Life at St Peter's goes far beyond studying. With a wide variety of sports, arts, music and other activities available during the school week and as co-curricular clubs, our pupils can learn new skills and discover what they’re truly passionate about.
Co -Curricular at St Peter's
Our pupils are fortunate to have regular specialist lessons run by dedicated staff during their school day. From Pre-School, children experience sports, art, music and drama throughout their week, and woven through their learning theme.
Sport is a thriving co-curricular activity throughout St Peter's. Pupils enjoy excellent sports facilities on our 50 acre campus and use their timetabled sports lessons to experience many different sports from Reception which build up as they move through the school. Sports that children have early exposure to include: tennis, swimming, cricket, netball, athletics, hockey, badminton, football, rugby and cross country.
In older years we also take part in competitive fixtures for our major team sports (rugby, hockey and cricket for the boys, and hockey, netball and rounders for the girls) as well as swimming, tennis, athletics and cross-country running. We aim to ensure that every child has the opportunity to represent the school each term at an appropriate level.
With weekly 1:1 instrumental lessons and multiple ensembles led by a team of specialist instrumental and vocal teachers, the musical life of St Peter's Junior School is thriving. We firmly believe that every child can be a musician and music is a valued part of our school curriculum.
In addition to this, there are ensemble experiences for children from Year 2 onwards. This begins as choir in Year 2 and develops into more options as they learn their instruments to groups such as Sinfonia Orchestra or Jukebox Choir. We aim to give children the joy of performing with others.
Individual instrumental lessons in violin, piano and guitar are offered from Year 2, and Year 3 have taster sessions in strings, woodwind, and brass once a week. For those wanting to start earlier, pupils can take up recorder from Reception.
Children have an opportunity to showcase what they have learnt in informal concerts, and more formal end of year concerts.
We are proud to be the choir school for York Minster, and staff hugely enjoy attending Evensong each week. To find out more about being a York Minster Chorister, please click here.
Drama is taught as an academic subject in older years and encouraged as a co-curricular option, with several productions staged throughout the year for Year 3 onwards. For the younger years, drama is taught as part of the learning theme, and children are given opportunities to perform in Christmas and end of year productions.
Volunteering is an important part of life at St Peter’s. Pupils volunteer their time in many different ways to support the local community.
From the younger years visiting care homes or litter picking in the school grounds the importance of giving back is ingrained within the school.
Clubs and Activities
Many activities and clubs are available at no extra charge in addition to the normal timetabled lessons, ranging from Choir and Coding to Happiness Club and Let's Get Moving. Some optional clubs are run by external providers at school as afterschool activities, such as Football or Ballet.
Pupils sign up for clubs at the start of each term and they take place either at lunch times or between 3.20pm and 5.30pm.
- Art Club, for creative young minds and those who love to make a mess
- Dance, including ballet, Tap dance and Street Dance
- Theatre Club
- Football, Cricket, Tennis, Hockey and Let's Get Moving which develops co-ordination and sporting skills
- Languages Club, which introduces children to a range of cultures, languages and traditions from around the world
- STEM clubs, to engage young people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects including Coding.
- Eco Club, for children who are committed to making our school a sustainable and even more environmentally friendly place
- School Council - pupils are picked to be part of the School Council who are tasked with making improvements across the school
- Mini Dukes and Junior Dukes - for community action and to start the journey towards Duke of Edinburgh in the Senior School
- Mathletics, which offers new and exciting maths challenges
- Sewing and Crafts, for young people to share their love of sewing and all forms of craft
- Choir, for children wanting to develop their singing skills and perform in concerts across the year