October 2017

Chaplaincy

Retreat Days

Year 7 and Year 12 students participated in their annual retreats this month. Year 7 focused on 'You Are God's Work Of Art' and Year 12’s theme was ‘Get Connected'. It was very moving to hear students sharing their stories through objects that are special to them, finding peace in our reflection meditations, enjoying making new friends, and growing closer to God through spontaneous prayer together. Each student was anointed with special oil to strengthen them on their journey through school. These days are so important for our school community to reflect on and continue to build our Catholic ethos.

Charities

Our Year 10 charity group ran fund raising events for the charity ‘Help Madina’ in Sierra Leone and met the charity’s founder Dr Veronica Sawicki to present her with a cheque for £737.05. The group have now joined the Young CAFOD Volunteers programme run by the Diocese of Clifton and CAFOD.  

Gloucester Foodbank

As part of our harvest thanksgiving students made a collection for Gloucester Food bank, supporting its wonderful work for the people of our city. Thank you for all the donations.

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh awards

Congratulations to the following students who have successfully completed their Bronze awards: 

Daniel Taylor

Callum Milne

Xander Wickham

Martha Soares

Archie Evans

Susie Nash

Laura Slinger

Elizabeth Ssenabuyla

Amelia Skipp

Breffni Williams

Darcy Woods-Broady

Carmel Taylor

Student Investor Challenge

Four year 9 students have taken part in the practice game for the student investor challenge (Share game). This took place over 3 weeks and involved 954 other school teams from around the country. Congratulations to Finn Walsh, Kyle Murray, Harry Allen, Ellis Parry who came in first place. They will now be able to take part in the real game which will take place from October 23^rd until mid-November.

Faculty focus: Modern Foreign Languages

The last week of the half term was Faculty Focus week in Modern Languages with Spanish tapas tasting, songs and quizzes, as well as talks on the benefits of continuing with a language to GCSE and beyond.  In addition, 81 Key Stage 3 students went to Normandy on the last day of the half term to take part in a cross-curricular venture, taking in the historical sites of Normandy including the Bayeux Tapestry and the WW2 landing beaches, as well as trying out the French they are learning in school. They also managed to bump into former head teacher Mr Rush with his wife Caroline!

                                                              

Black History Month events and celebration evening

During Black History Month we welcomed several visitors to school to work with a range of students in different fields: Dr Nira Chamberlain returned to school and spoke to maths students about black heroes in mathematics; naturalist Gillian Burke gave a talk to geography students; BREIS performed for and worked with English students; Paige Reid (England netball player) delivered a netball masterclass to a group of key stage three and four students as well as to the sixth form netball team: 

Adebanji Alade, member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, worked with year 10 GCSE art students on portrait painting:

The events culminated in the very well attended Black History Month evening which was a terrific celebration and showcase of food, music, song and speech. A huge thank you to Mrs Roberts-Moore who organised the evening and liaised with departments about the visiting speakers.

Ten Tears On

At the end of the half term the music department created an anniversary celebration of the last ten musicals performed at St Peter's. Students performed songs from previous shows including Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story and Pirates of Penzance, to name just a few.

Former students Christopher Slemensek and Willow Burden returned to perform songs and the evenings were a great success. Thanks to all the students who sang or were in the band, to the music department, to Mr Waring and to all those who contributed to making the performances such a success.

Congratulations to Mary McAteer who represented Wales in the Under 15 women's football team against Scotland and England during the half term break. 

News of former students

During the summer holidays Gabriel Dunphy (who was in last year’s year 11) took part in the Rotary Club Youth Leadership Award.  Gabriel did really well on the course and was a real credit to St Peter’s. He gave a report to the Rotary club members and did it with conviction. His mother tells us that he was delighted that he had been given this opportunity and that it has really helped with his confidence.

There will be further opportunities this year for one of our students to take part in the Youth Leadership Award.  The Rotary Club also offer schools opportunities to take part in the following competitions:

·         Young Chef

·         Young Musician

·         Young Photographer

·         Young Writer

·         Technology Tournament 


Coming up 

Masses for the feast of All Saints take place on Wednesday 1st November at 9.30 and 11.30 and all are welcome to join us. These take place in the sports barn so you will need to dress warmly.

The next PFA (Parents and Friends Association) meeting is at 6 pm on Monday 6th November in the training block at the bottom of the school. New members are always welcome. 


Our Sixth Form Open Evening is on Wednesday 29th November from 6.30 pm when students and parents can find out about Key Stage 5 courses, visit departments and talk to staff.

The Start of Term

The students returned for the new school year looking delightfully smart in their uniforms. Our year 12 students look really professional and ready for work in the new crested black blazers. The year has started really well with a lovely calm atmosphere around the school and new staff and new students are already part of the school community.

Our Masses for the start of the academic year were held on Friday 222^nd September and were celebrated by Monsignor Liam Slattery of St Peter’s parish, Gloucester. The behaviour of our students at both Masses was excellent and a really respectful and prayerful atmosphere was created. The music was of the usual high standard and we finished both Masses with the customary ‘Sing it in the valleys.’ Last Friday was Ignite, an evening of faith, praise sharing and fun, a very successful evening organised by our chaplain Mandy Baker.

We have held Information Evenings for year 8 to 12 (the year 7 one was in July) and the year 13 one is on 16^th October at 7pm in the main hall. At the information evenings we have emphasised the importance of attendance, working hard by getting fully involved in lessons, keeping up private reading and having a positive attitude. We also talked about the importance of extra-curricular activities and getting a good night’s sleep by turning phones off at night and not keeping them in bedrooms.

We are again using Show my Homework. Students and parents have individual log in details and can also download the free app but anyone can also access the system via the home page of the school website. I also encouraged parents to download the new school app which contains key dates and news. Further details of the app and how to get it can be found here: http://www.stpetershighschool.org.uk/Mobile-App/

Open House Wednesdays continue. If you have a query or concern, you can come to discuss it with members of the leadership team from 4pm to 6.30pm on Wednesdays. We are based at the top of the Rosemary Steele block at the very bottom of the site and just ask that you let reception know that you attending by emailing reception@sphs.uk.com by midday on the day you plan to attend and by giving us an idea of your concern.

We are celebrating Black History Month and so far have welcomed Dr Nira Chamberlain, a regular visitor to the school, who spoke to a group of maths students about black heroes in mathematics; Gillian Burke, naturalist, who spoke to geography students and helped them to build a bug ‘hotel’; and Adebanji Alade who worked with year 10 art students and really inspired them.  Our celebration evening is next Wednesday 11^th October from 6.30pm and all are welcome. Our thanks to Mrs Roberts-Moore who has co-ordinated these events.

Congratulations to the U18 hockey team who won the National Schools plate and have qualified for the finals of the National Schools Hockey tournament, a great achievement. 

Today is the last day of open ‘week’ and last night was open evening when the school was packed with prospective students and their parents. A huge thank you to all the sixth form students who have represented us so well by taking visitors on tours of the school and to all the students who helped at open evening this year.