News
Cancer Charities
Our 'Wear Pink Day for Breast Cancer Research' last term raised over £1000 and this has been an annual event recently. We have received information from Breast Cancer Research that our school name will be placed on the Challenge's Wall in the Breakthrough Toby Robins Breast Cancer Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research. This is in recognition of the money we have raised for this vital work.
On Friday 10th February the school had a Wear Blue Day. This was to raise money for Prostate Cancer Research. For any parents who would like to make a contribution, or indeed for any friends of the school who would like to make a contribution to this vital area of research for the future of male health, we will gladly forward any donations to Prostate Cancer Research.
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Year 9 No Mugs Year 9 Technology pupils have produced mugs using their own designs. The school's 'sublimation printer' allows mugs to be 'printed' using hot plastic which dries tightly on to the china, making a dishwasher-safe and personalised mug. |
Congratulations!
The following students won Bronze in the u16 category of the South West Gymnastics Final: Robyn Marment, Charlotte Davis, Imogen O'Donoghue, Ellie Yates, Emily Hendzel, Oliwia Trylaska. They all did an excellent job and narrowly missed out on National qualification.
Congratulations,too, to Chloe Summers, Y8, who won a national super dance competition in Blackpool in December. Chloe had to dance many Latin and ballroom dances to achieve the cup and first place. Very well done to her!
St. Peters Gymnastics team achieved Bronze in the Under 16 South West Gymnastics Finals. They each competed in an individual floor, vault and a group routine. The girls all thoroughly enjoyed the day and are keen to get practising again ready for our next competition on March 11th.
Quiz Night
Many thanks to all who attended the Quiz Night. It was a great success and a lot of fun. It raised approximately £700 for the PFA.
BTEC Hospitality Events
Year 13 and Year 10 Hospitality students are hosting a European Food Event on the 10th of February 2012. We will be offering the following menu with 3 courses at the price of £10 per head (£7 for children).The event will be held at St Peters Catholic High School & Sixth Form Centre Pavilion and there will be a licensed bar. Book your table between 6pm and 9pm by emailing 9480@st-petershigh.gloucs.sch.uk
BTEC hospitality students are hosting another event this March for sixth formers, staff and parents. The event is a Casino Night, so get your poker face on and join us at the pavilion from 7:30pm till 11:00pm, on Friday 2nd March. Tickets are £3, available from reception or contact Rkefford@St-PetersHigh.Gloucs.sch.uk (£4.50 on the door) and will include Casino chips and canapés; there will also be a licensed bar.
Library News
Chris D’Lacey
After a delay because he had flu, Chris’D’Lacey finally came to talk to Year 7 on Friday 9th December. It was worth the wait. He told us how he had nursed a wounded racing pigeon back to health, which inspired his first book, Fly, Cherokee, fly. Then he described how his dragon books started as a sweet tale about squirrels but quickly became darker and scarier in Icefire and Dark Fire. We were eager to hear his advice to aspiring writers, “Read as much as you can”.
Chris stayed all day and talked to students at break and lunchtime as he signed copies of his books.
Alan Gibbons
In February, Year 9 students will see Alan Gibbons . Alan has visited the school several times before. He is an astonishing writer because all his books are completely different. His new book An Act of Love is the story of childhood friends, Chris and Imran. Their friendship is deeply tested when Chris joins the British army.
Weekly Quiz
Form groups have been gripped by the introduction of a weekly news quiz this term. The library subscription provides twenty questions on recent news stories; a great way to test current awareness. So, if you have noticed an increased interest in the news and events of the week you now know it’s the libraries’ doing.
PFA Quiz Night Friday 3rd February
Time to polish up your grey cells, pick your team and enjoy a fun night out! St Peter’s annual Quiz Night! £30 cash prize for the winning tea. Licensed bar. Just £3.00 entry per person which includes tapas & nibbles. What can possibly go wrong?
Please enter the names of your 6-person team, along with contact details, and send in to Reception as soon as possible, marked ‘Quiz’.
