October Half Term Beechwood Park Lion 2023

The Beechwoo dP ar

ber 2023 o t c O , n o i L k

beechwoodpark.com

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Contents 4 Message from Mr Pritchard 5 Message from Mr Bullock 6 Woodlands 8 Reception 11 Year 1 13 Year 2 15 Year 3 18 Year 4 20 Year 5 22 Year 6 24 Year 7 27 Top Form 28 Music Department 29 Art Department 30 Boarding 31 Charity 33 Beechwood Park on Tour 35 BPSPA 38 October Half Term Holiday Camps and Activities

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MESSAGE FROM MR PRITCHARD Dear Parents and Friends of Beechwood Park, The half term holiday has arrived and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Beechwood Park community for the very warm welcome my family and I have received, since we started in September.

Beechwood Park is a vibrant, energetic place of learning; the future of our school is tremendously exciting and I am thrilled and delighted to be at the helm!

I would like to conclude the half term with the following video message, and to wish you all a restful and relaxing break with your family.

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MESSAGE FROM MR BULLOCK This half term has flown by, but from an academic perspective, we have packed in an enormous amount, from trips, to assessments and exams, to outdoor learning and embarking on new skills and topics.

Now with half term, some parents have asked ‘what can I do to keep things ticking over?’. Through the Middle and Senior departments, we have been focusing more on our Atom learning platform this term. Thank you to you and all our parents for embracing Atom Prime and supporting your child to do the same.

Over half term, Atom is offering a number of live online lessons on different topics for children in Years 3-6. Atom also has a wealth of resources for parents, for instance on English, Maths, and wellbeing.

On top of the school’s Atom Prime subscription, there is also the award-winning home learning platform, Atom Nucleus.

Atom Nucleus is an online learning platform for children in Key Stage 2. Designed for independent home learning, the adaptive technology supports students in the core subjects of English, Maths and Science, and supports their skills in verbal and nonverbal reasoning. It also seamlessly integrates with Atom Prime so students can continue to build on the skills they are learning at school.

There is also a 10% discount code if you use NEWYEAR23. If you would like more information please feel free to contact enquiries@atomlearning.co.uk or give them a call on 020 3973 9226.

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WOODLANDS This half term has been full of fun and joy as new children have joined our existing Woodlanders.

They have enjoyed getting to know Woodlands and the wider environment.

We have met new friends and practised friendly behaviours of sharing and taking turns.

The children have worked hard to get to know the Woodlands' teachers and those who teach us PE, Forest School, and lead our Assemblies.

We are trying to keep our values 'be kind to yourself' 'be kind to others' 'be kind to our school' so we can become the best version of ourselves, that we can be.

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JUNIOR DEPARTMENT RECEPTION Reception have had a fantastic start to their school year. We have been learning about our classroom routines and have enjoyed finding our way around the school. We have met all of our specialist teachers and have had lessons in Drama, Music, French, PE, Swimming and Forest School. We have learnt the Golden Rules and this has helped us while making lots of friends both in our class and across the year group. We have enjoyed assemblies with Mr Pritchard, Mrs McIntosh and Mr Bullock as well as enjoying our first house assembly and watching Year 2 perform in their class assemblies.

Our first topic was ‘Ourselves’. Together we discussed similarities and differences between ourselves, created self-portraits and told our classes all about our families. Within our Circle Times we have talked about things that we are good at and we’ve been sharing our Tapestries from home to tell each other about special things we have been doing.

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At the beginning of October we began our topic on Autumn. Every member of the year group took home a special bag, which we filled with Autumn treasure. In Maths we have used our Autumn treasure to count and sort, and in Communication and Language we have described and written about our findings. We have used our observational skills to notice and draw what we have seen. On Tuesday 3rd October Reception enjoyed our whole school STEM day. We spent the morning outside discovering Autumn, making collections, creating bark rubbings and drawing observational pictures of the apple tree which we are going to watch over the coming months. Following on from our morning outside we have enjoyed a wide variety of Autumnal activities both inside and outside in both teacher and child led sessions.

The children have made enormous progress already and we can’t believe they have only been part of Reception for a very short time.

