Newsletter items for Tuesday 22 March 2011

Dear Parents

Easter is approaching and Easter Sunday, this year, is the latest possible date for that celebration. For those of you who have children in exam years, it can therefore be extremely misleading. Quite often students commence their personal revision for their exams at the start of the Easter Holiday. I am sure it is quite a sobering thought for you that after the Easter Holiday there will only be three school weeks before the main AS and GCSE examinations commence. They are also broken weeks, because of Bank Holiday and the Royal Wedding. It is, therefore, absolutely essential that all students in the public exam years i.e. Years 11, 12 and 13, plan to commence their personal revision no later than 1st April.

All students will be given subject revision schedules and if advice is required on how to organise their revision, tutors, subject staff and senior staff are all available to be consulted. Departments are organising revision sessions at lunchtime or after school, with some subject areas planning to offer revision during the Easter Holiday. I cannot stress enough how lucky we are to have staff with such commitment to our young people. I hope the students, in turn, will accept all the help being offered by the staff, so that maximum potential is achieved in the examinations. Equally, I cannot overemphasise the importance of school attendance during the final run-in to examinations. We often hear ridiculous statements about finding it easier to revise at home. This totally ignores the expertise of the staff when it comes to dissecting and constructing answers to past questions.

My strong advice for revision is:

• Years 12 and 13 - 3 hours per night, 5 nights a week and 4 hours on either Saturday or Sunday at the weekend. During school holidays, 4 hours a day to commence no later than 10.00am and with a break of 10 – 15 minutes every hour to be finished around 3.00pm.

• Year 11 - 2_ hours per night, 5 nights a week and 3 hours on either Saturday or Sunday. During the holidays they should work the 4 hours a day as recommended for Years 12 and 13.

• During school time the above hours includes work set and going over the work of the day. Also, Years 12 and 13, with any free time during the day, should use it in the sixth form study area.

NB. If studying at home is an issue during the school week, our sixth form library and study area is available until 6.30pm every night and by giving names to Mr Barnard, these facilities are available for student use. Similarly, they are available from 7.30am each morning and this applies to Year 11 as well as sixth form. Prior to school, if Year 11 want to use the facilities, they would have to vacate the study area at 8.30am.

If the above schedule is adhered to, I am sure the vast majority of our students will achieve their potential. Equally, during the holiday period, if work is finished mid-afternoon the remainder of the day and evening is available for the essential social activities, hobbies and family time. A sensible lifestyle is also very important during this time when students will be not only anxious but also finding it extremely tiring to undertake the level of work indicated. No student should work any night later than 9.00pm so that they are guaranteed to get a good night’s rest and they will be refreshed and ready to maximise the benefits of work in school the following day.

I make no apologies for starting this newsletter with comments relevant to the top end of the school. I think it important that parents of students in the lower school understand what will be required from their sons and daughters when they get into exam years. Hence, our plea for students to revise the work of the day each night so that they develop good study habits. It is with this revision of work that you as parents can help by occasionally asking children to explain what they have done in certain subjects during the day and checking exercise books to ensure that homework is presented in such a way as to ensure that future revision is made easy for themselves.

PFA FUNCTION

Those of you who attended the Christmas Ceilidh and the PFA Quiz Night will, I am sure, agree that the PFA committee work very hard to provide a good night’s entertainment for those parents who support their work and in turn the work of the school with our young people. On Saturday 2nd April, in the School Hall, the PFA is running its Easter Bingo. This is always a very popular event and provides good family entertainment at a very reasonable cost. You simply need to turn up between 7.00pm and 7.20pm for a 7.30pm start. There is no entry fee and you can buy a book or as many books of tickets as you can afford. The prizes will cash and Easter orientated e.g. Easter Eggs, bottles of wine, chocolates etc. I hope many of you will consider attending. To make it a success we really need the donation of prizes. Particularly, if you are not able to attend the function, we will be grateful for any prize donations you can offer. Simply send them in with your children to the main office on either the Thursday or Friday and we will be most grateful. I know things are financially difficult for many families but any help you can offer the PFA by donating prizes and/or attending the function will be greatly appreciated. I am sure you are all aware that all money raised goes to your son’s and daughter’s education.

Zimbe!

Tuesday 5 April, 7.00pm
St Peter’s Church

Come, sing the songs of Africa! Zimbe! is a brilliant fusion of traditional African song and jazz, from the deeply moving to the funky and grooving.

This wonderful musical celebration will see the St Peter’s Choral Society joining with the Gloucestershire County Youth Choir and St Peter’s, St Mary’s and The Rosary Catholic Primary schools.

