Inevitably, as we enter the exam season, the weather finally decides to cheer up! The school community are very mindful that this is a high-pressure time for our Year 11 students (and several students in other years who are also taking GCSE exams) and we wish them every success in the coming weeks.
Our students have been very well-prepared for their exams, and I know they will take their school and home revision schedule very seriously. It really will be worth it when you open that envelope in late August!
The science reclad project planning is well under way, and we hope to be able to upgrade some aspects of the internal building as well. This project will take most of the next academic year to complete and contingency plans are in place for temporary classrooms to accommodate our young people and our science team. We are all very excited to see the new state-of-the-art building emerge from the scaffolding over the course of the next 10 months. As you may have read or heard on the local radio, the Local Authority are investing an approximate £3.48 million pounds on this upgrade, a firm commitment to the longevity of our successful school.
Thank you too to our 68 student representatives on the Whole School Student Council who have worked so hard on behalf of all of our students to make positive changes based on what they hear from their peers. We will be giving them the opportunity to share their actions with the wider student body in the coming months, but I am so impressed with their ideas, their energy and their integrity; they are leaders of the future who will be admired and respected.
In June, we are welcoming our colleagues from our primary cluster schools as part of a joint INSET day on literacy and closing the vocabulary gap.
This is an exciting new initiative for the cluster, and we are looking forward to learning from the experience and expertise of our primary colleagues so that we can develop our practise. This has involved quite a lot of planning, and I am particularly grateful to our Primary Headteacher colleagues and Miss Colebourn for their work on planning this day.
I would like to record a particular well done to the incredible number of our young people who take part in sport outside of school and at a very high level. I have been so impressed to hear about their dedication to their chosen sports which invariably means very early morning starts and many hours at weekends and in the holidays. Their resilience to undertake this level of commitment and remain focused on their studies is an inspiration to us all.
I am sure many of them will go on to sporting greatness in their adult lives. Maintaining a commitment to education is still the key. Achieving a set of great GCSE’s gives all of our young people the opportunity to make choices about their future. They may not choose to use those GSCEs immediately, but they are banked for future opportunities and careers; a passport to careers that they may not even realise they want to pursue at this early stage in their lives.
A significant part of reaching those GCSE goals is attendance at school. Thank you to all of you who make sure that your child is in school and learning. We work in partnership with you, and this support is something that we particularly appreciate receiving.
With my best wishes,
Miss Hearle
News from around the School
Humanities Focus
The Brittanica Encyclopaedia defines the study of Humanities as “those branches of knowledge that concern themselves with human beings and their culture with analytic and critical methods of enquiry derived from an appreciation of human values and the unique ability of the human spirit to express itself”. At The Henry Beaufort, our three Humanities subjects - History, Religious Education and Geography seek to do just that – with a breadth in our curriculums which challenges our students to truly reflect, considering different perspectives and ideas.
We seek to make our lessons and home learning as engaging as possible – in Geography, some recent project style home learning entitled “Biome in a Box” – students were challenged to recreate one of the Earth’s large ecosystems in a box – including plants, animals and, in some cases, the climate! The engagement level on this project was truly fantastic – you can see some examples below:
A recent History in class project saw students presenting on the Black Death, during their Medicine topic. As you can see the quality of their presentation materials was truly exceptional.
Cultural Capital is truly crucial to a well-rounded Humanities curriculum and we are always seeking to develop the extra-curricular opportunities in our department – from a fantastic Environmental Club, to visits to a Gurdwara and Mosque, from our Geography fieldwork opportunities to our current project – a truly thought-provoking cross-curricular Cultural Capital day for Year 8s in June.
French Penpal School Experience Day Thursday 23 May 2024
On Thursday 23rd May morning, there will be 46 French students and 4 members of staff coming to visit our school from Pierre Mendes Collège in Soyaux, near Poitiers, France. Our students have been exchanging letters and cards since lockdown, and it is very exciting that they will get to finally meet in person.
During the morning, Year 9 and 10 French students will be touring around school with their penpals and then enjoying a picnic.
History & Archaeology Club
The Henry Beaufort and Archaeology Club recently came runners-up in a competition that was run by The Hampshire Archives Trust.
The competition brief was to prepare a PowerPoint presentation on the History in Hampshire, and they chose the Sparsholt Roman Villa.
The students who participated were delighted and proud of their achievement.
The competition judge’s summary was:
"The project is an excellent one on a very interesting topic. The presentation is very good and clear, and demonstrates the use of a range of sources. The PowerPoint has a good structure and provides a helpful and interesting historical context. It used some excellent images and was visually stimulating. The entry came second in the group project this year and all the students who worked on this project are HIGHLY COMMENDED."
