June news

It's been another action packed half term so far and here are some of the highlights.

Music Department News

The Junior Concert took place on Wednesday 13 June. It featured a fantastic range of quality performances from our very talented KS3 musicians. One of the performers, Edward Cutting (Year 8), described the concert as ‘…an amazing event to perform in. It was an opportunity for any student from Year 7, 8 or 9 to perform a solo on their musical instrument, or as part of a larger ensemble. Before I began to play I was very nervous, but when I got up on stage and played my first note, I felt very relaxed and enjoyed every second of it! It was great to see all of the musical talent that we have at St Peter's showcased in one evening of entertainment. I can't wait until next year!

 
Our boys’ a capella group ‘Frontline’ performed at the G15 Celebration of Success evening on Friday 22 June at Gloucester Cathedral. They performed two songs which commemorated the 100^th anniversary of the First World War: ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’. The performance was excellent and a tribute to the work done by Mrs Perfect and the rest of the music department.

 

The Jazz Band will be performing at the Tuffley Festival on Saturday 7 July, 3pm at Tuffley Rovers FC; any support would be greatly appreciated. You can also follow the St Peter’s High School Music Department on Twitter @musicstpeters or via the school website www.stpetershighschool.org.uk/music for the latest news, photos, videos and more.

 

Year 10 Maths visit to the University of Bristol

Last week fifteen Year 10 mathematicians were entertained by two lectures from leading academics and then participated in an exciting maths team challenge with students from 12 different schools.

The lecturers were: Dr Jennifer Roger of Oxford University, who took great pleasure in de-bunking alarmist statistics quoted in the press, and Dr Katie Steckles of Manchester University, who taught them how to square root cube numbers in their heads as a party trick and delved into the hidden maths of technology. Thank you to the maths department for organising this.

The Brilliant Club update
Our twelve Year 8 students who are part of the Brilliant Club have all achieved a 2:1 or higher on their final assignment, an excellent achievement. They have worked extremely hard on this challenging extra-curricular assignment and have impressed the PhD tutor they worked with. They will be “graduating” at the University of Bristol on 4^th July and photos will follow. Thanks to Mrs Barker for her work with this group of students.

GROW / GAP Scheme

As part of the GROWS project, some of our Year 10 pupils made the most of their half term by taking part in a 4 day STEM and Cyber Experience delivered by The Gloucester Aspiration Programme (GROWS). Activities included programming a robot to carry out a challenge and a technology teardown – stripping apart common household technology to explore and discover its components and breaking into an iPad to decipher cryptic messages. All this culminated in a trip to the Cheltenham Science festival to listen to industry experts talk about careers in STEM, followed by time in the Discovery Zone getting ‘hands on’ with virtual reality, aeronautical engineering and much more!

Year 10 pupils (with others from the county) also took part in a 3 day Sports Science Experience delivered by The Gloucestershire Aspiration Programme (GAP). Human performance and nutrition was delivered at Hartpury College’s sports laboratories. Here students got their hands on and investigated their own lung function, muscular systems and exhausted themselves through the Wingate test. Biometric investigations at the University of Gloucestershire saw students compare the difference in forces produced by bare footed runners versus those wearing trainers and measure their own speed using Brower gates.

All this culminated in at trip the home of English rugby, Twickenham, where students took part in a session exploring the use of technology in today’s game, identifying different player positions by their GPS track, as well as viewing the pitch from the royal box!

 

GROWS are offering more taster experiences, this time in Crime Scene Investigation (Dead on Time), and Engineering (Engineer IT) for current Year 9 students during the summer holidays. More details can be found at grows.ac.uk or Facebook.com/growsgloucestershire.

EAL department Strawberry Tea and awards ceremony

On the 20^th June the EAL department held the Annual Strawberry Tea Party and EAL Award ceremony to celebrate the success of the students whose second language is English. The ASDAN course students made about 100 scones and cream teas in school that day as part of their course and then we invited all to join in, lower school and sixth form students alike.