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JUNIOR DEPARTMENT YEAR 1 Year 1 have made a fantastic start to the year and have settled well into their new classes. As part of this term's topic 'Me and My World' we have got to know the children and their interests and this has helped us to make sure they feel happy, excited and engaged.

In Literacy, we have read stories about what makes us special and the people who are important to us. We have read traditional tales such as The Little Red Hen and Owl Babies and used these as stimulus for speaking, listening, reading and writing activities. We celebrated National Poetry Day and wrote our own poems.

In Maths, the children have used practical equipment to demonstrate their understanding of numbers and have also begun to use inequality symbols and diagrams to compare numbers and amounts.

As part of our topic of learning, the children have had many hands-on experiences this term from breadmaking, to Forest School and senses experiments. They have also enjoyed playing with one another on Thursday and Friday afternoons as part of their transition. Here are some photos of some of the fun we have had.

“I’VE NEVER MADE BREAD BEFORE - I LOVED IT!” Beechwood Park Lion Page 11

JUNIOR DEPARTMENT YEAR 2 Year 2 gallantly rode into our new topic Castles, Knights and Dragons which inspired our creativity across the curriculum.

Teamwork and compromise really did win the day as groups worked to design and build 3D castle models. During our visit to Windsor Castle in September, we sought dragons and knights, perfected our marching, and marvelled at the battlements and arrow slits. Our topic culminated in a ‘Turrets and Tiaras’ Day, where we attended ‘Knight School,’ made trebuchets, went on a Maths Quest (riding our trusty steeds), danced, and partook of a medieval banquet.

By far and wide the favourite part of our science focused STEM Day, where we investigated materials, was making Oobleck - we used custard powder and water. We marvelled at its unusual abilities to be both a liquid and a solid; the children’s shrieks painted the best picture of their discoveries. Perhaps less exciting but nevertheless a teacher favourite has been seeing our classes quickly grab equipment to manipulate numbers – one small reflection of how their confidence is growing. Well done Year 2 for giving us such a great start to the year!

“MARCHING WITH MY FRIENDS AND STANDING TO ATTENTION WAS BRILLIANT!”

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MIDDLE DEPARTMENT YEAR 3 What an amazing start the Year 3s have had to their time in the Middle Department! They have settled into the new classrooms and their new routines extremely well and are now navigating the breadth of the School with confidence and an increasing sense of independence.

Our Egyptian Day was a wonderful example of hands-on learning; the children loved dressing up and imagining themselves living at the time of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. They spent the day creating canopic jars, perfumed cones, amulets; they carved and drew and scribed; they rehearsed and then performed to the royal court and ended their day with a feast. Our parent helpers supported this learning brilliantly, as they always do! We could not have done it without them and we are thankful for this great partnership.

The Year 3s were also invited to visit the Science Labs in the Senior Department. They had the opportunity to use microscopes and other equipment to study items associated with the sea, as part of their English topic. A real adventure and a great treat, as well as being a taste of things to come for their time in the Senior Department!

Forest School is always an exciting day in Year 3 and is eagerly anticipated by children and adults alike. We are so lucky to have such amazing woods at our disposal and getting outdoors in a less formal setting is always beneficial as the children get the opportunity to bond in a different way as a class and we also have the chance to spend more time with them individually.

“EGYPTIAN DAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!”

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MIDDLE DEPARTMENT YEAR 4 The children have settled in brilliantly to Year 4 at Beechwood Park and the time has flown by - we cannot believe it is half term already! This half term our highlights include working collaboratively in the Forest, learning lots about the Anglo Saxons at West Stow Anglo Saxon Village and experimenting in Science.

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village At the start of this term Year 4 journeyed back in time to an Anglo Saxon Village! Here we were able to learn all about life in Anglo Saxon period. We were able to go inside and look at replica houses - one even had a real fire burning inside it! We asked an Anglo Saxon expert some interesting questions and she was able to answer them all. In the village there was a museum and we were able to look at and handle some Anglo Saxon artifacts. We dressed up as Anglo Saxons and some of us even got to try on an Anglo Saxon helmet! Year 4 had a great time and learnt lots about life in Anglo Saxon times.

Forest School This half term, Year 4 were excited to be back out enjoying our beautiful grounds during Forest School.

