September 2014
St. Peter’s Catholic School
High standards of attainment within an ethos of care and respect
February 2017
APRIL
April2017
2017
Headteacher’s message —
The Spring Term has been as busy as ever! In addition to
the continued focus on progress at all Key Stages there has also been a ‘push’ in the
preparation for external examinations for Y11, Y12 and Y13. You will see that the students have
also been busy taking part in many activities outside the classroom. This last week of term the
community spirit shown by each year group during their charity events has been lovely to see.
We were delighted that each year group could also celebrate Mass in preparation for Easter. A
huge thank you to Fr. David, Deacon Kevin, Fr. Gerado, Fr. Austin and Fr. Frank who enabled
this to happen. On behalf of the staff, governors and pupils we wish all our families a happy and
Holy Easter.
Lenten Charities M any thanks to all
who, during Lent, donated items to the
Sparkhill Food Bank collection and to
the Hygiene products collection for St
Chad’s Sanctuary. These donations will
be gratefully received by those who are
in desperate need in our local community this Easter time. Mrs Conroy
Voluntary Mass —
The strong parish links that
we value as a Catholic School are enhanced by regu-
lar visits from the clergy of our neighbouring parishes.
Holy Mass is celebrated in school on Tuesdays, before
lessons, at 8.25am. All are welcome.
Rosary— Fr John Peyton joins a form group every
Friday morning to say the Rosary.
1
The Tempest Royal Shakespeare Company Live Broadcast
How many times can we say we saw the finest performers deliver one of the greatest plays
ever written? Today year 7 can say they did.
For the second year running St Peter’s have welcomed the RSC live broadcast into our school.
This year was the turn of ‘The Tempest’, Shakespeare’s magical play of power and wealth. Our
year 7 pupils were treated to a truly unique and ground-breaking performance which integrated technology to create an unforgettable theatrical experience. Some of the scenes were truly
incredible and brought the play written in 1611 straight into 2017 with a bang.
Another special part of today’s event was that St Peter’s students accompanied 1000s of other
students from all over the UK, all of whom watched this performance at the same time. As part
of the lead up to the performance, we asked the students to submit questions to be asked to
the actors during the performance and amongst the many hundreds of submitted questions
from around the UK, two of ours were read out.
At the end, we had to leave the magnificent spectacle of Prospero’s (or is it Caliban’s or is it
Ariel’s?) island and return to our lessons…until next time. Mr Mallon
2
Year 8 Boys make History!
The Year 8 Football team were the 1st team to win the Birmingham cup for the 2nd year in a
row. The 1st half was a tight affair with both teams having chances to take the lead.
Plantsbrook the lead through a free kick from the left hand side which evaded everybody and
nestled in the bottom corner. Straight from the kick off John-Jo Power went on the front foot
and was
awarded a penalty which he coolly dispatched himself into the bottom corner. Going
into the 2nd half Plantsbrook started the better putting St. Peter’s under pressure, but a turnover in possession allowed Luke Pearce to play a through ball to Callum Sullivan who found the
roof of the net. St Peter’s pushed on from there and finished the game the stronger with
Callum Sullivan, Luke Pearce x 2 and Tom O’Grady wrapping the game up for the eventual
winner.
Well done boys, terrific achievement. We are all very proud of you. Mr McMahon
3
Cross Country
— Congratulations to our Cross Country runners who once again ran
superbly well in the final Cross Country race of the season which was the second of this year’s
Albutt Relays, hosted by St. Peter’s.
The year 7 girls A team consisting of Olivia McLoughlin, Ella McGrath and Millie Murphy came
2nd but won the overall competition based on the results of the two relay races this season. Our
B & C teams came 6th & 8th respectively.
In the Year 7 Boys race, our A team consisting of Patrick McGrory, Zak & Harvey Blake finished
4th but having won the first race back in October, finished overall winners. Our A & B teams
finished 7th & 8th.
In the Year 8 & 9 Boys race our A team, consisting of Sam McLoughlin, Dan Fleming and Jack
Chapman finished 2nd but again were declared overall winners having won the first race.
The Year 10 & 11 Boys A team remained dominant throughout the season and were once again
comfortable winners. The team consisted of Keelan Hopewell, Mike Power and Sam McLoughlin.