For some students it marked the end of their time at St Peters before they move on to college courses next year. It gave them a chance to say thank you to their teachers and friends for all their help. Everyone enjoyed the sun soaked, warm  hearted event, marking the real successes and progress of these hard working and enthusiastic  students from all corners of the world. Thank you to the EAL staff for organising the event and for all they do with our students.

 

The Duke of Edinburgh scheme has been really successful this year.  46 students in year 9 successfully completed the expedition section of their Bronze Award. They completed a challenging two-day expedition in the Cotswolds. 36 students from years 9 to 11 have completed their Bronze Award this academic year.

Former student Alice Davies has completed her Gold Award and is looking forward to receiving it at St James’ Palace. Thanks to the staff who give up so much of their time at weekends to ensure that the scheme runs and benefits so many students.

 

Year 9 Run to Wales
On Friday 22^nd June, a group of year 9 students ran 126.6km in nine hours, the equivalent of running from Gloucester to the outskirts of Swansea. There were representatives from all eight year 9 forms and, on a hot day, they showed each lots of respect and support, were constantly upbeat and optimistic about the challenge, felt the enjoyment of coming together as a community and displayed their kindness by raising over £1500 for CAFOD. Thank you to head of year 9, Mr Hudson, for organising this challenge.

This Friday, 29th June, is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul and we will celebrate with a whole school Mass to which parents and friends are invited. In the afternoon will be our awards presentations followed by an early finish at 2.30. All buses other than the John Dix ones are able to collect students at 2.30. Students on the John Dix buses - and students whose parents wish them to remain in school until normal time - will of course be supervised. We are looking forward to another memorable day.

 

 

Happy Easter

Chaplaincy news

The recent Ignite evening was an occasion to ‘live, love, laugh and believe!’ We were amazed by the wonderful tricks and inspired by the testimony of our special guest, magician Tom Elliott, and we shared prayer and worship together.

We heard from Joanna Fajkowska and Fred Ma’a about the latest fundraiser to come from Year 9: the hour long ‘Run to Wales’.

The next IGNITE evening is on Friday 6^th July.

Lenten reconciliation services: once again we had a tremendous response from our students at our reconciliation services where we reflected on the theme ‘Be Opened’ to God’s love and forgiveness. Thank you to the priests of Gloucester and Stroud Deaneries for their care and support.

Easter liturgies during Holy Week: all students have attended Easter Liturgies during Holy Week this week; these have brought together the mission of Jesus in the dance of salvation through his death and resurrection. Students shared how they are serving others following in the footsteps of the Servant King.

Year 10 CAFOD DAY: Year 10 CAFOD leaders spent a day at St Joseph’s Catholic College, Swindon, with other schools in the diocese as part of their CAFOD Young Volunteers course. They shared all the wonderful things they have been doing to raise awareness and funds for CAFOD.

Easter Eggs for Gloucester Feed the Hungry project: we were delighted with the response to this appeal. 201 Easter Eeggs and 2 Easter bunnies were collected and distributed to the children at Milestones school.

Links with the Catholic primary schools: our chaplain, Mandy Baker, led the students at St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in preparation for their reconciliation service. They reflected on the commandment of Jesus to ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’.

Thank you to our chaplain, Mandy Baker, for all her work on the above events.


Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts
This year the St Peter's Choral Society joined with a professional big band, tap dancers and two soprano soloists, one of whom was our own former student, Willow Burden, to perform Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington at Blackfriars, Gloucester, and at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Stroud. Nearly fifty students and several members of staff and former members of staff were involved in these fabulous concerts. The choir were directed by head of music, Catherine Perfect, and our thanks go to all the students and staff who participated to make these evenings such memorable occasions.

RE News
During this half term, students in KS3 have been learning about other world faiths as it forms an important part of Religious Education at St Peter'. As the Church says, “The love for all men and women is necessarily also a love for their culture. Catholic schools are, by their very vocation, intercultural.”

Years 7, 8 and 9 have spent homework time producing and then presenting an outstanding array of creative, and thought provoking project work. We have seen carefully crafted and detailed models, media videos, paintings, posters, textile work, powerpoint presentations and quite a number of delicious cakes and other foods, all of which were connected with the religions of Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. It has been our pleasure to see the creative nature of our children come to life and see the fruits of their work. Below are some images of what has been produced, but they really are just a small sample of what our students created.

