Staff and students dance to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” being streamed from their newly installed WiFi system! (July 2016)
St Christopher’s staff and students were delighted to recently receive funding from the Gippeswyk Educational Trust which has enabled them to have WiFi access points installed throughout the building. The funding has made a huge difference to the learning of the students at St Christopher’s and has impacted greatly on the engagement of all students during lesson time.
Staff and students are pictured below celebrating with our wonderful ICT Technician, Greg. We would like to once again say a big thank you to the Gippeswyk Educational Trust for their kindness and generosity in supporting the school.
St Christopher’s collapses the timetable for one day to celebrate their annual Egg Day – March 2016
Last Wednesday saw St Christopher’s commit the whole day to Easter celebrations in their annual Egg Day eggs-travaganza! The day involved all normal lessons being replaced with a range of Easter activities which encouraged team work, peer mentoring and lots of fun.
The activities ranged from gardening to baking Easter cakes and developed a range of essential life skills for our young people. Outside, one group helped to weed our Spring garden and plant a range of colourful plants and flowers to cheer the place up. Another group worked together to produce a batch of yummy Easter cakes to be shared amongst our visitors to the unit. The lovely thing about the day is that it is an opportunity for KS2 & KS3 to come together and work as a team. This benefits both key stages, as it allows the KS3 students to act as peer mentors to the younger students for the day and it gives the KS2 the valuable lesson of working alongside and learning from older, more experienced students.
The event ended with the parents joining us for the finale – the Easter bonnet parade and Easter competition results. We had lots of happy winners this year – staff and students – and ended the day with an exciting Easter egg hunt. Another memorable day for all at St Christopher’s!
“MacMillan Coffee Morning” attracts parents, pupils and staff and raises £49! – September 2015
This September 2015 saw staff and students tirelessly baking in aid of the big MacMillan Coffee Morning. As part of students’ Food Technology lessons, both KS2 & KS3 planned and produced a fantastic array of mouthwatering sponges. From brightly coloured cupcakes to enormous chocolate sponges, the staff and students certainly created a tremendous display of cakes that raised this well deserving charity a grand total of £49.00 – a superb increase on last year.
One KS3 pupil said: “I really enjoyed the baking and was so pleased with my sponge cake. What made it even better was seeing people wanting to pay money for a slice!!!! And knowing that all our hard work was helping a really good charity”.
Drug Awareness Education – Inspirational Speaker Visits St Christopher’s – 25th June 2015 – http://www.paulhannaford.com/
On Thursday 25th June the KS3 pupils at St Christopher’s and KS4 pupils at Montgomery Road PRU spent the day with inspirational drug awareness speaker Paul Hannaford who shared with us his past life story about drug addiction, gang crime and prison. Paul (an ex-heroin addict and gang member) works as a drugs awareness educator in schools, youth centers and prisons across the UK. His lesson to our young people was hard-hitting but powerful and left us all with a strong message! Our young people were hooked from the moment Paul started talking about his life in London as a child, teenager and young adult. He shared photos of his experiences and talked in depth about the dangers of drugs and knife crime. All of our students asked interesting questions and learnt so much from the day.
Thank you, Paul! We hope to see you again in the future. Keep up the good work!
What our students said:
“I was quite shocked at first when I listened to Paul, but this made me listen more closely. I learnt so much! I would never like a life like the one he used to have”. – KS3 pupil
“Paul’s message was very powerful and gave me lots to think about. I will never ever touch drugs!” – KS4 pupil
“What an inspirational man. I was so impressed with how Paul has turned his life around?” – KS3 pupil
St Christopher’s Summer Fete – Wednesday 1st July 2015 @ 1.15pm – 2.30pm
Please come and support our annual Summer Fete on Wednesday 1st July at 1.15pm.
This year we have a VIP attending – the Mayor of Ipswich Mr Glen Chisholm. We will have lots on offer throughout the afternoon including a bouncy castle, face painting, cake stall, plant sale and games and activities. Free entry. All proceeds go to charity.
We look forward to seeing you on the day!
“St.Christopher’s gets funny for money – Comic Relief March 2015”
A great day was had by all at St.Christopher’s this month to raise money for the 2015 Comic Relief! With a range of fun activities and events on, staff and students rallied together and lots of laughs were had whilst raising money for such a worthwhile and wonderful charity. To prepare our students, we all looked at where the Comic Relief money goes and how we can help to change the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves.
The day started off with a mouth-watering cake sale (all cakes made with our students’ own fair hands)! An array of bright red, funny-faced cup cakes went on display and staff, visitors and students flocked to buy the sweet treats! Mmmmmmmmm yummy! Following this, we decorated “faces 4 donations” and played a range of funny games. The day ended with the results of the mask making competition which saw a number of staff and students winning some great prizes!
The students at St Christoper’s were delighted to raise £94.00. A big well-done to all those involved.
The Christmas Production 2014 – “The Great Treasure Chest Conundrum”
The students at St Christopher’s thoroughly enjoyed putting on their Christmas production of “The Great Treasure Chest Conundrum” for parents, staff and visitors from local schools. The performance (written by our very own KS2 teacher – Tim Kerr) was a great success and our students demonstrated superb acting, stage management and self-discipline. It was an anxious time for many of us (staff included!) but the students did us proud and, most importantly, every single one of them proved that they could beat their nerves and put on an outstanding performance which had everyone absolutely captivated. Every one of our students was involved in one way or another; from set design to refreshments and from acting to meeting and greeting guests. The production was a tremendous success and thoroughly enjoyed by all!
“I am so proud of my son and all the other children for keeping their cool and remembering their lines. I couldn’t have done that! Well done to you all”. – Parent of KS2 child
The staff and students at St Chrisptopher’s PRU would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
“The part I played was the evil Doctor Doctor. I was evil and I didn’t like it. It was really hard, but it wasn’t too long. I was embarrassed, but afterwards I felt so happy.” KS2 pupil
“My name in the play was Mr Strong and it was a good name because I am really, really STRONG! I felt nervous, but afterwards I felt joyous and proud!”. KS2 pupil
“It was a cool play and it was a real laugh. Doctor Doctor and his crew nicked the treasure chests and the heroes set out on their quest and we had to get past the Rotten Riddler and Espeller the witch. Master Perfect put a spell on Espeller. Kitten Girl put the Rotten Riddler in her ball of yarn and Mr Strong beat Stanislav (the smallest giant in the world) in a test of strength.” KS2 pupil
“My favourite part was going on stage and being a mermaid. I liked telling off Espella and saying “give up you nasty person or I will turn you into a lobster and cook you for my tea! I remembered all my lines. I felt very happy at the end. I then went home with my Mummy”. KS2 pupil