Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome to the first edition of Hello from Henry B! for 2022.
We have many exciting events and activities to share with you in this edition.
I am pleased to tell you that the new walk through canteen is on site and the intention is for a grand opening early March. More details to follow after half-term.
Please find uploaded below a poster advertising the Spring Concert in March.
I was pleased to be able to meet with our EARA ambassadors earlier this term. The students discussed with me what they had been working on, and we reflected on the importance of diversity being part of the fabric of the school. This included an honest and frank discussion about how we as adults can support people in our school community and improve our knowledge and understanding of the way in which language is used to undermine and humiliate people.
Our EARA group has carried out very important work for several years now, but we all felt that they needed a higher profile in school. I have asked them to take on a number of actions including reviewing the schools’ vision statement to consider if it is fit for purpose in terms of diversity and equality.
We explored how many of the adults in our community grew up in a different world and sometimes do not know or understand the derogatory terminology/words that are used to undermine and bully people. We are addressing this through training and I asked the group to consider what they felt we need to know, how we can empower colleagues to tackle inappropriate language and embed a culture of proactive responses and awareness.
I shared with them that the school is also looking at diversity in terms of recruitment, and our Governing Body of the school is considering how it reflects diversity within the Governing Body.
We also intend to go ahead with the following:
- Create a mural on the side of the Sports Hall reflecting diversity. EARA will be launching a competition for the design.
- Start by educating the younger year groups about inappropriate language and behaviour, so that we have a programme of awareness that will be carried through to all year groups.
- Meet with me on a half termly basis
- Explain to students who join the school from another country what is not appropriate and where they can get help and support if they experience discrimination
- Create an EARA page in the student and staff handbook
- Establish Equality Ambassadors as part of the student body
Visits from Primary Schools
We have really enjoyed hosting students from Weeke and Harestock Primary schools this term and thank you to Mrs Saunders, Mrs Harris and Mr Webber for making this possible.
The students joined us for a music workshop as well as for science using equipment in the science labs not available at primary school. It was a pleasure to work with such polite and enthusiastic students.
Autism Ambassadors at HB
Our Autism Ambassadors are spreading the understanding of autism around The Henry Beaufort School to friends and peers. The group of enthusiastic young people meet once a month to support each other and discuss how they will bring awareness to the school community.
So far, our young people have delivered talks to their tutor groups, which have been fantastic in helping others to have an insight into how information may be processed, or situations that can cause a change in behaviour. One year group has been lucky enough to have received an assembly prepared and delivered by members of the group – with the aim for all year groups to be given this superb knowledge.
Every person with autism has their own strengths and challenges, and with support from their peers, their time at The Henry Beaufort School will be an inclusive and positive experience.
Hares of Hampshire Project
The Henry Beaufort Schools is proud to be involved in the Hares of Hampshire Project. As a school we are extremely grateful to receive and be donated a Hare sculpture – the Leveret - from Stagecoach.
The whole school student council will be working in partnership with Miss Colebourn and the Art team to get creative in creating a leveret design and then transferring this into a 3D masterpiece which will be apart of an art trail in Winchester in Summer 2022. For more information please have a look at the website https://haresofhampshire.co.uk/learning-programme/
It will be great to have as many students in involved in this programme and it will be launched in tutor time to all students.
Thank you to Stagecoach who have donated their hare to the school and funded the sponsorship.
The challenge has been taken up by our Whole School Student Council and we are looking forward to seeing what emerges!
A message from the Expressive Arts Team
Our whole school production has been launched again! We began with a wonderful audition in which 85 students demonstrated their creative abilities! The support they showed for each other’s effort was fantastic to see. With so much talent, casting was a challenge, but we now have our cast of 50+ students. Huge congratulations to all who took part.
Matilda Jr. HB will take to the stage in October 2022!
Year 11 Geography fieldwork to Southampton
25th & 26th January 2022
Over two blustery days in January we took our Year 11 Geographers to Southampton to carry out the urban fieldwork element of their GCSE course. The group on the first day had the added benefit of “Applin-Taggart Tours” – Mr Applin and Mrs Taggart sharing their insight on the coach journey, through Bevois Valley on the way in and Shirley High Street on the way out of Southampton. The group on the second day got Mrs Legg and Mrs Taggart’s commentary instead.
Our primary data collection focused on the environmental quality and traffic in two regenerated areas of the city – Centenary Quay (used to be Vospers Dockyard) and Ocean Village (used to be the Outer Dock). We are currently presenting and analysing this data in class. Our Year 11 Geographers engaged well, worked hard, and had a great – if chilly – day.
St Swithuns lecture programme
Our partnership working with St Swithun’s has seen our students joining in with a range of on line lectures.
On the 3rd of February our students attended an on line lecture from Dr James Hodkinson from the University of Warwick who presented on the value of languages at GCSE, A’level and beyond and how this helps in the current job market.
Last week we were able to access the University ‘take over’ week with the University of Winchester and their History and Archaeology Departments. The theme was ‘Recovery and Transformation’ and there were 4 talks and seminars for us to access.
