St Malachy's 
Events at St Malachy's
We have lots of events planned for the coming terms in this new school year so keep watching this space!
SPRING TERM 2025
Little Bikers
All our Reception children took part in a series of 4 'Little Bikers' sessions with coach Calvin.
They had a brilliant time and they have all grown in confidence and independence whilst learning to ride a bike.
Well done to them all for the progress they made!
Mental Health Assembly
We had a visit from Katie and her wonderful canine helper Dexter. Katie works for Invictus, delivering programmes for mental health for many groups of young people.
She spoke about the importance of looking after our mental health. She was impressed with the answers our children gave to her questions.
Dexter is a therapy dog, helping young people with anxiety. He was very relaxed in the hall and enjoyed the round of applause at the end!
Year 6 Visit All Saints Catholic College
Our Year 6 were invited to watch the dress rehearsal of Matilda at All Saints and of course we jumped at the chance!
What a great opportunity for the children to venture out and see the production in the auditorium along with the rest of the audience.
it was also a great opportunity to spend some time in a high school and get a feel for what it is like.
Perhaps seeing the students performing in such a well loved show may inspire some of our own children to take part in drama and singing productions in the future!
Learning about Islam
As part of their work on Islam, Years 5 and 6 had a zoom call with some Year 5 and 6 children from St Mary's Halifax.
The children spoke to our classes about their life as Muslims and about some of their customs and celebrations.
Our children asked some great questions and the children from St Mary's enjoyed talking about their faith.
We will look forward to talking to them again!
Beat the Streets!
We were so excited to be involved in the Best the Streets Calderdale competition to try and win up to £1,000 for school by walking more in and around our local community!
We loved welcoming Sofie from 'Active Calderdale' into school to explain what we have to do and how to register with the competition.
We are going to try our best to find as many check points as we can around our local community!
Watch this space for news about how we are all doing!
Meeting the Author - Sam Sedgeman!
We had a wonderful opportunity to join with other children from some of our Trust schools for a talk by children's author Sam Sedgeman. We had a wonderful time listening to his process in writing a story as well as listening to some sections from his books. Who knows, maybe one of our children will aspire to be an author now!
We came away with some signed copies of one of Sam's books for our class and school libraries!
Calderdale Boccia Competition
We have already held Boccia competitions in our school and for our local Trust schools.
This term some of our children took part in a different Boccia competition against other Calderdale schools.
Here are two of our bronze medal sinners!
It is always good to test our skills in a competitive way and as always out children made us very proud!
New Age Curling
A team of representatives from our school took part in a Calderdale Curling event against lots of other schools.
This sport is new to us but the team worked really hard to build upon their skills within the session and thoroughly enjoyed it!
They played so well and, although they didn't progress to the final, they made us very proud!
Chinese New Year
We were excited to learn about Chinese New Year and the start of the Year of the Snake. We did lots of activities which included creating a dragon in Reception and trying some Chinese writing. We also tried some Chinese food we had never tried before AND had a go at using chop sticks!
King Charles' Coronation Workshop
Our Year 1 children and their parents had the chance to work together in a workshop that focused on the Coronation of King Charles III! Everyone had a great time recalling facts they already knew and talking about the coronation as they got creative!
Well done to our parents and their children!
African Drumming Workshop
What a fantastic day we had learning about African djembe drums and rhythms!
Every class in school had the chance to have a go at playing a drum and what brilliant musicians they were! The beats were in time and the classes even played different beats at the same time. We were very impressed!
We now have some djembe drums in school and Mrs Farooq is going to run a drumming club! How wonderful!
Battle of the Books
We were very excited to send representatives from Year 4, 5 and 6 to ake art in Battle of the Books. This an annual event that involves teams from across our Trust family of schools. The children are challenged to read 2 books each and then answer questions on those books, gaining points and hoping to win!
Although we didn't win this year, we were so proud to be part of such a great event where we share our love of reading with others. It is lovely to come together with children from the other schools and have fun!
Well done to our team for making a tremendous effort and making us proud!
Calderdale Bowling Competition
Some of our children represented school at a Bowling event held in Halifax. Our children, who had never bowled before, did a brilliant job playing with enthusiasm and focus.
It was wonderful spending some time with children from other Halifax schools too. Well done to all our team!
British Values Family Learning Sessions
We were really pleased to be able to work with the Calderdale Family Learning Team to put on family workshops with a focus on British Values. The children and their parents had a wonderful time creating activity based work that they could take home.
A Visit from Jude
We were lucky to have a visit from Jude, who used to work with us in Forest School! Jude came in to talk to some of our KS2 children about his most recent adventure - rowing the Atlantic! Jude and a team of 4 others completed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in 47 days and set a world record for the oldest combined age of rowers!
What an inspiration he is!
The Fire of London Workshop
Our Year 2 children and their parents had the chance to work together on one of their History topics - the Great Fire of London!
There was wonderful discussion and some fabulous art work that was produced as a result! Well done everyone!
We love to read!
What a fantastic day we have on World Book Day! Our theme was bedtime stories and we came to school in our pyjamas - even the staff!
We told each other about our favourite books and authors, we read to each other in class and older children read to younger children. We also had some designated time to read to ourselves quietly so we could immerse ourselves in a book!
