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.