Overall, it’s been another outstanding season with 48 students consistently representing the
school in each of the 5 races that have taken place. Mr Seickell.
Bikeability Level 3 —
40 pupils took part in the
Solihull Local Authority ‘Bikeability Level 3 Programme’
last month. The course is aimed at equipping pupils with
skills for cycling on more challenging roads and when facing more complex traffic situations. Feedback from the
pupils was very positive. Mr Hughes
4
5
Duke of Edinburgh Award
On the 31st of March 49 of our Year 10 students completed their Duke Of Edinburgh Award training weekend in the beautiful setting of Cannock
Chase. During the trip, students received training in a wide range of camping and survival
skills. They were able to put this into practice straight away pitching tents, planning walking
routes and preparing their own evening meals, which ranged from chicken tikka masala to a
ham sandwich.
On the Saturday, students completed a refreshing 10KM hike through Cannock Chase and
had an opportunity to demonstrate their newly acquired navigating skills using compasses
and maps. Their behaviour was exemplary and everyone had a great time.
The group are all working towards their Duke Of Edinburgh Bronze award. On the 12th of
May they will take part in an official practice weekend at the Long Mynd before completing
their final weekend away in the Peak District on 9th of June where they will be assessed.
Mr Arnold led the expedition and was assisted by Miss Perrow, Mr Pollard, Miss Haynes and
Miss Fuentes - Zunega .
Your Future, Their Future. Teaching Opportunities
at the St. Peter’s Solihull Teaching School Alliance
Are you interested in becoming a teacher? The St. Peter’s Solihull Teaching School Alliance has
School Direct places available for September 2017 in primary and the following secondary subjects: Art & Design, Business Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, English, Geography, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages, Physics and RE. We are looking for enthusiastic,
dynamic and energetic individuals who have the potential to become outstanding teachers with
the drive and motivation to make a difference. We offer a highly successful, bespoke training
programme and have an excellent track record and a wealth of experience in training new
teachers. Successful completion of the one year course will lead to the award of qualified
teacher status (QTS) and will include a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) certified
by Newman University or The University of Warwick.
Maths and Physics Internship
Scheme —
We were delighted to receive a high
number of applications for the Maths and Physics Internship Scheme, which begins at
St. Peter’s in June. We are currently holding interviews and look forward to the 10 successful
candidates starting their internship with us next term.
6
Civil Service Insight Day
— Following the
workshop, run by MyKindaFuture, in January, five of our
sixth formers visited London to attend an insight day at
the Civil Service Head Offices. The students arrived at
Solihull Station bright and early for a 10am start at the
Westminster Offices. The day started with a talk from a
Civil Servant who spoke about the starter routes into
the Civil Service; namely the Fast Track Apprenticeship
Scheme and the Fast Stream Programme for graduates.
The Fast Track is a two-year Level 4 apprenticeship: a rewarding alternative to university with
a competitive starting salary. The Civil Service Fast Stream is an accelerated leadership development programme that provides talented graduates from a range of backgrounds with the
experience, skills and knowledge needed to become senior leaders within the Civil Service. A
current ‘Fast Streamer’ and recently qualified apprentice then gave a detailed talk on the two
schemes and their respective experiences. This gave
our students a great opportunity to ask questions and
learn a great deal about the huge variety of jobs
within the Civil Service. Following a short break the
pupils experienced the various stages of the application process including: online testing, group tasks
and interviews. The pupils enjoyed the trip and said
that they gained some useful information which would
help them make an informed decision about their
future pathways, a couple perhaps in the Civil
Service! A massive thanks to Miss Masterson for accompanying Mr Horsfield and the students
on the trip. Mr Horsfield.
The Maths Teacher on a Mission
Last month, we were delighted to welcome The Guardian to St. Peter’s to interview Mr Adams,
a member of our Maths department
and an advocate for the teaching
profession, about his work. The article
has now been published and can be accessed via our website or through the
following link:
https://www.theguardian.com/get-into
-teaching/2017/mar/31/i-run-aroundthe-room-giving-high-fives-the-maths-
teacher-on-a-mission
Congratulations to Mr Adams for such a
wonderful article! Mrs Hobbs
7
Enabling Enterprise Year 9 Challenge Day
On Tuesday 21st March, Year 9 were given the day off-timetable
to take part in a challenge day run by an organisation called Enabling Enterprise. Enabling Enterprise is an award-winning notfor-profit social enterprise, set up by a team of teachers in
2009. Their mission is to equip young people with the skills, experiences and aspirations they need to succeed in life. Without a balanced approach to academics and life skills, young people will be ill equipped for the next stage of their lives – a fact
reflected in the growing youth unemployment rate, and summarised in a Sunday Times headline as “schools are churning out the unemployable”.
