There has been so much to celebrate over the course of this term. I'm delighted that so many activities and opportunities for our young people have been recorded in this newsletter.
We are celebrating some very exciting news having found out that through the Tesco blue tokens scheme we have been awarded £5000 of funding towards our serenity garden. This means that we can upscale our plans for this year, giving students the opportunity to plan out and participate in creating phase one of our garden project. Thank you to Mrs Caplin for searching out this funding opportunity and to Mrs Drew and Mr Pounsett for driving this project forward.
And if all this wasn't enough, we have the growing excitement and anticipation of our next whole school production at The Theatre Royal. Everyone is most definitely talking about Jamie! I had the great privilege of listening to some of the auditions for the school production, and it was a delight to hear so many of our young people audition for parts in the production. It must have been very nerve wracking to audition in front of your friends and peers and yet every single person in that audition room stood up and gave it their best. This is the type of ambition that we love to see at The Henry Beaufort School.
I would like to endorse Mrs Seddon’s words on the Spring Concert. It was simply incredible and the quality of the music that was produced during the evening was superb. For our Year 11 students it was a bittersweet moment as it marked their last performance as members of the student community. Each of them has received a Headteacher gold award for their dedication and commitment to music and expressive arts over the last five years. I do hope that they will be able to come back and support us with future productions.
Our young people are involved in so many diverse activities both in school and beyond the school gate, and we have tried to capture the range and diversity of these in this newsletter. It is very important that young people are recognised and acknowledged for the work they do and the activities they become involved in often at levels which require great skill and commitment. One of the favourite parts of my role is to have the opportunity to recognise their wider contribution and this term I have given out so many Headteacher awards that we have had to reorder our stock! We have also taken the opportunity to change the design in recognition of the many students who receive Headteacher awards year on year. Well done to each and every one of them!
I am looking forward to seeing the winning design for the lighthouse competition as part of the ‘Light the South’ 2024 installation in Southampton. I do not envy the art department's shortlisting and final decision; I am sure it will be a difficult one.
In the newsletter you will see an article from Mrs Hartfield who undertook her teacher training at The Henry Beaufort School and is now one of our colleagues in the English department. I continue to tell anyone who will listen that the teaching profession, at whatever stage, is the best job in the world. If you know of anyone, or indeed are thinking of training to become a teacher, please do get in touch, we would be delighted to tell you why you should make the move to teaching.
The refurbishment of our science block will start in June once the GCSE exams have finished. This is a massive undertaking and will involve half of the science block being out of action at any one time. Temporary classrooms will be installed on the site to allow the continuation of science lessons with priorities for practical lessons in the remaining rooms open being given over to GCSE classes. The Science team are busy preparing for the temporary removal, making sure that all necessary materials and equipment are packed and ready for their temporary home. Although this will mean changes to the learning journeys for some of our students, the end result will be a state-of-the-art block, including an additional fire exit escape route from the first floor. Thank you to my colleagues in the science team for undertaking this considerable upheaval and to the local authority for providing the funding for this project.
As part of our newsletter, we have included an advertisement for the rooms and facilities that are available to hire on the school site. This does provide us with an important additional income that we can then invest back into the school for the benefit of our young people. If you are aware of anyone who may be looking for evening, weekend, or holiday facilities, please do point them in our direction.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful and happy Easter weekend. I do hope the weather is kind to us, I am certain that we would benefit from some sunshine.
With warmest wishes,
Miss Hearle
News from around the School
Primary School Visit
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 recently finished participating in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch at school, where they learnt about hibernation and migrating birds. Upon arriving at The Henry Beaufort School, they were guided by Mr. Lane in the technology rooms to construct bird boxes, which they planned to take back and install at their school.
The reception students were taught how to use a saw, glasspaper and a drill. They 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 opportunity.
Spring Concert
I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to all the students involved in the Spring Concert on Thursday 7th March. 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:
1st night Wednesday 22nd January 2025 7pm
2nd night Thursday 23rd January 2025 7pm
Final night, Friday 24th January 2025 7pm
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
Drug Awareness
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.
Poetry Live!
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
Chinese New Year
Mrs Pan Mrs Hallett Mrs Golding
History Club
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.
Macbeth
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!
The Brilliant Club
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 a 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 word essay 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 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!
Henry Beaufort Students deliver important message on online safety to Weeke Primary School Students
On Friday 23rd February, six Henry Beaufort students, Tilly, Archie, Matthew, Joseph, Maisie and Olivervisited 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.
