PROSPECTUS

St. Peter’s Catholic School Solihull

We are delighted with St. Peter’s. Our child has flourished in the last year academically and emotionally and is always happy to attend school. St. Peter’s parent

“”

WelcomingWelcome to St. Peter’s Catholic School. Rooted in Solihull’s Catholic community, we are a popular, oversubscribed school with a history going back over a hundred years. Olton Court Convent School (founded in 1903) merged with Bishop Glancey High School in 1974 to form the present school.

The Sixth Form was added in 1994 enabling us to care for students from age 11 to 19. The school is supported by the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull and the Birmingham Archdiocese. The school site is bordered by parkland in the largely residential south west of Solihull. Not far away are the excellent amenities of Solihull, the city of Birmingham and the attractive rural landscape of Warwickshire’s Green Belt.

Secondary education is a crucial stage in life-preparation so choosing the right school for your child is an incredibly important decision. At St. Peter’s, we understand the need to ensure a smooth transition from primary school to a safe, caring and supportive secondary school. The purpose of this prospectus is to inform you about our community at St. Peter’s. A brochure, however, is no substitute for a visit and we look forward to seeing you at our Open Evening in the Autumn term or you are more than welcome to make an appointment to visit us during the school day.

It is great to work in a school with such a strong community feel.St. Peter’s teacher“ ”

CaringA good education is the best possible preparation for adult life and at St. Peter’s we aim to ensure that every student thrives and flourishes.

Our distinctiveness rests on the Catholic character and ethos of our school and this lies at the heart of everything we do. We endeavour to educate pupils in a Catholic atmosphere so that they are enabled to value life-long learning and the Gospel message can be related to everyday life and work. It is important to all of us, the Church, the parents and the teachers, to realise that the young person must be developed as a whole person – body, soul, mind and spirit. The school exists to enable the pupils not simply to grow in their own faith but to help them to be able to take their place in the world as mature Christians. We aim, as a truly Catholic school and specialist Science College, to help young people develop a global attitude so that they can see themselves, and play their part, as citizens of the world.

A caring, positive ethos is often commented on by visitors to St. Peter’s, where faith, hope and charity link school, parish and home to foster pupils’ personal growth. Mass is celebrated in the chapel each week and pupils often prepare for, and perform in, liturgies. The school reaches out to parish and diocesan youth organisations and centres. Pupils can take part in residential courses and retreats at the diocesan youth centres at Alton Castle in Staffordshire and Soli House in Stratford as well as at The Briars in Derbyshire. Furthermore, our older students have the opportunity to go to Lourdes. Faith in practice sees pupils involved in a Charities Committee, support for international causes like CAFOD and in local community service.

With the help of all my teachers, I have managed to continually improve and achieve my target grades.St. Peter’s pupil“ ”

SuccessfulSt. Peter’s has an excellent academic record and all pupils who come here make very good progress. The vast majority of our pupils continue into further education and our Sixth Form students regularly achieve entry to the most prestigious of universities, including Oxbridge.

St. Peter’s welcomes children of all abilities, whether highly gifted and talented or with special needs. Following National Curriculum directions, the school provides a broad, balanced curriculum with Religious Education at the core of all learning. We are proud of our close links with partner primary schools which enable us to place each child in the most appropriate teaching groups for their ability and needs. The groupings are constantly reviewed and each child’s progress is closely monitored.

During Years 7 to 9, all pupils study the National Curriculum core and foundation subjects. This includes: Religious Education, English, Mathematics, Science, Art, Design & Technology, Drama, Geography, History, Information Technology, Modern Foreign Languages (French, German and Spanish), Music, Personal Development & Citizenship and Physical Education.

In Years 10 & 11, pupils follow a core programme of Religious Education, English, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education and Personal Development & Citizenship. Other subjects offered within option blocks include: Art, Business Studies, Dance, Design & Technology, Drama, Geography, History, Information Technology, Media Studies, Music, Modern Foreign Languages (French, German and Spanish) Psychology and Sociology. Within Science we offer GCSEs in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, in addition to core Science and BTEC.

After five years, a high proportion of St. Peter’s pupils achieve very good grades in ten or more subjects. This is the result of their being placed carefully on appropriate courses and being entered for exams at a time to maximise their potential. A smaller, personally tailored programme of GCSEs is made available to pupils with special needs.

A separate prospectus is available with details of the courses we offer post-16, including over 20 A levels and other vocational courses.

St. Peter’s is proud to be a Specialist Science College. Through our specialism in Science and Mathematics we have improved standards, progress and outcomes in all curriculum areas. Specialist funding led to improved access to ICT for our learners, including the FROG VLE. Innovative practices in teaching and learning developed in the specialist areas are now embedded across the school. Specialism gives our students a wide range of enrichment and engagement opportunities linked to Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects. Our students have regular opportunities to go on trips and visits, listen to outside speakers, take part in work experience or participate in long-term projects leading to nationally recognised accreditation.

