St Peter’s Press

Come and be part of St Peter’s success story

A scientific calculator is useful for all pupils throughout their time at St Peter’s

High and the Edexcel revision guides are great for all those studying for their GCSE.

Both are available from the maths department. £2 £4

The gold rush for this year was started in emphatic fashion during the summer holidays. The Year 7 girls (pictured) were crowned National Champions following a tense and exciting final, beating St. John Fisher’s from Wigan by 2 points. Faye Richardson was awarded player of the game. In another tense and exciting game, the year 8 girls narrowly missed out on the National Title by 2 points against Outwood Grange Academy, Wakefield. The girls involved then experienced the Challenge

Cup Final at Wembley Stadium where they paraded the pitch.

The successes have continued from where they left off last year. On a local level, the Year 7 boys have been crowned Manchester Schools Rugby League Champions. The Year 9 boys have also successfully qualified for the North West Finals. In athletics, the Boys’ and Girls’ Year 10/11 teams were both successful in

qualifying for the County Finals.

Fixtures have also started at

a Local, Regional and

National level in Boys’

Basketball, Football, Girls’

Basketball and Netball with

well over 200 pupils

representing the school.

Watch this space for details of

further success.

In our lessons this year our teachers have been focusing on making them more interesting and exciting and preparing us to be more independent learners. As a school, we have been following a TEEP cycle, which breaks

the lessons down into six parts so that we have the opportunity to get the best out of our learning.

In Science, the Year 11’s have made models of DNA to deepen their understanding of the theory behind the DNA structure. We look forward to sharing more of our TEEP ideas in the next newsletter.

Fax: 0161 248 1551

E-mail: office@stpetershigh.com

Website: www.stpetershigh.com

St Peter’s RC High School,

Kirkmanshulme Lane,

Manchester, M12 4WB

Tel: 0161 248 1550

It gives me great pleasure to write to you to introduce myself as the new headteacher of St Peter’s RC High School. I am very proud to have been appointed to such an important position, and I am looking forward to working in partnership with you. Prior to my appointment, I was deputy headteacher at St Peter’s for the last 6 years so I am fully aware of the things that makes our school one of the most successful high schools within Manchester: great teachers, great pupils and a great community!

An excellent education changed my life: I believe that an excellent education will not only change your child’s life, but it will also make our local community stronger and Manchester the northern powerhouse that it strives to be. A world-class city like Manchester needs a highly skilled and ambitious workforce so we all need to work together to make sure that our young people have the confidence and qualifications necessary to be able to compete for future jobs. As headteacher, I will make it my duty to support your child and provide them with opportunities so that they can achieve the highest academic standards and develop their unique individual talents to their full potential. With a strong partnership between home and school I believe we can achieve this goal. I very much look forward to meeting you at forthcoming events such as Options and Parents’ Evening, but I would also be happy to meet with you in person if you’d like to book an appointment to see me.

My goal this year is to build upon and improve your child’s progress and achievement at St Peter’s. In order to achieve this, we have just launched the Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme (TEEP) and developed our new school values: Achievement, Love, Responsibility and Diversity. You can learn more about TEEP and our new school values by reading the articles included within this newsletter or by visiting our school website in the coming weeks and months.

As I mentioned above, great teachers, great pupils and a great community make a great school like St Peter’s. I am really proud of my hardworking and dedicated staff; very proud of all of our pupils and extremely proud to be part of such a special local community.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter and I look forward to meeting you in person.

Yours sincerely

S Gabriel - Headteacher

Page 2

The Mercy Door represents the Holy

Door in the Vatican, which is traditionally opened during a Jubilee Year and is a place of Pilgrimage, was blessed by Bishop John

Arnold and will visit all 208 Diocesan schools. The presence of the Mercy Door in St Peter’s was an opportunity for us all to reflect on God’s mercy. When we pass through the Door it means that we leave all quarrels and anger behind us, walking towards a new life with God. Governors, staff and pupils attended the short Reconciliation Services in Chapel, signed the Year of Mercy Banner and completed their Pilgrimage by walking through the Mercy Door.

In 2013 the Department for Education announced important changes regarding the taking of any leave of absence during term time. Please be reminded of the following:

With effect from September 2013 headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. THIS

INCLUDES HOLIDAYS.

All requests for any exceptional leave of absence must be made in writing to the headteacher who will

consider each individual case.

Any such requests must be made well in advance of the dates of the requirement and before any arrangements are made.

Each parent/carer can be

fined up to £120 (per student) by the Local Authority for taking their child out of school during term time without the consent of the headteacher.

We sincerely hope that all

parents will support St Peter’s on this matter and recognise the benefits that

increased attendance will have on attainment.

Further information can be found on the St Peter’s website:

www.stpetershigh.com under

‘Policies/info’ Attendance.

With effect from September 2015 the Department for Education will classify any

student who achieves less than

90% attendance as

‘persistently absent’. It is therefore essential that all students keep their personal attendance above

90% throughout the school year.

The whole school attendance target for the 2016/2017 school year is 96%, which is the minimum each individual student should aim to achieve.

After many years of holding a, whole-school chess championship this year the Library held a junior championship to find both a girl and boy champion from the years 7 and 8.

Our chess club is extremely popular and very

competitive which can sometimes deter younger students from competing against the more experienced players from years 9, 10 and 11. To encourage the younger students, the new Junior Championship was created and the competition was just as tense! After beating off unbelievable skill and clever tactics the new girl and boy champions were declared. To celebrate their magnificent achievement both were awarded a prize and

their names are now etched onto the new junior, honours boards, proudly displayed in the library.

The whole event was a huge success and will be repeated again at the end of the academic year in 2017.

As part of the Gifted and Talented booster sessions last year, our pupils entered the Young Writers ‘Spine-Chillers – Into The Dark’ short story competition. Ten of our pupils were selected among the best nationally and are to have their work published in an anthology.

A copy of this anthology will be sent to the British Library and further libraries throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland

providing a lasting record of their success. These pupils were judged on their excellent use of

imagination, perception, expression and creative use of language.

The top five writers overall will receive a Kindle Fire HD while prizes for winning schools are £1000, £500 and £250 for first, second and third respectively. This will be announced after the books have been published on the 30th November 2016. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

A group of year 11 students attended our first Key Stage 4 Book Club last term, where they got together to enjoy some food

and drinks whilst discussing the novel ‘The Foreshadowing’ by Marcus Sedgwick. The pupils discussed the themes and style of the novel, presenting some impressive ideas and opinions

about the novel in a relaxed, informal environment. This will help them to develop their speaking and listening skills and also their confidence with analysing texts- this is key for their upcoming English exams!

The next Key Stage 4 Book Club meeting is in October, and will focus on the novel ‘Heroes’, written by Robert Cormier.

On Tuesday 20th September we

were happy to welcome Catherine Rowley from Cambridge University – Catherine is a graduate of Law from Murray Edwards College at Cambridge University. 26 Year 11 students with high academic aspirations wrote about their hopes for the future in preparation for the presentation. “In the future I would like to

become a Biomedical Scientist specialising in haematology. I am very interested in genetic disorders concerning the blood due to my love for analytical problems.” - Mohamed Kone 11D. “ After leaving St Peter’s my hopes are to study family law to become a judge. I would

love to help people and give back.” Alice Odubiyi 11 E – Head Girl at St Peter’s.

The students heard all

about student

university life, good A

Level subjects to

choose for university

and how to start

thinking about and researching

career ideas. Students enjoyed

the event and found it useful for

helping them to plan for their

first year. Mohammed Gulzar

11B said, “Personally I would

like to attend Cambridge

university if I work hard it’s

possible.”