What an extraordinarily challenging year it has been for everyone, including those in schools. The students and staff have been remarkably resilient in spite of the numerous changes to our usual practices and the impact of lockdowns and self-isolation. We have become accustomed to teaching remotely, to virtual meetings and parents evenings and, of course, to all the systems put in place to mitigate against Covid-19.
Chaplaincy News
Emmaus
Group: Sacramental Celebration
14 of our students from years 7-9 have been preparing to make
their First Holy Communion this term as part of the Emmaus Group. Since May
students have met in their year groups and reflected on the Sacrament of Reconciliation
and the Eucharist. Due to Covid-19 restrictions we had to celebrate two
Masses at English Martyrs Tuffley with Fr Gerry Walsh. Thank you to the Rowe
family for providing music for the Mass!
St Peter’s
Mass
During this academic year we have continued to celebrate the liturgical calendar and each year saints' feast days through virtual liturgies. For the feast of our Patron Saint Peter on 29th June we returned to our roots with a live streamed Mass with Monsignor Liam Slattery at St Peter’s Church in Gloucester. A small number of our choir and musicians gathered for the Mass which was live streamed back to school and was accessible globally on line in the true spirit of the evangelising ministry of St Peter.
It was lovely to see Mrs Beamish who led us in our prayers and readings. Monsignor Liam preached on the Gospel of the ‘Calming of the Storm’ and, taking Pope Francis’s words, he reminded us that faith is like a lamp which guides our way. The lamp of faith does not take fear away but shows us a path to follow that can guide us through fear and difficult times. Whilst we have certainly experienced some storms this year, we have also seen much to be thankful for in our school community.
Mass for St Peter’s staff
Monsignor Liam will say a Mass at 9 am on 1st August in St Peter’s Church, Gloucester, for the intention of all our school staff. Thank you to the family of Dominik Brown, year 11, who said they had arranged this with Monsignor Liam to show their appreciation for the school staff, 'It is for all the staff of SPHS to express our gratitude and to keep you and your families in our prayers.' Thank you for this special gift which is really appreciated.
Charity Outreach
An important part of our Catholic Ethos is to have
a heart for social justice and, despite some of the restrictions, we have
continued to reach out to those in need through our charitable work. As a
school community we supported Mr Versaci to reach his £2000 target for the
Teenage Cancer Trust. He will be running the London marathon in October. A
cheque for £2011.07 is also being sent to CAFOD covering school fundraising
donations from the last calendar year.
This
term we have been selling ice pops - even on inclement days - to raise funds for
Help Madina a charity in Sierra Leone co-founded and supported by two of our
local doctors, Dr Veronica Sawicki and Dr Rohit Sethi. You can see the work of
the charity here
New Head students
Congratulations to our new head students with whom we look forward to working next academic year:
Fin Kelly
Dewi Kunemund
Hughes
Fred Ma’a
Myiesha Smith
Anna McGurk Bursary Awards
The Anna McGurk Bursary Awards were set up in honour of Anna McGurk (nee Potts), a former student of St Peter's who was tragically murdered as she made her way home from work one evening. Students are encouraged to apply for a bursary to pursue a hobby or passion. Members of the Trust visited school recently to make the following awards.
Jasmine Calzado applied for specialised chisels to use to further her woodwork, especially her passion for bespoke joins in furniture design. Studying the creative A Levels of Art, Creative iMedia and Product Design, Jasmine hopes to secure an apprenticeship in the future. Members of the Trust expressed an interest in seeing her future furniture designs too!
During the first lockdown in 2020, Ellis Parry was challenged by his tutor to discover new hobbies. Ellis certainly found an interesting
pastime in Rope Darts! For those who don’t know, this is a form of martial arts
but is now mostly used as performance art. Ellis is looking forward to using
the bursary to purchase more rope darts, including ones with fire and others
with different coloured smoke.
Finally, the
youngest award winner this year is Esther
Rumsey. Esther applied for money to “re-wild” the school environment to
create more animal and insect friendly areas around the school site. Her
application was detailed and thoughtfully written. It is wonderful to see a
pupil who has the interests of others in mind. We cannot wait to see the benefits
for the whole school community.