Tickets (£3.00, £1 concession) are available at reception – purchase soon to be sure of a memorable evening!

CONGRATULATIONS

To our excellent Catering Department and Catering Manager, Mrs Maxi Markey. They have recently had confirmation that in a hygiene inspection they were awarded the top level of compliance. Then they assisted Mr Lester and Mr Crabb in gaining a Healthy Schools top award. The quality of the food that is put on in the school and the advice students are given on a healthy lifestyle is invaluable to their future health. It is very pleasing to know that the production of the food and indeed the menus, are considered to be of an excellent standard. My congratulations to all staff involved in this recognition coming to the school.

ACADEMY STATUS

At their meeting last Wednesday 16th March, the Governors decided that we should progress our move towards Academy status for St Peter’s. I was most grateful to those parents who came to the Consultation Evening. As I said in my previous letter to you, we continue to work with the Catholic primary schools to ensure that regardless of the status of our schools, Catholic education in Gloucestershire will be protected and maintained at the highest possible level in the years ahead. From the Governors’ perspective the only reason we are looking at Academy status is to ensure this principle becomes a reality not only for the protection of the young people in our school at present, but also for your sons and daughters who may be joining us in the future or, indeed, for your grandchildren in the years ahead. There is a determination to do everything that is necessary to ensure that the quality of education we offer is not only maintained at its present outstanding level, but is developed and improved in areas where we think there is still room for us to move forward for the benefit of our young people. My contention is, if we get this right, you will see very little difference in what happens at St Peter’s on a day to day basis, but if we did not move along this route within twelve to eighteen months – yes, as soon as that – you would begin to see the difficulties we were experiencing in trying to maintain the curriculum we have and the staffing we enjoy. Thus, making it very difficult to offer our young people the opportunities they at present enjoy.

Those of you who could not attend the meeting or, indeed, those who would like more information, please go to the School Website where there is a ‘frequently asked questions’ section on academies. If there are questions you would like the answers to but you were not able to make the Consultation Meeting, simply email us with a question, or phone us with a question and we will do our best to answer it. Not just for you, but by placing it on the ‘frequently asked questions’ perhaps dealing with what other people are thinking of but have not been able for one reason or another to ask the question. I cannot stress strongly enough that this decision to progress is, I believe, the best way forward to preserve and protect the very reasons you wanted your sons and daughters to come to St Peter’s in the first place.

STAFFING

• It is with the deepest of regret that I have to inform you that our Head of Religious Education, Mrs Nicola Bostock-Hayes, is leaving us at Easter. Those of you who have children who have been taught by Nicola will already appreciate that she is an outstanding classroom teacher in her own right. It is my opinion that she also has the potential to be an outstanding leader in our schools in the years ahead. For both these reasons I deeply regret that Nicola is leaving our school, but, for reasons which I understand she has decided to take up a post in London. She will be going to a new academy in London and we wish her every happiness and success both professionally and personally in the years ahead.

We will be replacing Nicola with two new teachers from April but we will not be replacing her as Head of Department. The RE Department will come under the overall jurisdiction of Director of Social Sciences, David Croft. The day to day running of the department will be under the direction of a member of the senior leadership team, Mrs Fiona Gittins. Those of you who have been parents of the school for any time will realise that both these staff are deeply committed to St Peter’s and exceptional leaders and teachers in their own right. Religious education in the school will, therefore, not in any way be diluted by us not having a discrete head of department and we would hope to re-establish the department with its own discrete head in the not too distant future.

• Many families in the school over the years have had cause to be grateful for the excellent work our teaching assistants undertake in supporting staff particularly with young people who may be experiencing one or two difficulties with school life. Many students on leaving St Peter’s express gratitude for the fact that the teaching assistants helped them to overcome their problems and enabled them to take their rightful place in society and, indeed, in higher education and the world of work. This Easter one of our long serving TAs, Margaret Holder, is retiring and leaving us. I would like to thank Margaret for all the work she has done for the students at St Peter’s over the years and wish her every health and happiness in the years ahead.

HOLIDAYS

The school will close for the Easter Holiday at 3.40pm on Friday 8th April. We will re-open at 9.00am on Tuesday 26th April. We will then close on Thursday 28th April at 3.40pm and re-open on Tuesday 3rd May at 9.00am.

SUMMER UNIFORM

I remind parents of students in the main school (years 7 to 11) that when we return after Easter we will be in summer uniform i.e. the St Peter’s green polo shirts. In the past the students have responded magnificently to our change of uniform whether it be after Easter or when we return to winter uniform in September. I trust we will have the same cooperation when this change is made.

