In partnership with

St Malachy's Catholic Primary, Furness Place, Illingworth, Halifax, HX2 8JY

01422 244628

admin@st-malachys.calderdale.sch.uk

St Malachy's Catholic Primary School

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We are proud to work with all the Catholic schools across our two local authority areas, particularly as the Trust grows and benefits from the expertise and knowledge that other schools joining in the future will bring.

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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!

'I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full!' John 10:10

SUMMER TERM 2025

Beat the Streets Results!

We were so happy to welcome Sophie back to school from Calderdale Active Schools.

She came to announce that St Malachy's had won second place in the

'Beat the Streets'

competition which was set up to encourage fitness through walking.

She presented us with a second place certificate and £400 of sports vouchers!

She also presented our school's individual winners with certificates and gave a special shout out to two of our staff who had made a great effort to 'Beat the Streets' too!

Well done everyone for your amazing efforts!

Bikeability 

 

 Well done to our Year 5 and 6 children who took part in the Bikeability sessions through the scheme run by Calderdale Council.

This is something we offer every year and lots of the children look forward to. 

Everyone made an excellent effort and the coaches were really impressed with the children taking part.

Some of our children showed superb proficiency and were awarded with special certificates!

Clay Workshop

 We were so delighted to welcome a PCGE Student in to school on a day's placement from teaching in High School, to work with our Year 6 on a clay workshop project.

The children designed their own alien monsters which they then brought to life in clay.  The results were fantastic as you can see and the children are eager to paint their models before taking them home!

Design Workshop Year 6

 

         Our Year 6 had a great morning designing illustrations for a Leavers T-Shirt that will be printed onto the shirts and presented to them as they get ready to leave our school and move on to high school!

What a special gift.

          The children had some great ideas for the designs and we cannot wait to see the finished products which I am sure will be worn proudly!

We are very grateful to the Family Learning from Calderdale who came along and ran the session. The children's parents had as much fun as the children did!

 

Calderdale Football Tournament

 

We were so proud of our KS2 girls who represented our school at the Calderdale Girls Football Tournament. The all played excellently well with St Malachy's team spirit! Our Year 5/6 girls scored over 40 goals in their competitive games!

Well done to them all!

Summer Term Boccia Competition

 

Year 5 Residential to Robinwood

 Our Year 5 had a brilliant time at Robinwood! They enjoyed all the activities, supporting one another, showing excellent team building skills and challenged themselves to have a go!

The weather was beautiful which made the outdoor activities even more fun! Well done to all the children, and the staff too who joined in with every activity!

Play Leader Training

 Our Year 5 children had a great day developing skills as play leaders, inventing games and then playing them. The worked really well in their teams and supported each other when they tried out the games. 

We hope to see some of these games being played at break and lunchtimes!

Year 6 Visit Leeds Museum

 

 Our Year 6 visited Leeds Museum to enrich their understanding of the Ancient Greeks. They took part in a workshop and had the chance to look closely at some Ancient Greek artefacts.

They created presentations in groups to share the things they had seen and learned.

What a wonderful day they all had!

 

Birds of Prey Visit!

 What a treat to have a visit from 3 Birds of Prey! All the children were introduced to Jeff the Peregrine Falcon, Tike the Little Owl and Dusty the Brown Owl. 

The children learned something about the birds from Katy who did an amazing job introducing each bird to the classes. I think the birds loved being at St Malachy's as they were very well behaved! At the end of each class session the children were given the chance to hold one of the Birds of Prey. Mrs Hodges had a turn too! 

 

 

Manor Heath Visit for Earth Class

  

 

Year 2 Visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Spring Planting

 We had a wonderful family workshop where parents came in to join their children in planting up containers and baskets with lovely spring bulbs and plants. The children had a great time deciding which plants and container to choose. Of course they loved filling the containers with soil and then creating their arrangement. The bonus was they got to take their containers home! What fun!