GCSE Drama trip to Mayflower Theatre
On Thursday 18th May, the Year 11 GCSE Drama class headed to the Mayflower to watch Come From Away. Watching live theatre performances is a crucial part of their course and the students will be examined on it during the exam element of their GCSE.
This smash hit show shares the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 air passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Canada during the wake of 9/11, and the small Newfoundland community that invited these ‘Come From Aways’ into their lives with open hearts. The Mayflower was a full house, and we all enjoyed the joyous story and soaring music.
As always, the Year 11 students were a credit to the school, and we wish them all the best in their Drama GSCE exam!
Message for Year 11s from Mr Naisbitt and Miss McMahon
In the blink of an eye, five years have passed, and we find ourselves well into the GCSE exam season.
Year 11, your dedication and hard work have been nothing short of brilliant. As you face these exams, remember to stay positive and give it your absolute best. We believe in you!
We wish you all luck with the remaining exams, and we look forward to celebrating with you on your final day after the exams. After the half-term break, we’ll only see our Year 11 students during revision sessions or exams. A little reminder: please register and sign out in the library when you arrive on-site after half-term.
Good luck!
Mr. Naisbitt and Miss McMahon
Junior Maths Challenge
This term, a select group of Year 7s and 8s competed in the Junior Maths Challenge. The Junior maths challenge is a national competition for Year 7 and 8 where they complete a test-like challenge in school aimed to test their logical thinking and how they can use what they have learnt in a different way. This year we managed to achieve 3 Golds, 22 Silvers and 24 Bronze awards. Congratulations to all who took part, especially Freya and Daniel, for being joint best in school.
Young Carers
A young carer is someone aged 18 or under who helps look after a relative who has a condition, such as a disability, illness, mental health condition, or a drug or alcohol problem. Most young carers look after one of their parents or care for a brother or sister.
Here at The Henry Beaufort School, we work with Winchester Young Carers, to support our young people whose lives are affected by caring for someone at home.
Within school, Mrs H Callen-Organ, Student Support & Guidance is the point of contact for young carers. A group is held every Wednesday 1st lunch in Mrs Callen-Organ office opposite BICT.
Light the South 2024 - Design Competition Update
We had lots of wonderful entries from all year groups and each entry contributed a house point to the entrant’s school team.
House (Rank) Entries
Warsaw 23
Berlin 17
Prague 15
Luxembourg 11
Moscow 9
Rome 8
Athens 3
Designs ranged from depictions of the local area, themes around climate change concerns to expressions of love, hope and positivity.
Winners were chosen by our House Captains who decided to choose their favourite sections from 3 designs which were then configured together to create our final Lighthouse Sculpture Design.
We are very pleased to announce the 3 worthy winners of our Lighthouse Design Competition are:
Ava D (Year 7 Prague)
Neriya-Ona E (Year 8 Warsaw)
Amelia D (Year 7 Rome)
These talented students each spent 3 hours off the timetable in the Art department carefully painting their designed sections onto the Lighthouse, which, once completed, looked magnificent.
Our Lighthouse has now been collected by the charity organisers and will be part of the Art trail in Southampton and Cowes from July. We will update you when we know where you will be able to see it. For now though, here is a sneaky peek at
The Henry Beaufort Lighthouse, which we have entitled “Light, Hope and Joy”.
PGL Netball Tournament
On Friday 26th April 2024, 46 girls from Years 8, 9 and 10 headed to the PGL centre at Windmill Hill in East Sussex. The trip consists of a netball tournament and outdoor adventurous activities.
Over the course of the weekend, the students take part in a round-robin tournament and when they are not playing they get a chance to test their nerves and learn new skills. The activities that they can take part in are archery, giant swing, climbing wall, abseiling, and aeroball. These activities can be done in their own time as they “queue and do”. In the evening, the PGL staff entertain the students and put on activities for students to complete with and against the other schools.
We also had some fantastic results; the Year 9 team came 3rd in their tournament and the Year 10 team won their tournament. Both results are very impressive as they were up against some very strong competition.
The students we took on PGL were absolutely amazing, and we had compliments from PGL staff as well as other schools and umpires about how lovely the students were.
Thank you to all the staff volunteers who were equally amazing and the students thank you for all your help and support and a special thank you to Miss Welch for organising it all.
Train to Teach at The Henry Beaufort School
Browse the website to find out how to begin your exciting new career in teaching or to find out more about training at The Henry Beaufort School please contact andy.applin@staff.beaufort.hants.sch.uk
Safeguarding
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Extra-curricular Activities
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