Happy Christmas

As always, it has been a busy and fulfilling (and long) term with lots happening in and out of the classroom. Staff and students are all ready for a rest!

Chaplaincy news

All year groups have participated in a Christmas liturgy led by our chaplain, Mandy Baker. It was lovely to see so many students participating by reading. The theme this year was a reflection on the Christmas story and God's call to trust him as trapeze flyers must trust the catcher. God invites us to place our trust in Him: do not be afraid.

This year we collected 86 Christmas shoeboxes which were delivered to children in Romania.
Thank you to everyone who contributed.

Chaplaincy Team Commissioning The ten students on our Chaplaincy team were commissioned at Clifton Cathedral on Friday 30th November. Each member of the Chaplaincy team is also a member of another Chaplaincy group such as the year 10 and 12 CAFOD teams, altar servers, Eucharistic ministers, year 7 and 8 teams and the Christian Union group.

During this season of Advent, form 12CMD organised a ‘Festive Friday’ raising £107 for CAFOD World Gifts by selling hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. All money raised went towards buying an emergency shelter that could make a life-saving difference to a family in urgent need. They also bought water for a family. This will provide families with a supply of safe water in their homes for drinking and cooking. Finally, they raised enough money to buy a goat to provide a family with milk which they can drink or sell; it will also produce free fertiliser that can be used to help grow crops. Many thanks to all who supported this event! 

Music department news
On 28th November Year 10 GCSE Music students Josh (drums) and David (bass guitar), accompanied 200 primary school children in the Junior Voices Project held in Gloucester Cathedral.

Llanthony Priory

A-level Music students performed a lunchtime concert on 7 December at the newly restored Llanthony Secunda Priory.  This included both a choral and instrumental re-working of the 13^th century Llanthony Carol, Edi Beo Thu Hevene Quene.  We then sang the carol at various points around the city, including the Quays, Eastgate Shopping Centre, the Cross and the Cathedral.

 

The day after Llanthony Priory saw the Chamber Choir performing with former St Peter’s student and Chinese X Factor winner, Mary-Jess Leaverland on her winter tour.

 

Carols by Candlelight

Our main event of the term, Carols by Candlelight, took place at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Stroud on Friday 14 December.  Students from all year groups took part and we were delighted once again to sing to a large and enthusiastic audience.  Through their generosity, we were able to support the church and make a significant donation to this year’s chosen charity, Young Minds.

To finish the term in festive style, the music department have been bringing Christmas cheer to one and all by busking around the site with carol singers on Thursday and Jazz Band on Friday!

A huge thank you to members of the music department and especially to Mrs Perfect for all their excellent extra-curricular work.

Oxbridge applications

Well done to the following students who applied for and have been interviewed for places at the following Oxford colleges:

Megan Cameron to study History at Christ Church College

Paul Pellissery to study History at St Benet’s Hall

Sam Harte to study Philosophy & Theology at Regent’s Park College

George Greaves to study PPE at Brasenose College

Finlay Stephens to study Engineering Science at St Edmund Hall

 

Maths news

Congratulations to the KS5 students who participated in the UK Senior Maths Challenge in November.  This national competition consists of challenging questions that encourage mathematical reasoning and precision of thought in addition to sound mathematical knowledge.  The following students were amongst the highest scoring nationally and so achieved awards as follows:

Silver:  Fran Smith

Bronze:  Max Stephenson, Ted Reece, Joshua Hensley and Lily Magri.

Well done to them all.

Careers advice and guidance

Recently thirty students from a range of year groups attended a presentation on Careers in Medicine as part of our Futures Programme. The speaker, Dr Giovanna Sheiybani, a Gastroenterology Registrar at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, talked to students about her medical training and career pathway which has included a variety of  teaching roles as well as being the Junior Doctor Forum Chair and the Local Negotiating Committee Junior Doctor rep for her Trust.

Giovanna, who is also a mentor to  medical students also conducted mock Interviews for those sixth form students who have applied to study medicine at university. We hope Giovanna’s presentation has helped to inspire our students to become the  doctors of the future.

 

Sporting news

Basketball success

Last week St Peter’s participated in the Gloucester Schools District basketball tournaments and hosted three of the events (Year 8, 10 and 11). The St Peter’s played brilliantly throughout the week and the work the pupils put into attending Monday morning sessions, lunch-time and after-school practices since the first week of term one really paid off with some excellent team performances. The overall results were as follows:

Year 7 - 3^rd Place
Year 8 - 1^st Place
Year 9 – 1^st Place (the year 9 team have qualified for the county finals in January when the winner progresses to the national rounds).
Year 10 – 1^st Place
Year 11 – 2^nd Place (lost final by 1 point)

Congratulations to the teams and thank you to the P.E. staff and, in particular, Mr Staynings for his work with them.

 

Football success

The year 7 boys progressed to the 6th round (last 32 in the country) and have an away tie in Plymouth during the first week of the new term. The boys have been excellent, beating Gordano school 5-4 in the last round in a very exciting game.

 

The year 8 boys have progressed to the 6th round (last 32 in the country) after a comprehensive 6-0 home victory against Bradley Stoke and they now await another home game against Sandwell academy in the next game.

 

The year 7 and 8 girls team have progressed to the 6th round (last 16 in the country) after a fabulous 4-1 away win in the 5th round. This is an amazing achievement for the girls as they have progressed further than any other team in the school’s history. They await the draw for the next round on January 14th.

 

 

Congratulations to year 10 student Mary McAteer who has again represented Wales in international football in against Portugal in Lisbon this week.  

 

Visit to Normandy, half term 2019

The Modern Languages department has launched their cross-curricular KS3 trip to Normandy in October half term 2019. Any year 7 or 8 students who are interested should speak to their MFL teacher for further details.  This is a great opportunity to visit the Normandy Landing Beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry, as to well as to sample local French delicacies.

 

Staffing news

Two members of staff are leaving us at the end of term:

Mr Dan Edwards is leaving us to take up a post as head of economics and business studies. We thank him for all his hard work in maths, economics & business and, in particular, for the enormous amount of his own time he has devoted to our students participating in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

Mrs  Barker (modern foreign languages) is taking up a post producing training materials in an aeronautical company. She has contributed greatly to the languages department as well as to the progress team where she has organised the Scholar’s programme for several cohorts of our students.

Mrs Deborah Harrisson has been appointed to the maths and business & economics department.

Mrs Suzanne Lord has been appointed to the languages department.

A reminder that term starts on Monday 7^th January 2019 which is week 2.

We wish everyone a peaceful and a happy Christmas.