Future Schools and Inspection!!

Last week we received the results of the Exeter School entrance exams.  I am delighted to let you know that all 13 of our Year 8 candidates were successful in gaining a place to Exeter.  Many congratulations to four of our children who received the top academic awards. This success is a triumph for the children and a real testament to the fantastic teaching, the inspiring Baccalaureate and the hard work put in by the children in preparing for their entrance exams over the last few months.  Thank you also to the parents who supported at home.  I certainly know how many hours you have put in to give the children the best chance.  Scholarships for Blundell's have been running this week, I will let you know the results in due course.

A fantastic turnout for the Future Schools' Evening on Tuesday night meant that I spoke to around 40 parents representing over 50 children.  Responding to parental requests for more information on Future Schools earlier in the process was very well received and I spent a good hour dispelling myths and reassuring parents of the process.   At St. Peter’s, parents are in a very safe pair of hands.  With my experience of sending children to over 40 different schools across the country and the associated entrance and scholarship processes I have joined a team with real experience of the local schools to St. Peter’s, and indeed, further afield.  As parents you have information in a number of ways.  

1. attending Future Schools talks
2. reading the presentation run at the future schools talks  
3. arranging an appointment with Mrs Johnston, Mrs Tyson or Mr Lord to discuss next steps.  We hold standardised academic data on your children and know your children well.  We can advise you on the process and options.  
4. Attending the ‘Next Steps Schools’ exhibition.  This year it will be bigger and better.  We are inviting around 30 senior schools to attend on 4th May 4-6pm including some further afield (Clifton, Cheltenham, Marlborough).  This willl be run in the Wessex Hall, rather like the Christmas Fair!

We have also welcomed a team from ISI to run a Regulatory Compliance inspection this week.  This is different to the inspections that you would be familiar with as ISI have changed the way that they inspect and report.  The inspection this week is simply a matter of the school being compliant in regulations.  We will inform the community when the report is finalised.  

A busy and successful week for all.

The Power of Yet

The Lent term started at St. Peter’s with the whole school agreeing on a shared resolution.  To learn and use a new word, a simple word, a word that they already use.  This magic word is ‘Yet’.  The concept goes hand in hand with the educational philosophy of ‘Growth Mindset’ where we teach the children to embrace the concept of learning, to realise that if they are stuck they should not give up but embrace the challenge.  The whole school got quite carried away as I presented them with difficult problems.  ‘Learning all the Countries in the world…  ‘I can’t do it… YET!’ they shouted, ‘Learning all my times tables… ‘I can’t do it….YET!’ shouted the little ones.  ‘Really complicated algebra…. ‘I can’t do it….YET!’ yelled the older ones.  Although this sounds rowdy, I am sure that you get the picture.  And visiting all the children in their classrooms over the last few days that ‘Yet’ word has really stuck.  Ask the children about it at home this evening.  If you would like more information please watch this Ted Talk where the Growth Mindset guru Professor Carol Dweck explains in more detail.  

We also started the new year with a focus on pastoral care and a reminder of who the children can talk to if there is a problem.  You will notice in each of the children’s classrooms a colourful poster ‘Who can I talk to?’.  We enforce with the children, that if they have a worry, however small, that there is always someone who will listen and they shouldn’t worry alone.  These issues are reinforced in the children’s weekly PSHEE lessons, circle time and in our regular program of assemblies.

And finally, parents and staff have this week completed the development plan questionnaire.  It was wonderful to read the positive ideas to move the school forward from both parents and staff and we now have a huge amount of information to read and prioritise as we write the five year vision for St. Peter’s.  Pupils will be surveyed next week. Many of you commented that you were delighted to be involved and thanked us for the opportunity to share in building the development plan.  I will be sharing the results with you in due course.  Here is a little taster of one of the questions that I asked the staff.  Weighted by how many times the word was used.  You can see a wonderful visual reminder that ‘caring’, ‘supportive’, ‘family’ and ‘children’ are the centre of our purpose here at St. Peter’s. A very happy new year to you all.