Happy Holidays!

Our students and staff are more than ready for a break after an extremely busy half term.

Chaplaincy and Charity

The Mass and awards ceremony for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul was an uplifting occasion and one when the whole school joins together to give thanks and to celebrate. A special thank you must go to Monsignor Liam Slattery for saying Mass and to a host of people who contributed to making the day so special, in particular Miss Baker, our chaplain, and the music department.

Year 9 students have recently had retreat days. Thank you to Miss Baker, the RE team and year 9 tutors for their contribution to these.

A group of pupils in Mr Chambers’ form (9E) raised over £200 and used this money to provide books for the Born Sleeping Appeal at Hereford County Hospital to help support families and children affected by baby loss. This money was raised through a raffle where pupils showed great ambition by writing to local businesses asking for support, collecting prizes and selling tickets at school. Mrs Williamson and Mrs Skyrme took these items to Hereford Hospital along with a cheque from funds raised by the staff throughout the year. After the sad loss of her newborn baby last year, Mrs Williamson would like to say a big thank you to all pupils involved for the compassion and maturity they have shown as well as to staff for their support throughout the year.

Students raise £1 a mile and walk to Paris!

A climate change sponsored walk was organised to raise awareness of the effects it is having on our planet. Years 7-10 took part in the activity while also donating a small sum of money to CAFOD in their efforts to save the environment. We counted the distance everyone who took part in the activity walked and worked out that together we walked further than Gloucester to Paris (421.5 miles) while raising an approximately £420.

Students decided to do this because they saw that people were doing climate change protests and they wanted to join in without missing school, leading them to think of this idea. They wanted to show the other students how easy it is to walk to places without using transport that relies on fossil fuels. Each student walked an average of 2 miles which is a fantastic effort in highlighting such an important issue.

Mr Lax says, “the girls came to me with this idea and have run every walking session themselves. They have shown all the aspects of the ROCK award and are a true credit to St. Peter’s. Well done girls!”

Congratulations to our new head students Ellie Brooks, Romana Protsyshyn, Jack Richardson and Fran Smith who have got stuck into their duties with zeal and gusto. We will all be seeing much more of these excellent role models next academic year. The Gold Duke of Edinburgh award scheme

The Gold Duke of Edinburgh award scheme

Congratulations to Joe Wilson, Fran Smith, Romana Protsyshyn, Maddie Park, Hannah Osmanski, George Kodankandath, Paul Kodankandath, Harry Holbrook, Ben Etheridge, Elena Davies, Charlotte Cutting and Ellie Brooks on completing their qualifying expedition for the Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.  They were four days self-sufficient and still smiling at the end!  The assessor was full of praise for the group, telling them that it was a pleasure and a privilege to work with students of such calibre.  Thank you to Mel Moss, Anna McAteer and Mr McAteer for leading the expedition.  A special mention must go to Mr Edwards who trained the group and came back to join them on the practice expedition.

Year 10 Careers Networking Day

The Year 10 Careers  Networking Day on 27^th June was extremely successful. It was organised by Mrs Sarah Beeton, our careers adviser with lots of support from Mrs Ryder, Mrs Haywood and many other members of staff and sixth form students.

The  day got off to a fantastic start with a motivational speaker encouraging students to aim high and to take advantage of the wide range of career and educational  opportunities available to them. Students then had the opportunity to “speed network” with the employers to gain an insight into these local businesses and the wide range of career opportunties available within them. Leading up to the event, students researched the organisations and preprepared questions to ask the employers.

Students continued  to “speed network” with education  and apprenticeship providers, including our own sixth form as well as local colleges and universities. The aim of this session was to ensure students were aware of all of their post 16 and post 18 options so that they can make an informed choice after year 11 and year 13. 

During the afternoon students attended “Employability Workshops” learning  about the local labour market, where to look for vacancies, how to compile a CV and  application form and how to perform well at interview. The day concluded with students registering on our new “unifrog” Career Platform, to keep a log of the employers and providers they had met and to reflect on what they had learnt from the day.

Some of the organisations who took part in the day, four of which are amongst the Top 10 Employers in the county.

Superdry Head Office have opened their doors today to several of our Year 12 students to participate in their Superdry School Days Programme. The events are fun, interactive and informative and are a great opportunity for our students to find out more about how a global retail business operates. Students have the opportunity to learn about a wide range of careers by speaking to staff from a range of different departments such as Legal, Human Resources, Finance, Marketing and Design. Some of the Apprentices currently working at Superdry started their career journey by attending one of these events.