We thank every pupil for their dedication and effort in making this research project such a wonderful success.

The Brilliant Club

Last Thursday saw the launch of the Brilliant Club for a selected number of year 8 pupils. They began their Brilliant Club experience with a visit to the University of Cardiff where they met their PhD tutor and set out to study literary theories. They will complete a series of assignments leading to a final piece of 1,500 words. All pupils were outstanding on their launch trip and have made a great start to what promises to be a wonderful journey for them.

The Duke of Edinburgh award

Congratulations to Luke Fullard, Mariella Rosato, Ava Bunce, Hannah Dawkins, Lena Thomas, Nathaniel Baruela, Maria Pieszko and Grace Adams who have recently completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh awards. There are currently 50 students in year 9 looking forward to their Bronze expeditions to the Cotswolds and 14 students across years 11, 12 and 13 looking forward to their Silver expeditions in the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons. Thank you to Mr Edwards, Mr McAteer and to the other staff who enable so many students to take part in this highly acclaimed scheme.

The English Speaking Union

Well done to Charlotte Ellis and Debbie Watkins from year 8 who made it to the South West regional finals of the ESU Shakespeare competition with their performance as Helena and Hermia from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ This was our first entry to the competition and the girls performed with great professionalism on the night. Sadly, we didn’t make the London final this time but we hope to enter again next year.

Group Maths Challenge

Congratulations to Amelia King, Mary McAteer, Chris Thomas and Benji Witherington who came 7^th out of 24 schools in the recent Group Maths Challenge They were beaten by Pates, Cheltenham Ladies College, Katherine Lady Berkeley, Monmouth Boys School, Monmouth Girls School and John Masefield School.

The International Food Party 2018 

The International Food Party is now in its 14^th year and has become an annually anticipated event, hosted by the EAL students and teachers in the department, with delicious dishes to tempt  tastebuds  from far and wide across the globe.  Dishes from Vietnam, China, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Iran, Spain , India, Gujarat, Poland, Bulgaria, Myanmar and Syria adorned the tables in the Pavilion last week. 

The students organise the event as part of a module for their ASDAN course and as a way of joining the community together to say thank you to teachers and other professionals involved in their lives for  their time, care and effort.  This year we catered for around 100 people,  with the additional dishes from Lyn Smith from the school's catering team, which was very much appreciated.  Sainsbury’s supported the students by giving £30.00 towards ingredients as a charitable donation. A further £30.00 was raised for GARAS who support the students outside school. It was lovely to see so many students from previous years continuing to support the school and bringing food to share. It  was also great to have the families of students at the event. Thank you to the EAL department and to all who cooked, set up the room and cleared at the end.

            

Business Studies news

Well done to the business studies students who made profits during the 'tenner challenge'. The winners - o made £160 profit - were Kayone Weir-Roberts, Zidiane Watson and Kynan Murchison.

The department also have a team through to the final round of the BASE game, a national business and accounting challenge. An accountant from a local firm will be coming in to work with the group on the final pitch which they will deliver by video link. The group are led by Lewis Vanstone and include Daiyaan Janodien, Joe Langbridge, Rohan Parry, Justin Varney and Monika Panyotova.

Geography news

During the recent Geography and Business Faculty Focus week 60 students from Year 9 were invited to take part in an earthquake science seminar. During the seminar, students learned about the impacts of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand and witnessed CCTV footage of buildings collapsing and some miraculous stories of survival.  The students were then tasked with creating their own earthquake building, made from straws, sticky tape and blu-tac.  In small groups, students had to design, build and eventually test their buildings' structure on the specially made shaker table.  Of the 14 different models, only 4 managed to survive 20 seconds of shaking, most crumbling or toppling over.  All students who took part were a credit to Year 9 and the school and through great communication and teamwork managed to create some exceptional designs.

Sports news

Congratulations to Charleigh Garrot in year 7 who goes on to represent the South West in    gymnastics after she won gold at a recent event.

Congratulations to former student, Grace Riglar, who has been selected for the English colleges FA national squad.

