Learning 13-18

It has been brilliant to welcome pupils back to the classroom this year, but our inspiring curriculum stimulates and challenges our pupils beyond the classroom.

Christmas Science Lecture

The popular Christmas Science Lecture made a welcome return to St Peter’s School in mid-December, much to the delight of pupils at St Peter’s 13-18. The pupils enjoyed a stunning display from the Science Departments in the Memorial Hall, with lively talks and demonstrations on the theme, All Things Bright and Beautiful. The Biology department showed us how the retina works and explored the effects of camouflage, while the Physics department created a rainbow by passing polarised light through Sellotape and showed how light waves produce amazing iridescence. Not to be upstaged, the Chemistry department showcased their interpretation of the theme Bright and Beautiful with colour-changing chemical reactions. A huge thanks go to all our engaging Science teacher colleagues this year, for putting on a superb show to engage scientists of the future.

Return to Theatre

At the end of September, our Upper Sixth English pupils made their first live trip to the theatre since before lockdown, to see the undead spectacle of a comedic version of

Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula: The Bloody Truth was performed by La Navet Bete at York Theatre Royal, a fantastic and funny show. Other theatre trips included an A Level English trip to see Wuthering Heights and a Lower Sixth English trip to York Theatre Royal to see Sleepy Hollow.

Peternomics

The eagerly awaited publication of Peternomics 2021 arrived in October. Our Upper Sixth pupils in Economics and Business worked incredibly hard to put together this edition. They researched their own areas of interest based on their studies to date, followed by extended writing on specific articles relating to the world of Business and Economics.

You can enjoy the publication here: https://issuu.com/stpetersyorkalumni/ docs/peternomics_2021

Whitby Trip

To complement their knowledge of the Gothic, and to walk in the steps of Bram Stoker, our Sixth Form English Literature pupils travelled to Whitby in mid-October. Pupils completed a scavenger hunt in

Whitby Museum where they were set with the task of finding gothic objects and artefacts reminiscent of key moments in their set texts. After a fantastic lunch at the Magpie Cafe, they went on a guided tour with Dr Crank, who revealed exciting details about the writing of Dracula and the places where Stoker had stayed on his trips to Whitby. Fueled by fish and chips, and new knowledge about vampires and Whitby, the pupils climbed the 199 steps to get a closer look at magnificent Whitby Abbey and St Mary’s Churchyard which both feature in Dracula.

Booker Debate

In November we hosted our annual Booker Shadowing Debate where 11 brave Sixth Formers defended a novel from the 2021 Booker longlist and argued why it should be the winning novel. In teams of two, pupils defended a book to prove it deserved to win the St Peter’s Booker Award. The winners were Rachael and Molly with The Great Circle, by Maggie Shipstead, a novel they described as “refreshing, powerful and dynamic”.

Young Enterprise Team win Sustainability Award

Our ambitious Young Enterprise team won the Best Company Award at the Harrogate Trade Fair in early December. The team of Lower Sixth pupils created their own social enterprise called Grow, an eco-friendly brand which seeks to bring the benefits of nature indoors. The pupils designed a Zen garden to go on the corner of a desk and exhibited their prototype designs at the trade fair.

The team then competed in the North Yorkshire Company of the Year Showcase; a Europe-wide business competition which inspires pupils to work in teams to develop and run a business. They faced stiff competition from schools across the region but still achieved the coveted Sustainability Award! Mr Shread passed on his “massive congratulations to the whole team on the fantastic progress made this year”, noting, “Josh and Rosy, in particular, should be congratulated for leading the team.”

Chemistry Olympiad Success

Our Sixth Form Chemists enjoyed great success at the end of March in the 2022 RSC Chemistry Olympiad, all achieving Bronze and Silver level awards. Theodore, Tierney, Chris, Keonhee, Thomas and Oscar took on this gruelling challenge, a particularly tough two-hour written paper. We are so proud to have such fearless and talented Chemists at St Peter’s School.

Third Form discuss Science and Religion

Our Third Form attended a series of lecture sessions by eminent philosopher Dr Vardy, exploring fascinating areas where science and religion often have a mutual focus.

In their first session, pupils debated what it means to be human – from Plato and Aristotle through Aquinas and 19th Century approaches. They ended the session debating whether there is an ethical duty to breed for human genetic success.