Osbourne Clarke Solicitors, Bristol, welcomed a group of Year 12 students to enable them to find out more about careers in the legal profession and the various routes available to train as a Solicitor. Students were able to speak to experienced solicitors about their work and to find out about the qualifications, skills and attributes required for this career. The exciting development of Apprenticeships in Law enables student to decide whether they would prefer to take the work-based learning route or the more traditional route of going to university full time.

Gloucestershire NHS Foundation Trust organised a full week of work experience for our Year 12 students interested in a career in healthcare.  Students work shadowed health professionals from a range of different healthcare careers enabling them to find out more about the wide range of healthcare roles available in the NHS. 

EES Contribution to Business award won by year 12 St Peter’s Physics Students

On Monday the 17^th of June 2019, 5 of St Peters RC High School Year 12 students finished a six month Engineering Education Scheme working alongside engineers from L3 TRL Technologies based in Tewkesbury by going to the graduation day at Bath University and coming back with the “Contribution to Business” Award.  The 5 students: David Charzewski, Paul Kodankandath, Josie Poole-Jones

Dominic Thomas, Joshua Jensley with the support from Mr Jones-Parry (Head of Physics) and Engineers Alice Roizer and Aaron Townsend worked on building, from concept, a device to count the number of people or objects passing a place. The team decided to focus on the counting of people through a doorway so it can be used to measure footfall in a shop, or refined to be used to count the number of people within a building during an evacuation. The team moved from concept, to research and then testing at Bath University on the 28^th and 29^th of January. This gave time for the students and engineers to build and revise their device to work more smoothly. The team then moved onto writing a report and creating a presentation for  the recent graduation day. These two tasks, with the report breaking the 50 page barrier, where no easy tasks, but with their hard efforts it is these two things, along with their displays to the public and question from the judges which gave them the Award. Each student also achieved the Gold Standard Industrial Cadet award for their completion of the project.

EAL Department Strawberry Tea Party

The EAL department held their sixteenth Strawberry Tea Party on July 12^th after school. Students who learn English as an Additional Language did some fabulous cooking to prepare a sumptuous spread of  delicious chocolate cakes to go with the traditional English Scones with cream and strawberries.

Members of staff, parents and other guests enjoyed the tea party to celebrate the successful completion of ESOL English as a second language exams and the student achievements during the year. It also gave us great pleasure to welcome past students and teachers who helped to make the EAL department at St Peter's school such a success.

Drama department

This term saw the Year 7 Drama production of ‘Arabian Nights’ on 6^th June involving twenty year 7 students with support from year 10 student, Olivia Cutting. The Year 8 Drama production of ‘Our Day Out’ on 12^th July involved fifteen year 8 students. Both performances were well attended and the department are impressed by the dedication and passion shown by all students involved. We are also excited about the future with such talented students. Thank you to Mrs Skyrme and Mr Watkins for your work with our students.

·       Music news

       The annual G15 Celebration of Success event was held in Gloucester Cathedral on 25th June.  All fifteen Gloucester schools took part with year 12 student Avygayle Smith being the St Peter’s music representative.  She performed one of her own compositions ‘Keep Faith in Me’ to an extremely appreciative audience. The evening was a hugely uplifting event and all fifteen schools had designed a flag as part of a project on Remembrance run in partnership with the Royal British Legion.

       

       Two weeks later, Avygayle was invited to perform at the Cheltenham Festival. She delivered a 40-minute set of original songs on the Free Stage in Imperial Gardens and was very well received by the large crowd. Well done Avygale!

Year 10 Band, ‘Point Naught’ has been hugely committed to the extra-curricular life of the school this year and has also contributed regularly to the wider community, recently  performing sets at the Tuffley Festival and at St Mary’s School, Churchdown Fundraiser.

On Saturday 3 August, six of our Key Stage 3 students (Bethan Brito, Grace Clarke, Emma Foran, Liv Whitehead, Helena Molyneaux & Ivy Wang) will be performing as part of a larger choir in the prestigious Three Choirs Festival.  They will be singing Carl Davis’ Last Train to Tomorrow, a performance which marks the 80th anniversary of the last Kindertransport to leave Prague. Tickets are available from: www.3choirs.org

We are delighted to report that former student, Laurence Padfield has graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Music from Royal Holloway, University of London.  He has secured a Graduate Music Assistant job in a North London school in addition to being awarded a place on the National Youth Choir of Great Britain Fellowship scheme. 

