Beaumont Life – March 2016, Page 1
March 2016 www.beaumontschool.com From the Headteacher You have probably heard me say how much importance I place on Drama, Music and PE in a school’s extra-curricular life; they are critical to ensure every student has the chance to be successful in their field, as well as and alongside their academic studies. The Drama department was privileged to host Jessica Hynes (star of W1A) for a day recently; she is passionate about the arts in schools and we were delighted to show her how Beaumont is bucking the trend and keeping the arts high on our agenda. Our Music department continues to give exceptional performances and as I write, I am anticipating the Easter Concert tonight with huge numbers of students participating. This spring term has been a hugely successful one for our PE department; my congratulations to all the sports’ teams that have done so well this year, many reaching District and County finals and several County winners. May I take this opportunity to thank all those staff and parents who help to make such successes possible. In addition to all the extra-curricular success, Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools, has written to congratulate us on being in the top 100 non-selective schools for both the percentage of students achieving five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C and for the percentage of students achieving the E-Bacc (English, Maths, Science, Languages and Humanities). We are very proud of our students! We say farewell and best wishes at the end of this term to Mr Sargen, Head of Science, as he moves to take up an Assistant Headteacher post in Berkshire. We extend a warm welcome to new staff who will be joining us next term: Ms McLean (English), Mrs Smart and Mrs Robin (Administration) and Mrs Winfield (Technician). We also congratulate Mike Cameron and Lisanne Sherwood on the re-election as Parent Governors. I wish you all a restful two week break and hope that you also enjoyed a blessed long Easter weekend. Elizabeth Hitch
A P R I L
Day Friday 1 April Friday 1 April Monday 4 April Wednesday 6 April Friday 8 April Monday 11 April Tuesday 12 April Monday 18 April Tuesday 19 April Thursday 21 April Saturday 23 – Sunday 24 April Tuesday 26 April Tuesday 26 April Thursday 28 April Thursday 28 April Thursday 28 April Thursday 28 April
Start
Location Hall
1:10 pm
60/61/29
8:00 am 9:30 am 8:40 am 1:00 pm 5:30 pm 7:00 pm
Offsite Room 20/21 Hall Room 7 & 8 Hall SFC
Subject Years 7-11 Awards Assemblies Break up for Easter Holiday (students return on Tuesday 19 April) Easter Holiday Year 10 & 11 Lake Garda Trip (return 10 April) Year 12/13 Spanish Exchange Beaumont to Spain (return 15 April) Drama GCSE Unit 3 rehearsals this week Year 12/13 Trip to Iceland (return 16 April) INSET (no students in school) Students return to school Year 9 German Exchange Speyer to Beaumont (return 29 April) Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Practice Expedition Year 11 AWCY Meningitis Injection Year 8 Parent Consultation Evening Junior Maths Challenge Chelsea's Choice Drama Production for Year 9 Year 10 & 11 English Theatre Trip German Exchange Farewell Meal
Elizabeth Hitch
Save the Date BSA Events Thursday 12 May : BSA AGM and Parents/Staff Social. 7.30pm in the Sixth Form Atrium (**NEW DATE**) Tuesday 24 May : BSA Committee Meeting 7.30pm in the School Library. All welcome Friday 6 May : Non-Uniform Day for Beaumont Summer Festival (Rob’s Festival) Saturday 25 June : Rob’s Festival - a sports and music event for all the family, organised by our Year 12s and the BSA For sports fixtures please check the PE Blog www.beaumontpe.blogspot.com. For up to date news and information on forthcoming BSA events please check our website. Beaumont welcomes comments from parents/carers and families about any aspect of school life. Please contact us via our email admin@beaumont.herts.sch.uk.
