Dear Parents and Carers,
New staff • Sixth-form changes • Exam results
• Buses • Email contacts •
Uniform • Home School Agreement • OfSTED • Show My
Homework • ‘Open
House’ Wednesdays
We shall shortly be welcoming
everyone back to a new school year at St Peter’s and I am looking forward to
another busy and successful year.
We are welcoming quite a number
of new staff; several are replacing
staff who left at the end of last year, but others are required by new courses
and changes in the curriculum.
Mrs Pearce, as you will know, is
our new head of sixth-form; she has been
working with Mr Barnard and the heads of colleges to ensure a smooth
transition.
There have been some changes to
the sixth-form. We have amalgamated two colleges – St Luke
and St Matthew – because we have found that the aims of these colleges are
overlapping considerably. The new,
larger, college will be called St Lucy’s.
We will now have three complementary focuses in the sixth-form, an
accelerated college, an academic college and a vocational college. This reflects the different aims of the
students in our sixth-form.
Mrs Farrelly is joining us in the
business studies and economics department, and she will also teach on the new
health and social care vocational course in the sixth-form. Mrs Frampton will also teach on the health
course, with Mrs Pearce, and Mr Versaci is the new teacher in charge of
business and economics.
We welcome a number of new
teachers to the science department: Mr
Clayfield, Mr Fox-Smith, Mrs Garner, Dr Piercy, Mr Morrison and Mrs
Stephen. We needed some full-time staff
to replace leavers, and some part-time staff and maternity cover, so there’s
quite a list! We are delighted to have
been able to appoint teachers of excellent calibre to these science posts.
Miss Foley will be joining the
modern foreign languages department, Miss Graves the design technology
department (as maternity cover for Mrs Lawton),
Miss Ridout will teach art, and Miss Gilbert will teach RE.
Mrs Knapton will be our new
library assistant, Mr Bateman will work as a TA in the drama department, and
Mrs Szoke is joining the maths department.
Mrs Lee is our new head of
maths. She has already been working
closely with Mr McAteer, Ms Lally and Mrs Melton to ensure that the department
can continue its excellent progress.
A-levels this year, 2016, are very
similar to last year’s results, and I think that that is good. In 2016, 138 students took A-levels. The percentage pass rates remain strong: 44% gained A*- B passes; 71% A* - C, and there was an overall pass
rate (A* - E) was 98%. These are very
similar percentages to last year’s.
Students succeeded across the board in gaining places at universities
and colleges. Universities this year
have included Oxford, Manchester, Sheffield, and many others. Mr Barnard and his team did an excellent job
in managing all of this and in setting high standards for the students.
I regret to say that it has become
increasingly difficult to compare GCSE
results with previous years because
of changes at the very top in the standards that are being applied; this year the grades in several subjects I
think have suffered from changes in grade boundaries. The BBC is reporting a ‘significant decline’
in passes and top grades nationally; we
do not appear to have seen quite such a significant decline at St Peter’s. Overall, our GCSE grades seem a little down
this year although there are bright lights.
The measure of progress in English has increased to 82% which is
outstanding. A* to C pass rates in
English, maths, double science, languages and RE remain very encouraging.
Particularly worthy of mention is
the achievement of the most able in the maths department, which was an area we
needed to improve. As well as a very
high number of A* and A grades in the GCSE, there were excellent passes in the
‘further mathematics’ paper which is a particularly demanding course. Three students gained A* with distinction, a
grade only available in a handful of exams at this level.
There is an issue with attendance in the sixth-form; too many students are missing lessons,
without good reason, and it seems clear from an initial survey of the results
that this has had a negative impact on achievement. Funding for sixth-forms is dependent on
students being full-time. We can no
longer allow the privilege of sixth-formers going off site during the day. We are improving the canteen options for sixth-formers
and are to run a sixth-form only service from the pavilion, but it is really
important to me that sixth-formers arrive at school in the frame of mind that
they are going to study, read and learn for the day, and not drive off in
friends’ cars to fast-food outlets. I
want sixth-formers to enjoy their time at St Peter’s, but I want that enjoyment
to be founded, please, on study and friendship.
One big headache this summer has
been managing the buses after
Stagecoach’s rather sudden withdrawal of routes. Mr Blackshaw has worked very hard to replace
as much of this missing coverage as possible, and John Dix of John Dix travel
has worked helpfully with us (and with The Crypt and Ribston Hall) to offer new
routes. However, all these changes are
unsettling and inconvenient. Forgive me,
please, for stressing that these changes are not of our making. The situation with school buses in
Gloucestershire seems complicated and unhelpful. However, we shall continue to work with Shire
Hall and with the bus companies, including Stagecoach, to get the best service
possible. Updates and information are on
the ‘buses’ pages of the ‘parents and community’ section of our website.
I apologise to parents if any of
the bus information failed to get to them;
I emailed, and I provided printed letters in reception for students to
collect. However, there are flaws in
such a system. It is now very expensive
to post letters to all parents. We want
to move whole-heartedly to email communication and make communication easier
and cheaper. The website is extremely
helpful to us.
I should be extremely obliged to
you if you can help with this communication issue. Thank you.
If you have an email address, but have not received a
link to this blog by email, would you please let us know so that we can add your details to the database. There will a form sent home to all families this week, with your youngest child if you have more than one child at the school. The form allows us to check our details about
addresses and phone numbers. We are also
required this year – by the department for education – to collect information
about nationality and place of birth.
I am expecting an inspection from OfSTED this term; the cycle of inspections suggests that such a
visit is overdue. I shall be working
with the leadership team to prepare staff and students, but your co-operation
is crucial. Please maintain your
contacts with the school and please let us know of any concerns you have about
progress, behaviour and so on, so that we can address things as soon as
possible. We can’t always fix things
immediately, and sometimes two people have two very different perceptions of
the same thing, but we value highly your help in identifying issues.
We are updating the uniform pages
on the website and you will be able to find their precise guidance about what
students are allowed to wear. It is
really helpful to us if students come to school correctly dressed and saves our
having to nag them right at the start of the day; once again your co-operation is requested and
recognised. Thank you.
The full ‘home school agreement’ is also on the website (as
part of the behaviour policy). We ask
all parents of students to sign a reply slip to say they have seen this
document. A copy of the document is
enclosed, the signature is at the foot of the enclosed communications form.
This year we are using 'Show My Homework' software so that all students, parents and guardians can see the homework which has been set, any accompanying resources and the deadline for it. Follow the link on the home page of the website . You and all students will receive a letter with a unique PIN so that you can access all parts of 'Show My Homework'.
The ‘open house’ Wednesdays continue, from 4 till 6, at the bottom of
the site by the car-park, in the training block. Please feel free to contact reception and
tell us that you are coming and then use this time to maintain links.
Finally, you probably don’t need reminding that I am
planning to retire at the end of this term;
Mrs Layhe, currently one of our two deputies, will be taking over the
reins and Mrs Gittins will be working with her as senior vice-principal. So this term will be important as a period of
transition and hand-over. However, St
Peter’s will be in excellent hands and I am sure that Mrs Layhe’s intelligent
energies and commitment will lead it to excellence.
Yours,
Philip Rush