This week was Geography Week in school and each class was studying a different part of the UK. Children then presented what they had learned in a sharing assembly on Friday through music, drama, posters and artwork.

Last week, Year 5 went by train to Barnham to participate in a inter schools tournament at St Philip Howard with our other Deanery schools. A great day of sport and fun was had by all!

Today we were blessed enough to hold a whole school Spirituality Day. Children in each class were invited to move around the school visiting different workshops and rooms to experience a range of different spiritual activities. During our morning Liturgy we had a special video from Mrs Tipping all the way from New Zealand. We were also fortunate enough to have a team from ‘Soup from Heaven’ a charity founded from Yapton Free Church, come and share their faith and spirituality with the children. Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers that have made it such a wonderful day for all of the children.

The school was inundated with Harry Potters, Little Red Riding Hoods, James Bonds, Mad Hatters, witches and all sort of characters from favorite books for World Book Day.

We were also lucky enough to have a visit from the author M.P Robertson who ran workshops with each class. Thank you to everyone who took part and thanks to the parents for the wonderful costumes.

As part of our Fair-trade fortnight, all of the children in the school have been learning about how Fair-trade works and what it looks like in real life. Children in Year 1 and 2 went on a trip down to the Co Op in Arundel. They learnt about the Fairtrade products that are for sale, where they come from and the impact that buying the product has on Fair Trade farmers. Many Thanks to the staff and parent helpers who walked down with the children.

This morning, all of the children in the school attended an Ash Wednesday Liturgy in the school hall. The children lead the Liturgy and distributed the ashes.

The ashes come from a previous Palm Sunday. The palms are burned, the ashes collected and then crushed into a fine, sooty powder and placed into bowls.

The ashes were blessed by a priest and the children were invited to come forward. Our Year 6 R.E Ambassadors made the sign of the cross on everyone’s forehead.

On Tuesday, some footballers from Year 2 took part in a Locality tournament at The Littlehampton Academy. The team played very well scoring a total of 21 goals. They were undefeated and came first out of all of the teams. Thank you to Mr Caws for accompanying the children and to all the parents who took them.

All of the children in Key Stage Two were asked to design a play park for a green space in Arundel. Our school submitted all of the entries and Daisy’s in Year 5 was chosen as the winner. Earlier in the year she was invited to an award ceremony at Arundel Town Hall and was awarded a cup for her design which was presented to her by the town Mayor.

Earlier this week the mayor and a member of the Arun district council came to St Philip’s to consult with the children about the 2 proposals for how the park will look in Mill Road car park. The children were asked about their opinions on it and got to feedback to the Mayor about what their thought on the proposals were.

On Thursday 28th February, four children from Year 4 were lucky enough to visit Christ’s Hospital for a Maths challenge day.

The Challenge itself, was indeed quite a challenge! The children were split into pairs at the start and stayed in pairs for the whole of the Challenge. The rounds included:

• Moving tangrams around to match a particular shape
• Positioning dominoes so that they completed a pattern
• A simple code-breaking type exercise, which involved working out values associated with different letters and then adding them up (it was framed as a shopping list challenge)
• Using +,-, x and divide to make a set of numbers add up to a total of 24. (I think they found this quite tough to complete in the time limit).

Many thanks to the parents who drove their children to the event.

An American-style hoedown brought together people of all ages – and left residents at St Wilfrid’s Arundel Priory with the biggest smiles. Rachel Staker, home manager, said: “It was truly a fantastic day for everyone involved. The smiles on our residents’ faces when we line danced said it all.” Staff and residents were dressed up as cowgirls and cowboys and visiting children from the nearby St Philip’s Catholic Primary School loved getting in character for the Wild West theme. Rachel added: “It was brilliant to see the local school there, we have a wonderful relationship with them and it always brightens our residents’ day when children visit. “We’d like to thank everyone who came along to make it such a special day.” Two ponies were provided by Arundel Riding Centre for residents and visitors to greet and feed, there was American diner style food on the lunch menu and the dining area was turned into an old Western set, including bales of hay.

Mrs Horne said: “Being close neighbours, the children of St Philip’s have had a relationship with St Wilfrid’s Priory for many years. “The school choir visits annually to share carols with the residents and the children have spent time working in the priory gardens. “More recently, our year six children have started a penpal scheme and regular newsletters. “We were delighted to be invited to join their hoedown. The children returned from their visit with cowboy hats and full of talk about the event they shared with the older generation. “The intergenerational link is a wonderful opportunity for our children to recognise how much that generation have to offer and the impact they have on society.”