We were delighted to welcome Baroness Anderson to our school last week! 🙌
Our school councillors had the fantastic opportunity to ask thoughtful questions about education, Parliament, and how we can better support children with additional needs. It was an inspiring visit that sparked great discussion and ideas for the future. 🌟
Thank you for taking the time to visit and engage with our students!
🏆 We are thrilled to share that Hanley St Luke's has earned the School Games Platinum Mark Award for 2025/26!
This Government-led award, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust, recognizes schools that champion competition and physical activity both in school and throughout the community.
Our young athletes have had an incredible year competing in 🏈 rugby, ⚽ football, 🏏 cricket, 🏐 netball, 🎣 fishing, 🏊 swimming, 🥎 rounders, and 🏃 athletics. Beyond the playing field, we are equally proud of our student volunteers, leaders, and officials who helped make every competition possible.
This award reflects the dedication of our entire school community—from our pupils who showed up with heart and determination, to every adult who supported our physical education provision. The success came from meeting criteria across participation, competition, workforce, and clubs, and honestly, it took all of us working together to get here.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone at Hanley St Luke's who made this possible. We cannot wait to apply again in 2027! 🌟
🔔 £1,000 RAISED!!!!!🔔
On Friday, a staff team from HSL attended and took part in a special fundraising Netball Tournament hosted by St Mary’s Primary School Tunstall.
8 local schools, 9 teams, 63 players, 20 volunteers, 1 tournament and numerous spectators raised a huge amount of money for a cause close to our hearts - for a friend and colleague in the fight against cancer💞🏐
If you would like to read more about the fundraising effort or the story behind it, please follow the link to the school Go Fund Me page. https://gofund.me/9d2d7e421
🌟 Nursery Library Van Visit 🌟
Today our Nursery children were thrilled to welcome the Library Van! 📚✨ They enjoyed listening to stories and singing songs, sparking lots of smiles and excitement.
Experiences like this are a vital part of our curriculum, helping to prepare pupils for future opportunities by nurturing a love of reading, communication skills, and curiosity about the world around them. What a wonderful way to bring learning to life! 💛📖
💛💙 What an Amazing Week in London! 💙💛
Our Performance Club children and staff have had the most incredible time in London this week! The children enjoyed a memorable West End performance of Oliver!, an overnight stay in a hostel, and plenty of fun playing in Regent’s Park.
The children have been absolute superstars throughout the trip. Their excellent listening skills, fantastic behaviour, and positive attitudes have been a real credit to themselves, their families, and our school. We have truly loved sharing this wonderful experience with them.
Today, the children also visited London Zoo, where they saw a huge range of animals and enjoyed yet another fantastic day. Once again, their exemplary behaviour was commented on by members of the public—well done, everyone! ⭐️
A huge congratulations to all of our amazing children, and an enormous thank you to the dedicated staff who gave up their time to plan, prepare, and support this unforgettable opportunity:
Mrs Clarke, Mrs Forrester, Miss McNulty, Mrs Cotton, Miss Johns, Mrs Stevenson, Miss Jennings, Miss Liv, Miss G. Franklin, Mrs Critchlow, and Mrs Jones.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip such a success. We are incredibly proud of you all! 💛💙💛💙
Three Spires Trust - Inspire Spring Edition
🌟 Supporting Every Family at Hanley St Luke’s: Poverty Proofing the School Day
At Hanley St Luke’s, we want every child to feel included, supported, and able to take part in everything our school offers—no matter their financial situation. That’s why we follow a Poverty Proofing approach to reduce the cost of the school day and remove barriers for families.
👕 Affordable & Inclusive School Uniform
We keep uniform costs as low as possible by limiting branded items to just three pieces:
Sweatshirt or cardigan
Polo shirt
PE top
All other items can be bought from any retailer in the correct colours. Pre‑loved uniform is always available, and we can provide uniform or PE kit if needed.
🧥 Helping With Clothing & Essentials
We offer coat, footwear, and clothing giveaways throughout the year. Items from lost property that have been unclaimed for three months are added to our pre‑loved stock for families to access.
🎨 Low‑Cost Theme & Non‑Uniform Days
To avoid extra costs, we keep non‑uniform and dress‑up days to a minimum and choose themes based on clothes families are likely to already have—such as pyjamas, simple colour themes, or everyday clothing.
💛 Making School Accessible for All
We use our funding carefully to ensure every child can access school activities, experiences, and resources, helping all pupils to thrive and fully participate in school life.
https://newsletter.threespirestrust.org/t/ViewEmailArchive/t/5581EA14949D16E22540EF23F30FEDED/C67FD2F38AC4859C/
Year 5 & 6 girls football ⚽️
Our girls had a brilliant tournament only just missing out on the top spot. We came in a proud 2nd place 🏆
We won our first game 4 nil with two goals from Dotty and two goals from Tomi 👏
We lost our second game 1 nil but we this was against the tournament winners.