Thank you to all
the pupils who took the time to apply this year. Every application is read by
the Trust and works to keep Anna’s memory alive in our school.
Music Department News
Against all the odds, music rehearsals have continued every break time throughout this academic year. We are incredibly grateful to the students for their commitment and dedication to extra-curricular music and are delighted with the outcomes of all their performances.
It was wonderful to be back in St Peter’s RC Church, Gloucester for the feast of St Peter & St Paul on 29 June. Due to restrictions, a very small number of students & staff provided the music for the Mass. We are extremely proud that we were able to do this with just two family bubbles! Congratulations and thank you to the Rowe family and two of the MacDonald siblings for singing & playing so wonderfully! If you missed it, you can catch up with a recording of the livestream here
After the success of last year’s Virtual Junior Concert, it was time for the students in Years 10-13 to demonstrate their musical prowess in the first Virtual Senior Concert! On 5 March, thirty students contributed fantastic performances which can be seen here
We are thrilled to report that former student, Willow Burden has graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Vocal Performance from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Hannah Soares graduated with a 2:I, our second student in recent years to gain a coveted place to read Music at Oxford University, where she was also a choral scholar. Congratulations to both of them as they begin the next step of their musical career.
If you have enjoyed the links above, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and like our videos. You can also follow us on Twitter ‘@musicstpeters’. Whilst we will regularly continue to upload performances, we also really hope to be able to bring back live music to audiences next year.
G15
Celebration of Success 2021
On 12 July, the annual G15 Celebration of Success event took
place virtually for the second year running. We were delighted to contribute to
this with our whole school community performance of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
which can be viewed here.
You can see performances from the other Gloucester schools here, culminating in a finale which features our Year 10 Band, Kalamity!
UKMT
Junior Maths Challenge
Forty of our year 7 and 8 mathematicians were able to participate in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge in April this year. All of the pupils involved stepped up to the non-calculator problem-solving challenge, achieving very high scores overall. All pupils have been presented with an official personalised UKMT certificate by the Headteacher, Mrs Layhe.
Bronze and Silver certificates were awarded
in each year group:
Year 7 particularly high commendation for the Silver and
Bronze awards goes to Nathan Franco-Feltham, Marcel Gumula and Connor Riggall.
Year 8 particularly high commendation for Silver and Bronze
awards goes to Lathusha Judeamalathas, James Cooper, Isaac Powrie and Janson
Ciereszko.
A very well done to the year 7s:
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Tyler |
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Isaac |
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Bianca |
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Nathan |
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Marcel |
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Henry |
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Seb |
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Trevin |
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Marcel |
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Winnie |
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Eamonn |
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Anna |
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Alesha |
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Izabela |
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Connor |
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Xavier |
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Ollie S |
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Isaac |
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Vanessa |
A very well done to the year 8s too:
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Kayleigh |
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Jake |
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Natalia |
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Janson |
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James |
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Feyi |
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Benjamin |
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Lemar |
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Isaac |
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Sophie |
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Lathusha |
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Danielle |
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Jada |
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Jeremiah |
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Javan |
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Sopuruchukwu |
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Anila |
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Isaac |
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Alfie |
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Charlie |
Girls’ Sports and Wellbeing Week
(Click here to view the trailer for the week)
Girls' Sport and Wellbeing Week brought a wide range of
sporting stars to St Peter’s to give our female students a broad and enriching
programme focussed around improving the girls’ physical and mental wellbeing. Every day every girl from year 7-10 got to experience an activity of their choice from. We were incredibly lucky to have such a high
calibre of athlete and coaches is an understatement!
Day One- Rugby and Zumba:
On Monday our very own Ms Tatyana Heard ran a series of
fantastic rugby sessions focussing on basic ball handling skills and movement
right through to some touch rugby games. Tatyana currently plays for Gloucester
Hartpury RFC and has received 4 caps playing for England. The highlight of the
day was every student putting herself into a new environment and working
with each other collaboratively in different game situations. Zumba saw our
girls getting in their groove, working through a variety of routines to Latin
music. Zumba focusses on mixing dance steps with fitness exercises to get a
really high intensity routine. The girls greatly enjoyed this and it was great to
see all of the students work through some complicated footwork and trying
something new and outside their comfort zone.