I emphasise to parents that if any of you are having difficulties financially in acquiring the summer uniform please do not hesitate to contact me personally, Mr Coughlan or your appropriate head of year.

POLO SHIRTS

Polo shirts for Years 7 to 11 can be worn instead of blazer, shirt and tie at the start of Term 5, commencing on Tuesday, 26th April.

Polo shirts can be obtained from:

Trutex (Gloucester) Ltd., £8.50
99 Northgate Street,
Gloucester

or

20 Merrywalks Shopping Centre £8.50
Stroud

and

The Famous of Cheltenham £10.95
208 High Street
Cheltenham

ATTENDANCE

Last year our average attendance in the 11 – 16 years was 94.4%. This is extremely pleasing and I do not think it is any coincidence that the improvement in attendance corresponds with the excellence of our exam performance. It is very important that unless a student is really ill, every endeavour is made that he/she attends school each day. If a problem occurs during the day we will contact you or our first aid staff will offer assistance.

If your child is absent
Please call the school on the first day of absence. Once the student returns please send a letter in to school to explain the absence.

Where any absences are not explained they are assumed to be unauthorised. We are required to notify the Education Welfare Service of all unauthorised absences, and continual absence may result in a Penalty Notice being issued.

Should you wish to take your child out of school during term time please complete a Leave of Absence form (available from reception) and return it to the student’s Head of Year for consideration.

EMAILS

We are finding it more and more useful if we have an email address for the students’ families. This enables us to send work through to students/parents electronically, instead of posting it. It would, therefore, be very much appreciated if those families who have a home email address could forward their email address to enquiries@st-petershigh.gloucs.sch.uk.

BEST CHEF

Natasha Nunes, 11 E after winning the best Chef at St Peters High school went on to represent the school at the Rotary Chef competition held at Whitecross School, Lydney on Thursday 17th Feb, 2011. A mix of students from as far as Monmouth competed to win the title of Best Rotary Chef of the county. Natasha produced a mouth-watering three course meal of crab, prawn, chilli and coriander tartlets, cottage pie with glazed vegetable and finished off with a carrot and walnut cake with a twist of orange and lime topping.

She was pipped to the post and was awarded the third position, but was an absolute star and represented St Peters High School outstandingly.

Once again, well done Natasha!
Miss Harris

Eco Club does GO4SET!!

The Eco Club have begun work on their GO4SET projects. These are environmentally based science and engineering projects that will last for 10 weeks.
This work began on Thursday 3rd March at the Scheme Launch Meeting, which was held at Renishaw’s (a large engineering company) in Wotton-under-Edge. The group travelled down in the mini-bus and spent the afternoon and part of the evening at the company. They were split into two teams and worked together on two team tasks, both of which involving bridge making. They also learned how to manage a project and how to write a technical report. The groups were then paired up with their mentors (in our case, two engineers from ARC energy) to begin discussing ideas that will later form the basis of their projects.
The pupils were a credit to the school in their contributions and knowledge and they did very well in coping with a long day.

GLOUCESTER RAIL STATION ART PROJECT AND VISIT BY LOCAL ARTIST P. J. CROOK

The Art Department was delighted to be asked by Richard Graham, Gloucester City's MP to be involved in an initiative to enhance the platforms of the city's railway station. Work began last term in designing murals inspired by Gloucester City's history with a focus on transport through the ages.

A group of Year 10 students have come up with some super ideas which are currently being refined and finalised ready to start the murals later this month. In planning their ideas the students looked at a number of artists for inspiration and were really inspired by the work of local artist P. J. Crook whose home and studio are in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham. We were therefore very excited when P.J. accepted our invitation to visit the school and talk to the students about her work. It was fantastic for the students to meet her and talk to her about how she makes her living as an artist. She brought with her a number of original paintings so we were able to look closely at her use of colour and application of paint. P.J. then stayed to talk to the students about their work, giving excellent advice on strengthening their compositions and suggesting additional methods of research.

The murals need to be finished by July. Richard Graham has mentioned the possibility of a public unveiling of the murals and some treats for the students - a trip to London to visit a major gallery and a tour of the Houses of Parliament! And we very much hope that P. J. will return to see our work as murals get underway.

An exciting initiative and one that St Peter's artists are rising to the challenge of meeting.
Art Department

NEWS FROM THE LIBRARIES

Following World Book Day and the huge celebration on BBC, St Peter’s will be holding a Book Fair in the Library so that students will be able to spend their free £1.00 tokens. Most children’s paperbacks cost £6.99 these days but there will be many less expensive titles – and those book tokens will make them £1.00 cheaper! Please make the most of this opportunity to find presents for all ages.

