Dear Parents and Carers,

I thought that you might appreciate and be encouraged by an update on how students and staff are enjoying working productively together. Escot

All Year 7 tutor groups have now experienced the mud and yurts of Escot. Feedback from students and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Students got to experience fire lighting, den building and numerous team building activities. They enjoyed sleeping in yurts, a maze run as well as lots of fun on a very high drop slide. The trip ended with a muddy and smelly swamp walk, swiftly followed by a cold hose down before coming home. The students were superb. They had lots of positive energy, getting involved from the very beginning and having a go at some challenging activities. It was clear that they valued the experience and enjoyed the time as a tutor group, making new friends and working together. Some of the feedback from students included:

“It was amazing, I would definitely like to go again. The best thing was the maze run in the dark which was great fun. We worked well in our groups helping with dinner. The swamp walk was fun too as well as the campfire and den

building. I got to know everyone really well, although I didn’t get much sleep”.

“Escot was a brilliant bonding experience. I loved the maze run even though it was daylight and also the swamp walk was hectic and fun. It really helped me get to know lots of new people and I’d love to go back and do it again”.

“It was amazingly fun, particularly the swamp walk”.

“It was a really great time as we all really bonded and are now good friends. The best bit was the swamp walk which was messy”.

“It was an amazing opportunity to bond over team exercises. My favourite bit was doing and seeing everyone go through the swamp, it was disgusting!”

Yr 5/6 Open Day

Our GCSE results that are rated nationally as significantly positive, and our character based approaches to learning and Christian ethos make St Peter’s a very popular school. We had a very busy Year 5/6 Open Day and have since had a number of other open mornings due to the high demand of prospective parents wishing to visit. Feedback from parents:

“This day absolutely confirmed our choice. My daughter really loves this school and I hope she will get a place here”. “Good feel to a working school”. “I was impressed by the fantastic variety of options and classes available. The school felt very friendly and open”. “My husband and I visited your wonderful school with our twins on your Open Evening this week. We were so impressed with your school, your incredibly helpful and friendly staff and your general attitude towards how to approach developing a child’s personal strengths and addressing their weaknesses. The twins came away buzzing which was so lovely to see. We were interested to see how they would react to such a large school when all they know at present is the 47 pupils in their village school! The opportunities to study subjects such as dance and sport really excited them”.

NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2016

Acting Headteacher: Phil Randall

Quarry Lane, Exeter EX2 5AP

Telephone: 01392 204764 Fax: 01392 204763

school@spexe.org www.spexe.org

Roald Dahl Day 2016 marks 100 years since the birth of Roald Dahl - the world's number one storyteller.

To celebrate Roald Dahl 100, staff at St Peter's dressed up as some of Roald Dahl's squiffling characters and many read extracts from his gloriumptious stories. The 'fantastic' English department dressed up as farmers and foxes from 'The Fantastic Mr Fox'. Year 7 took part in the celebrations by writing their own 'Revolting Rhymes' and the winners were announced in assembly. The winners were: 1st Ollie Smith 7LJH, 2nd Rebecca Dunn 7KLK, 3rd Hannah Lishman 7LJS

Student leadership opportunities are developing in many areas across the school.

Student View We all benefit by having young people exposed to the ‘way things are done’ in a democratic society. Isn’t it time… to ‘tap the power of youth?’ We are pleased at St Peter’s to introduce to you our very own ‘Student View’ – a student led committee which provides an opportunity for students to express their opinions on school life and to get their voices on learning heard. ‘Student View’ includes students from all year groups who represent all of the students across school. They have been working alongside teachers, offering and sharing the opinions of the student body in order to have an impact on the teaching and learning that happens day to day at St Peter’s. The goal is to ensure that there aren’t missed opportunities, to find out what students would like to see more of in lessons and to find out the student opinion on what helps them learn best within the classroom. The members of the committee have been working very hard this term alongside the ICT department and exploring how we can, as a school, encourage more girls to take the subject for one of their GCSE options. Research and findings have proved very interesting indeed.

A new Christian Union (that won’t be called a Christian Union!?) Mr Baker, our School Chaplain is working with a dynamic group of Year 11 students, helping them scope and set up a new group aimed at students who are Christians. This is very much a student-led idea following a number of conversations with some students in Malawi. There is a desire for a group to be formed which meets once a week in a relaxed environment ,where they can share the joys and challenges of being a teenager and a follower of Jesus at St. Peter’s. The group will be aimed at years 9,10 & 11 and it is anticipated that it will primarily attract Christians but it was agreed that it is essential that it is an environment/atmosphere where non-Christians are also very welcome to share questions and thinking.

Parents’ Prayer Group This group continues to meet once a half term in the St. Peter’s Room. Following an advertisement in the Summer term, there have been a number of parents added to the distribution list. As a new initiative, we held a “Prayer Evening” on Wednesday 12 October from 5.00pm-6.00pm. Students, staff and parents were invited to pray for the school community. Do contact Jonny Baker at school@spexe.org should you wish to get involved in the Parents’ Prayer Group.