All the teachers really care about you and about you doing well in their subjects.St. Peter’s pupil“

”

SupportingOur pastoral care system supports individual pupils and their learning and is essential to academic progress and success. Every child needs a happy, secure environment to learn well. Being personally known and cherished equally helps each one of our students to benefit from all that our school offers. We understand that, for some children, the prospect of starting secondary school may seem daunting, so we focus strongly on settling pupils into our community when they arrive.

When pupils join the school, they are assigned a Form Tutor who they will see daily and who will progress through the school with them, overseeing their welfare and progress over five years. In addition to this, each Year Group has a Lead Tutor, who works closely with the Form Tutors to ensure that every pupil is safe, happy and successful. Our pupils also have access to a range of associate staff to support them in their learning and personal development, including Learning Mentors and the School Nurse. In this way, our large community is broken down to smaller family units and this helps each child and family to be known.

At St. Peter’s, we strongly encourage all pupils to become actively involved in the pastoral life of our school, whether this be through applying to be a peer mediator and mentor; being nominated to be a form captain or a School Council representative or, for our Sixth Formers, taking part in paired tutoring to assist younger pupils with literacy or numeracy. We are immensely proud that a significant number of our pupils apply to become prefects in Year 11 and annual interviews are held to appoint our senior prefects and our Head Boy and Girl.

Families are involved at every stage of school life, beginning with our Home School Agreement. There are regular opportunities for parents to consult with the school, including parents’ evenings and leadership drop-in sessions. With tutors, pupils and parents working as a unit together, our high expectations of behaviour and learning can be delivered. This positive and caring framework is the base of our school’s success.

Homework is set on a regular basis and we expect our pupils to complete it conscientiously. Home study enables pupils to prepare for lessons, to widen their knowledge and understanding and to develop independent study skills. Tasks may take on many forms including wider reading, a written exercise, research or revision. In the first year, homework is likely to take up to 45 minutes to complete. This increases as the pupils move up the school. Each pupil is issued with a School Liaison Journal to help them organise their work schedule and for parents to check and sign each week.

Being involved in school concerts has helped me grow in confidence and discover a new talent.St. Peter’s pupil“ ”

EnrichingAt St. Peter’s we are passionate about ensuring that every pupil develops spiritually, morally, socially and physically. Therefore, we strongly value the extra-curricular life of our school and encourage all pupils to get involved in a wide range of clubs and activities.

Visits and other enrichment activities, in this country and abroad, are arranged in all subject areas, ranging from interesting and inspiring theatre visits to exhilarating and exhausting PGL trips! Moreover, there are numerous educational field trips to support aspects of the curriculum including a Science visit to Coventry University to learn about the low speed wind tunnel and a History trip to the First World War Battlefields of Belgium.

We are immensely proud of our strong tradition in sport and we have achieved a reputation for excellence, with a number of pupils achieving national recognition in a range of sports. It is our intention to include as many pupils as possible in the representative teams and groups that carry the school’s colours in various competitions. Teams and clubs exist for most of our major games, as well as for other popular disciplines including trampolining and Zumba. We also invite local coaches to come into school to deliver highly specialised training sessions to our pupils. Our successful Sports Leaders course in Year 10 allows our pupils to work with local primary schools to help promote sport, as well as to develop important life-skills such as leadership, communication and collaboration.

Our talented pupils thrive in performance and production here. The Drama, Art, Music and Dance departments organise a whole host of activities to widen pupils’ horizons, including drama productions, recitals, concerts, exhibitions and workshops. All pupils are encouraged to participate in annual events such as our whole-school production and our Summer Arts Concert. We have a talented school choir who regularly perform in and outside of school. There is even a staff pantomime for the pupils at Christmas! We are delighted that our pupils are often represented in local and national events and even win national awards.

Through our Science Specialism we have strengthened our links with members of our school community. Many local Brownie packs have gained the ‘Science’ badge here at St. Peter’s over the years! We work closely with our partner primary schools, providing opportunities for their pupils to come and learn at St Peter’s and our staff and students go out and celebrate events such as National Science and Engineering Week with our partner schools. Moreover, local companies have sponsored our students to take part in education programmes to further their learning beyond the curriculum we provide.

St. Peter’s Catholic School Whitefields Road Solihull B91 3NZ

Tel: 0121 705 3988 Fax: 0121 703 8350 www.st-peters.solihull.sch.uk

Designed and produced by WavePrint 0121 454 9441 info@waveprint.co.uk