As Head of St. Christopher's I would like to tell you a little bit about our school, particularly its recent past, which has seen some significant changes.

For 50 years, from 1952 to 2002, two schools, a junior department and an infant department served the parish of St. Christopher's. In recent years the birth rate has fallen quite dramatically both locally and nationally to such an extent that many schools facing these circumstances have amalgamated. This was the case for our two schools.

Often when this situation occurs staff, parents and governors can become very protective about their own position and resent the notion of change. Thankfully our school communities both embraced the need to amalgamate and saw it as an opportunity to make two really good schools into an even stronger one.

Our new school was formed in September 2002 and for the first two years we operated using both school sites whilst one (the juniors) was being prepared to accommodate all of the children from nursery age to year 6, our 10/11 year olds. This September saw the completion of that process and now everyone is on the one site and we really do feel like one school. We have a newly designed nursery as part of our foundation stage setting. Our infants occupy the downstairs classrooms of our building and the juniors are taught upstairs. But as we are still able to have two classes per year group we have also acquired a two class mobile base for our year 4 children.

We are also lucky to still retain our spacious grounds and playing fields and we have plans to upgrade our school hall to enhance our drama and music facilities. We are always looking to improve our provision for the children and I'm delighted that all of the staff are so committed to maximising what we do have for the benefit of our full school community. This commitment is borne out by the nationally recognised awards that have been gained in the last few years.

We are proud to say that we have gained the following awards for our very high standards in the full range of the curriculum and in how we care for all of our pupils, staff and the wider community.

• Investors in People
• Inclusion Charter Mark
• Artsmark Silver
• Active Mark Gold
• Schools Achievement Awards
• Healthy Schools Award
• Basic Skills Award

Pete Price
Head Teacher
St. Christopher's Catholic Primary School

Year 1 Construction Visit
Our Year 1 children had a brilliant morning visiting a building site at Castlefields Development in Runcorn. The site manager Colin McGee (Cruden Construction) and his team of builders were very welcoming. They were patient and attentive and took the children in small groups with the their teacher to parts of the site that were safe and of interest to the children.

This together with the Construction Day that was done previously in school, meant that all the children that took part in both activities were awarded a CITB certificate (Construction Skills Award Bronze Level). The visits and the day in school activities covered a variety of cross-curricular subjects, Science, Maths, Literacy, Geography and PSHE.

We had support and help from parents and we thank them for their time. We would also like to thank Speke Garston EAZ, The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) and Cruden Construction for their help and support. The teachers and the children really enjoyed the day.

Healthy Eating
Our tuck in school is now entirely free of crisps, fizzy drinks and sweets. We sell fresh fruit and plain biscuits, mineral water and fresh fruit juices to the Juniors.

Infant children have milk and plain biscuits daily with the added bonus of free fruit or vegetables from the National School Fruit scheme. This scheme now provides the Junior children with free fruit or vegetables each day.

Our school kitchen provides a range of healthy meals with options of baked potatoes, salads and sandwiches on a daily basis. We also encourage children to bring packed lunches with a range of healthy foods including sandwiches, fruit, etc and to cut down on crisps, fizzy drinks and sweets.

Children have been very good in following our healthy options and all children really look forward to their daily piece of fruit or vegetables. The school has also invested in new water fountains for children to access during break times. These have been a refreshing success.

Healthy Schools Award
Our school continues to hold its 'Healthy School' status. This award is in recognition for all the work and the activities done by the staff and children alike in trying to keep everyone safe, healthy and fit as well as being good citizens.

We all have a choice of fruit or vegetables to eat each day and we are encouraged to make healthy choices when we eat and drink. Our school has a great variety of seasonal outdoor and indoor after school activities that help promote healthy lifestyles and teamwork. Activities include; cricket, football, cross country, rounders, athletics, netball, dance, and judo

Year 1 Indian Dancer
As part of the school's culture map, the Year One children had a visit from an Indian dancer called Bisakha Sarker. All the children worked in the hall initially and then in class workshops in the morning and afternoon. During the day and the next day the children were able to talk and write about Bisakha, paint and draw pictures as well as other art work. They worked on dances based on old Indian stories about a peacock and Rama and Sita. The children were able to perform their dances in front of their parents who were invited at the end of the afternoon. The children enjoyed the dances, working with Bisakha and doing the follow up work in talking, writing and art work.

Children's University Presentation
Year 2 and Year 6 children received prestigious awards at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, following their fantastic achievements during the Children's University Modules this year. Certificates were presented by Mr Kenny, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. The children also received t-shirts and smart 'Children?s University' bags filled with goodies! In follow-up discussions the children talked about their aspirations to go to University when they leave school.

St Christopher's Catholic Primary School has a well equipped ICT room and library.

The school's sporting facilities include spacious and well appointed school halls with the junior hall marked for short tennis and badminton; two large school playgrounds which, on the junior site, provides two netball courts and a rounders pitch marked on it as well as other markings for cricket and for small sided games.

Our school field provides pitches for football, and, in the summer months, athletics (track and field), cricket and rounders. These facilities have been used by the local community on occasions but are not at this point in time regularly timetabled to groups.