Art department

This year the Art Department are working with the support of Gloucester Rotary Club to run a “Fab 5 Competition”.  One hardworking pupil from each class in KS3 will took part in the competition entitled “Under the Sea”, this Wednesday 17^th July.  This theme was been chosen to raise awareness of the need to protect our oceans.  The pupils spent the day investigating and taking inspiration from artists who use their artwork to promote ocean conservation.  In teams pupils used a variety of materials, from traditional pencils and paint to clay and various textural materials.  They created work that shows either the beauty of animals and vegetation within the ocean or highlights the effects of human impact, such as the high level of plastic waste. At the end of the competition each team’s work was judged by members of the Rotary Club and the Art Department with a prize to the winning team. In order to judge the competition, we looked at pupils' artwork but also incorporated the St Peter’s ROCK Award Values of Respect, Optimism, Community and Kindness. 

Many thanks to the Gloucester Rotary Club who commented: “Thanks to the pupils who worked so hard and show dedication to the Arts.  The event, sponsored by rotary@kingsholm, was organised and supported by Clare Robinson, Bob Coles and Brian Collier, from rotary, and by Jude Williams, Head of Art, and Sue Williams, Art Technician, from St Peter’s. The arts competition at St Peter’s High School was seen as a great success by all concerned. The eight mixed-age teams were drawn from different classes across Years 7, 8 and 9 so most pupils didn’t know each other and had to work in teams. In one team it was the youngest member who emerged as the leader. Pupils came up with some brilliant ideas and a number of teams were ambitious in their vision, creative in its realisation and produced work of outstanding quality. Equally impressive was the focus and concentration pupils maintained for the whole day, including some who apparently had difficulties in doing so in other contexts. We Rotarians were struck by the support offered by many other school staff and pupils who popped in to see how things were going. While words can never capture experience, we ended the day with the sense of having taken part in something very worthwhile and look forward to repeating the experience next year.”

The winning team was made up of Chloe Bevan (yr 7), Ronan Hirons (yr 8) and Niamh Hannis (Yr 9). Isobel Kinsella won a special prize for being so enthusiastic and really putting her all into the day’s activities! The winners all received an Art Pack (sketchbook, brushes, pencils and watercolour paints) presented by Glos Rotary Club.

Keep an eye out for photos from the day on our Instagram @Fab5Art  

Sports Day

Sports day yesterday was a great success. Thank you to students, staff and parents for your support. There was a lovely atmosphere and it was lovely to see so many young people participating, whatever their ability. A big thank you to the PE staff for all their work.

Results

First          S   655       

Second     M 600

Third        E  589

Fourth      R 560

Fifth          A 542

Sixth         I  526

Seventh   L 518

Eighth      C 411

School Shop

The Business Studies and Economics department plans to set up a school shop to sell equipment and items of second hand uniform. They would be delighted if any parents or friends of the school have a business which would be interested in sponsoring the shop. If you think you can help, please contact Mr Jamie Versaci: jversaci@sphs.uk.com

Staffing news

Mr Staynings and Ms Bennett are leaving us at the end of their fixed term contracts. Mrs Aldridge has chosen not to return after her second maternity leave. 

The following teaching assistants are retiring

Mrs Arkwright

Mrs Lange

Mrs Wolowiec

Mr Moran

Other members of staff have secured new posts, many of which are promotions, or are retiring (often early) or are pursuing new ventures:

Mr  Upward

Mrs Pearce

Mr  Jones-Parry

Mrs Willerton

Mrs Eakin

Mr Hudson

Mrs Brindley

Mrs Garcia

Mrs Baker

Dr  Taylor

Ms Vertannes

Ms Struggles

Mrs Bateman

Mrs Demetriou

Mrs Davis

Mrs Roche

Mrs Lowson

Mrs Marment

Uniform and hair styles

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. 

FOSPA (the Friends of St Peter's Association) would welcome further donations of uniform which can be sold on. They would also welcome more members and more help! A big thank you to them for all their hard work this year.