Congratulations to Mary McAteer who played for Wales in an international football tournament last weekend.

Congratulations to the Year 9 netball team who won the recent Wycliffe School tournament:

Congratulations to the gymnastics team who came 17th in the country at the recent British Schools Gymnastics Milano Team National Finals in Stoke-on-Trent. They also contributed to the South West region coming 10th overall.

Football news

The year 7 girls football team won the County tournament and will now progress on to the South West stage. 

Our year 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 teams all won the Gloucester Schools District cup football finals this week - an amazing achievement. The students played extremely well and were a credit to the school. Well done to them and to their coaches!

Under the leadership of Adam Scott in Year 12 the sixth form boys’ basketball team have done extremely well in the county league. They have won most of their fixtures and finished as runners up overall. The success of the team is the result of the effort of sixth form students, with a minimum of support from teaching staff.  Practices and fitness training have been  organised by the boys themselves. They are an excellent example to others.

Exam classes and revision

Staff have been extremely generous with their time and have put on lots of extra revision sessions. There are also several revision sessions taking place during the holidays for which staff have volunteered their own time. All of this needs to be supported by students' private revision. Students in exam years should spend a good proportion of the Easter break revising but will need to balance this with regular breaks for relaxation and exercise. It is a good idea for them to check that they have all the necessary notes and materials and to work backwards from their exam timetable to ensure all topics will be covered. A quiet indoor space without distraction, including music, is important too.

Research has found that 'spaced learning' (when students revise one subject for a period of time followed by a completely different subject and then a third etc) helps rather than hinders the recall of information. Ebbinghaus's 'Curve of Forgetting' is also interesting as it shows that we need to revise things several times before information is fully retained. He found that memory decays the most rapidly in the first hour after learning and then continues to decline until it levels off after one month. Therefore, through regular revision, forgetting will decline and more information will be retained.

Staffing updates

Mrs Wintle is leaving St Peter’s after many years of teaching English here. She is looking forward to the challenge of working with a different age group as she is joining Warden Hill Primary School in Cheltenham.

Mrs Lovett joined the maths department in September and is leaving to run the café attached to her daughter’s beauty salon in Shurdington.

Mrs Piva joined us as a teaching assistant in September. She qualified as a teacher in Italy and wishes to qualify to teach languages in the UK next academic year.

We wish all three members of staff every success in the future and thank them for all they have done at St Peter's. Mrs Baker, head of art, commences her maternity leave after Easter and we wish her well also. She was spoilt by her form this morning who very thoughtfully organised beautiful gifts and cards.


We look forward to seeing the students back in school on Monday 16th April. Students will be wearing their summer uniform of polo shirts but will need jumpers and coats also! Year 9 students will not wear blazers after Easter and have been asked to donate them to second hand uniform.

We hope you and your families have a happy and holy Easter.

Approaching Easter

Diocesan report and ethos

You should have received an email with a link to the recent diocesan inspection report. It can also be found via a link on the home page of the school website: http://www.stpetershighschool.org.uk/Welcome/Diocesan-Inspection-Report/

The Catholic life of the school and the teaching of RE were found to be Good and the report contains many positive comments on the school and on the students. We will of course work on the areas identified as targets.

Students in all year groups have attended Lenten reconciliation services led by our chaplain, Miss Baker. We are grateful to the priests from local parishes who have supported these services. As usual the students themselves have been extremely respectful and have participated well.


Ignite evening
Ignite was postponed because of the snow and will now take place on Friday 16^th March. Doors will open at 6:30pm and the evening will start at 7pm. We are delighted that Tom Elliott will be appearing. Tom is an entertainer, comedian and magician. Among plenty of laughs, tricks, silly props and audience participation, he will share a positive and life-affirming message and give testimony to his Christian faith. Tickets are available from reception.


The Brilliant Club – year 10 
A group of 12 high ability year 10 students was selected to take part in the Scholars’ Programme organised by the Brilliant Club. The launch was at Warwick University. It is a unique chance for them to work with a PhD tutor on some university style scientific research. Pupils are exploring the evolution of species with the help of technology to help their PhD tutor answer the question “what would Charles Darwin do with a computer?” Pupils have now almost completed their work which will be graded with university style marks (first class, 2:1, 2:2) prior to attending a graduation event at another university. Thank you to Mrs Barker for her work with the Brilliant Club.