Year 10 Geography Controlled Assessment Fieldtrip

Miss Kenshole reports: As part of the GCSE Geography course, students have undertaken a data collection exercise at Dawlish Warren. This year we are investigating “How coastal management strategies used in Dawlish Warren have taken conflicting views into account.” Students have learned how to measure the effectiveness of Rock Armour along with meeting key stakeholders involved in the decision-making of coastal management in the South West.

Year 7 Decision-making Trip to the Jurassic Coast The focus of the day was the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and how it is being managed. In the morning students had an opportunity to visit the ‘Seaton Jurassic’ centre and take part in three activities, in which they found out more about the world heritage site and its history. In the afternoon, students took part in beach investigations at Sidmouth to evaluate how successful the management is, and what the Jurassic Coast means for local businesses. After the trip students independently produced a report to summarise their findings. Getting Unstuck Day—7th October 2016 Year 7—Mr Woolnough reports: The Year 7’s had an enjoyable and memorable day. They took part in a variety of team-building and thinking skills activities with

their tutors and tutor groups. Students developed their learning habits through art, lateral thinking, problem solving, communication and trust. The afternoon was spent reflecting on the day and sharing good examples of work with a focus on resilience. The year group had good fun and entered into the spirit of the day with lots of positive energy. Students have now been challenged with the task of transferring these good habits into their subject lessons over the coming weeks.

Year 8, 9 and 10—Miss Hayes, Mr Roberts and Dr Parry report: Congratulations to all of our students in years 8, 9 & 10 who took part in our second getting unstuck day walk. This year we extended the route for year 10 to Dawlish and we added in some challenge tasks for the teams to complete including a quiz, photo challenge and some physical team activities along the route. Students and staff had a great day out in the fresh air and countryside working together as teams and in many cases walking a distance they’d never done before in a day. It was great to watch the students working out how to “cross the swamp”, run/walk/crawl up roly poly hill (the very steep one in Ludwell Valley Park) just 5 minutes before they reached school.

Thank you to those who chose to get sponsorship and raise money towards our charity “Compassion” as part of the walk. This money will go a long way to help changing the lives of our sponsored children living in very challenging circumstances in their own countries. It was also amazing as staff talked to members of the public who stopped to ask what we were doing, complimented us on the behaviour of our students and thought the idea of a day like this was a brilliant opportunity for students to be out of the classroom and doing something very different.

Year 11—Mr Green reports:

The Class of 2017 have participated in two workshops to kick start their preparations for this year’s Prelims. The workshops are part of a wider series of initiatives set up this term to support students through this challenging year. Three coaches from Learning Performance ran seminars on early organisation and preparation techniques for revision, with a particular focus on mental memory methods. The Army facilitated a challenging set of physical and mental tasks to put the year group through their paces focusing on team building and leadership. Student quotes “I found the learning performance workshop really useful, it really helped me put revision into perspective”.

Uniform and Outdoor Clothing - Mr Hubbard reports: We are extremely pleased with how the students are wearing their new uniform. They look very smart and are certainly taking pride in their appearance. We would also like to remind you of the rules with regard to outdoor clothing. Students are allowed to wear a coat to school, but are not allowed to wear a hoodie, sweat shirt or non-uniform jumper to school. Students who come to school wearing these items will have them confiscated from them at the door as they arrive and will need to collect them from the Key Stage Office at the end of the day. Outdoor coats should be removed at the door and stored in lockers or bags during the school day. They can be worn outside at lunchtime and break time, but must then be returned to the students lockers and cannot be worn in the school building or carried to lessons. These approaches enable students to be warm and dry and wear and tear to the fabric of the building be minimised.

Behaviour for Learning—Mrs Hammett reports: As a school we are very well regarded for our standards of behaviour and it is always a pleasure to receive messages of praise from members of the public and to take visitors around our site. Ofsted 2015 described student behaviour as ‘outstanding’. However I am not complacent in thinking our successes will continue to come if we do not reflect on what is working well and how we can improve further. As a result I am working with students and staff on how we can improve behaviour even more. Thank you for the encouraging comments received in response to our new reporting system. You will see from our new reporting system how we value parents and carers discussing how students take responsibility for progress. Our expectation is that all students in all lessons do all they can to be the best they can be. Please be encouraged to chat with your children about how they maintain and improve how they can take personal responsibility for progress. I pray for life at St Peter’s to continue to bring a sense of hope to all of our students, staff and their families. Yours sincerely

Mr Phil Randall

Acting Headteacher

Christians Against Poverty

One in Nine of us are living with unmanageable debt. Award winning national charity ‘Christians Against

Poverty’ has an Exeter centre and offers free debt counselling. They aim to offer a solution that will last and give real hope for the future, so give them a call if you are struggling. CAP is non judgemental and visits clients in the privacy of their own home.

For further information or guidance Exeter CAP centre can be contacted on 0800 328 0006.

Key Dates:

Tuesday November 8th CPSHE Day

Wednesday November 16th—All Years Parent/Subject/Tutor Evening

Friday November 18th—Non Uniform Day

Wednesday November 23rd—Year 11 Prelims Start

Tuesday November 29th—Advent Service

Tuesday December 6th—Year 9 HPV Vaccinations

Friday December 16th—Last Day of Term