Parking

May I remind you not to try to enter the bus bay at the end of school until 3.50 -4pm after which there is no problem at all. We have again experienced problems with some parents blocking driveways of local residents so I ask all parents and guardians to be sensitive to our neighbours.

Thank you as always for your commitment and support. It is greatly appreciated. We hope you and your sons and daughters enjoy the summer break and we look forward to seeing them in September.

  

Half term news

We are well into the external exam season and the staff have worked extremely hard with and for our students and I am sure they have too.The half term should not be a holiday for students in year 11 and 13 who need to use their time wisely to ensure they have the best chance of fulfilling their potential. Students in year 10 and 12 also have internal examinations shortly after the break so will need to balance their time next week.

Chaplaincy News

John Pridmore: Life Transformed through Prayer

As part of our Year of Prayer celebrations our Chaplain, Miss Baker, arranged a visit from inspirational speaker and international author John Pridmore. John shared his amazing story ‘From Gangland to Promised Land’ with year 8 and 9 students, explaining how he had been involved in gangs in the east end of London and how his life had been completely transformed through his experience of prayer. John gave each student a Rosary and miraculous medal.

Students and staff were inspired & touched by John’s amazing story, his sharing of faith and the power of prayer. We will be inviting John again - for parents too.

Lent and Easter action

Miss Baker was very privileged to deliver our Lenten Action offerings with some of the Chaplaincy Team & Mrs Donovan. We delivered Easter Egg donations to The Marah Trust & St Rose's School, & our food donations to Gloucester Food bank. We received a great reception at all the venues & learned a lot about the valuable work of the charities. Thank you all for your donations.

CAFOD News

Congratulations to the Year 10 CAFOD Young Volunteers who completed their course and received certificates from CAFOD. We thank them for the work they have done to raise funds and awareness for global justice and poverty issues.

Lampedusa Cross Partnership Service

Year 7 and 8 students joined pupils from St Peter’s Primary to welcome the replica Lampedusa cross. We prayerfully reflected together on our journey and the journey of refugees. The original Lampedusa cross was made by Sicilian carpenter Francesco Tuccio from the wreckage of boats carrying refugees which sank off the island of Lampedusa. The crosses were given to the refugees as a symbol of hope

Rucksack appeal

Are you planning to renew your rucksack? We would love to have your old one. Mary's Meals charity are requesting rucksacks that they can fill with food and school equipment for young people. Please bring your unwanted rucksacks to the Chaplaincy.

Maths news

Prior to the Easter break year 8 pupils Ciara Mahon and Bethany Barnes, and year 9 pupils Chris Thomas and Ivy Wang represented the school at the area final of the UKMT Maths team challenge. They spent the day working together on a range of maths problems including a relay race and a cross number where each pair only got half the clues! They were up against stiff competition, acquitted themselves well and represented the school admirably.

Over 100 students from years 9 and 10 also took part in the UKMT intermediate challenge.  This is a competition for individuals who all complete a multiple choice test of 1 hour.  The questions are designed to challenge, fascinate and intrigue students. All our students did well, with some excellent individual performances, resulting in1 student achieving Gold, 8 students achieving Silver and 15 students achieving Bronze.  Particular congratulations go to Chris Thomas, who, in addition to his Gold award and Best in school certificate, also qualified for the Cayley test, the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad paper for his year group.  Only 500 students nationally qualify for this, so this is a stunning achievement. Chris did exceptionally well in this additional task, achieving a Certificate of Merit.  Well done, Chris!

Congratulations also to the ninety students in year 7 and 8 who took part in the UK Maths Challenge at the end of April.  This test is designed to intrigue and challenge able mathematicians through a range of multiple choice problems.  21 students achieved certificates for their performance.  Particular congratulations go to Liam Murphy, who achieved a gold certificate. Well done Liam!

ROCK award

Congratulations to our year 11 mentors who all received their Community badges last week. The mentor system pairs two year 11 students with each year 7 form at the start of the academic year. The mentors act as a role model, guide, friend and helper to all the new students in year 7 and it has been a very successful and useful resource for many years at St. Peter’s. The current year 11 mentors have been outstanding and are a real credit to themselves, their parents and the school. They have acted with maturity and intelligence in helping the year 7 students settle into school, they have helped resolve friendship issues and they have regularly helped students with reading, current affairs and other tasks. Well done year 11 mentors!