They work in partnership with over 120 top businesses including PwC, Virgin and Hamleys to bring the
world of work into the classroom through a combination of lesson-time projects, challenge days and trips
to our business supporters. They work with children
and young people from the age of 4 through to 18
year-olds in primary and secondary schools across
the country.
The challenge day, “Commit to Confidence” began with an assembly delivered by Billy and
Amy from Enabling Enterprise. The pupils were introduced to the idea of the day and were
split into groups and sent off to their classrooms to begin the activities, aimed to help them
discover their own skills and to develop their confidence.
Session 1 – Confidence Workshop
In the first session, the pupils were split into teams and shown a video on confidence habits,
which explained the importance of confidence outside of the classroom and how this linked to
the activities of the challenge day. They then completed a skills wheel which helped them
evaluate their confidence in the enterprise skills set out for the day. The students kept their
Skills Wheels on their tables to record their acknowledgement marks throughout the day and
evaluate their progress.
Session 2 – Staying Positive and Problem Solving
In the second session, students were given one minute
to discuss the qualities of Staying Positive and Problem
Solving. They were shown prompt words on the board to
provoke discussion: resilience, solution, decisions, fearlessness, and encouragement. The groups all gave feedback and created a success criteria for each of the skills.
The students were then given a task ‘Who Stays and
Who Goes?’ where the teams had 10 minutes to negotiate which staff they will keep and which will go based on
certain criteria. Each group had to write who was affected by the cuts and write an explanation of their decision and feed this back to the other groups.
8
Session 3 – Being Creative and Presenting
After break the students came back to their classrooms to
complete a task where they had to rebrand a product and
pitch it to the rest of the class. The students had plain paper
to design their draft, including their name, logo, slogan and
the features of the product. The students then had 5 minutes
to decide who would do and say what for their 2-minute
pitch to the rest of the class. Each group were assessed on
their presenting and creativity by the rest of their peers.
Session 4 – Working in a Team and Aiming High
For the fourth session each group were given construction resources and tasked to work as a
team both efficiently and effectively to complete a series of spontaneous, timed tasks. The
pupils were required to make a Halloween Hat, Greetings Cards and a model of a statue or
monument. Each group talked about their products and fed back to the rest of the class about
how they worked effectively in their team and how they dealt with the time pressures given
in the activity.
Session 5 – Listening, Understanding and Leading
In the final session of the day, the teams completed a mediation task,
taking notes on a conflict to then lead and motivate others to an amicable
resolution. Using A3 paper, the teams had two minutes to draw a person
who displayed the qualities they felt presented the skill of either listening
and understanding or leading. The students then listened to what an
Architect, Chief Finance Officer and Construction Project Manager from a
project had to say about their work. The students were then required to
write three motivational responses, one for each individual, and deliver
them in front of the rest of the class.
The students were asked to complete a survey about the challenge day to help plan future
events. When asked about the highlights of the day pupils made comments such as, “The
best part of the challenge day was when we made the card, the hat and the tower when we
were working in a team”, and “Learning new skills and how to be more open minded”. Pupils
also seemed to enjoy the presenting part of the day with comments such as, “the presentations because a lot of people made their presentations funny and
entertaining”, and “The best part of the challenge day for me would
have been section 3, where we had to create our own shampoo bottle,
change a previous name and design the logo and also create a slogan.
This is because we had to work in our groups a lot and we all had to
share and discuss our ideas.” Overall the day was a success and it
seems that many pupils really enjoyed the experience.
Finally I would like to say a massive thank you to all of the staff who
gave up their time and normal lessons to prepare and deliver the content for the challenge day and well done to all pupils who were excellently behaved and participated in the activities with enthusiasm. Mr Horsfield
9
The Catenian Association Public Speaking Competition 2017
On Sunday 19th March Rory Salt represented St. Peter’s at the Catenians 32nd Public Speaking Competition which was held at Princethorpe College. There were 15 competitors, the
standard being very high. Rory gave an excellent talk on ‘Globalisation has failed’.