Choral Society 2012
This is the term in which St Peter's School Choir turns into St Peter's Choral Society and we invite parents and friends of the school to join us for our next concert. This year, we will be performing in conjunction with another choir Philomusica on SUNDAY 15 APRIL in Churchdown Community Centre. The concert's main focus will be a performance of The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins and will feature some of our own soloists alongside professional singers and instrumentalists. Head of music Mrs Perfect isinviting anyone who wishes to join us for this venture to attend some, or ideally all, of the following rehearsals:
Thursday 1 March 3.45 – 5.15pm
Thursday 8 March 3.45 – 5.15pm
Thursday 15 March 3.45 – 5.15pm
Thursday 22 March 3.45 – 5.15pm
Thursday 29 March 3.45 – 5.15pm
SUNDAY 15 APRIL Afternoon Rehearsal and EVENING CONCERT
You do not need previous experience to undertake this challenge! If you have any queries or require any further information, please do not hesitate to phone Mrs Perfect at school or email her.
Funding Controversy for Academies in Gloucestershire
May I take the opportunity to thank you for your support following my letter concerning the funding of Gloucestershire Academies (see below). I know many of you have written to our political representatives. I am most grateful for you joining me in trying to secure financial fairness for your child’s on-going education.
Lawrence Montagu, January 23rd
Dear Parents, Mr Montagu writes, I am asking for your support over the future education of your sons and daughters. For months now the Gloucestershire Association of Secondary Heads (GASH) has been negotiating with local and national Government to try to prevent a grave injustice to Gloucestershire children. Sadly, despite the Government acknowledging the injustice, nothing has been done to rectify the damage that could be done to your child’s education. I have provided more detailed information on a separate page. That is available HERE.
I am asking you to contact your democratic representatives to raise this issue and I have prepared a shorter model letter on the subject, accessible through THIS LINK.
I would ask you to use this information or the suggested letter there to write to Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education and/or to Councillor Mark Hawthorn, Leader, Gloucestershire County Council and/or to your local MP. You could also ask your local councillor if they are aware of what has been happening in their name with regard to the future funding of your child’s education.
Many thanks for your support in this vital matter.
British Legion
Brian Mwangi, Ffion Ingram and Quennie Bongcac represented the school at a reception hosted by the Mayor of Gloucester. This was to reflect the fact that Gloucestershire schools have raised £73,000 for the British Legion Poppy Appeal. A great effort to which St Peter's contributed significantly.
ICT and Computing at St Peter’s
We have been hearing a lot in the news recently about the way ICT is taught in secondary schools and comments like “glorified typing” and “just filling in spreadsheets” have prompted mixed reactions to say the least. When we look at the detail of Mr Gove’s speech to the BETT conference however, much of it is music to our ears at St Peter’s.
In Key Stage 3 we are already doing what has been proposed, and have been doing so for several years. In Year 9, for example, pupils have just finished editing their movies about the London 2012 Olympic games and are about to begin building their sports websites. Sequencing and control was dropped from the ICT National Curriculum a few years ago, but we continued to cover this because we recognise its importance. From Year 7, our pupils create algorithms and flowcharts to control ICT systems, and they also get their first taste of Computer Aided Design. We have plenty of ideas about how to build on this, and Mr Gove’s ‘open source’ curriculum gives us the green light.
Mr Gove said “in particular, we want to see universities and businesses create new high quality Computer Science GCSEs.... I am pleased that OCR is pioneering work in this field”. St Peter’s was one of 100 schools in the country to pilot OCR’s GCSE in Computing and we are now delivering this to our second group of Year 10 students, including seven girls!
Mr Gove also said “So I am also announcing today that, if new Computer Science GCSEs are developed that meet high standards of intellectual depth and practical value, we will certainly consider including Computer Science as an option in the English Baccalaureate.” This is promising news indeed, but we have been careful not to adopt of a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Computer programming at GCSE is not for everyone, and in recognition of this we have ensured appropriate choices for all pupils. We are now in our second year of an excellent GCSE ICT course that was selected for its relevance and flexibility. In addition, we also run a BTEC IT course which better suits the learning styles of some pupils.