Northern Arts Dance Show

 We have some very talented performers in St Malachy's and a group of them who have been working on a dance routine to the Greatest Showman, finally got to perform it for a big audience at Crossleys on the stage! We were so very proud of their achievement and showcasing St Malachy's so well. It was an amazing routine everyone! Well done!

The Jubilee Year Board arrives at St Malachy's!

 
We were delighted to welcome the Jubilee 2025 Pilgrims of Hope Board to our school this week as it makes its way around all the many schools in the Diocese of Leeds.
During a special assembly this morning, we proudly added our school badge to the board. It was then taken to St Joseph's, Brighouse, where 2 of our students presented it to the staff and children.
It was a lovely morning celebrating this special Jubilee year and the unity of schools within the Blessed Peter Snow Trust and the Diocese of Leeds.

A Trip to see the English Chamber Orchestra!

 We were so excited to take Year 5 to see the English Chamber Orchestra at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax. The first group to arrive had a photo opportunity on the central stairs of this wonderful theatre, completed in 1901! We were resdy our seats when the orchestra took centre stage and the concert was fantastic! The children were delighted when they heard  'In the Hall of the Mountain King' by Grieg and 'Presto - Summer' by Vivaldi - two pieces they have been listening to in class.  Year 5 were an excellent audience and made us very proud. It was a wonderful experience.

 

Family Learning Workshop

 

 

Skipping Workshops

 

 

 

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. 

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 by walking more in and around our local community!

We loved welcoming Sofie from 'Active Calderdale' who explained what we have to do.

We are going to try our best to find the check points around our local community!

 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 Trust Schools Boccia Competition

Once again we organised and hosted the Boccia competition for the spring term and invited our Calderdale Catholic Primaries who are also part of the Blessed Peter Snow Trust. 5 schools took part and each team - made up of 4 players - competed against each other collecting points along the way. 

Our team of 4 came 3rd and we were very proud of them. The staff from the other schools commented on how our children made them and their teams so welcome through their friendliness and helpfulness.

How fantastic! 

 

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

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

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!

 

Year of Hope Liturgy at All Saints 

 Some of our First Sacrament children visited All Saints Catholic College for a special liturgy in the chapel. They spent some time in silent reflection during this season of Lent.

We then went into one of the classrooms and worked on some activities together as part of the cluster schools but also as a school team. All the children had a wonderful time and learned some new things as well as having the chance to go inside a high school! This was a new experience for them.

Well done to them all for being such excellent ambassadors for our school.

 

 

 

Calderdale Bowling Competition

Some of our children had the chance to go to the Bowling Alley in Halifax and compete in a competition against other Calderdale schools. It was fantastic to see the older children helping the younger ones and they all had a brilliant time!

It was wonderful spending some time with children from other Halifax schools. Well done to all our team!

 

 British Values Family Learning

 

 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 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!

 

 

Fire of London Family Learning

 

  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! The children and their parents loved being able to take their work home!

Well done everyone!

World Book Day 2025

We always look forward to World Book day even though we love to read as much as we can every other day too!

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 stories and authors and books!

Tag Rugby at Forest Cottage

We were so proud of our children who represented our school at the local schools Rugby Tournament at Forest Cottage.

They played with passion and great effort scoring many tries and showing wonderful team spirit.

They were amazing ambassadors for our school!

Our girls team stormed to victory in their tournament, winning for St Malachy's!

 

 

 

Celebrating St David's Day and St Patrick's Day

The children in both Houses gathered in the hall on their saint's day to celebrate. 

Both Houses took part in traditional dancing. The older children helped the younger children which was so lovely to see!

The children in St David's House tasted some traditional Welsh cake called Bara Brith and they all took home a daffodil which is one of the emblems of Wales.

The children in St Patrick's House enjoyed trying colcannon, a traditional Irish dish made from mashed potato and greens and took a sticker with a shamrock on.

All the children had a fabulous time.

 AUTUMN TERM 2024

Rock Kidz

 

 We 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.

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.

 

 

 

 

Author Visit

 

We 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!

 

 

 

 

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!

 

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!

AUT