This week I spent part of Thursday morning at the swimming pool in Waterlooville. Although I looked a bit odd sitting poolside in a shirt, tie and jacket, I was there to watch the Year 5E class in their swimming lesson. Swimming is one of those essential life skills that, though we hope never to be in such a situation, can save a person’s life. It was great to see the pupils all getting so engaged in the sport, and clearly loving the opportunity to learn and improve their swimming skills. I have no doubt that every child, from whatever their level at the start of the term, has improved their water confidence and swimming ability. As ever, thanks must go to the St Peter’s staff who organise the programme and coach in conjunction with the resident swimming teachers, and also to the parents who volunteer to help with supervision and transport.

Thanks also go to Mrs Domblides in the library who organised for a group of our pupils to visit the library at Oaklands on Thursday. The visit gave them the opportunity to see how the librarian at Oaklands, Mrs Berogna, promotes a love of reading throughout the secondary school phase.

Finally, I hope your children have come home today full of tales of what they have learnt during our second STEM day. This deep learning day to cover Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths gives the pupils the chance to really investigate and experiment over a good period of learning time, and allows them to bring in many skills from elsewhere in the curriculum to complete a big learning project.

Mr R Cunningham

Headteacher