It's been a short but busy half term with lots happening as usual!
Football news: Under 14 boys’ final at West Bromwich Albion
On Thursday 26th Mary our Under 14 boys travelled to The Hawthorns for the final of the National Cup. They played a team from the Horizons Community College team from Barnsley. The green army travelled en masse with just under 500 of our students vocally supporting the team who were, unusually, wearing yellow! The boys played really well and did brilliantly to come back from 0:2 down to make it 2:2 at full time. It was tough that the game was then settled on penalties - such a harsh way to lose - but we are all incredibly proud of the boys, of our supporters and, of course, of Mr McDermott who has led the football teams to amazing success this season.
You can read more about this in this Gloucestershire Live piece.
Following the call of Pope Francis in his letter Laudato Si’ (to Care for the Earth our Common Home) we welcomed primary chaplaincy teams from The Little Way Catholic Partnership at the beginning of this term. During our day together we explored the theme of ‘God’s Wonderful Creation’. Pupils enjoyed the opportunity to meet and work with one another in three workshops: a lovely art workshop producing beautiful pictures of our favourite animals; the CAFOD Climate game where we learned about our responsibilities to care for God’s Creation; and Esther, one of our Year 10 students, led a nature walk workshop exploring our bird boxes and bug hotel.
We shared prayer, partnership and positive actions
for the future. Everyone went home happy with an environmentally friendly
‘goodie bag’ and some seeds to plant a ‘bee café’ back at their schools. We are
looking forward to our next opportunity to gather together.
Sacraments
This term thirty
young people from our school community made their Confirmation at St Peter’s
Church with Mgr Liam Slattery. The students have been preparing for the
sacrament with sessions in school with our Chaplain, Ms Baker. The Mass was a
truly uplifting and Spirit filled evening for all who were present. Ten
students are also preparing to make their First Holy Communion in July.
Kindness and Community
Year 9 students
who are participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme have been doing charity
volunteering with Ms Baker and working hard selling ice pops to raise money for
charity. We hope with good weather to continue this into next term too. Some of
the team have been caring for our Magnificat Memorial Garden planting bee
friendly lavender and sunflowers. Our new water butt has arrived and is
situated in the garden to make the watering task easier and more
environmentally friendly. Soon we will have a beautiful statue of Our Lady to
take pride of place in the garden also.
Philosophy Club
Every Tuesday lunchtime members of St Peter’s Philosophy Club come to E7 to ponder life’s big questions. How can we prove we exist? What makes something good or bad? Is it ever acceptable to lie? What would it mean for humanity if aliens exist? Can the existence and extinction of dinosaurs be looked at philosophically?
This term they have been exploring various
ethical theories and will be applying them to an ethical dilemma in the last
meeting before half term.
They have looked at:
·
Utilitarianism: the idea that what
is ethical results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number,
·
Deontology: that our actions must be
moral, even if this brings about immoral consequences,
·
Virtue Ethics: the theory that there
are specific virtues which humans learn and practice, and
·
Contract-based Ethics: where we
assume societies have a set of moral rules which members agree to follow,
formally or informally.
Thank you to Mrs Carnie for running Philosophy Club.
Craft and Calm Club
These two photos are from
the Craft and Calm Club which Year 7 pupils can join. This week we went outside
and created some artwork inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. Thank you to Mrs Stafford for running this club.
Drama Workshop
During the last week of half term, Year 10 and Year
12 Drama students enjoyed a workshop delivered by
the acclaimed theatre company Frantic Assembly. Students thoroughly enjoyed
working with the world renowned practitioners in preparation for their devised
performances next term and were excellent ambassadors for the school. Thank you to Mrs Skyrme for organising this beneficial workshop.
Poetry by Heart competition
Year 10 students
recently competed in a school ‘Poetry by Heart’ competition. Finalists
performed from memory poems from the GCSE anthology and were excitedly cheered
on by their peers. We even had a musical rendition of Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Before
You Were Mine’ accompanied by electric guitar!
Staff were really
impressed by the performances. Many students overcame a lot of nervousness to
stand up publicly and perform and all had put a great deal of time and energy
into memorising poems in their entirety. We had some really heartfelt
performances, many of which provoked an emotional response from the audience.
It was particularly fantastic to see the enthusiasm of the audience. Year 10
classmates were active in helping finalists to rehearse and perfect their
performances and were very vocally supportive during the finals.
Congratulations to
our winners:
1st
place: Sophie Barrington – Follower
2nd
place: Peace and Gospel – Walking Away
3rd
place: Patrick Burrows – Mother, any distance ...
And a special
mention to Leila Malcharek on guitar.
Thank you to Mrs Cawley for organising and promoting this event.
