Another
busy half term has seen plenty of activity and some excellent
achievements. Our year 11 students have
started their GCSE examinations, the A-level exams begin after half term and
these year groups will be using half term week as a week of structured
revision. A huge thank you to the staff
for all the additional revision sessions they have put on. Students in Years 8, 10 and 12 will have
internal examinations in the last half term of the academic year and their
teachers will inform them of the details.
I have just left the year 13 leavers assembly. (The students moan about wearing shirts and ties when they are in years 7 - 11 but love to put them back on for leaving day!) We wish them well in their exams and in the future
and look forward to being kept up to date with their news. Our
current, excellent, head students Anna White and Joe Hill are handing over to year
12 students Iwan Kunemund-Hughes and Arianna Gilbert. We had an extremely strong field of
candidates for these posts and are forming a sixth form committee to will work alongside the
head students.
Chaplaincy
news
Following
our visit to Flame 3 at Wembley Arena in March, the Chaplaincy held an
IGNITE evening on Friday 5th May. This was a wonderful evening of
live praise music with input from some our students who had visited and
participated in Flame to support the work of CAFOD. Our year 10 students who participated in a
residential retreat at St Cassian's Retreat Centre in Kintbury also shared
their experiences of how the retreat had helped them to grow in their faith and
personal giftedness.
Charity Cake
sale: a huge
thank you to students staff and parents who contributed to, and bought cakes in
aid of one of our school charities Help Madina in Sierra Leone. The array of cakes was outstanding and Mary
Berry would have been most impressed! A
total of £200 was raised.
Congratulations
to our Year 7 students in the Mustard Seed group who made their First Holy
Communion in May and to our Year 10 CAFOD group who successfully completed
their Young Volunteers course and were presented with their certificates this term. As always, our thanks go to our chaplain,
Mandy Baker, for all she does.
We
have received news that Fr Kevin of Our Lady’s parish, Churchdown, is being
moved to Weston-Super-Mare. He has given
freely of his time to staff and students of St Peter’s over the last twelve
years and will be greatly missed.
Staff
leaving
Today
we say farewell to two long-serving members of our support staff. Mrs Sue McMahon has been at the school for 13
years, most recently in the finance team, and Mrs Margaret Pinder, our
sixth form administrator, has been at St Peter’s for 27 years. We thank them for their hard work and commitment to the school community, wish them both well and hope that they
enjoy spending more time with their families and friends and, especially, with
their young grandchildren.
I
will give a full update of changes to teaching staff next half term.
Department
news
Maths
On
May 5th we were fortunate to welcome again the renowned
Mathematician Dr Nira Chamberlain to talk to a group of students from years
7-10 who were selected by their maths teachers for their hard work and
diligence throughout the year. His talk on mathematical modelling was
really interesting and allowed students to see how maths is applied to real
life situations. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Well
done to three year 8 students - Jacob Underwood, Emily Stratford and
Mieko Gayya – who were selected to attend the Royal Institution
Masterclasses at Bath university. The six Saturday morning sessions gave
them the opportunity to work with other able mathematicians across the
region. The sessions were designed to deepen their understanding of Maths
in various contexts, whilst seeing the beauty and fun of the subject.
At
the start of this term, 120 students from years 7 and 8 took part in the UKMT
Junior maths Challenge, an event designed to challenge and intrigue
students. Many excellent results were achieved in this national competition, with 24
students achieving a Bronze certificate, 10 a Silver and 5 gaining Gold.
Well done to all the students for their efforts. Particular
congratulations are due to Christopher Thomas in year 7 who has qualified for
the prestigious Junior Kangaroo event in June.
History
On
Friday 12th May the History department hosted letcturer Toby Thacker from Cardiff
university. He delivered a fascinating lecture on Germany after the Second
World War to our A Level historians as well as to some Year 10 students. He
then conducted a university-style seminar on the First World War with a group
of fifteen Year 12 students.
The Brilliant
Club
Twelve
of our year 8 students are visiting Oxford University on Monday 5th June to
launch the start of their work for the scholars programme run by the Brilliant
Club. They will work with a PhD tutor throughout the summer term, helping her
with her research on the effects of the Ebola virus. Their work will culminate
in a university style essay that will be assessed by the University and they
will get a chance to “graduate” in the Autumn term. This is a very exciting project and we hope
the students will benefit enormously from it.
Sporting
news
Our
Under 18 boys’ football team won the North Gloucestershire Under-18 school boys
final.