Thank you to St Swithun’s for these opportunities.
The Brilliant Club
This year’s first round of Brilliant Club scholars are about to graduate from the Scholars’ Programme with flying colours. After five university-style tutorials they have produced excellent final assignments about literary theory and using it to analyse texts. You can read some samples below. The Programme will culminate in a celebration at Reading University on the 11th February where students will attend a graduation to celebrate their efforts. They have all done very well and we are proud of their achievements. Well done to Alfie H, Benny B, Douglas N, Emily A-F, Nikisha R, Jenna B, Evie-Rose M, Joseph S, Julia C, Ky W, Matthew, W, and Thomas E, all in Year 8. Great work!
Meanwhile, the next round is well underway with students having attended a live launch event streamed from St Anne’s College, Oxford on Monday 17th January. Students will begin their tutorials on the subject of “What is Money” on Wednesday 26th January. Congratulations to those who have been selected for this competitive programme.
Here is a selection from the essays which shows the standard of work that our Year 8 students have produced.
A feminist mindset will be used to criticize and evaluate the extract from the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In the extract: “in sleep my mother looks younger” there is a nod to sexism, as it is saying that women should be beautiful and there is something wrong with Katniss’s mother as she does not look “beautiful” when she is not asleep. The adjective ‘beautiful’ means something or someone that is extremely pretty or good looking. The word beautiful tends to relate to women, so this means that women are expected to be attractive and when they are not, they are imperfect or there is something wrong with them. The text also states “my mother used to be very beautiful once, too. Or so they say.” The phrase ‘or so they say’ could mean that beautiful is young and if you are not young you are not beautiful. The writer could have put this word in the text because she wanted to use a bit of dramatic irony, because there could be something related to this thought later in the story and it builds up on the reader’s knowledge of Katniss’s world as it is very different to ours.
Emily
The feminism theory is clear in this extract because Meena tells us her father hardly recognises how hard her mom works and her efforts are not even appreciated by him. There is no equality in this man-woman relationship. Her mother is underrated while her father holds power. Meena is deciding that the life her mother has led is not the life she wants to lead and she is trying to find her own way. She is standing up for woman. She is resentful and rebels against the expectations placed on her to behave in a stereotypical way.
Jenna
Finally, I will analyse the character of Little Red Riding Hood. In the beginning, Little Red Riding Hood comes across as small and scared which we find in the stereotypical gender roles. We could assume that from lines like “In came the little girl in red”[i]. The word “little” shows us that Little Red Riding Hood is seen to be small and is not as powerful as the wolf. However, she turns the tables and becomes the one in charge, and has then become the confident and brave one, as we see in the lines “The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. She whips a pistol from her knickers.”[ii] She called the wolfs’ bluff and shot him. This meant that she ended up at the top of the food chain. Little Red Riding Hood turned out to be extremely confident and brave after this. “She said “Hello, and please do note my lovely furry wolfskin coat”[iii]. Little Red Riding Hood ends up being the second archetypal character, ranking above the wolf. She appears the bravest and is on top of the food chain.
Ky
On Friday 11th February, twelve year 8 students went to Reading University to graduate from the Scholars’ Programme. The trip included a campus tour and graduation ceremony. It was a well-deserved celebration of their amazing achievements on the programme which is now running again for twelve more of our students. Thank you to Mrs Eckett for her support of the trip.
Over the past few weeks 12 people were picked to be a part of a club where we studied different literary theories. We used them on different texts and looked at them from a different point of view than what we'd usually do.
Each week we had a tutorial with our PhD tutor and expanded our knowledge on the literary theories which helped us work towards our final assignment. The final assignment was to write a 1500-word essay explaining the different theories and how different people would think of them in a piece of writing. We then got our feedback and graduated on the 11th of February at Reading University, we got a tour of the university and had a Q&A with some of the students that were in their 3rd year there. It was a great opportunity!
Nikisha, Year 8
Mrs Naylor-Teece
Aspirations Coordinator
It has been a long half-term for our students, but they have worked hard and embraced the return to activities beyond the classroom and the school day. Congratulations to all students who have received postcards home and Headteacher Awards. They have been well deserved.
Hopefully we will have a calm and uninterrupted second half of the term!
With my best wishes to you and your families,
Miss Hearle
Headteacher
[i] Roald Dahl (1982) Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
[ii] Roald Dahl (1982) Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
[iii] Roald Dahl (1982) Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
Private John Bennett served in the Hampshire Regiment after enlisting six weeks before war broke out. He saw action in France, at the Battle of the Somme, and was ‘shot at dawn’ at the execution post in Popperinghe, Ypres in August 1916 for cowardice. In reality, he was a terrified 19 year old who was suffering from PTSD and shellshock having endured endless days and nights being repeatedly shelled and gassed. Witnesses at his Court Marshall state that he was paralysed by fear and fell to pieces as soon as the shelling started. Instead of being given the help he needed, his illness was treated as poor behaviour, and he was made an example of. Private John Bennett, and 305 other soldiers just like him were finally posthumously pardoned in 2006, almost 100 years after they were needlessly executed.