Our Computing and Applied ICT courses in the 6th form are proving increasingly popular and we have gone from strength to strength in this respect. We currently enjoy a 100% pass rate at A Level, with a high proportion of A* to B grades. We also offer a range of IT Professional courses, developed by the likes of Microsoft and Adobe. The uptake of these industry recognised qualifications has been remarkable.
Finally, Mr Gove said “Teaching Schools across the country are already forming networks to help other schools develop and improve their use of technology.” At St Peter’s we see ourselves playing a pivotal role in this respect. We undoubtedly have much to offer our own pupils, and other schools alike.
Kevin Drumm, Head of Computing
Sixth Form Open Evening
All students in St Peter's year 11 are entitled to a place in our sixth-form, (provided that they meet each course requirement). We invite them to look at the option blocks we have prepared and to make some preliminary choices. We are particularly keen to hear from students whose first-choice combinations are not available in the provisional blocking scheme. Last year, changes were made to the scheme to allow more students to take up their first-choice courses. Copies of the sixth-form prospectus are available from the school.
Our sixth-form students go on to study a wide range of subjects at a wide range of universities and colleges. Clicking here will reveal something of where last year's leavers continued their education.
16-19 Bursaries
There is a new system for subsidising students in certain categories who stay on to sixth-form study. (This to some extent replaces the EMA system of previous years.) The way in which the school is responding to this policy is set out in a new policy document about the bursaries. You can access that here.
Gifted and Talented Project
A new programme has started for our Gifted and Talented pupils, with older pupils leading younger pupils.
With help from their teachers three year 11 pupils ran a Science workshop doing DNA testing with fifteen year 8 pupils; two year 13 pupils ran an Art workshop on exploring the human form particularly the face with nine year 9 pupils and seven year 12 pupils ran a Maths workshop for seven year 10 pupils, doing number puzzles.
The feedback from both the leaders and attendees has been fantastic. One leader said, 'I have learnt how to encourage and lead people in the right direction. It has been positive as it's good to see people learn and adapt.'
Another said, 'I think this experience will enhance my confidence and speech skills and will be very beneficial to my personal statement.'
One pupil who attended the sessions said that the experience had boosted her confidence. Another said, 'It was a good experience because it was fun and interesting, as I was worried that it would be boring, but it wasn't. It's challenging in a different way from lessons.'
The programme will continue to run through the year in different departments and with different year groups.
Modern Languages Department News
Congratulations to Ieuan Davies Year 9, who entered a competition run by the Gloucestershire International Office all about the European Day of Languages! Ieuan came runner up, very well done! He won a goody bag of various prizes, all to raise awareness of the European Community and its importance.
Barcelona Visit – 50 students from years 10, 11 and 12 will be heading off to Barcelona on 23rd October for 5 days. We will let you know how it goes in the next newsletter! Remember that this trip will be open next year for all students currently in years 9 and 10.
Austria Ski Trip – we have some places available on this trip, which goes during February half term. You do not need to be able to ski, as full tuition is given. Any keen skiers (or snowboarders) who would like to go should see Mrs Beamish for more information.
Paris Visit – A couple of places have become available on the Y9 trip next May half term to Paris and Disneyland. Any Y9s who are interested, please see Mrs Beamish as soon as possible.
Ardèche, France – Although the PE Department run this highly successful week of activities in the South of France, your son or daughter may wish to consider taking part, especially if they are taking French for GCSE. All sorts of activities take place on this trip, culminating in a two-day canoe descent of the Ardèche River, an amazing experience! Places for Year 10s in 2012 are filling fast, and indeed, we are looking to book for 2013, so see Mr McDermott in the PE Department for further details.
School Transport
The school is doing what it can to minimise the effect of the removal of the bus subsidy by the county council. You can read more about that here.