Alan Gibbons' visit was a great success - it was fantastic to have him back in the school. He spoke to some sixth-form in study period about the importance of libraries; did two talks with year 9; a lesson with yr 11 on guided writing and a workshop with selected year 9s. Lunch was great, provided by our own St Peter's pupils catering team.

YEAR 8 ALTON CASTLE RETREAT 2011

On the 4th – 6th March, together with St. Bernadette’s of Bristol, we travelled to Alton Castle Catholic Youth Retreat Centre in Staffordshire. Mr McDonald led the retreat supported by Mrs Olewicz-Grubb and Mrs Eakin. Our group chose to get away from it all and find where God is in our lives. We have to say that it has to be one of the most fun, exciting, adventurous trips we’ve ever been on and we’ve got the muddy wellies to prove it! As part of the retreat we went mountain biking, trekking and survival! These activities consisted mainly of mud, losing shoes, falling over and not being able to get up in the morning.

When we arrived at the castle we were warmly greeted by the staff and later the fire alarm (for a drill of course). We settled in large dormitories with squeaky beds and floorboards…so there were no midnight walkabouts! The team at Alton there were the most magnificent, hilarious, heart-warming group of young people in the universe (except for our own teachers of course!) and they can cook one mean apple crumble!

So, where’s the retreat bit you’re wondering? Well, during each activity we had a break in the middle of it to reflect and meditate. We would make the time to listen to all the sounds around us whilst being told a story. By the end of it we all felt so calm and peaceful that we found it hard to stay awake! Even the ducks came over to be part of it. All the activities were great fun but never skin deep. They all had a deeper meaning to touch your heart and soul. We celebrated Mass on the Sunday to give thanks and we learnt some brilliant new songs…even Sing it in the Valleys...that great St. Peter’s anthem!

Finally, we would just like to thank Alton Castle very much for such a spiritual and heart-felt retreat. Also, we would like to thank Mr McDonald, Mrs Olewicz-Grubb and Mrs Eakin who shared the retreat with us. They were truly inspirational and it wouldn’t have been the same without them! Thank you very very much!

By Martha and Frankie Williams (Year 8)

Geography department on Twitter and Youtube

Join the Geography department on
Twitter and Youtube

@SPHSGeog (Twitter) SPHSGeog (Youtube)

Anyone can join/follow

Will be particularly valuable for
GCSE & A-Level Geography students

See Mr Williams for more details

Conclusion

As always during the Easter Holiday a group of sixth formers, together with Miss Tedstone, Mr Kilty and Father Kevin, will be going to Lourdes to work on the Handicapped Children’s Pilgrimage Trust’s pilgrimage. This is an incredible witness to the work of St Peter’s and each year I receive letters from the organisers saying how valuable the support of our staff and young people is to the success of the pilgrimage. I am so grateful to the staff and students for giving up their time and particularly to those students who return to face public examinations very soon afterwards. They obviously have the added pressure of making up their revision time in the other week of the holiday to the one they so freely donate to the young people they are helping. It is not just the week they work, they work throughout the year to raise funds for the pilgrimage and many years later many former students still remark on the experience they had when going to Lourdes.

Easter is the most important feast in the Christian year as it gives meaning to all our lives. Without Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Jesus, our lives would be but a small interlude and then oblivion. Easter Sunday gives us all hope that no matter how difficult or how easy life has been whilst on earth, there is a greater joy to experience for eternity if we wish to accept it. The whole purpose of our Ash Wednesday services, our reconciliation services which each year has enjoyed and our general theme throughout Lent, has been to put differences aside, to build bridges and to help create a more cohesive and respectful society in which we live and work. This stems from the way we treat each other in our homes and in our school. Although we will all slip occasionally, what is important is that we are not afraid to admit we have made a mistake, apologise and try to ensure we do not hurt others in the future. As I say to the young people, we cannot be everybody’s friend nor do we necessarily want everyone to be bosom buddies with us but what we can do is to ensure that we treat everyone with the dignity and respect which was not given to Jesus during his passion and crucifixion. The forgiveness he showed by rising and giving us hope on Easter Sunday is the formula not only for others to enjoy a happy and fulfilling life, but also for ourselves to get the most out of this magnificent gift of life God has given us.

I hope you and your family will take the opportunity to visit your own churches over the Easter weekend and celebrate in your own churches the fact that Easter has given us all hope that one day we can enjoy eternal happiness in God’s presence. I also hope and pray that the Easter Holiday will allow you to spend time as a family so that you can enjoy the unique opportunities a happy family life offers all of us.

Yours sincerely




Lawrence Montagu
Headteacher