The second session discussed the universe from steady-state theory to the singularity and beyond to the development of the universe and the improbability of the initial conditions. The session culminated in a discussion about the most probable explanation for the universe.

In their final session, pupils discussed medical ethics including the beginning and end of life. They also explored the Hippocratic oath and the development of medical ethics. The morning finished with a lively debate on the sanctity of life.

Physics Olympics Competition 2022

This year we saw the return of the annual Physics Olympics Competition – the first in-person competition since 2019 – where 23 schools took part in a day of Physics challenges. Visiting schools travelled from as far away as Newcastle, Yarm and Barnard Castle, as well as more local schools from York, Harrogate and Leeds. The teams took part in a broad range of Physics, Maths, problem-solving and practical skills tasks. There were five different laboratory-based challenges in all and a very challenging Fermi Quiz which required pupils to estimate various different quantities to the nearest power of 10. Pupils said they were surprised by “all the fun experiments we got to do and how fast the day went by”.

The winners of the Fermi Quiz challenge – who received the Morris Shield – was Fulford School. Yarm School were the overall winners, with Gateways School in second place and RGS Newcastle in third. Mr Parr, Head of Science Outreach at St Peter’s, said: “Congratulations to the winners. As always an incredible team effort from St Peter’s staff and Lower Sixth Physics pupils.”

Amber’s

Maths is Olympiad Level!

In the spring term, our strongest pupils attempted the annual UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge. Those pupils achieving particularly high results were invited to take part in follow-on rounds (the highest 8% of all scores achieved). This year 17 pupils achieved this incredible level and were able to complete the Kangaroo Competition. Particular congratulations go to Chihiro and Gabriel for obtaining Merits.

The best 1500 pupils nationally were then invited to an even more prestigious round, the Mathematical Olympiad. Amber was the only pupil to qualify, completing a difficult two-hour paper with six very challenging Maths questions. Unflappable Amber did fantastically well, attaining a Distinction for her efforts. Bravo.

The Sirius Society

Huge congratulations must go to the Sirius Society Chess Cup winner for the 2021/22 season, Tristan Carter.

The Da Vinci Challenge, Ampleforth College

The Sirius Society took a team of Year 9 and 10 pupils to Ampleforth College to take part in the national da Vinci Challenge, an academically rigorous competition held over 10 events throughout one day. Despite stiff opposition, our team claimed victory in seven out of the events and came away as overall winners; a massive achievement for all the pupils involved and a great example of teamwork in action. The winning team comprised Alice, Roman, Ellie, Tristan, Teagan, Lewis, Fred and Emily.

Sirius Society Guest Speakers

The Sirius Society was proud to host Dr Ben Noble at St Peter’s at the end of May. Ben, an Old Peterite, came back to St Peter’s to deliver a fascinating lecture titled: Alexei Navalny—the Man and the Movement Against the Kremlin.

At the end of September, the society also welcomed Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton. He visited to talk about his experiences as both a highly successful local businessman and politician.

St Peter’s Pupils Take on OPs in House Challenge

Everyone was a winner with the inaugural House (University) Challenge at lunchtime in early July; a new tradition in the making. In the final week of term, the Sirius Society held a special edition of the House Challenge which saw a team of Old Peterites go head-to-head with St Peter’s pupils. It was a very close competition, but, in the end the Old Peterites came out as worthy winners with 260/220 points and received the Old Peterite House Challenge cup for their efforts. It was a nail-biting finish where the OPs just pipped the school team to the post. Knowledge flowed on subjects from Greek mythology to Tuscan geography to Eurovision winners. The Old Peterite House Challenge Cup 2021/2022 was won by Old Peterites Dan, Luis and Harriet who took on current St Peter’s students Martha, Henry, Harry and Ellie.

Laurentius Lectures

We launched our Laurentius Lecture Series with two fascinating lectures delivered by pupils in the Lower Sixth. Will’s lecture focused on settler colonialism, race and the logic of elimination, while Elysia revealed the gruesome origins of our classic fairytales. The Laurentius Lecture Series provides an opportunity for Academic Scholars at St Peter’s to share ideas on a diverse range of topics. Pupils deliver a short 15-minute lecture to their peer group, the Head Master, the Head of Scholars and members of staff, with a particular speciality in a given area, followed by questions from the floor. This year’s programme showed a wide breadth and variety of interests from sustainability, neuroscience, law, artificial intelligence and veterinary science through to aspects of music, fine art, linguistics, history, literature and design.