Debating Competition, Newman
University—Huge congratulations to
Faye Jordan, Kate Fossey, Rory Salt and Elizabeth Winfield who won the Catholic Schools
KS5 Debating Competition hosted by Newman University in March, ably cheered on by
Mr Mallon and Miss Bashford. This was all
the more impressive as the debating motions
are not assigned until the beginning of the
competition, so it really is a testament to the
grace under pressure shown by the team, as
well as their outstanding rhetorical skills.
The real clincher came from Kate's demolition of the opposition's platform, so everyone
needs to be wary of entering into an argu-
ment with her from now on! Mrs Hutchings
10
St Peter's annual ski trip to Italy
Over half term our annual coach full of students
and staff visited Pila in North Italy for a week's skiing and experience of life in the Italian
mountains. The week was again very successful with all students making good progress
through the ski levels; and nearly all students participating fully in all other activities. Our
après ski this year began on the first Sunday with a beautiful service in Aosta’s cathedral and
continued with varied activities over the week. These included a disco, karaoke, ice skating,
pizzas, ice creams and Interski's presentation evening.
Easter falls earlier next year so the 2017 predominantly Lower School trip will be during the
first week of the Easter holidays : 31/3/18 to 8/4/18 and will be to La Thuile, a ski area with a
fantastic snow record. This
week will be floated in school
to Yrs 7 and 8 shortly after
the Easter holidays so any
further enquiries to the office.
Mrs Hall
11
e-safety Parental Alert – Yellow
At St. Peter’s, e-safety is a crucially important aspect of our safeguarding and we aim to inform and educate our pupils, parents and staff on the
current issues surrounding this subject.
It has come to our attention that some pupils have been using a new app called ‘Yellow’, even
though the age rating on this app is 17 plus. The developers of Yellow promote it as a ‘way to
make friends on Snapchat’, however there has been criticisms of Yellow being like ‘Tinder for
Teens’. Tinder is a popular dating app that operates in a similar way.
Yellow operates by asking users for their Snapchat user name, They are then asked for
details including their age, gender and which gender they would like to meet. After entering this
initial information, users are asked to upload a selfie and asked if they wish to meet people
nearby. By clicking ok to this, their location services are turned on for this app and users have
access to images and information of people within a 60 mile radius of their
location. Users
have to give permission for access to their location or they cannot use Yellow.
To start using the app, users see images (selfies) of other users and swipe right for an image
that they like and left for those they do not wish to be friends with. If both users swipe right to
like an image then Yellow considers them friends and the app shares their Snapchat user
names so they can connect. The two people can then start to message each other via Snapchat.
We are concerned about the potential risks and dangers of young people using this app and
wish to alert our parents to this concern. We strongly advise pupils not to use apps which they
are under the age rating for and not to connect to people that they do not know. Profile pictures and information can be inaccurate on apps and if connections are made, strangers then
have access to Snapchat information. We urge parents to discuss this issue with their children
to reinforce the message we are sending out in school. The digital world changes very quickly
and by working together we can ensure that we educate our young people on becoming responsible digital citizens. Mrs McHale
Calendar
Summer Term 2017
APRIL
Mon 24
Whole School Start of Term
Tues 25
Year 11 Leavers Mass , School 9.15am
Fri 28
Year 13 Leavers Mass , St Augustine’s 1.45pm
MAY
Mon 01
Bank Holiday
Thurs 04
Year 7 Progress Evening
Wed 17
Leadership Drop-In 4-6pm
Wed 24
Global Learning Day
Mon 29 – Fri 02 June
HALF TERM
JUNE
Thurs 22
Year 7 Parents Evening
Wed 28
Leadership Drop-In 4-6pm
JULY
Mon 03
New Year 12 Induction Day
Mon 03 — Fri 07 July
Year 10 Work Experience
Wed 05
Year 6 Induction
Thurs 06
Year 6 Induction
Thurs 06
New Parents Evening
Mon 17 — Fri 21 July
Year 12 Work Experience
Fri 21
End of Term
12