧌 Creativity Roars in Sparrows Class – Monster Mayhem Entries 🧌
This week in Sparrows, creativity is taking centre stage as our children dive headfirst into the Young Writers’ competition: Monster Mayhem. With boundless imagination and buckets of enthusiasm, the children designed their very own monsters ranging from slimy and scaly to fluffy and fantastical.
Each child decided on the number of heads, legs, and eyes their creature would have, bringing their ideas to life not only through artwork but also through vivid written descriptions. Using their English skills, they packed their writing with exciting adjectives and powerful imagery, showcasing their growing confidence and flair for storytelling.
We’re thrilled to share that all entries will be featured in a colourful series of Monster Mayhem books, celebrating the originality and talent of our young writers. Even more exciting five lucky winners will receive a fantastic goodie bag filled with creative supplies to keep the inspiration flowing.