World Book Day: The Peculiar Case of the Missing Books (Spring 2)

On Friday 7th March 2025, St. Anthony's celebrated World Book Day! Dressed as their favourite characters from a range of literature, each child threw themselves into reading-themed activities of all manners.

Today, Year 6 put their teamwork to the test as they helped Sherlock Holmes solve the Peculiar Case of the Missing Books. Over the week, several Sherlock Holmes books mysteriously disappeared and the children used their powers of deduction to locate the stolen property and unmask the culprit, which was none other than St. Anthony's very own deputy headteacher, Mr Whittle!

What exceptional teamwork our investigators demonstrated - well done to all!

English and Drama: Macbeth (Spring 1)

On Wednesday 12th February, Year 6 were visited by Splats Entertainment who led a whole-day drama workshop exploring our focus text: Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

Each pupil tried their best and threw themselves into the drama - what an exceptional performance!

On Wednesday 8th January 2025, our Young Voices Choir excitedly travelled to Sheffield Arena to take part in a National Young Voices performance. There were 4,862 pupils taking part, along with special artists performing live. Multi-award-winning teacher turned rapper and viral social media sensation, Jacob Mitchell, aka MC Grammar, wowed the children with his performance. Souparnika Nair, affectionately called as ‘Sou’, a 14-year-old young singer who has earned fantastic reviews from music lovers across the globe with her exceptional depth, maturity and pitch-perfect vocal talent rose to popularity after her showstopping audition on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent 2020 at the age of 10. Her rendition of the song “Never Enough”, from the musical The Greatest Showman has received over 100 million views on YouTube and other social media platforms. She became a semi-finalist of the show and performed live alongside our children. Tommy Blaize, lead singer of the BBC Strictly Come Dancing band for 20 incredible years, also provided soul and spark during the performance with our paired performances live on stage. The dancing of the Urban Strides group took our breathe away and we learnt lots of new moves which we performed to the live audience of thousands. Young Voices 2025 was simply awesome and our children will never forget the experience. 

On Tuesday 17th December 2024, at St Francis of Assisi Church, our Year 6 pupils made their sacrament of Confirmation. It was a beautiful occasion, conferred by Bishop Marcus, Bishop of Leeds. God bless all our Year 6 pupils as they continue to journey in faith. 

On Monday 16th December 2024, we held our annual Carol Service at St Anthony's Catholic Church. Our Chamber Choir led the way with their magnificent and harmonious singing. What a beautiful way to prepare for Christmas! The Service was attended by our whole school community as well as parish members and past pupils. 

In Autumn 2, Year 6 completed the next block of learning from our White Rose Science scheme: electricity. In this module, we investigated how variations in electrical circuits can affect the performance of components due to influences such as voltage and resistance.

Year 6 worked in teams to build three different circuits, changing the number of cells used as our independent variable. Our dependent variable was the loudness of the buzzers, which some children measured using a decibel meter! To ensure we took part in a fair test, we controlled the types of wires used, types of buzzer used and ensured we all used the same number of components throughout (with the exception of cells as they were our independent variable).

The children worked well as a team to develop both their substantive (scientific) and disciplinary (practical) knowledge. Well done everyone!

On Monday 2nd December 2024, Year 6 celebrated the beginning of Advent with an artistic afternoon! We used pastels and oil crayons to create Advent and Christmas inspired artwork featuring wreaths, candles, evergreens and baubles! The children were very creative with their choices of colour and worked skilfully to use artistic techniques such as blending.

Well done everyone, I love the new look for the classroom!

On Friday 22^nd November 2024, Leeds-local author Tom Palmer came to visit St. Anthony's to share his writing process and inspirations with our Year 5 and 6 classes!

Tom explained how he inspired to write and how his local area motivated him to write a series of successful stories, particularly the impact football had on his life. He also explained how he carefully researches historic events and uses these to develop his writing, such as how animals were used in the armed forces which inspired his novel 'D-Day Dog.'

This led to a discussion across the classes as we were provided with questions such as: 'Is war entertaining?' exploring themes of war in media and video games, 'Would you play football on Omaha Beach?' in response to the lives that were lost there during D-Day and 'Should animals be part of war?' where we discussed the various roles animals may fill on the war front.

Both pupils and staff alike joined in at every opportunity. The children were beyond enthusiastic and inspired and had many great questions for Tom to answer.

A huge thank you to Mrs Barton for arranging this exciting opportunity for our classes and for Tom for coming and sharing his love of literature with our classes!

A huge congratulations for Freya for being the most recent winner of the centenary shield! This trophy represents the best of what St. Anthony's pupils have to offer: kindness, respect, gratitude and and a passion for learning, all of which Freya shows each day! Well done for all of your hard work at St. Anthony's!

