Our second cohort of Sixth Form students have successfully completed their outward bound expedition as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
They have braved the rocks and the rain to complete their mission. A big Thank You goes to the Beaumont staff and parents who have helped them Go for Gold – and achieve it!
Students and teachers are celebrating outstanding GCSE results. Headteacher, Martin Atkinson said, ‘We are delighted that so many Beaumont students achieved the new top grade of 9 in English Language, Literature and Maths after all the concern and speculation in the national press. I am confident that this success is down to the hard work the students have put in, supported by a dedicated team of experienced and highly-qualified teachers’.
Headteacher, Martin Atkinson, congratulated jubilant staff and students who are celebrating another year of record ‘A’ level results for the school. ‘It’s particularly rewarding that so many students have reached or surpassed their aspirations, with our highest ever number of A* grades and a record average points score per student’. Head of Sixth Form, Paul de Kort, praised the hard work of this year’s cohort who are the first to complete the newly reformed ‘A’ levels: ‘Our students rose to the challenge of the new courses, with several achieving straight A or A* grades, earning them places at prestigious Russell Group universities (including Oxford and Cambridge) and an unprecedented seven students studying Medicine this year’.
Since my last report, Governors have been tremendously busy supporting the school to put in place the new senior leadership team for the next academic year. We are delighted with all the appointments made and are confident that they will continue to lead the school from strength to strength.
We have also had two meetings of our CTL committee as well as our Governors’ Day in School. CTL continue to focus on curriculum and community issues. The key curriculum area for discussion at recent meetings has been the new KS3 assessment arrangements which will be introduced in September 2017. These arrangements are necessary to dovetail with the changes in the way students are assessed at KS2 as they move to Beaumont and with the ongoing curriculum changes at KS4 and KS5. Hours of work by staff has gone into formulating a system which will support both students and staff in this key area.
Once again our Governors’ Day in school provided us with the opportunity to experience Beaumont ‘in action’, when we spent a morning with students and staff in and out of lessons. The afternoon was then spent discussing some of the challenges with which we as a school are grappling; a major one being funding, which I am sure everyone is by now aware of, following national and local publicity in recent months.
Finally, good luck to all students sitting exams in the summer.
Lisanne Sherwood, Chair, Community, Teaching and Learning Committee
We run the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at all three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. We currently have 63 Bronze, 46 Silver and 12 Gold participants, which is our largest cohort yet. We are very grateful for all the staff and parents who volunteer to make Beaumont DofE such a successful centre. As well as the well-known expedition, students also have to complete three other sections (four at Gold level). Our students do a wide variety of different activities. We are very proud of their hard work! Here are some examples of what is going on:
Skills: Stefan Cayless (Bronze) is learning Mandarin Chinese, Gracie Fletcher (Bronze) is learning Makaton sign language, Eve Harrison (Silver) is improving her cooking skills, Amy McAlister (Silver) plays the saxophone, and James Jarman (Gold) is learning to drive.
Volunteering: George Cox (Bronze) coaches rugby, Matthew Laanest (Bronze) helps at Sunday School, Emma Malley (silver) helps with a Cubs group, Alfie Tucker (Silver) works in a charity shop, and Kira Stevenson (Gold) helps out with a Brownie group.
Physical: Clare Baker (Bronze) plays netball, William Lewis (Bronze) plays tennis, Alex Tarsounas (Silver) is improving his snowboarding skills, Sol Gosine (Silver) does JuJitsu, and Jonathan Larkworthy (Gold) does trampolining.
Residential: Andrew Oliver (Gold) has a cookery course planned, Bill LewellynJones (Gold) is going on a sailing week, Laura Pankhurst (Gold) took part in the National Citizenship Service and Joe Vernon (Gold) will be volunteering at Phasels Wood Scout Activity Centre.
Ella Dickson, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Coordinator
The spring term has been fast and furious in Latin Class. We meet after school on a Tuesday. This term we have continued our study of the Latin language and used it to translate stories about slaves and slave girls, gladiators, and even a werewolf (for which we produced our own special effects). Sometimes studying Roman culture gives us a new perspective on our own values. How could such a great civilisation have relied on slavery?
We showed off our drama skills when we acted out a section of Roman comedy which we had translated. To make it even more realistic, we wore the theatre masks we had made for home learning.
We discovered how important it was to express ourselves through voice and gesture, since our faces were covered with masks.
Next term, we’ll be learning about Roman Baths, schools and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Latin class is run by Dr Harvey. For more details, contact Mrs Lutz.
Mrs Lutz
Please remember to bring a donation for Non-Uniform Day!
All donations are for Rob’s Festival – Saturday 24 June 2017
Funds raised at Rob’s Festival will be used to support Beaumont School and the Prince’s Trust
Thank you for your generosity!
Tickets and wristbands on sale next week!
Students (under 18s, under 5s free) £3
Adults (over 18s) £5
All tickets entitle the bearer to a free *half chicken at Nandos Restaurant, St Albans (worth £7.95) * T&Cs apply
Wristbands £2
Saturday 24 June 2017
Bands include the C90s, Chris Hepworth & The Secret Spy Planes, Magician’s Nephew, Purple Day, Written in Ink & rapper TRE
Sports Tournaments, Live Music, International Food Court, Stalls, House Games, Inflatables, Licensed Bar and much, much more ……..
Congratulations to Steven Aghanti (8N) who was a finalist in the award for Young Person of Distinction at the recent Mayor’s Pride Awards. Steven was nominated by fellow students.
On Thursday 23 March, as part of the Green Leaders Programme, three of our Geography Captains (Alex, Georgina and Alice) led an assembly about recycling and organised a competition for pupils at Fleetville Infants School. Using the assembly as inspiration and making use of their prior learning, the pupils took part in an Easter Recycling competition. At the end of term the Green Leaders returned to judge the winners. The pictures show some of the amazing entries, all using recycled materials. “This was the second assembly we have given. The students were very receptive and engaged. It was a very positive event and the children really enjoyed the assembly.”
Georgina (Year 12)
On Tuesday 14 March the senior dancers represented the school, superbly, at the Hertfordshire Schools’ County Dance festival. The festival is a celebration of dance in primary, special and secondary schools. They were one of twenty four schools who worked hard to create the festival in one day, including a matinee and an evening performance.
This year’s theme was “Read all about it” where the dances had to reflect the content of newspapers or magazines. Choreographers Lydia Grinsted Tate and Shauna Lils cleverly combined this year’s gym and dance display theme: “Beaumont Brits” with “Read all about it” by basing the dance on the Beatles song “A Day in the Life”. The first two verses were inspired by the story of Tara Browne, the 21-year-old heir to the Guinness fortune. A major newspaper story in 1966.
Miss Dolan and Mrs RiggottJones were very proud of their performance and would like to thank them again for their enthusiasm during the day.
Mrs Riggott Jones