Day Two- Basketball
& Clubbercise:
On Tuesday we were very lucky to have Molly James at school who has been offered to play Basketball in the USA in Division 2 of the NCAA Basketball league. As a local girl from Bristol Molly was an Acro Gymnast till the age of 14 where she then gave up Gymnastics to take up Basketball. At the age of 16 Molly was recruited to play for Riders Basketball Club in Charnwood before most recently gaining her scholarship to the United States. Molly ran a series of fantastic sessions focussed around dribbling and passing before getting into some small games.
As an alternative to Basketball, Natasha Scott came and
delivered a series of Clubbercise classes to our pupils. The girls loved
performing a variety of routines with disco lights and glow sticks at the
ready. This activity was definitely one of the most popular of the week.
Day Three- Netball and Self Defence:
On Wednesday we were again fortunate enough to have two amazing athletes come into school to give our students a great sporting experience. Chloe Carchrie who is a Severn Stars Superleague Netball player came to school to give the girls some amazing netball workshops. All of the girls were put through their paces in the glorious sunshine focussing on their passing, footwork and speed on court all through fun team-based practices.
Paul Sutherland from Trojan Fighters also visited the school on Wednesday to give the girls a self-defence workshop. Supported by Year 7 pupil Aaron Sutherland (European Champion in his age group), Paul has over 30 yeas of martial arts experience, and is also a former professional MMA fighter. The girls learnt three different self-defence manoeuvres throughout the session and I think it was safe to say that no one will be messing with the #greenarmy any time soon!
Day Four- Football and Gymnastics:
As part of our
exciting new partnership with Gloucester Sport, Gloucester City players Jade
Powell and Lucie Cummings came to run a series of football sessions for the
students. With girls’ football becoming increasingly popular here at St Peter’s
it was wonderful to see so many students taking part in the sessions across
year 7-10. With lots of prizes to be won, the girls definitely brought their competitive side to the pitch.
Sheer Velocity and Severn Valley Gymnastics Club also visited, running a series of amazing acrobatic and tumbling practices. All of the students has a go at working on their tumbling, building towards somersaults and flicks as well as performing acrobatics lifts as part of a trio.
Day Five- The Finale
After an amazing first ever girls’ sports and wellbeing week, there seemed to be only one way to wrap up the week: with a tug of war!
The girls were split into teams of 8-10 before taking
to the rope. It was a glorious sunny day and the atmosphere was amazing. The
girls worked really hard and it was a great community feel to end a
fabulous week.
Check out the videos of day 1-4 on YouTube by clicking here. Thanks to Mr Watkins for filming.
To our new Year 7s: mini summer book club
We are looking forward to you joining us on Monday 6th September.
During the holidays, follow
this link here for details about our
Year 7 mini summer book club.
Staff Leaving St Peter’s, July 2021
Mrs Melton, second in maths (formerly Miss Darke) is retiring and we wish her all the very best for the future.
We wish the following members of staff who are leaving to pursue new posts or challenges our very best wishes for the future:
Mrs McNeill, senior laboratory technician
Mrs Adcock, science
Mr Spanjers, R.E. & HOY12
Mrs Azubuike, science
Mrs Frampton, science/health & social care
Mrs Blackburn, careers advisor
Miss Tilley, head of politics and teacher of history
Mr Rouffet, science
Mr Addis, cover supervisor
Miss Beddall, cover supervisor
Miss Golding, teaching assistant
Ms Munday, maternity cover MFL
Miss Padley, maternity cover English
Ms Wocknitz, MFL supply teacher
Autumn term, 2021
Thursday 2 September: staff inset day
Friday 3 September: staff inset day
Monday 6 September: year 7 in school.
Tuesday 7 September: year 7 and year 12 in school
Wednesday 8 September : all year groups in school
Please check the school website before allowing your sons or daughters to dye their hair, have tramlines cut in or extremely short hair and before purchasing new items of uniform. In particular, trousers must be full length and not be skinny or clingy, socks should be black and at least ankle length (not trainer socks) and we have a specific school skirt which can be purchased at the uniform shops. Details can be found here.
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