What a wonderful day celebrating books!
AUTUMN TERM 2024
Rock Kidz Dance WorkshopWe were thrilled to welcome Rock Kidz back for another year! They delivered electrifying performance workshops full of energy, excitement, and positive vibes, energizing the children and getting everyone dancing up a sweat. The band wowed everyone at St. Malachy’s with powerful, motivational rock anthems like "Don’t Quit" and "You’re Awesome, So Be Awesome." These songs weren’t just great music; they also shared important messages about resilience and perseverance.
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Macmillan Coffee Morning
Our Macmillan Coffee morning is always a lovely event to host and an opportunity for parents and carers to gather in a good cause. The staff are always extremely supportive too. This year we raised £75 for this much needed charity.
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Author VisitWe were so pleased to have a visit from author Elizabeth Green. She told us how she became an author and read us one of her books 'The Owl who only Growl'. It was a wonderful visit and we all enjoyed listening to such a lovely story!
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Money Matters Workshops
We worked closely with Nat West Bank to provide workshops for our children on the importance of money and spending wisely.
Well done to our children for their engagement and thank you Nat West for this wonderful event.
Harvest Liturgy
A huge thank you to all our children, families and staff for their donations of produce for our harvest. The donations will put to good use in the Halifax Community Kitchen, supporting those less fortunate than ourselves. We celebrated a wonderful harvest liturgy with song and praise as we gave thanks to God for the wonderful gifts of the land and the sea! Our Prayer Liturgy Team helped to organise this and did a fabulous job! School Route Audit
Some of our children from Years 5 and 6 worked with an officer from Calderdale to carry out a school route audit of the pavements and roads around our school. The children highlighted some of the issues that pedestrians faced and shared their findings with the officer who will present them to the Local Authority. We hope all our input will have a positive impact on our local area and make it even more safe for everyone!
Halifax MP visits school!
We were thrilled to have a visit from our own MP for Halifax, Kate Dearden.
Kate came in to talk to us about her role as an MP, how she works in the House of Commons from Monday to Thursday and how she knows our Prime Minister Keir Starmer! The children had lots of good questions for her and she did a good job answering them!
She also came to announce the winner of her Christmas card competition! Our children were asked to design a Christmas card that she could send out this Christmas. We were SO pleased that she chose 3 runners up who all received a frame of the cards and a book about the Houses of Parliament AND an overall winner from Year 4 who did an fantastic job. The winning card will be printed and be sent to many members of the House of |Commons, Keir Starner and even the King and Queen! Truly amazing! |
Cross Country
We are so proud of our sports representatives who took part in the Calderdale Schools Cross Country competition at Forest Cottage. Not only were they amazing ambassadors for our school and had a great time but 6 of them also secured places in the Calderdale finals to be held in December! Well done to them all!
Halifax Town Experience
A group of our Year 5 children represented our school at a football match held at our own Halifax Town ground with our home team playing against York City. There were over 3, 000 people in the crowd!
Our children formed part of the Guard of Honour before the match and played a match against Siddal school at half time. What an amazing experience for them and what excellent ambassadors for our school!
The Adam Heslop Cup 2024
Our Footballers took part in a Calderdale Competition and faced many other teams in regular matches throughout the tournament.
Our players were fantastic, representing our school brilliantly well and working hard as a team.
They made a consistent effort to o their best and scored some wonderful goals! Well done to them all! Singing in the Community
We were very proud of those choir members who came along to sing at Morrisons, bringing festive cheer to the community.
We sang a selection of Christmas carols and songs. The shoppers were very impressed and even asked for an encore once we had finished.
It was wonderful to be able to perform our repertoire for all to hear!
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Fire Safety Talk
Our Year 5 and 6 children had a visit from the Local Fire Brigade who gave a safety talk ahead of Bonfire Night and also spoke to the children about their job and how they keep people safe. The children had the chance to try on a few uniforms and explore the fire engine too! EYFS also had the chance to chat to the fire fighters and look at the fire engine as well as listen to the siren! What a fabulous event! Paralympian Sean Gaffney Visits!
We were thrilled to have a visit from Sean Gaffney, Paralympian for Team GB who has won a mix of medals for powerlifting an indoor rowing. Sean took the children through their paces leading them in circuits in the hall and encouraged everyone to challenge themselves! It was hard work but the children had a brilliant time and there was a lot of fun! Sean was an inspiration to us all, evidencing that with determination and resilience you can achieve your dreams!
Calderdale Cross Country Semi Finals
We were so proud of our children who represented our school so valiantly in the Calderdale Cross Country event!
There were around 60 runners in each event and our children were amazing.
Well done to them. They showed excellent resilience and perseverance in their races!
St Andrew's House Celebrate his Feast Day!
Our children in St Andrew's House gathered together to celebrate his feast day. The celebration was led by our very own Mrs Reilly who is Scottish and who was very excited to be involved!
The KS2 children learned a Scottish Reel which they thoroughly enjoyed! Then they helped the younger children in a circle Scottish reel.
Mrs Reilly had prepared some haggis for the children to try. A few were a bit apprehensive about trying this new food but the overall consensus was - it was tasty!
Great fun was had by all in celebration of St Andrew's feast day! |