Ten students in 9E received the Kindness badge for outstanding charity work this term. The form ran a raffle with excellent prizes that they manage to secure. They were tireless in selling tickets during their break times and in total raised £285 for charity. This really is the ROCK award in action and it was great to see that two students in the form were receiving their second Kindness badge in two years.

Congratulations again to our year 7 boys, year 8 girls and year 8 boys football teams for getting to the national semi and quarter finals in the football competitions. In recognition of such superb achievement, all players in the teams will receive their Optimism badge which is well deserved for a hard-working set of students.

RE news

This term KS3 students have been learning about other world faiths; this forms an important part of Religious Education at St Peter's. 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, videos, paintings, posters, textile work, powerpoint presentations and quite a number of delicious cakes and other cultural foods, all of which were connected with the religions of Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. It has been our pleasure to see the creativity of our students and to see the fruits of their work. Below are some images of what has been produced, but this is just a small sample of what our students created.

We thank every pupil (and some parents!) for their dedication and effort in making these research projects such a wonderful success.

 

 

Business Studies and Economics

We recently welcomed five local businesswomen to participate in the Economics and Business Studies’ “Women into Business” event. The guests moved between the groups of students, explaining a bit about their lives and career so that the session worked like speed networking. The event was aimed at year 9 but a team of sixth form girls ran an activity and helped to organise the event. They were a credit to the school and one of the guests mentioned Pippa Brogden in particular, commenting on how impressive she was. We hope the event has given our year 9 students a lot to think about in terms of future subject choices and careers in the business sector. The department has developed some excellent links with local businesses and we intend to use them for further events and as a focus for some of their students’ vocational coursework assignments.

The feedback from the year 9 girls was very encouraging and they were engaged by the guests had to say.

Year 9 Geography visit to the Royal Geographical Society, London

Prior to the Easter break year nine geographers enjoyed a visit to the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London. The day involved a series of sessions with geography undergraduates and the team at the RGS based on a series of different topics within the subject. Many of the topics frequently feature in the news currently such as palm oil, deforestation and climate change. The students also had an opportunity to ask two Cambridge students about their degree, undergraduate application and life at Cambridge university as well as other undergraduates about GCSE’s, A Levels and higher education in general. All the students were fully involved in the activities during the day and represented the school well. Thank you to Mrs Roberts and Miss Bates for organising the visit.

KS3 Languages and history visit to Normandy during October half term 2019

Spaces are available on the biennial KS3 trip to Normandy, a cross-curricular Languages and History trip with a chance to speak French and visit important historical sites.  Details are available from Mrs Beamish: jbeamish@sphs.uk.com

Music Department News

The annual Choral Society Concert took place in St Peter’s RC Church before Easter.  It was entitled ‘Our Eternal Home’ and was part of the 150^th anniversary celebration of the church’s consecration. The Choir was delighted to perform to a full house and are proud to be able to donate £400 to Gloucester Foodbank as a result of the retiring collection

Once again, the Jazz Band represented the school at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival on Sunday 5th May. This is always one of the highlights of our year, playing to a large and appreciative audience at such a high-profile venue. 

Please come and support our younger students at the forthcoming Junior Concert on Tuesday 11 June at 7pm.  This is a free, informal concert in the Main Hall. It is always a lovely occasion listening to the students in Year 7, 8 & 9, some of whom will be performing in public for the first time.

Sporting news

Congratulations to Jessica Duncton in year 8 who has been competing in athletics this year. She has done an amazing job and is the fastest girl in the South West in the U15 in the 200 metres. She is also ranked fifth in the country for the 100m indoor hurdles!

Staff vs Sixth Form charity football match

Members of the staff and sixth form recently  played in their seventh annual charity football match, The Dench Cup in loving memory of  our student Kamil Ciemniewski. Over £550 was raised for the Superhero foundation, supporting the courageous efforts of our own local ‘superhero’ and recent world record holder, former student, Jamie McDonald. The match was played with an air of great community and competition. The match ended with a last minute equaliser for the staff, courtesy of two goals from Mr Figliola, forcing penalties. Mr Williams for the staff became the hero between the posts and saved several penalties to give the staff the victory. The series now stands at 4-3 to the sixth form. Thanks to all who organised the event, played, spectated and contributed to the collection.

I hope you have a good half term break and we look forward to seeing the students in school again on Monday 3rd June with week 1 books and equipment.

