St Patrick’s Day celebrations at St Patrick’s

St Patrick's has spent the day celebrating its patron saint's day with a host of off-timetable activities

A Catholic primary school in Rochdale dedicated a whole day to celebrating its namesake – St Patrick.

Pupils from St Patrick’s RC School, on Foxholes Road, had their faces painted with shamrocks, wore rosettes, hair bands and hats to celebrate the Patron Saint of Ireland on his special day – 17 March.

They then enjoyed a host of different activities throughout the day to learn more about the 5th century missionary who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.

Headteacher Kathryn Bishop said: “It is a long-standing tradition at this school that we celebrate St Patrick’s Day, but last year because of the pandemic we had to cancel our community events.

“The pupils came in their uniforms, which are already green and blue and the girls wear a Celtic skirt, and they could accessorise their uniform with headwear, shamrocks or facepaint.”

Every year group was off timetable and in the morning younger children made rainbow fridge magnets while a treasure hunt saw children solving a maths problem to find puzzle pieces which were hidden outside in the new Year 1 outdoor area. Each picture they found led them to one of St Patrick’s stories, which they then wrote about.

Older year groups got to make a Celtic knot while Year 6 children worked with their reception buddies on a number of different activities including cutting out their own Leprechaun and making St Patrick’s paperchains.

Mrs Bishop said: “We had a special celebratory lunch of traditional Irish fare - Dublin Irish Hot Pot followed by green Shamrock jelly or Shamrock shortbread for dessert.

“In the afternoon, as a whole school, we celebrated with the parish community by taking the children to attend a Mass at St Patrick’s Church.

“At our school our Patron Saint’s Day is a very important day in our calendar where we come together as a school family to celebrate, worship and give thanks for our rich and long-established tradition.

“The St Patrick’s flag flew high above the school to celebrate the day.”