The children enjoyed an orientation activity, where they had to locate letters hidden on owl pictures around the Forest School boundary. Once all the owls had been found, the children worked in teams to arrange the found letters to make the mystery words! After this, the children enjoyed some childinitiated time, where we had all sorts of projects under way. We particularly enjoyed seeing how the new form groups interacted outside of the classroom. Great fun was had by all!

Science Lessons Year 4 have been enjoying some hands-on learning in Science this term. We have been learning about healthy eating. To demonstrate the knowledge we have gained, we created plasticine meals that were balanced and contained some of each food group. We also did a starch investigation where we got to use petri dishes and chemicals! To test for starch we used the chemical iodine, and observed what happened when we put it on a cracker and then when we put it on a lettuce leaf. We learned that starch is found in carbohydrate foods and therefore, the colour of the iodine changed when dropped on these types of food.

We hope you all have a wonderful half term relaxing and spending time with your families.

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MIDDLE DEPARTMENT YEAR 5 What an amazing adventure Year 5 have been on in their first few weeks. We have had to get used to moving to different classrooms a little more than previous years, and we see a few more teachers’ and pupils’ faces now, but what an exciting year so far and what a fabulous bunch of pupils we have in Year 5.

We start each day with Maths (one of our favourites) where we have been working through place value, addition and subtraction. The groups have explored reasoning and problem-solving skills and have worked to develop mental arithmetic strategies.

We then adventure to English sets, a highlight for many of the pupils has been the dissection of the Michael Morpurgo title ‘Friend or Foe’. The group have enjoyed discussing the plot and immersing themselves in the story line, looking at how they would think and feel in each scenario.

Assembly is now before break and we have been spoiled with a variety of topics, but I think astronaut Jeanette Epps' visit with all her knowledge and experiences was ‘out of this world’.

In Geography the year has been taking a deeper dive into Europe, discussing Capitals to Climates and using the iPad in their research and presentations.

A new subject for the year is Minimus and Mrs Beavis has enchanted the pupils as they adventure with the little mouse Minimus and his family. Some pupils have called for this subject every day!

We could go on with subjects but it is not just in the school building that pupils have developed their knowledge and understanding, we have been fortunate to venture off to Warwick Castle to look at how the castle sought to prevent attack from invaders. We have had our first experiences of Wednesday afternoon match day and some parents have enjoyed the match tea element of this. We finished the half term with Forest School, which the pupils were delighted with and produced some beautiful mud masks.

A fantastic start to the year. We can’t wait to see what more we will achieve!

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SENIOR DEPARTMENT YEAR 6 This term has been nothing short of exhilarating for our Year 6 students. In the realm of Art, they embarked on a thrilling journey into the world of pottery, where they masterfully crafted enchanting coil pots. Venturing into the depths of the pottery cellar, their impeccable behaviour shone like a beacon of excellence.

Meanwhile, in the world of Music, Year 6 delved into the rich tapestry of global musical traditions, with a particular emphasis on the captivating rhythms of African and Indian melodies. Their exploration included the discovery of diverse musical instruments and the enchanting world of unique sounds.

The Year 6 linguists have been learning about weather and free time activities while developing their understanding of how verbs work in French. They have enjoyed vocabulary hunts, interviews with each other, competitive games and a range of engaging online activities, all of which they have approached with their customary enthusiasm.

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SENIOR DEPARTMENT YEAR 7 I have thoroughly enjoyed my new role as Head of Year 7, working with Mr Wood and Mr Lambert. We have had the pleasure of getting to know the Year 7 pupils even better with an amazing three days at Bawdsey Manor, where the children were a real pleasure to spend time with and their behaviour and attitude were exemplary.

There have been many new initiatives such as the Super 7 daily challenge for Year 7 and they are really starting to become a lovely cohesive group that consistently display the Beechwood values.

Many of our Year 7 pupils also had the opportunity to head to Milton Keynes theatre to see a performance of a Life of Pi, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.

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SENIOR DEPARTMENT TOP FORM The Top Form have made a brilliant start to their final year at Beechwood Park School. They have embraced many leadership opportunities and have been true ambassadors. I have been delighted to hear about their work with the younger pupils in their role as Link Top Formers - many of whom have given up a significant amount of their break times to learn and play with the younger pupils in the school.