To celebrate our learning about the Kingdom of God in RE, Year 6 combined their learning with the techniques they have learned about street art in art and design to create a St. Anthony's mural! This depicts the virtues each and every pupil aims to live by at St. Anthony's, such as respect, hope, patience and many more. Year 6 collaborated and left their mark, reflecting on our learning and understanding our roles in the Kingdom of God.

On Tuesday 17^th September, Mr Whittle took four new Mini Vinnies to St Anne's Cathedral to celebrate mass with Bishop Marcus. The mass marked the 10 year anniversary of the Mini Vinnie initiative and brought hundreds of children together to commission them into this most wonderful of roles. Divine, Freya and Alina were outstanding ambassadors for the school during mass, while Evie was a picture of reverence in her privileged role as an altar server. This year, we have 20 Mini Vinnies looking to make a difference to those in need and we are looking forward to see how their work can help within our local community and beyond.

In September, Years 5 and 6 visited Mount St. Mary's Catholic High School to get a taste for high school life. We took part in a range of exciting lessons and saw what Mount St. Mary's had to offer.

What an exciting opportunity!

Citizenship - Parliament Outreach Visit (Autumn 1)

Year 4, 5 and 6 enjoyed a visit from the UK Parliament Outreach Team. This lively, interactive assembly introduced the children to what UK Parliament is and how it works. More importantly, the children explored what it means for their lives as citizens. We learnt about the work and role of the House of Commons and the House of Lords; the difference between UK Parliament and Government; the work of MPs and members of the House of Lords; how laws are made and how they can get their voices heard. 

PSHE - Bikeability Day 3 (Autumn 1)

Today, Year 6 completed their final day of  Bikeability training. Group 2 practised their cycling skills on the local streets around our school.

The Bikeability staff were so impressed by how patient, thoughtful and sensible they were when navigating active roads - what an amazing accomplishment!

Well done to all of Year 6 for their hard work, resilience and maturity when practising their cycling this week - keep up the good work!

PSHE - Bikeability Day 2 (Autumn 1)

Today, Year 6 continued their Bikeability training. Our LTR group practised their cycling on the Key Stage 2 playground, developing their control and balance of their bikes.

Group 2 then practised on the playground to develop their cycling skills and control, now ready to begin cycling on the local streets. They will complete their training tomorrow so that they become mindful and safe cyclists.

PSHE - Bikeability Day 1 (Autumn 1)

Today, our Year 6 class began their first day of Bikeability training. This involved navigating the Key Stage 2 playground and the local streets around our school. We refined our knowledge of road safety and how to stay safe and alert when out and about.

Year 6 behaved exceptionally and our visitors were very impressed - keep up the great work!

English - Personal Letters (Autumn 1)

To start our final school year, Year 6 wrote personal letters to their future selves. We shared our hopes and dreams, what we fear and what we are excited for. These letters are very special to the children and we will re-read them as our final bit of inspiration just before we begin our SATs.

Year 6 have made an exceptional start to the school year - keep up the fantastic work!

Welcome to Year 6!

Welcome back to your final year at St Anthony’s, Year 6! I am very excited to be welcoming you all through the cloakroom door very shortly and sharing an action-packed year with you!

I hope that you all have had a brilliant holiday with lots of fun and rest, and I hope you are excited about the wonderful year we are going to share together. I am really looking forward to continue getting to know each and every one of you and making Year 6 as successful as we can!

During our time in Year 6, we will enjoy exploring lots of wonderful topics! Our class novel ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ will be the inspiration for our first piece of writing. 

Throughout the year we will be using Google Classroom to complete our homework, but it is also a place to share what other wonderful and interesting things you have been getting up to at home! We are going to have lots of rewards and prizes for the children in Year 6 that are being kind, patient and trying their best – what should our whole class prize be? 

As we all get ready for our first day together in Year 6, please remember to:

• Come into school every day excited and ready to learn
• Remember that every day is a new challenge, and we are all here to help each other succeed. If you need any help, just ask!
• Read every night and make sure an adult signs your planner - reading is the key to success in Year 6!
• Spellings are to be completed every week and submitted on Google Classroom
• Times tables practise is essential
• PE days will be Monday and Tuesday for the first half term - don't forget your PE kits and bobbles (if you have long hair)
• Ensure you come to school in the correct uniform every day - you are now at the top of the school and, therefore, must lead the rest of the school by example
• Grow in maturity and independence – you are now entering your final year at St. Anthony’s and one of my main jobs is to ensure you are well prepared for high school. I will set you lots of challenges in school to help you develop your independence but try to do the same at home. For example: make your own pack lunch; get your uniform and school bag packed the night before; set your own alarm clock to wake up on time
• Always be positive! 

I know that you are all such hard workers and will try your best in everything that we do together in Year 6. I am looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

Mr Cook