School
Shop
Last term we opened St. Peter’s school shop
‘St Pick n’ Mix’. The shop has been set up and run by students who have taken
ownership for ordering and managing stock, alongside marketing and serving
customers. The shop is open every Friday in BS2 and sells a variety of school
equipment including revision cards, pens and highlighters. Students have
decided that any profits made will be used to contribute to an outdoor ping
pong table for students that can be used during break and lunch.
Asdan Group
Mrs Turner writes:
‘Members of the ASDAN group who were at the end of their course cooked a roast
dinner from scratch. I demonstrated and the students while followed
instructions and did everything themselves. Wendy from year 11 joined us and
made a great partnership with Freya to cook a cauliflower cheese. They were all
brilliant and enjoyed everything they made, Needless to say there was nothing
left over and we ate it as a group as a final farewell.’
This was a great way for them to conclude the course. Thank you to Mrs Turner for this and for all her work with our students.
St Peter’s Parkrun Takeover
Join us at
Kingsway Parkrun on Saturday June 18th at 9am when St Peter’s is
invading the event! We are asking as many students and teachers as possible to
come in St Peter’s kit to the event at Kingsway sports field.
Parkrun is a free
5k run every Saturday for people of all abilities. You can jog, run, sprint or
walk the distance. You can even run with your dog.
All you need to do
is sign up and print your barcode: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/
Please see Mr
Versaci or Mrs Schofield for more details.
Note: this is not
a School trip. Students will attend the event during their own time and parents
will need to arrange transport and supervision.
Primary school visit
Year 13 student Asia
recently visited her former primary school, Tredworth Primary, and delivered an
assembly on the theme of ‘Local Heroes’. She is currently taking her A level
examinations and has been offered a place at the University of Cambridge to
study Psychology. She spoke to the primary school students about aiming high
and overcoming challenges.
This year Asia has
also been mentored by an Oxbridge graduate through the Zero Gravity scheme
which supports state school students through the challenging application
process to Russell Group institutions. We are immensely proud of her
achievements and wish her the very best of luck as she continues her external
examinations.
Junior Maths Challenge
This April’s
Junior Maths Challenge saw new stars emerge and a very strong performance
overall by all year 7 and 8 participants. Year 8 competed really successfully
achieving two Gold certificates and a Silver, showing outstanding mathematical
problem-solving ability!
Marcel Laabidi in
year 8 was awarded Best in School with his Gold Certificate, scoring so highly
that he has been invited to compete in the next round Kangaroo challenge. Many
congratulations also to Joseph Obasuyi Edebor for an exceptional performance
being awarded Gold and Malachy Bryden who did brilliantly with his Silver.
Year 7 made a
fantastic effort as they had never tried anything like this before, with high
average scores, 2 Silver certificates and several Bronzes. Dan Clements and
Noah Baker-Walsh both excelled themselves at Silver standard with outstanding
puzzle-solving and calculating efforts!
The following
pupils made a great effort to achieve Bronze certificate:
Year 7
|
Phoebe |
Brown |
|
Joe |
Cruise |
|
Laila |
Holloway |
|
Phillo |
Janville |
|
Alex |
O’lubele |
|
Mikolaj |
Okarme |
|
Blanca |
Valverde |
|
Ivo Obst-Piatkowski | |
|
A Maths Challenge Celebration will be taking place after half term where pupils will be given their certificates. Well done to all St Peters junior mathematicians for a brilliant effort! You have really impressed all of us with your mathematical talent! |
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On
Sunday 1 May, the Jazz Band once again took to the stage at the Cheltenham Jazz
Festival. The pandemic meant that they had not had the opportunity to perform
on such a prestigious platform since 2018 and therefore all but two students
are new to the band! Understandably beforehand, the students were nervous;
however, as soon as they started playing to the large and enthusiastic crowd,
musicality, confidence and pure enjoyment took over. During the fantastic
30-minute set, the band was talent-spotted and has been booked for a gig in
Cheltenham Town Hall in December. Congratulations all!
Thank you to the 15 students who sang in the choir and played in the band for the school’s Confirmation Service at St Peter’s Church on Thursday 12 May. The musicians once again enhanced an extremely uplifting service.
Our next event is the Junior Concert on Wednesday 22 June. Please do come and support our KS3 students in what might be their first public performance!
To find out even more about what our musicians get up to, please subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/MusicStPeters and like our videos. You can also follow us on Twitter ‘@musicstpeters’ and Instagram ‘music_stpeters’
Thank you to Mrs Perfect and the music department staff.
Percussion Club (Monday Lunchtime) and Guitar Club (Friday Lunchtime) are run by two of our visiting instrumental teachers and are proving extremely popular. Students of any standard and in any year group are welcome.