The game was played at Forest
Green Rovers (congratulations to them too!) when they beat Sir Thomas Rich’s 5-2
in an excellent game. It ended a
fabulous season for the team, their only defeat coming in the sixth round of
the English schools National Cup when they lost to the very strong and eventual
winners Millfield. This ended a superb
football season for St Peter’s football with four year groups winning the
Gloucester city schools finals and the county final in the Under 18’s The seven
teams which represented the school played a total of 60 fixtures this academic
year, winning 46, drawing 3 and losing 11. Very well done to the boys and
thanks to their coaches.
Congratulations to the Under 18 Rugby Sevens squad
who won the King Worcester tournament on March 15th 2017 and to our Under
13 Rugby Sevens Squad who won 4 of 5 games at the National Competition in
London.
Our Under 15 cricket team won the Gloucestershire
Cricket Board North Gloucestershire ‘Chance to Compete’ competition and will
now compete against the Bristol winners and South Gloucestershire winners for the
chance to be crowned County Champions. There is a possibility that they could
move on to win regionally!
School
visits
Places
have become available on two excellent trips: the Year 8 trip to Normandy in
October 2017 and on the whole school ski trip to Austria in February 2018.
The
year 8 Normandy visit is from Friday 20th to Tuesday 24th October 2017 and
includes visits to the Normandy landing beaches, the Bayeux Tapestry and Mont St Michel.
There will also be a visit to a boulangerie plus food tasting and games
and evening activities. The cost,
including travel, accommodation (full board) and entrance fees, is £350.
The ski trip to
Austria is open to all students and costs £975 which covers all travel costs,
accommodation, insurance, ski hire and tuition.
Evening entertainments include swimming, bowling and a presentation
evening.
Both trips have
proved extremely popular in the past and come highly recommended. Please contact Mrs Beamish (jbeamish@sphs.uk.com)
for further information.
Cashless
catering – important changes from September 2017 for current students
We
currently operate a ‘cashless’ catering system using biometric fingerprint
technology. Accounts may currently be topped up through a secure
ParentPay website or by PayPoint in local convenience stores
The majority
of parents use the secure ParentPay website.
For parents who already have a registered account it is essential that
you ensure your children’s catering accounts always have sufficient
credit to enable them to purchase food/drink at the school
Alternatively,
you may choose to use PayPoint in local
convenience stores. This method is generally
used by parents who do not have ready access to a computer.
At
the moment students can use a cash top-up machine in school but from
September 2017 this option will no longer be available: students will NOT be able to top-up their
catering account using cash brought into school
For
parents who currently pay by cash only there will only be two options available
from September 2017:
1.
Secure on-line
website using ParentPay. Top-ups are instant, there is a minimum £10 top-up,
and you can view your child’s purchases on-line.
2.
Top-up
through local stores where you see the PayPoint logo. You will be issued with a payment card by the
school (if this is lost you will be charged for a replacement). There is a minimum £5 top-up and top-ups take
at least 2 working days to clear.
It
is important that you and your child(ren) prepare for this change in advance to
avoid problems in September by e-mailing finance@sphs.uk.com with the following
details:
Your
child(ren)’s name(s) and Tutor Group(s)
Your preferred future method of payment: on-line OR PayPoint
Your preferred future method of payment: on-line OR PayPoint
You
will then be issued with a username and password.
For
more information on the cashless catering system please see the school’s FAQ http://www.stpetershighschool.org.uk/Parents/Cashless-catering-frequently-asked-questions/
I
hope our students enjoy the half term break (although it should not be one for
our exam students!) and come back refreshed and ready for another busy half
term.
Buses: an important
message from John Dix about routes along the A38 corridor
Dear Parents,
We operate a route along the A38 corridor,
incorporating Cam, Dursley, Uley, Nympsfield, Stonehouse and Haresfield. Whether you have children at St Peter’s
already or if they will be starting in September, you are able to subscribe to
use this service now.
We have a very limited number of seats left on this
route, and as such would urge parents to apply as soon as possible. There are no other direct transport options
to St Peter’s from these areas. This is an online application, and no payments
are taken until September 1st 2017.
The total cost is £680 per school year, split into 10 payments of £68.
In order to sign up, please follow these steps:
Go to www.johndixtravel.co.uk
Select ‘school routes’ from the menu bar.
Select ‘’St Peter’s High School’ from the list of
school
Select ‘A38 Route’.Complete and submit the form that is generated.
If you have any issues completing this process,
please call us on the below number or email info@johndixtravel.co.uk
and we will be happy to help.
Kind Regards,
John Dix
John Dix
John Dix Travel Ltd, Unit 9, Quedgeley Trading
Estate East, Haresfield, Gloucester, GL10 3EX.
01452 886633 www.johndixtravel.co.uk info@johndixtravel.co.uk
