The latest new from The Henry Beaufort School
As part of the national D-Day 80th Anniversary, on Thursday 6th June, caterers across the UK are teaming up to celebrate national fish and chip day. We will be taking part in celebrating the role fishermen had during WW2 on D-Day and what is now a British tradition.
Please view the menu below that will be available in the Bistro on the 6th June 2024.
The Henry Beaufort School was invited by Sparsholt College to take part in a Dragon’s Den event, where we competed against the other Winchester schools to gain investment from local businesspeople. Our task was to come up with a sustainable solution to a problem within the school. Oscar created our House Bin system, where there’ll be 7 bins, one for each house. Each bin will have a clear front and clear bin liners, so whichever house has the most litter by the end of the week will win prizes or points for their house. Jonah made a prototype out of wood to show the Dragons. Eventually, two Dragons made an offer totalling £250 to get the project going! Hannah, Jonah and Pan bravely presented the idea in front of a large audience and made the school incredibly proud. The creation of the bins will be starting soon!
This month we had an incredible opportunity for our Year 9 students, with touring theatre company Quantum Theatre, coming in to perform Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy ‘Macbeth’. Year 9 will be studying Macbeth in the summer term and so this visit allowed them to see the story unfold in the way that Shakespeare intended, through a fantastic, engaging performance. The cast of Quantum Theatre were brilliant as always and our Year 9s could not take their eyes off the performance. The sword fighting scene at the end created lots of excitement!
A big thank you to all of our Year 9 students. You represented Henry Beaufort well. Quantum Theatre said you were a fantastic crowd, and they would love to return! We are looking forward to seeing this engagement and excitement in the summer term, when we tackle Shakespeare’s tale of ambition!
Currently, Henry Beaufort’s Year 7 history classes have been making some beautiful Motte and Bailey castles. These castles represent how William the Conqueror took control of the county after defeating Harold Godwinson in 1066.
As well as that, the Year 8s at the school have been making some brilliant World War One trenches. Many were amazingly historically accurate and included many little, realistic details such as artificial barbed wire, sandbags and duck boards. This reminds us of the terrible conditions suffered by soldiers.
In the school’s History and Archaeology club, we have recently submitted our PowerPoint for the Hampshire Archives local history competition. We decided to make it about the Sparsholt Roman Villa, specifically about its mosaic. Currently, we are making some fun and often weird history-themed board games like a spin on top trumps and monopoly.
This was written by the History Club.
Poetry Live! Bournemouth - Wednesday 28th February 2024
This month, we had the pleasure of taking 95 Year 11 students to the Poetry Live event in Bournemouth. The event had a star-studded line-up of both poets and senior examiners, including the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Imitiaz Dharker and John Agard. The event offered our students an invaluable opportunity to delve deeper into the works of the poets behind the anthology aspect of their GCSE Literature course. Our students truly made the most of this opportunity, with many of them asking some great, insightful questions and making detailed notes that will be really useful to them when revising for their Literature exam.
As always, our students were an absolute credit to Henry Beaufort and represented the school excellently. I could not be prouder of our young people for their incredible attitude and engagement on the day!
Mr Cameron
On Tuesday 19th March it was Personal Development Day. Year 10 had a guest speaker come in to deliver a presentation, Asha, who is Head of Education at the Daneil Spargo Mabbs Foundation. We think this was educational and delivered well. It was engaging and interesting, especially as we learnt all about Daniel’s life. After the presentation, we had a lesson on the topic of Drugs Education, ranging from the impact of taking drugs, peer pressure of taking drugs and the choices and consequences of taking drugs.
As a year group we learnt a lot from this day and think that in the future it would benefit all Year 10 groups. Most teenagers are unaware of how quickly your life could be ruined by taking drugs, but also unaware of how the people in your life can be affected too. And this day taught us that.
Three Year 10 students.
I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to all the students involved in the Spring Concert on Thursday 7th March 2024. They filled the Sports Hall with the most exquisite sounds and both Mrs Saunders and I were overwhelmed with pride, admiration, and positivity after such a wonderful evening of music. In the Music Department, we embrace and thrive on music from different cultures and genres and like to celebrate music that is diverse. We had everything from sublime Beethoven to heavy rock – we loved it all!
We broke with tradition this time and started the evening with the wonderful Resonate Choir. The harmonies and strength in the students’ voices gave us a brilliant welcome.
Throughout the evening, we were treated to excellent performances from all three GCSE classes in Year 9-11. It is so wonderful to showcase the range of instruments and talent of our GCSE students.
We also had the Chamber Choir, which is ably led by Ms Orba, our singing teacher. The Chamber Choir really gave us a masterclass in how to sing beautifully and also to bring the performance aspect of concerts to life with their well-coordinated and uplifting choreography.
As has become tradition, we ended the evening with the Jazz Band, who, under the leadership of Mr Wilson, has really grown in both numbers and quality. They have really bonded as a group of musicians and their fantastic sound is down to sheer hard work at both Jazz Band rehearsals and also their dedication to practising their instruments outside school.
I am genuinely proud of every musical performance in the concert. However, I must highlight the exceptional performance of the school orchestra, which I believe sounded truly amazing. Their remarkable attention to detail and the development of their musical skills over the past two terms have been evident. I am incredibly proud, as it takes considerable hours and effort for an ensemble to achieve such a cohesive and impressive sound.
