Happy Easter
Firstly, you
are all warmly invited to a memorial Mass for Mr Montagu and the dedication to
him of the new block. The Mass will begin promptly at 10.30 in the main
hall, on Tuesday 12th April (that’s the Tuesday after we return to
school). Please be here by around 10.15.
The morning will end with a formal dedication of the newly refurbished
‘main block’ to Larry’s memory. Parents,
as well as former students and staff, are all welcome.
There will
be an opportunity, too, to see how much better the new buildings now are. We’re catering for some light refreshments,
at coffee time, and if you would like to stay for that, please email Mrs
Cameron at school (rcameron@sphs.uk.com).
Thank you.
Once again, I
am very pleased with the imagination and effort put into their ‘faculty
fortnights’ by staff and students. The
science fortnight was particularly memorable – if I am allowed to say so – with
Mr Rouffet and his team performing on the main stage a marvellous cross between
the Royal Society Christmas Lectures and Crackerjack. Maybe the Crackerjack bits were the
best. It was also genuinely exciting to
hear from the students who went with Dr Taylor and her team of teachers to CERN
in Geneva: the hadron collider, the
United Nations and the mountains and lakes of Switzerland all in one short,
intense trip. And the maths department
found a young man who could solve the Rubik cube puzzle in 27 seconds. Which boggles the mind.
During this Lent
season and in this Year of Mercy, I am very proud of the efforts of Jude
Dowdeswell. Jude had the idea of 'running the school day' for Sport
Relief and the response from staff, students, family and friends who sponsored
Jude to run throughout the school day (with a touch of the Eddie Izzards there)
was fantastic, and, in the words of Jude’s parents “reminded us of the
reason why St. Peters is so great - it enables all pupils to achieve their
potential” I am very pleased to report
that Jude achieved her fundraising target of one thousand pounds. A terrific effort!
This coming
term students will be receiving their final reports of the year with breakdowns
of their assessments and a comment from tutors.
I am referring to the single-sided A4 sheets with grades (eg ‘excellent’,
‘very good’) and comments on progress (eg ‘exceeding target’) as well as a
short handwritten comment from each student’s tutor. As the summer letter explained back in August
last year, I am asking teachers to put their time and energy into the highest
quality of individual assessment of students, and therefore I said that there
would be no long, end-of-year written reports this year. I am very happy with the standards of
assessment which are being achieved and I hope you feel that the report forms
you receive each term, along with the parents’ evenings, are informative and
helpful. If you have any comments about
the system, especially after you have received next term’s final written
report, I should very much like to hear from you. (Remember, you can see even more detail by
emailing in to access the Insight pages.)
When we get
back to school all being well after Easter, it will be exams, exams, exams for
our older students. Easter is indeed a
good time to set course for those summer weeks.
It is I think appropriate for headteachers to give advice about how to
revise. In fact this is the only thing I
am really qualified to give advice about.
Not personal relationships, not fixing domestic electricity, not the
best way to fly to Los Angeles: I can
offer no advice about any of that. I can
pass on some excellent tips about revising and passing exams. (It’s all I’m good at.) Having said that, I have stolen some of
these, but that doesn’t alter their relevance and sharpness.