Beaumont Life – March 2016, Page 2
Year Geography Field Trip to the Jurassic Coast In February, forty Year 12 Students attended a residential trip to the Jurassic coast as part of their preparation for the ‘Geographical Investigations’ AS examination. During an intense three days of data collection, students investigated the impacts of tourism on this beautiful coastline, Britain’s only natural UNESCO world heritage site. Their fieldwork also involved evaluating the success of rebranding strategies in Boscombe. Other than a short hailstorm on the sand dunes of Studland Bay, the sun shone on a fantastic trip! Mrs Macdonald
Beaumont Economists Following the November article in Beaumont Life, our economics team headed to the Bank of England Competition Area Final. Year 13 students Ben Allen, Lewis Glasscoe, Krishan Patel and Ed Anders, despite not winning the competition, they had a great day. The team delivered a 45 minute presentation and had the opportunity for a question and answer session with an actual member of the Monetary Policy Committee. Paul de Kort, Head of Sixth Form
Beaumont helped break Guinness World Record! Ninety-four Year 7 students recently had the exciting opportunity of taking part in a nationwide Guinness World Record attempt “for the most people participating in simultaneous book quizzes”. Students learnt on World Book Day, Thursday 3 March, that they were record breakers with 6,388 students involved nationwide. Ms Mayer Khan
Author Sarah Crossan visits Beaumont On Tuesday 1 March, Beaumont School received an inspiring visit from award-winning author Sarah Crossan. Excited students welcomed Sarah, whose book Apple and Rain is currently Beaumont’s whole-school read. Over 300 students and members of staff have read the book so far this year. The visit was also part of Beaumont’s celebrations centred around World Book Day on 3 March 2016. Sarah Crossan’s energy and enthusiasm made a real impression on all those involved in her visit. Students said they found the author ‘really friendly’ and called her talk ‘inspirational’, ‘very funny’ and ‘amazing’. Ms Mayer Khan
Sixth Form Assembly on Diversity Funke Ambibola has accomplished a great deal in her career, which has been an inspirational. Pursuing her dreams of becoming a lawyer must have been a tough challenge; however she succeeded in her aspirations, through her study of Law at Newcastle Law School. Her persistence in doing law as a degree which came as a surprise to her father, coming from a medical background, shows great importance in doing what one desires and keeping persistent in doing well. Funke focuses on the diversity within the legal profession, and won a National Diversity Award for ‘Positive Role Model Award for Gender’ in 2015. Her involvement in the UN HeforShe campaign has emphasised her focus on the diversity in society today, further challenging the low numbers of diversity in both the legal profession and in society overall. Her top tips in achieving such as, supporting others as well as keeping focus on one's achievement, shows her emphasis on working hard yourself while also helping others to achieve the same. Funke shows great importance on gender equality in both her work as a lawyer, and also as an outreach speaker and her involvement in campaigns. It has been encouraging listening to her story, as well as motivating to see the success of a woman in the legal field. Jenna Tudtud (Year 12)
Positive Body Image Emma Cargill, who left Beaumont ten years ago gave assemblies to Year 8 - 11 about positive body image and the media. Emma told the students about her career as a model and showed her appearance on Channel 5 News discussing the way the media can distort images. She gave supportive and sensible advice about the use of social media. Emma inspired the younger generation to consider their moral code when looking at images in the media. Miss Shepherd
Beaumont Life – March 2016, Page 3
Year 8 History CED Year 8 History students were involved in a variety of activities designed to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the English Civil War and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Specialists from the English Civil War re-enactment group, the Sealed Knot, arrived in full garb with plenty of costumes and artefacts. Students had the opportunity to dress up and many were put through their paces in a pike drill. Lots of interest and enthusiasm was shown; many perceptive questions were asked – and answered! Other work linked to the war was completed in class room based activities. For the other half of their day the students were looking at the slave trade and the impact on the individuals involved. The Trestle Arts base brought two performers to the school to perform a shortened version of the musical ‘Yarico’ based on the story of a slave called Yarico and the relationship that she has with a white man. This was followed with an interactive drama workshop led by the (fantastic) performers where the students explored the feelings of the slaves through the use of masks and actions. Students were asked to evaluate the day. Some of the comments included: informative, interesting, fun, exciting, involved, educational, interactive, variety, a lot to it, learning something different! Our thanks to Year 8 for their positive participation, and all the staff involved in helping to make the day a success. Ms Wensley, Miss Pearson
Success for the Year 9 Drama Company In mid December 2015, a newly formed drama company started its first workshops for a play that was being entered in the Welwyn Youth Drama Festival the following March. The Year 9 Drama Company met weekly to rehearse their production of It Snows, a physical theatre piece written by Bryony Lavery, Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham. The play is set somewhere grey; today; and explores the magic that is created when it snows. It has groups of lads, girls, mums, dads, a love story, a snowball fight and a weird girl who stands at a window! A real challenge to perform and direct! On Saturday 1 March, the Drama Company performed the play on the final night of the week-long festival. During the week there had been around 15 other performances, in Junior and Senior categories, from schools and drama groups from all over Hertfordshire. Our students performed with such professionalism, focus, commitment and drive, they really did make their mark! They worked faultlessly as an ensemble and there were so many memorable performances from individuals too. It was incredible to hear the audience laugh, be silent and clearly enjoy what they were seeing! To our delight, the Year 9 Drama Company were awarded Second place in the Junior category and were presented with a smashing trophy too! Congratulations to all the Drama Company – you truly deserved it! Mrs Wallace
South African Olympian Visits Students from Years 7, 8 and 9 were fortunate enough to receive a special coaching session when Beaumont welcomed South African International hockey player Lance Louw recently. With 92 international caps including playing in the London 2012 Olympics and 2010 Commonwealth Games, Lance did a question and answer session before taking an elite training exercise full of hockey tips and tricks. Lance was delighted to be able to pass on his knowledge and inspire our girls. Miss Mobbs Congratulations to Pam Meade - the winner of £25 prize for the BSA Christmas Quiz 2015. Many thanks to all those who purchased quizzes this year – a record number sold!