We were also treated to various other ensembles, such as the Flute, which included students who have only been learning the flute since September alongside the other more experienced musicians. We also had stunning solos and gorgeous duets. What a wealth of talent!
As always, it was our Year 11 students who really led the way for the evening in both their support behind the scenes but also in their high-quality performance. They are all wonderful students to work with and are hardworking individuals and true role models for the younger students. As I said after the concert, I really hope that Year 7-10 were paying attention as we would love them to follow in Year 11's footsteps! Mrs Saunders and I would like to thank Year 11 for being so delightful and inspiring to work with and making our jobs an utter delight.
So what’s coming up for us?
Well, we’ve got a summer concert on Tuesday 2nd July. This will be a slightly smaller affair in the drama rooms – posters and letters will come out during May/June.
Following on from our successful run with Matilda in the Theatre Royal in January 2023, we are now really excited about our next production, which will be ‘Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’ (teen edition). This will be performed in the Theatre Royal in Winchester:
The energies of the Expressive Arts staff and students will now be dominated by our rehearsals and preparation for this huge production. Please spread the word and encourage your friends and family to come and watch at least one performance.
It is the magical combination of dedication and support from students, parents, teachers, and the wider community that enables us to put on these concerts. So finally, a very big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who supports the Music Department at The Henry Beaufort School.
Mrs Seddon
Head of Music
We're thrilled to announce that 4 of our students have been offered positions at Winchester College, with 3 accepting their offers. Founded in 1382 by William of Wykeham, Winchester College is renowned worldwide for its excellence in education.
We're immensely proud of these students, who not only excelled academically but also demonstrated outstanding character through their application process. Congratulations everyone!
Happy Chinese New Year!
新(xīn)年(nián)快(kuài)乐(lè)!
At Mandarin Class this term, Year 7s have been learning about family, friends, and animals. Year 8s have been learning all about countries and describing holidays. This led us nicely onto the topic of Chinese New Year which was celebrated on the 10th February over the course of 15 days. We welcome the year of the Dragon (龙🐉）this year in 2024.
Both students from Henry Beaufort and Westgate School were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make ‘baobuns’ 包🥚and ‘dumplings’饺子🥟. Mrs Golding from Rome, the Technology Department, and Mrs Pan kindly offered their expertise in making these delicious foods in under an hour. It felt like ready-steady-cook!
The results were amazing and students had fun learning Mandarin in terms of preparing food, which forms a huge part of the culture.
Mrs Pan Mrs Hallett Mrs Golding
The Henry Beaufort School continues to support the schools in our Primary School cluster to help give children positive and memorable learning experiences.
On Friday 2nd February Mr Lane hosted the reception class from Itchen Abbas Primary School.
The children had just completed the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch at school, learnt about hibernation and migrating birds and came to The Henry Beaufort school and under the expert guidance of Mr Lane made some bird boxes in the technology rooms to take back to put up at school.
The reception students were taught how to use a saw, glasspaper and a drill and went away proudly, with 2 new bird boxes.
Mrs Parsons the class teacher said “we had a tremendous time and what a wonderful experience for the students”.
Thank you Mr Lane for offering an amazing learning experience.
Since September, a group of 28 Year 8 students have been taking part in the Brilliant Club Scholars programme. This programme gives students the opportunity to explore higher education and build key skills to succeed in the next stages of their education.
The students took part in seven university-style tutorials that were delivered by PhD tutor. One group focused on ‘What is War’ and the other group looked at a biology theme and their course was called the ‘Stem Detectives’.
At the end of the tutorials, students had to submit a 1,500 – 2,000 world essays demonstrating the subject knowledge, written communication and critical thinking skills they have developed throughout the programme. The essays produced were exceptional. Once submitted, the students received a mark 1st, 2:1, 2:2 or a 3rd class honours and had a sit-down feedback session with the PhD tutor.
On Wednesday 28th March, the students then attended their Graduation Event to celebrate their achievements at Bath University. It was a great day. Students get to experience lecture theatres, listen to students about what life is like as a University student and what they could study. We then had a tour of the impressive Bath University campus and the day finished with the graduation-style certificate awarding.
This day hopefully builds their understanding of higher education, to help them make informed choices for the future and decide whether the university route is the right one for them (although a little way off yet!)?
These students were amazing throughout and were a credit to the school.
Well done to all the students involved!
On Friday 23rd February, six Henry Beaufort students, Tilly, Archie, Matthew, Joseph, Maisie and Oliver visited Weeke Primary School in Winchester to deliver information on how to stay safe online. The students spoke in front of four different classes, delivering clear and informative explanations not only on how to stay safe online but also demonstrating their expertise in the subject. They also spoke on their own personal experiences about keeping safe online. They held small group discussions with five to six students, answering a variety of questions on e-safety and internet usage.
Mr Farrell, Assistant Head of Year 9 and Curriculum Leader of Computer Science said, “The students were fantastic, delivering this very Important message at Weeke Primary School. Their ability to communicate effectively and educate younger students on such an important topic was admirable.”
All students involved will be receiving a Headteacher Award in recognition of their maturity in working with younger students on such a sensitive and important subject.
To view this story online at the Hampshire Chronicle please click the link below:
Henry Beaufort pupils earn recognition for internet safety guidance | Hampshire Chronicle