Women in Economics Seminar

A group of Sixth Form girls studying Business and Economics attended a special online seminar in March to learn about the current gender gap in economics. The seminar was hosted by Discover Economics in partnership with the Women in Economics Initiative (for International Women’s Day). The event was chaired by Anna Isaac, Economics Editor for The Independent, and the gender gap in Economics was examined by inspirational female economists from University of Bristol, NHS England, London and Partners, and Ofgem, who shared their inspirational career journeys. We are delighted so many Sixth Form girls had the opportunity to attend this insightful seminar.

Gabriel Krauze Visit

Booker-nominated writer Gabriel Krauze visited St Peter’s School in early March to deliver a lecture on Literature to Lower and Upper Sixth. We first contacted Gabriel in November 2020, when his novel Who They Was won our very own school Booker Prize Debate. Issy and Khushi, who defended the book, received signed copies after Gabriel read about their success on Twitter, and agreed to attend the school’s Booker Prize

Debate in November 2021. Unfortunately, Gabriel’s visit to St Peter’s was postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions, so it was wonderful to finally welcome him to meet our talented Sixth Formers!

Hugo has the Winning Formula

Upper Sixth, Hugo, was placed joint 10th in the country after a phenomenal performance in the British Mathematical Olympiad. Following Hugo’s success in the first round, he was invited to participate in the second round – an extremely challenging 3.5-hour-long paper comprising of four demanding questions. Hugo obtained the highest award of Distinction, placing him joint 10th in the country and very close to being chosen for the national squad to compete internationally. This is truly a phenomenal result, and we cannot recall anyone ever doing this well at the senior level. Hugo’s name and achievement will forever be recorded alongside the other high scorers on the UKMT website, as well as published in their Olympiad books. History in the making!

Generation Amazing

At the end of March we welcomed Professor Banda from Edinburgh University for a special talk on how sport can facilitate social change. Professor Banda spoke to Lower Sixth A Level pupils studying Physical Education at St Peter’s, and the pupils also connected with Nasser Al Khori via Zoom. Nasser is Programme Director of Generation Amazing, a sport for social good programme for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of the FIFA Qatar World Cup 2022. Nasser explained the vision of Generation Amazing, a social and human legacy initiative which seeks to inspire positive social change in Qatar and globally through football. Thanks for this thoroughly thought-provoking discussion.

If the Upper Sixth couldn’t go to Spain… Study trips are such an important part of studying a language, but for the last two years we have sadly been unable to travel abroad. As we couldn’t go to Salamanca this year, we instead visited the wonderful Spanish School, Instituto Vicente Cañada Blanch, on Portobello Road, London. On the same day we saw a superb live performance of La Casa de Bernarda Alba, in Spanish at the atmospheric Theatre Cervantes. We are very grateful for the welcome we received from the Spanish Embassy and El Instituto and to all of the staff who worked so hard to make this trip happen. Flora gave her own account of the day:

“We embarked on a thrilling journey to London. After an early start we arrived in London ready for a lesson at El Instituto Vicente Cañada Blanch on the Spanish Civil War, extremely helpful for our A Level course. We survived the quick-fire questions in Spanish from the history teacher! We were then shown an amazing mural on Portobello Road reminding us of the sacrifices and efforts of the Spanish people during the war and the influence of Spain’s allies and the International Brigade. Afterwards, we were mixed into groups with Spanish students to socialise and speak on different topics. At first, many of us found this a little embarrassing as we were speaking with native or fluent speakers but we gradually settled into it and found the students very friendly. We took the tube to Theatre Cervantes, found our seats and got ready to watch La Casa de Bernarda Alba, by García Lorca. Although the afternoon tiredness was starting to hit us the play’s antagonist, Bernarda and her infamous “¡Silencio!”, soon woke us up! It was amazing to see a live-action performance of the play we were studying. A big thank you to Mrs Robinson, Mrs López and Mrs Green for organising and accompanying us on a trip that surprisingly felt like revision and a holiday at the same time!”