The Top Formers were great representatives for Beechwood Park at our Parent and Pre-schooler Forest School event. They helped our visitors find their way around, had a chat with parents and helped our young attendees with a variety of activities from making wooden crafts to mixing potions and cooking in the mud kitchen.

Friday 22 September saw the Top Form leaving School for the day to examine the River Chess near Amersham. To complement the Geography syllabus, and develop scientific report writing skills, we travelled to the Field Studies Centre at Mop End and then visited two points on the River Chess. All pupils collected river data, to look into the changes in the river’s course, working diligently in small groups. The next stage is the write up, so we are currently working hard on graphs and calculations during lesson time.

Bob Bass MBE, who was ISEB chief Latin examiner for many years, gave a Zoom lesson to Top Form on the Latin Roots of Languages. He showed us how so many French words evolved from Latin. Pupils were amazed to see how so many that don’t look as if they have a Latin root, are in fact Latin in origin! Our pupils spontaneously called ‘gratias tibi ago’ to him at the end! This was the perfect start to the European Day of Languages.

Art and DT moved outside to the woods and all Top Form pupils enjoyed the opportunity to create a variety of pieces to refresh the Forest School arch and shed on what was a beautiful October morning.

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FROM THE MUSIC DEPARTMENT Presto Prizes: Oliver C 7JB - has won the presto prize for excellent practice and focus during his lesson.

Charlie H 4P - for great practice and excellent progress towards your exam.

Farran H 5D - fantastic progress with excellent practising at home.

Madeleine F 5B - phenomenal progress with Grade 1 repertoire.

Isaac G TLH - great focus in lesson and good preparation for your exam.

Kai K 6AH - really good ensemble work and excellent practice towards your exam.

Hugo S 5G - for wonderful progress with his scales and technical exercises.

George G 4R - for excellent exam preparation and recording this week.

Lucinda Chorlton 4B - for brilliant sight reading and learning many new pieces.

Edward G 5G - great practice and really good progress Sam B 6SK - excellent practice and wonderful enthusiasm

“YOUR CHOIR ARE A CREDIT TO THE SCHOOL” VISITING FAMILY ON OPEN MORNING

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FROM THE ART DEPARTMENT

For regular updates on latest creations from the Art Department follow Instagram @beechwooparkart

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BOARDING FROM MS HARRIS

This Michaelmas Term, we have welcomed over 25 new Boarders into Boarding at Beechwood Park. It has been such a pleasure getting to know our new pupils and celebrating lots of new Y5s and Y6s joining the family. We have enjoyed an energetic Chip Shop Hike in September and welcomed October with a Campfire and S’mores evening. Our usual evening activities have been super successful; favourites include Manhunt, Courtyard Blitz, Capture the Flag and of course Swimming!

We look forward to launching the Colditz Championship for 2023 after Half Term, as well as running our Boarders’ Roller Disco and Boarding House Outing in November. It goes without saying that we are already planning our Boarders’ Christmas Feast! Many thanks to our Boarding parents and Boarding staff for all their support.

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CHARITY MR WOOD

Beechwood Park donates Harvest gifts to Markyate Foodbank Once more, Beechwood Park families have donated very generously during Harvest. In School, Mr Bullock reminded us all of the messages behind our harvest collection in a series of assemblies across year groups and this year we have collected an amazing amount of food for the St. John’s Church, Parish Pantry.

This Monday, a busload of food made its way to St. John Foodbank. Behind the scenes the new Top Form Charity Team helped collect bags of food from the collection points in the Junior and Middle departments.

In the Chapel Top Formers then helped to sort the hundreds of items into groups, ready for loading. They then helped load the bus for its run to the Church, where they were gratefully received and unloaded by the Church Volunteers.

The Church Foodbank has been running since the Pandemic, and with rising food prices, it has not stopped providing packages of food and items to the local community. These packages contain enough food for three days, for each member of a household.

Thank you to everyone in the Beechwood Park community who have given so generously – do please continue to donate at your local supermarket, so that together we can continue to help our local communities.