Our third game saw Jacqueline score a brilliant goal and Macie make a couple of great saves🙌
Well done team HSL - can’t wait to do it again. 👏 ⚽️
🌟 Introducing Our STEM Ambassadors! 🌟
We are excited to introduce our STEM Ambassadors — a fantastic group of pupils who will play an important role in promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) across our school! 🔬💻⚙️📊
These children were chosen because of their enthusiasm, curiosity and positive attitude towards learning. As STEM Ambassadors, they will help inspire others and bring even more exciting STEM opportunities to our school community.
As part of their role, our ambassadors will:
🔹 Take part in future STEM events and workshops
🔹 Support classes during science experiments and investigations
🔹 Help promote STEM across the school
🔹 Share their passion for discovering, exploring and problem-solving
🔹 Take on special projects and lead exciting STEM activities
This is a wonderful opportunity for our pupils to develop leadership skills, teamwork and confidence while helping others enjoy STEM learning.
We are incredibly proud of our new STEM Ambassadors and can’t wait to see the amazing ideas and projects they will help bring to life. Watch this space for updates about the exciting work they will be doing! 🚀
Well done to all of our ambassadors — we know you will do a fantastic job! 👏
🌟 British Science Week 2026 🌟
Celebrating reading, curiosity and the incredible role of STEM!
As part of British Science Week, we’re excited to share book recommendations that inspire children from EYFS to Year 6 to explore the amazing world of STEM. Reading STEM-themed stories together can spark curiosity, build problem‑solving skills and help children see how science and creativity shape the world around us.
✨ It’s also important to highlight the vital role that women and girls have played — and continue to play — in STEM, and to ensure children see positive role models who show that STEM is for everyone. [booktrust.org.uk]
To help you explore STEM through reading at home, here are three trusted booklists:
🔍 1. BookTrust: Books to Engage Children with STEM
A brilliant collection of stories and non-fiction introducing STEM ideas in fun and accessible ways for all ages.
🔗 https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recommendations/booklists/books-to-engage-children-with-stem/ [booksfortopics.com]
🔧 2. Left Brain Craft Brain: Best STEM & STEAM Books for Kids
A highly engaging set of STEM and STEAM activity books, fiction and non-fiction designed to get children building, creating and experimenting.
🔗 https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/the-best-stem-books-steam-books-for-kids/ [leftbrainc...tbrain.com]
👩🔬 3. BooksForTopics: Women & Girls in STEM
An inspiring list focusing on women and girls in STEM, featuring real-life pioneers like Rosalind Franklin and Katherine Johnson, as well as fictional young inventors such as Izzy Gizmo — helping children see women at the forefront of scientific discovery.
🔗 https://www.booksfortopics.com/booklists/topics/science-maths-computing/women-girls-in-stem/ [booktrust.org.uk]
📖 Why not choose a STEM‑themed book to enjoy together this week?
Let’s celebrate reading, imagination, and all the children who are the scientists, engineers, coders and creators of the future.
#BritishScienceWeek #STEM #WomenInSTEM #FamilyReading #CuriosityStartsHere
I had the privilege of attending the Hands of Hope Awards hosted by Alice Charity, where our very own Lisa Hall was nominated in the Dedication & Excellence Award category. Lisa is an absolute star, and her nomination is a testament to the commitment and passion she brings to our school community every day. 🌟
We are also incredibly proud that Heather Sheldon, CEO of Alice Charity and a valued member of our Governing Board, was nominated for the Excellence in Leadership Award.
Both Lisa and Heather exemplify humility, dedication and outstanding service. We could not be prouder of their achievements and the positive impact they continue to make.
Mrs Cooper
Our amazing school podcasters have created a special Safer Internet Day edition of Talk on the Hill 🎙️💻 Tune in to hear our children share their thoughts on how to stay safe online, what AI is, and how to use it responsibly — plus so much more. It’s insightful, thoughtful, and led by young voices you won’t want to miss!
Year 5 enjoyed an exciting Cyber Security workshop
The children explored how codes work by encrypting and decrypting messages, while learning why strong, smart passwords are so important. They also discovered some of history’s most famous codebreakers, including Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, and used the Caesar Shift to create their own secret messages.
To finish, the children took on a challenge to crack a ‘safe’ by using technology to decrypt passwords, messages and images. A brilliant mix of history, problem-solving and digital skills!
