Beacon Life Be Inspired

Be Inspired Beacon Life

Scholarship Success

A huge congratulations to our Year 8 leavers on being awarded an incredible range of Scholarships, awards and exhibitions to a wide variety of leading independent Senior Schools. This year, our boys have achieved Drama Scholarships and Exhibitions, Sports, Academic and DT Scholarships to a variety of exceptional schools, including Harrow School, Abingdon School, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, Haileybury, Merchant Taylors’ School, Shiplake College, Berkhamsted Boys’ School, and Winchester College.

Boys who received scholarships for there future schools

Read more about Destination Schools and Scholarship success. “We are delighted with the range of scholarships awarded to a number of our Year 8 boys this year. This clearly demonstrates the breadth of skills and talents they possess. They have worked extremely hard in pursuit of these coveted awards. Well done and congratulations!” - Simon Detre, Interim Headmaster and Nikki Olhausen, Acting Deputy Head of Academic

Year 4 tucking into the taster table

Asparagus Taster Table

At the beginning of the Summer term, our Year 4 boys were overjoyed to be presented with an asparagus taster table during their morning break. Our Beacon Chefs set up a variety of treats for our boys to taste, including Asparagus Focaccia, Asparagus Soup, Pickled Asparagus and Asparagus and Cheddar Pinwheels.

Nicholas Allan reads his book, The Queen's Knickers to the boys

The Queen’s Knickers

Our Early Years boys were thrilled to meet Nicholas Allan, British children's writer and illustrator. After intently listening to 'The Queen's Knickers', our boys were wowed by fun magic tricks. They were astonished when the author magically produced a frilly paper pair of knickers! Following this, our boys enjoyed creating their own pants (for the Queen!), illustrating them with their likes to tell the Queen a little bit about themselves.

Madame Cook’s French Café

Our Year 7 boys visited Madame Cook’s French Café for a spot of food shopping. They were tasked with greeting and ordering their food in French, as well as figuring out the cost and paying in euros.

Award-winning Poet

We were excited to welcome award-winning children's poet, Joshua Siegal, to The Beacon to host different sessions for our Pre-Prep boys.

Our Early Years boys thoroughly enjoyed watching him perform his poems and being invited to contribute during the poem. Reception boys particularly enjoyed Joshua's story about the mango and the lemur.

Year 1 and 2 boys were entertained by Joshua’s deliberately incorrect versions of ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, his stories about his family and his poems about his pets. Our boys created their own poetry in the sessions, with Year 1 and Year 2 writing poems using similes and metaphors.

The atmosphere was lovely, and it was fantastic to see the boys so engaged with poetry.

Read about our Share a Story Month activities.

Joshua Siegal reads to the boys during his visit

SCIENCE CHALLENGE

Our Year 5 boys were kindly invited to visit Merchant Taylors' School to participate in a Science Challenge. Being the first event for two years, it was very exciting for all involved. Our boys took part in Chemistry, Physics and Biology challenges that tested their Scientific knowledge, ingenuity and teamwork.

BEACONVERSE

Throughout the Summer term, we were thrilled to invite various guests to take part in our monthly Podcast. Our Head of Early Years, Claire Sharp, and Head of Pre-Prep, Ryan Steward, met with us to discuss Little Beacons Nursery. Our Head of Upper School, Edward Tenison, and Acting Deputy Head of Academic, Nikki Olhausen, came together with two of our Year 8 boys to discuss Upper School at The Beacon, and our newly appointed Head of Music, Gavin Lockley, gave us some insight into his career highlights and the exciting new initiatives he has for the Music Department here at The Beacon. As a roundup of the term, we also spoke to our Interim Headmaster, Simon Detre, about his Summer ‘Jubilee’ term leading the school, outlining his highlights. Our Beacon boys submitted lots of great questions of which a selection were put forward to Simon to answer. COMING SOON – Meet our new Headmaster, Nick Baker.

Listen to Beaconverse.

Be Inspired Beacon Life

A Butterflies Journey

In Science, Year 5 learned about the life cycle of a Butterfly. How their journey starts off as a caterpillar and transforms into a beautiful butterfly. Once the butterflies were ready to be released, our boys headed over to Willsfield to take great joy in setting them free into the world.

Year 5 boys set their butterflies free

Hunting for Habitats

Year 4 were set the challenge to find different habitats to continue their Science topic of ‘Living Things’. They ventured off in pairs around the school grounds to see if they could identify any habitats. Excellent hunting boys!

Year 4 boys hunt for habitats Reception Gardening Club

The Gardening Club was a hit with our Reception Boys over the Summer term. They loved getting their green fingers stuck into planting some seedlings as well as tending to plants that are growing too big for their pots. Our boys have been learning how to care for and nurture different plants and vegetables.

Green fingers in Reception Gardening Club

Lauren Stroud and Hollie Taylor visit from the West End

A ‘Wicked’ Day

Year 3 had the pleasure of welcoming two West End stars into school for an all-day workshop on Matilda and Wicked. A big thank you to Lauren Stroud and Hollie Taylor for joining us. The boys had an excellent time putting their acting skills to the test. Their co-ordination and voices were also challenged with some complicated routines and exciting songs. It was an insightful day!

Year 4 boys enjoying a science experiment Margarine Magic

Our Year 4 boys had an excellent time during their Science lessons, getting stuck into various experiments.

During one experiment, they covered one hand in margarine to monitor the amount of time they could keep each hand in iced water. The boys were fascinated by the effect the margarine had.

Read about Year 4 Science experiments

The John Muir Trust

Our Year 4 boys enthusiastically participated in the John Muir Trust Award over the Summer term. The John Muir Trust “Connect, Protect and Restore” woodland space and enhance the land for common good, ensuring our wonderful woodland is protected for future generations. Well done to all the boys who took part, together we can make the world a greener place.

A special mention to our boys who received a commendation for their great work.

Our Year 4 boys with their certificates

MR MEN

During the first half of the Summer term, our Little Beacons and Reception boys thoroughly enjoyed their all-encompassing topic, Mr Men. Each week they were introduced to two new characters and enjoyed activities that were underpinned by the topic. Highlights included Reception boys making Mr Small and Mr Tall models to show the difference in height. During Mr Jelly and Mr Brave week, all our boys connected with their emotions and talked about what makes them feel scared. They thought about some ideas that might help them to feel less scared, as well as sharing stories about some of the brave things they have done. Each week, creativity flowed as the boys made some superb artistic creations of the Mr Men, including getting sticky making Mr Jelly with strawberry jelly! In Music, our Little Beacons thought about quiet and loud sounds, just like Mr Quiet and Mr Noisy. After discussing the traits of all the Mr Men, our boys excitedly talked about who they were most like and identified with. I am proud of what I do, like Mr Cheerful; I keep trying, like Mr Strong; I will have a go, like Mr Brave; I have my own ideas, like Mr Happy.

NATIONAL SHARE A STORY MONTH

In May, we celebrated National Share a Story Month. All our boys enjoyed various book-related activities, from reading outside in the Quad to enjoying children's author visits. There really was something for everyone to get involved in.

Read more about National Share a Story Month.

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