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

 

 

 

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.