February half term 2019

It's been a short but busy term and there is much to report.

Chaplaincy news

FLAME Delegate

We are delighted that Paul, one of Year 13 head students, will represent Clifton Diocese at Flame, the largest gathering of Catholic Youth in the country, at Wembley Arena in March. This is a great honour for our school. Fifty people from St Peter's High School will travel to the event on Saturday 2^nd March.

Help Madina Charity

The Year 11 charity group raised funds for the Help Madina Charity in Sierra Leone. They presented Dr Veronica, the founder of the charity, with a cheque for £300. Dr Veronica said, ‘The wonderful young students at St. Peter's school in Gloucester raised an amazing donation for Help Madina which I received today. Your kindness is overwhelming. On behalf of the communities we serve in Sierra Leone, thank you so much. I hope the exams go really well for you all.’

IGNITE

You are invited to come to IGNITE from 6.30 - 8.30 in the main hall on Friday 8th March featuring the amazing Mike Pilavachi. Mike is co-founder of Soul Survivor and travels globally, spreading the Gospel message especially for youth. Entry is by ticket costing only 50p (no admission on the door). Tickets are available from our Chaplain, Ms Baker, on mbaker@sphs.uk.com or via school on 01452 520594 or on twitter @ChaplainStPetes More details are available via www. ignitegloucester.com  Buy your tickets as soon as possible to ensure you don’t miss out on this special evening with an internationally acclaimed guest.

Engineering Education Scheme

Six of our students have been taking part in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) run by the Engineering Development Trust. The aim of the EES is to give students a chance to have first-hand experience in an engineering project. Engineers and students meet once a week during term time. This year the students have been partnered with L3TRL Technology based in Tewksbury. The students involved are Josie Poole-Jones, Dominic Thomas, David Charzewski, Paul Kodenkandekath, Joshua Hensley and Kamil Krzyszkowski.

The project brief from L3TRL was to build a device that could count people entering and exiting a doorway and possibly identify individuals. The students spent the Autumn term designing and planning the project. They then presented their work in progress to management at L3TRL at Tewksbury in January. They had a great day and the engineers were impressed. We also had a chance to find out more about the work of  L2TRL.

The students also attended a two day workshop at Bath University in January when they built their device and tested it. The two days went very well as the students productively in a team to build their device. They tested various functions using a model door with some successful and some unsuccessful signals. They are now in the middle of writing up the project report to hand in for the competition aspect of the EES with an awards day to be confirmed near the end of the year. Thank you to Mr Jones-Parry for working with the students on this scheme.

Extended Project Qualification

Congratulations to the eleven Year 13 students who completed their Extended Project Qualification this term. The qualification is highly regarded by universities and is worth half an A-level. The students worked exceptionally hard researching a topic of their choice at university level of challenge. We had an afternoon of presentations where the students each delivered an inspiring presentation to a group of staff and students explaining their research process and their research findings. Topics chosen included using placebos in healthcare, the Partition of India, whether animals have personhood and whether a student could successfully forge a specific painting to name just a few (the forgery - not the original - can be seen below). Students spent over 90 hours conducting their research and have all achieved a great deal throughout their projects. Thanks to Mrs Frampton for her work with these students. 

Music department news
A Level Music student, Harry Matthews has been selected for Gloucestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra, the most advanced youth jazz group in the county.

Another Year 12 Music A-level student, Avygayle Smith, represented St Peter’s at the Gloucester Area Morgan Car Owners’ Annual Dinner at Stonehouse Court Hotel.  We received the following lovely feedback after the event: “Once again I have to say that a student from St Peter’s has done the school proud.  Not only is she a great singer, but she is also a lovely person who thinks about other people and got as much pleasure from seeing the guests enjoying her music as she got from singing.”

Our first Senior Concert took place on Wednesday 13th February.  Students from Years 10 to 13 (alongside two of our elite pathway musicians in Years 8 & 9) took to the stage to perform a range of excellent solos and ensembles. 

ASE Conference Birmingham

Spicing Up Science Even More enticed members of the science department to Britain’s second city for a major conference. Mrs McNeill, Miss Holliday, Miss Owen and Dr Taylor travelled to Birmingham for the Association of Science Education (ASE) annual conference on a Saturday morning in January. They found out about the latest technology and gadgets that could help students develop a deeper understanding of biology, chemistry and physics.       