 

The Science department trip to Geneva and CERN

The science department trip to Geneva and CERN went well although the weather conditions were very challenging with daytime temperatures falling as low as -9C. The students conducted themselves excellently throughout. Prior to the visit to CERN, Mr Jones Parry gave a well-received lecture to students on the work at the site and the physics behind the concepts. Staff were pleased by the challenging questions from the students. The visit to CERN was extremely interesting and students from all year groups again asked lots of valid questions. The group passed into France via a CERN coach to visit the cryogenic facility, the AMS experiment and the control centre. This followed a one-hour lecture and film on the history, current work and future plans for the site. Students and staff also visited two permanent exhibitions - Microcosm (about the setting up of the LHC) and the Globe (about the universe). Afterwards the group went into the old town which was followed by a quiz from Mr Parry Jones on CERN, Switzerland as well as on some general knowledge. The trip also included a visit to the botanical gardens which was shorter than previously because of the cold weather and instead more time was spent inside at the science museum. A visit to the Red Cross Museum ended the science trip to Geneva and CERN. Thank you to Dr Taylor, Mr Jones Parry, Miss Holliday and Mr De Young for taking the students on this excellent educational visit.

 

February half term ski trip

48 students accompanied by six staff took part in the annual school ski trip to Austria during the February half term.  After a long (25 hour) journey by coach. The party again went to St Michael im Lungau, stayed again in the delightful family-owned hotel Zum Weissen Stein. Students skied with their instructors according to their ability, and the superb snow conditions meant that most rose to the challenge of making two levels of progress during the week. Several students even enjoyed skiing with their teachers at the end of the day. Evening entertainment involved a trip to the Therme Amade indoor water park but extreme weather conditions meant that the planned bowling trip at Oberlungau had to be abandoned. The best evening was the awards evening when staff and students were joined by the ski instructors who awarded medals and trophies to students who had completed the slalom race earlier that day.  Our students displayed their ROCK values all week, and proof of this came from very favourable comments from the two coach drivers who were delighted with how tidy the coach was after the long journey, and also the ski school head instructor, who said that we were the most polite and respectful school they had worked with all winter! Thanks to Mrs Beamish for organising the trip and to Miss Beachus, Mr Figliola, Mr Potter, Mr Rumsey and Mr Versaci who also went.

 

Will it make the boat go faster?

Next Tuesday 20th March at 18:00 we will be joined by ex-Olympic gold medallist and author Ben Hunt-Davis. Part of the Redgrave, Cracknell and Pincent era, Ben won gold in the men’s eight in Sydney 2000. Team GB had not 'medalled' since 1912 in this event. Ben and his peers broke this 88 year old record when they not only got on the podium, but won gold.

 

Ben has since shared his story in a bestselling book he co-wrote, Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? Among other things, Ben has become a world class business consultant and keynote speaker.

Students and parents are invited to this special evening. Tickets are £5 per head and can be purchased in reception. Thank you to Mr Pinnell for organising this event. Profits will be split between Prostate Cancer and the rugby tour to Canada.


Rome visit at Easter
 
A reminder to parents of students going to Rome at Easter that there is an information evening on March 14th at 6.30pm. Please bring your child’s passport and EHIC card.

 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas 2017

What a busy term it’s been and there is plenty of good news to share.

All year groups have participated in a Christmas liturgy led by our chaplain, Mandy Baker, and year 10 students celebrated the feast of their year saint, St Francis Xavier.

The ROCK award
This academic year we launched our ROCK award based on the values of Respect, Optimism, Community and Kindness. Students have really risen to the challenge and I am delighted that our first badges have been awarded for Kindness to Amber Cavanagh. Phoebe Chick, Gabriela Kojder, Nikitha Joby, Sophie McInroy, Leanne Rogers, Catherine Stainer, Erin White and Victoria Witherington. We look forward to lots more students gaining badges in 2018!

