Year 6 – Saint Padre
A huge welcome to Year 6: your final year at St. Matthews!
St. Padre Pio - Y6 Padre
God blessed my life with many miracles. When I was a young boy, I could see guardian angels. Then, one day while I was hearing confessions, another miracle happened. The wounds of Jesus appeared on my hands and feet. Through my life, I brought many people closer to God. I would tell them, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry!”
St. Padre Pio was an Italian priest who was known for his piety and charity, as well as the gift of the stigmata, which has never been explained.
St. Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione, on May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. His parents were peasant farmers. He had an older brother and three younger sisters, as well as two other siblings who died in infancy. As a child, he was very religious and by the age of five he reportedly made the decision to dedicate his life to God.
Fortunately, his parents were also very religious and they supported his Catholic development. His family attended daily Mass. Francisco served as an altar boy at his local parish. Francisco was known for taking on penances and his mother once scolded him for sleeping on a stone floor.
Although Francisco and his family was very religious, they were also very poor, which required that he work. He spent many years as a child tending to a small flock of sheep owned by his family. Unfortunately, the work meant he was unable to attend school regularly, so he quickly fell behind other kids his age.
Brother Pio became a priest in 1910, but was permitted to remain at home because of his poor health.
On September 20, Padre Pio was hearing confessions when he felt pain in his hands and feet. He noticed the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, appearing on his hands and feet. The experience was painful. Bleeding occurred. The wounds smelled of roses, and although they continued to weep, they never became infected. Doctors who later examined the stigmata were amazed at their perfectly round shape.
By 1919, word began to spread about Padre Pio’s stigmata and people came from far away to examine him.
Padre Pio became popular with the people he encountered and soon began to attribute supernatural occurrences to him. For example, he was said to levitate, and able to perform miracles.
Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968. His funeral was attended by over 100,000 people.
Saint Padre Pio, Pray for us
Our team:
- Mr Bailey - Year 6 Teacher
- Miss Kent - Year 6 Higher-level Teaching Assistant
- Mr Sheppard - Year 6 Teaching Assistant
On this page, you can find information about our work each term, the classroom, and important updates.
The Year 6 Classroom
Of course, Year 6 is an important and exciting year for our students; it is their final year of primary school before moving on to secondary school and, sadly, their final year at St Matthew's School. We want this year to be productive, engaging, memorable, and - most of all - enjoyable for all our students.
Our PE days are Wednesday and Thursday where children will perform PE both indoors and outdoors.
SATs
For many people, when thinking of year 6, it is SATs that come to mind first.
These will take place in May 2024 and preparing for these is a focus of much of the year.
Information packs are sent out to parents during the Autumn term, but current information provided by the government can be found here.
Children can practise their maths in their spare time using the brilliant Times Table Rockstars. Click on the link to log on:
Spelling
We also have access to the excellent Spelling Shed by EdShed for children to practise their spellings from home, to deepen their understanding of vocabulary and grammar, and even to compete with each other and other classes for points.
Your child will have been provided with instructions for how to log into their a EdShed account, and you can follow the link below to get there.
Please see below for photos or our classroom including our reading area and Padre Pio display showing children's work on our class Saint. In addition to this, we have our recent artist focus, Lubaina Himid.