From trying virtual reality headsets that allowed the exploration of the stars from a different perspective to investigating the latest circuit components from Japan for the electricity topic in physics, they collected a wealth of ideas to bring back to St Peter’s. Mrs McNeill said: “It was very hands on and keeping up to date with the latest developments for practicals can only improve our approach to teaching science in St Peter’s.”

Miss Holliday particularly enjoyed gaining ideas for Ecoclub, which is a science club that she runs every Tuesday for students. Recent topics have included plastics in oceans and planting trees. “Finding out about how the range of Molymods has been extended has provided some great ideas for our A-level chemistry lessons,” added Miss Owen. Dr Taylor collected some useful information that could be used to support sixth form students considering applying for medicine.

CyberFirst competition
Thirty of our Year 8 girls recently took part in the CyberFirst competition run by the National Cyber Security Centre, a division of GCHQ.  3,389 teams from across the country were competing for a top 10 place in the final.  We didn’t make it to the top 10 (this time around) but our girls put in an excellent challenge.  The level of enthusiasm and commitment was fantastic, and the department has discovered some serious computer science talent for the future.  Well done girls.  Watch this space for news of a forthcoming St Peter’s Cyber-club. Thanks to Mr Drumm for his work with the students.

Art department news
Two year 12 art students have been volunteering at Art Shape each week as part of the sixth form enrichment programme.  Art Shape are a charity that ‘help all people to engage with the arts as equals’ and they recently held a four week exhibition of painting, mixed media, sound works and installations created by artists at the Art Bridge Evolve programme and Art Shape associates.  Our year 12 students, Abi and Hannah Baldwin, submitted two pieces of work and were both successful in having their pieces chosen for the exhibition ‘Odyssey’ which ran until the 12^th February at Gloucester Cathedral.  We are really proud of their achievements.

Sporting news

Football
Huge congratulations to the year 7 boys, year 7/8 girls and year 8 boys who have made it to the last 8 of the England Schools Football Cup! It is an amazing achievement to have three teams in the last 8 and we wish them all the best for their next matches which take place in the week or two after half term when the year 7 boys are at home to Queen's College, Watford; the year 7/8 girls are at home to Chesham Grammar School; and the year 8 boys are away to Wright Robinson College. Thank you to the PE staff who have coached them and good luck in your next matches!

International sport
Congratulations to Mary McAteer who represented England U15s in football for a full 90 minutes playing centre midfield against Switzerland at the Park Schaffhausen on Wednesday 13^th February. Mary can also sometimes be seen in a red shirt playing for Wales as she recently did when she took over the captain's armband for a match between South Wales and Reading.

Gymnastics
Congratulations to the Under 13 gymnasts who came second in the South West BSGA gymnastics competition in Devon.  They now go on to compete in the national finals in March.  Well done in particular to Erin Goldie who was placed third overall.

Cross-Country Success
Congratulations to Esther Rumsey (Year 7), Alex Knight (Year 7) and Fin Hawkins (Year 10). All three students competed at the County Cross-Country Championships on Sunday January 20^th. Having all been placed in the top 15, they qualify for the South West Championships and to compete at the National English Schools Championships in Loughborough on Saturday March 23^rd. We wish them every success.

School ski trip
Over sixty students from year 7 right through to year 13 are taking part in the annual school ski trip to Austria in February half term.  Students are of varying abilities, and are hoping either to learn, improve or perfect their skills.  The ski trip is a great way to get to know people in other year groups, as well as an opportunity to challenge yourself and to keep active during half term. This is a popular trip and 40 students have already signed up to go in February 2020 so if your son/daughter would like to take part, please contact Mrs Beamish for information.

Whiteout by Gabriel Dylan
On a slightly related note, congratulations to Media and English teacher and assistant head of sixth form Mr Carl Jones whose first book Whiteout has been published to great success under his nom de plume Gabriel Dylan. It is a young adult horror novel suitable for students aged 12 and above and was partly inspired by Mr Jones’s participation in a St Peter's High School ski trip to Austria several years ago. Thankfully, there were no casualties in reality! It is not my usual cup of tea but I read it in one day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The book can be purchased at all good bookshops or online retailers and the school library currently has copies of the book at the reduced price of £5.60. We look forward to the next instalment!

We hope our students have a relaxing and enjoyable half term break and look forward to seeing them again on Monday 25th February (week 2).