Mathematics Masterclasses
Well done to the five year 8 students who have been accepted for the Royal Institution Mathematics Masterclasses, 2018, which take place at Bath University in February and March. The following students will attend six classes which will enhance their work in maths and inspire them further: Dominik Brown, Laura Davis, Phoebe Jones, Ivy Wang and Benji Witherington.

Gold CREST award

Huge congratulations to Norbert Wegrzynowski who has received the prestigious Gold CREST Award for his participation in the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project.

Oxbridge candidates

Well done to Hannah Soares, Cosimo Marchetti, Charlotte Davis and Ashling Williams who applied to and have been interviewed for Oxbridge places.

The Duke of Edinburgh award scheme

Congratulations to Ella Derrick and Anna Barnes who have recently received their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Awards. We currently have 95 students working towards their bronze award; 15 working towards the silver award and two students (now at university) working towards gold. A big thank you to all the staff - led by Mr Edwards - who put so much time into this excellent scheme.

Twas the Night Before Christmas
Thank you to all the students who took part in Twas the Night Before Christmas which was thoroughly entertaining and enjoyed by pupils from local Catholic primary schools at matinee performances as well as by family and friends in the evening. Thank you to Mrs Skyrme who directed the play and who enjoys covering members of the audience in snow!

Music news

Congratulations to Harry Matthews who was selected for the prestigious National Youth Choir. Harry and lots of other students took part in Carols by Candlelight at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Stroud, last Friday which was as beautiful an occasion as always. It was lovely to hear former students sing with our current students. A huge thank you to the music department led by Catherine Perfect, to the students and staff and to parents and friends for being such a supportive congregation.  £200 was raised for the church and £200 was donated to the British Heart Foundation. On Sunday the girls’ choir also supported former student Mary-Jess Leaverland at a concert at St George’s Church, Tuffley.

Science news

The science department has set up ‘Lab Rats’ club for students in year 9 and 10 who are particularly enthusiastic about science or very able.  The first session started with a brief talk on the history of anatomy and dissection followed by dissection when students learned about respiratory and digestive systems. They developed skills from how to set up an animal for dissection to using scalpels and the careful disinfecting of work areas. Focus and concentration were needed due to the nature of the equipment being used and the complexity of the task. The practical work was guided by biology teacher Dr Piercy and supported by Mrs McNeill, Miss Brookes, Mr Brookin and Dr Taylor. Two further sessions are planned: a planetarium will be set up in school and students will dabble in the world of pharmaceuticals by making aspirin.

Parliament week

Parliament week took place in November. Thank you to Miss Fearn, head of politics, who organised visits from two local MPs – David Drew and Richard Graham - as well as a school-wide referendum, a parliament quiz and a workshop for lower school students who signed some parliamentary petitions.

Gymnastics success
In the recent Gloucester schools gymnastics competition St Peter's won three of the five categories and were comfortable overall winners. Thank you to Miss Hadley for all her work with our gymnasts.

 

Football success

Well done to the year 8 football team who have progressed to the sixth round of the under-13 national schools cup and await a home tie in the next round. This means the team is one of the last 32 schools in the country which is a fabulous achievement for the boys and their coach.

House sport

The most recent round of house sport means that Wye are leading on 1939 points:

 

House	Position	Points
Wye	1	1939
Thames	2	1761
Severn	3	1658
Avon	4	1630

 

Staffing news

Congratulations to Mrs Eakin from the RE department who has gained a distinction in her MA in Catholic school leadership from St Mary's university.

Five members of staff are leaving us at the end of term:  cleaners Julie Brown and Zoysa Bucha are retiring; Mrs Akester who is an administrative assistant in our Student Support centre is leaving to pursue her jewellery business full time; Mrs Green who has taught drama and English here is leaving to teach dance and Zumba; and Miss Hadley who teaches PE and has done excellent work with our gymnasts is leaving to teach gymnastics outside school.

A reminder that we return to school on Thursday 4^th January (the planners say Friday 5th but were published before term dates were finalised).

We hope that you have a peaceful and holy Christmas.

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.