The photograph features 4 of the students; Oliver, Tilly, Matthew, and Joseph.
Dragons Den
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!
Year 11 student part of BBC Radio 3 Evensong
I joined the Winchester Cathedral Girls' Choir in 2020, aged 13, and since then I have had amazing opportunities and experiences, including BBC radio broadcasts. Last month, the senior choristers took part in an Evensong broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, which took a lot of rehearsing but was ultimately very exciting and a great experience. We sang some amazing- albeit difficult-music by Howells and Bairstow, and it was a very rewarding opportunity.
Gwennie
Year 11
Light the South 2024 - Design Competition
Over the summer of 2024, Southampton Hospitals Charity will be lighting up the South with a large-scale public art event that promises to captivate your senses and ignite your imagination.
There will be 40 8ft magnificent lighthouse sculptures on display through the streets and public spaces of Southampton and Cowes, each one a unique masterpiece designed by artists both local and well renowned, plus 40 mini-lighthouses designed by local education groups, creating a family-friendly trail of discovery for visitors and residents to enjoy and explore.
The lighthouses will then be displayed together for a Farewell event in September 2024, which will be a chance to see all lighthouses gathered in one place, a truly unique sight. The sculptures will then go into auction to raise vital funds for Southampton Children’s Hospital.
We are very proud to announce that one of the Mini Lighthouses is to be designed and painted by 1 or more students from The Henry Beaufort School.
And so, we have launched a competition for students to come up with a design to decorate our Lighthouse Sculpture.
Timeline:
Please submit your designs to The Art Department (any Art Teacher) by Friday 22nd March
Winning designs will be chosen by Monday 25th March 2024
April 2024 – the winning student/s will be selected to have some time off timetable to paint the Lighthouse.
July - September 2024 – our Lighthouse will be on display as part of the larger Art Trail.
Optimal Learning Centre Garden
The children who utilise the Optimal Learning Centre (OLC) planted bulbs during the Autumn term, and now these bulbs are blossoming in the OLC garden. This garden serves as a space for promoting well-being, and the blooming flowers have significantly enhanced its allure. Additionally, the children have planted garlic, which is beginning to sprout, and they eagerly anticipate harvesting it in the upcoming weeks.
The Henry Beaufort SCITTs / ECTs
Hear from one of our recently trained teachers - Mrs Hartfield.
Mrs A Hartfield
I chose to apply for the Hampshire SCITT programme in the subject of English, and it was the best decision I could have ever made! The course was delivered with dedication, enthusiasm, and commitment to furthering my knowledge and skills to become a teacher. I changed careers a little later in life and was nervous making the transition; I did not need to be and knew a career in teaching was the right choice. The Hampshire SCITT worked alongside the University of Reading, and I was able to obtain my PGCE, as well as my QTS, through the programme.
I was fully supported by my mentors and actively engaged in weekly mentor meetings, utilising these sessions to reflect on my practice. The support provided by colleagues at Henry Beaufort, as well as the weekly training sessions with my peers, allowed me to further refine my classroom management skills, which positively impacted the learning experiences of my students.
I have no doubt, due to Henry Beaufort and the Hampshire SCITT, that I will positively affect current and future students. I was extremely lucky to be selected for this opportunity and I have not looked back!
Mrs A Hartfield
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
Winchester College places are offered to HB students
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!
House Update - Term 2
On Thursday 28th March we will be announcing the results from all the Term 2 Competitions and revealing the result of the House that will be victorious and get their colour ribbon attached to the House Cup. Term 2 has included a range of new competitions and events and Points have been awarded to each student's Stamp Totals, Attendance, Head of Year Assembly Awards, Spring Concert Participation, Year 7 Castle Competition and Year 8 Trench Competition, Pi Day Cake Competition, Year 9 Bridge Building Competition, Year 9 Volcano Model Competition, RE Tutor Activity, Winter Haunts Creative Writing Competition and the Little Light Art Competition.
We look forward to announcing the results for each competition and continuing to build the House System and students' pride for their house throughout Term 3 and seeing which house ends the year in first place, which will be presented in the final Whole School Assembly.
Term 3 has a wide range of new and exciting competitions, and we are also excited to launch the first House Assemblies in the run-up to Sports Day. The competitiveness between each house is building and it's been fantastic seeing students and staff proud to represent their house.