Beaumont Life – March 2016, Page 4
BSV Parental Drug Awareness Workshop – Thursday 25 February
Beyond Beaumont
Over 80 parents from Beaumont, Sandringham and Verulam attended a Parental Drug Awareness Workshop on Thursday 25 March at Sandringham School. This was a joint consortium parent information evening organised by the three schools. The evening was present by Vanessa Rogers, who gave an excellent presentation which was engaging and took parents through different classes of drugs, sharing her experience of working with young people and why they sometimes take drugs. Vanessa is a leading author in PSHE and social education.
Well done to Eloise King (7R) who recently came second in a National Ice Skating Competition and won enough points to pass her Level 3 tests.
The three consortium schools are hoping to arrange further joint parent workshops over the next year and if you have topics you would like to propose I would like to hear from you. Mrs Powdrell
From the Governors Since my last report we have had two meetings of our CTL committee as well as our Governors’ Day in School in the middle of February. CTL have focused on a number of curriculum and community issues. The key curriculum areas being KS4 options choices for current Year 9 and the KS5 offer for the next Year 12. In both key stages we are proud of the breadth of options we are able to provide from within the school at KS4 and with our BSV partners at KS5. Another focus of our meeting time and attention has been on Teaching and Learning for our most disadvantaged students. As a school we strive to provide opportunities and challenge for all our students and it is important that the Governing Body has an understanding of the experience of the full range of our diverse student body. To this end, Governors were able to experience Beaumont in ‘real-time’ when we spent a morning following students and staff in and out of lessons. This provided a fascinating start to our Extended Meeting when we were able to spend an afternoon considering the challenges and strategic priorities for Beaumont in the next five years. Lisanne Sherwood, Chair, Community, Teaching and Learning Committee
Congratulations to Year 12 Sarah Chrisp. Sarah’s stunning GCSE Textiles final piece has been selected to be included the magazine ‘Cutting Edge’. A photograph of her wall hanging will be in their gallery section. Beyond and Down Under Ex-Beaumont student Kieran White is studying for a Science degree (Bachelor of Science), majoring in Physics, at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, Australia.
Beaumont School Summer Festival 2016 - Rob’s Festival
an afternoon/evening of entertainment for all the family, raising funds for Beaumont School and the Prince’s Trust Saturday 25 June 2016, 12.00-8.00pm We are sure the Beaumont community has lots of hidden talents and contacts that we could use! PLEASE consider how you may help and get in touch as soon as possible to aid planning. Thank you. How can you help?
Save the date - Saturday 25 June 2016 and buy festival tickets for family and friends Donate raffle/tombola prizes – could your company offer a “must-have” prize? Sponsor part of the event? – the stage/sound system and engineer requires over £2000 alone in up-front costs Could your company provide any soft drinks/beer etc for the event or offer a large marquee/gazebo? Do you know of a celebrity or band we could invite to the event? Please could you set aside an hour or so to help on one of the many stalls on the day?
Please contact us as soon as possible at: bsa@beaumont.herts.sch.uk
Football and Netball Tournaments, Live Music Stage and Dance Stage Confirmed Bands Chasing Deer, Arcadian, Atlas, plus Student Bands! Licensed Bar, hot food, snacks, soft drinks, teas, cakes all day from 12.00pm House games and stalls, inflatables, tombola, grand raffle and much more…………………. Please come along for a great family day and support YOUR school and the Prince’s Trust!