February Half Term 2017

It has been a short but very busy half term. 

Year 11 mock results

Year 11 students have completed mock examinations and received their results prior to parents evening appointments this Tuesday evening.  Some of the results did not match the students' target grades but there is plenty of time to address this as long as students are prepared to work with staff as well as independently on homework and revision.

Faculty Fortnight, Careers Week and events

This half term we have been busy with Geography & Business Studies faculty fortnight followed by English faculty fortnight, both of which involved lots of interesting activities for students. See below for the display created by our librarian, Mrs Watkins, for the Harry Potter quiz evening:

Mrs Beeton, our careers adviser, organised a very successful Careers Week and invited lots of visiting speakers to talk to groups of students who wished to find out about a number of career paths. 

The RE department invited Pam Moon to deliver a talk to sixth form students on the Shroud of Turin which was accompanied by an exhibition. On Wednesday this week parents and friends were invited to a similar evening event. 

On Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27th, students from years 9, 11 and 12 attended a webinar with Mala Tribich, MBE, a survivor of the concentration camps.  The students found it very moving.

Thanks to all of the staff in these departments for their work in organising these events which supplement the curriculum.


A date for your diary

The Year 9 RIMS parents evening takes place straight after half term on Tuesday 21st February and students should have brought home letters about this; you may need to check their bags!  It is important that parents and careers attend such evenings so that we can work together to ensure the students progress as they should.

Good news

This half term we have had year Masses for St Angela Merici (year 7) and for St John Bosco (year 8).  Members of our CAFOD leaders group travelled to London to receive their Leaders' certificates at the CAFOD headquarters in London.  Our chaplain, Miss Baker, has again organised a trip to 'Flame,' the largest Catholic youth gathering at Wembley SSE Arena, and has a full coach plus a waiting list.  Thanks to her and Fr Kevin for all their time and work.

110 year 13 students have made university applications this year; many have already received conditional offers and some students even have unconditional offers.

Almost 60 students have enrolled in the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh scheme this year, a record number.

The First XI football team reached the last 16 in the country in the ESFA Under-18 national cup.  This is the furthest we have got in the competition and they lost to a very strong Millfield side.

Congratulations to Reece Dunn in year 12 who has been included in the England Under-17 development squad.

Attendance

We continue to look for your support in improving student attendance. Students should aim for at least 97% attendance.  Research shows that students with 95% attendance or more achieve their target grades whereas students with 90% attendance or below attain one grade lower than their target grade.  This is important for all of our students but particularly for key stage four and five students.  Simply put, if students are not in school then they do not progress.

Road safety for cyclists and pedestrians

One of our students was recently hit by a car and was lucky to escape with a broken collarbone rather than anything more serious.  Stroud Road is an extremely busy main road and we urge students to use the pedestrian crossing and to be attentive to traffic, including cyclists.  We are working with Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership to consider how we can improve the safety of our students as they arrive and leave the school. All pupils who are cyclists should wear cycle helmets.  We also ask that parents are considerate of neighbours of the school when picking up students at the end of the day.  If you wait until 3.50 you can come into the bus bay and safely pick up your sons and daughters from there.


Half term break

I wish students and their families a good half term break.  I am looking forward to it as much as them after an extremely enjoyable but action-packed first half term as head teacher!

Buses: a letter from John Dix

"Dear Parents,

As you may well be aware, there is currently a home to school bus service operating between many of the villages situated in close proximity to the A38, and St Peter’s High School.  This service currently commences at Standish, taking in Stonehouse, Nympsfield, Uley, Dursley, Cam, Frampton and Whitminster.  This covers a large geographical area, and whilst we intend to operate a service from those areas again next academic year, we are proposing to incorporate more pick-ups in other areas to enable us to split the route into two.  This will create two, shorter routes that will benefit all concerned.  Our intention is to incorporate a section of Stroud, with a bus likely to travel from Stonehouse, through Ebley to Merrywalks, then to St Peter’s.

In order for us to do this, we need a sufficient number of children to subscribe.  If you live in any of the afore mentioned areas and would like your child to travel on a bus service exclusive to school children, please visit our website and sign up via the ‘school routes’ section.  You will need to select your school, then the route (A38), and complete the online forms.  This process will display the route in its current format with only 49 seats.  Please sign up regardless as we will amend the routes as soon as we have sufficient demand and, should the amended routes not be to your liking, you are free to cancel at no obligation.  Once we have 49 children subscribed, subsequent subscribers will get a message informing you that you have been placed on our waiting list.  Again, please ignore this – we can only sign children up to established routes but we will be able to split the route and assign children to the correct route once we have an idea of numbers and where children live.

It is our hope that we can establish two routes, serving a wider area and a greater number of children, and at the same time cut journey times to and from school.  This however, is dependent on numbers, and we would urge you to sign up as early as possible to help us get these routes in place.  If your child is a new starter in September and you are not 100% sure of their place, I would encourage you to sign up as soon as you are aware that you have a place at St Peter’s.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on 01452 886633 or info@johndixtravel.co.uk and we will do our best to help.

Yours sincerely,
John Dix
Director"