Communication Policy
Please find below a link to the school’s new communication policy available on our school website. Regrettably, like many public institutions, the school is experiencing a higher level of unacceptable and aggressive forms of communication. We value the partnerships that we form with parents and wider family members in support of the progress and well-being of students at our school. We appreciate that at times emotions can run high, but we would ask that parents are mindful of the way in which they communicate to members of our school community, so that we can always act in the best interests of the child.
Off-site parking in the streets around the Henry Beaufort school
The school has received a number of complaints from local residents regarding thoughtless parking in the streets directly adjacent to the school. This includes cars that have been parked across residents’ driveways, preventing them from entering or leaving their property. We would ask that you show proper consideration for our neighbours. It cannot be easy to live near a school, and we would appreciate it if parents could be mindful of this if they need to visit and /or pick up children at the end of the school day. Thank you.
Safeguarding
To view our Safeguarding Newsletters, please click here.
Extra-curricular Activities
We have many wonderful clubs for students to come along and experience. All Extra-curricular activities can be viewed on the website by clicking here.
Arbor Update
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that parents can also view positive comments through their Arbor App. If you click on Behaviour, Positive Incidents, Positive Incidents Breakdown, then next to each of the incidents you will see a narrative with the reason for the positive awards. Mr Janes is working hard to further enhance the positive praise aspects of Arbor!
Ms Caplin- Busar, Mr Silsby- IT Manager and Mr Applin- Deputy Head, visited Arborfest earlier this half-term to network with the Arbor product developers to continue to make improvements for all stakeholders including you as parents. We were able to provide parental feedback directly to Arbor in person, this included the frustrations with home learning submissions and financial issues.
Our teachers are working hard to resolve issues with outstanding Home Learning assignments notifications that are making it challenging for you as parents to see what your child needs to be doing. Arbor are updating their product for September to allow us to bulk action older assignments into an archive.
In terms of finance, we are having bespoke meetings with a Team Manager next half-term to help them build more parent friendly aspects to the finance parts in Arbor- we will update you when we have more information.
There are many more plans in progress from Arbor that can be seen on their product roadmap, and we are pleased to be working with a company that continues to review feedback to improve. Whilst they are still a relatively new business, their market share is rapidly increasing and, over time, they will become a far superior system to the MIS we have used in the past. We thank you for your support on this journey.
New parents whose children will join us in September, will receive their login details in May.
If there are any issues or feedback, that you require with Arbor please contact us using Arbor@beaufort.hants.sch.uk.
Finally, please can you check your junk inbox for messages from us via Arbor. There was a lot of feedback that important information is being blocked by mail apps so we urge you to check junk folders and mark as approved. Over Easter Mr Silsby will be updating some of the settings to help improve this.
Have a lovely Easter - Mr Applin
Online Safety
For parent information and award-winning online safety guides on the latest apps, games, devices and risks, please use the following link:
We have a number of colleagues leaving us at the end of this term. Mrs Arding, Miss Naylor Teece and Mr Owers in the science team have decided to take a break from teaching to pursue other job opportunities. We thank them for all their contributions to the school both in science and in the wider school community.
After Easter, Mr Strickland and Mr Sopowski will be joining the Science department, both of whom are science specialists.
Appointments have already been made for September and further details of these will be published next term.
Mrs Whatley, in maths, is relocating to another Hampshire school having gained a promotion and Mrs Humphreys has decided that it is time to fully retire. We thank them both for their hard work and commitment to the school and wish Mrs Humphrys well on her second attempt at retirement!
Appointments in maths and science have already been made for September and further details of these will be published next term.
Miss Denman is also leaving us at Easter to pursue her substantive teaching subject of Drama.
Miss Karletsou, our cover supervisor, has also secured a post in her chosen profession.
Thank you and good luck to all of these colleagues.
I joined the Winchester Cathedral Girls' Choir in 2020, aged 13, and since then I have had amazing opportunities and experiences, including BBC radio broadcasts. Last month, the senior choristers took part in an Evensong broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, which took a lot of rehearsing but was ultimately very exciting and a great experience. We sang some amazing- albeit difficult-music by Howells and Bairstow, and it was a very rewarding opportunity. 
Over the summer of 2024, Southampton Hospitals Charity will be lighting up the South with a large-scale public art event that promises to captivate your senses and ignite your imagination.
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. 
The National Oceanography Centre in Southampton focuses on promoting ocean literacy and careers in ocean science, engineering, and technology.