Looking ahead for the rest of the term we have: · 6th November: Poppy Appeal – we will be selling stationary and Poppies. · 20th November: Toy Appeal for Vineyard Church(es) · 4th December: Reverse Advent Calendar – Foodbank - (BPSPA) · 13th December: Christmas Jumper Day 'Save the Children' JustGiving

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CHARITY CONTINUED...

BEECHWOOD SUPPORT YOUNG MINDS AND THEIR #HELLOYELLOW APPEAL The Beechwood Park community have again supported the mental health charity – Young Minds, on World Mental Health Day. Mrs Waiting delivered a whole school assembly on good mental health, with activities to support this taking place over the week. These include making mindful badges as a class, taking part in mindfulness exercises, dropping in for tea and a talk and even walking Bruce the dog around school.

To show their support the children have ingeniously decorated their uniforms with a splash of yellow. From socks, to hats and everything in between there is a commendable amount of creativity on display, to show their support for this amazing charity.

Alongside this, families have very generously donated to our JustGiving page. At the time of print we have raised £986, with promises of further donations to follow. If you haven’t yet donated and would like to simply CLICK HERE to donate.

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BEECHWOOD PARK ON TOUR IN BARBADOS FROM MR GRIFFITHS During our recent Beechwood Park school cricket tour to Barbados, we had the pleasure of meeting Stephen Rowe from the Ministry of Sport. It was during that meeting we handed over all of our donated cricket kit, which has been successfully shared out amongst the children in St Albans primary school in Barbados who were in desperate need of cricket kit.

As well as passing this donated kit to St Albans primary school, we also made a cash donation of £3144 to the Cricket Kindness Charity too, who will use this money to help address the shortage of cricket kit in developing countries around the world, allowing them to play this great game of sport.

Thank you to everyone who donated kit and supported the charity, it has made a real difference.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND DONATIONS

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FROM THE BPSPA We hope you are enjoying this super busy, but exciting time of the year – a new start! We were thrilled to get to know many new parents and reps, as well as our new school leadership. We loved the buzz and are looking forward to what lies ahead.

Thank you everyone that came to our Welcome to the Year Tea Party. We hope you felt truly welcome in the Beechwood Community. You kindly donated £500, with £250 raised for the UNICEF Libya appeal and 50% towards school projects. We continually exchange ideas about more events like these, providing new parents an opportunity to get to know each other and find the support they may need.

For those who took part, we hope you had a great time on the Family Photo Day with Ian Scott, the photographer who visits us every autumn. It’s a wonderful way to capture a close family moment early in the school year.

We had to cancel the Woodlands and Junior Department quiz, but the good news is that instead we’re having a ‘whole school’ quiz next term on Saturday 3rd February, so please put the date in your diaries.

Now that the festive season is approaching, we can’t wait for you to join our celebrations after half term, with two of our most iconic events and the exciting activities surrounding them!

On Friday 3rd November, we hope you’ll join us for our magical Fireworks Night. This year, the Guy Fawkes competition is back too! We are looking forward to seeing your creations – points will be awarded for using recycled materials.

On the 30th November or 1st December, please join us for the cosy Christmas Wreath Making Workshop.

This activity was much loved last year, and we're delighted to share it with you again. In the spirit of Christmas giving, we will be collecting donations for the Reverse Advent Calendar - please keep an eye out for announcements. We also look forward to Young Enterprise Stall contributions at the Christmas Festive Fayre – a wonderful initiative showing the spirit of Beechwood where the individual strengths and ideas of every child are valued.

And then, of course, the Christmas Festive Fayre itself on Saturday 2nd December - an event that brings us together to celebrate the season with our families, share memories of the past year, and look forward to the many experiences to be shared in the journey ahead.

We at BPSPA love to make these experiences happen, helping you find connections and feel at home at Beechwood Park. Please do get involved – do join in the fun and please do volunteer to help if you can.

Have an amazing break over half term.

From the BPSPA team

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OCTOBER HALF TERM HOLIDAY CAMPS AT BEECHWOOD PARK SCHOOL

Our friends at Muddy Stilettos have created a What's On Guide for children's activities in Herts & Beds over the October Half Term holidays. This is being shared ahead of the guide being featured in their newsletters and on their social channels - giving parents with children at our school the opportunity to book tickets for events in advance. Simply click on the link to view the guide.

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