Half-Term
Blog, May 2016
Let me begin by congratulating
Mrs Layhe on her appointment as headteacher from January 2017. Mrs Layhe has worked at St Peter’s for many
years now, and has proved herself both as an outstanding English teacher and as
a strong leader. She knows, understands
and supports the key Catholic values of St Peter’s and will be able to take it
on to reach higher standards without compromising those values.
We have other staffing changes
from this September and I shall ensure that you get a full picture of those
after half-term when things are clearer.
We have been able to appoint some excellent business studies teachers,
and also specialist teachers of health and social care, to work alongside Mr
Freeman. Dr Starkey is leaving to take
up a new challenge in another school, and they will benefit enormously from his
skills and energy; Mrs McHale is
retiring after a long and successful career with us in the art department, in
the training school and on the leadership team;
Mr Barnard has accepted a promotion at a local school, and we have had
to replace him as head of sixth-form.
This week we interviewed an
extremely strong short-list of candidates for the post of head of sixth-form
and appointed Mrs Sian Pearce who is currently an assistant head of sixth in a
Bristol school. We are very pleased to
have been able to make this appointment - although it is always sad to
disappoint other excellent candidates. Mr
Barnard will leave the sixth-form in a very strong position but we hope the sixth-form
can go on and build on that to ensure that standards are as high as possible.
I was very pleased by the part
our year 10 students - our future sixth-formers! - played in the interview
process. Every candidate was impressed
by their questions and seriousness, and Mrs Pearce commented that they “care
about the school and their education”. A
big thank you to them: it is students
like these who make St Peter’s what it is and who will help to continue the
improvements in the sixth-form.
One of those improvements is
the introduction of the ‘vocational pathways’ this coming September. All year 11s were given a leaflet about the
enrolment procedure and about the new pathways and I hope you have seen that. The information is on the website now.
All sixth-formers would do
well to consider the extra-curricular opportunities provided by the school’s
commitment to the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. Mr Peake and Mr McAteer have taken over the
running of the scheme and are building up a new team of staff to manage and run
it. I was lucky enough to have been
invited to Buckingham Palace, as headteacher, to attend the presentation at
which our former student Leo May received his Gold Award. A huge accolade for his hard work, and a
lovely sunny afternoon in Buckingham Palace Gardens for him and his parents
(and me!).
I was also invited, along with
many other local headteachers, to the presentation ceremony at the Madrasah
Al-Fateha which is held at Widden Primary School. Excellent to see some of our students shining
there, and once again showing hard work, commitment and charity in their work
outside St Peter’s. It was a privilege
to be able to attend.
Everyone is looking forward to
the half-term break, I think, except perhaps our older students who are deep
now into their public exams: for them
the week off is a week of revision and exam practice. We are planning internal exams for years 8
and 10 in the second half of the summer term and parents and carers of students
in those years will receive a letter explaining those and giving dates. (These letters are now sent by email, with
hard copies to collect from Reception.
Please ensure that we have your correct email address; an email to reception@sphs.co.uk
will help us fix that. The more homes we
can reach by email, the better. Thank
you.)
Have a good half term! But don’t forget we have an important final
session ahead of us. We all have to keep
pressing on until mid July to make sure that the summer holidays refresh us
rather than make us stale.
Philip Rush
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