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The
Beechwood Lion Lent 2020
The WONDERFUL Wizard of Oz – see page 3
From the Headmaster
Dear Parents and Friends, Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field, Of hair-breadth ’scapes i' th' imminent deadly breach. It’s been a funny old term…but perhaps like Othello, we will at some point in the future be able to sit down, possibly in a Venetian piazza, perhaps even with a loved one and tell tales of the winds and rains that rocked and lashed our buildings and grounds, (seemingly always during Wednesday or Thursday Games afternoons!) We will speak of the days when School, all of a sudden, became something very different… What will dominate our narrative, however are stories of heroism and courage, (of a lion perhaps who found courage in a strange kingdom with the help of his friends and how he came to personify the fortitude of our community). I cannot tell you how proud I am of your children, who have displayed such maturity and yes, courage in the face of adversity. Earlier in the term, Mrs Savage came in from photographing a Wednesday Games session drenched to the skin and made a point of commenting on the amazing resilience of
our boys and girls as they battled the cataracts and hurricanoes on the Astro and rugby pitches, returning with smiles on their faces and tales of battle over a reinvigorating match tea. We have seen families take courageous decisions to self-isolate for seven or fourteen days in support of our broader community, and unpacked the concept of individual and collective responsibility. Year 6 and Top Form pupils reacted with remarkable stoicism and a stiff resolve (and upper lip) to the concept of a remote summer term. As I write, we are yet to understand the true impact of the pandemic on our community and I guess we are all hoping that somehow the tornado passes well away from our loved ones and that the medical and economic consequences sidestep our community, but I suspect that great fortitude will be needed from us all in the coming weeks and months, and that fortitude comes, as the Lion says, from deep within, but always with the support of others; our families and friends, the wider Beechwood community, doctors and nurses and many, many others. The Beechwood staff have been awesome in this regard this term, working together as a large and complex team to ‘prepare a face to meet the faces that we meet’. They have been wonderful role models for your children, demonstrating that, even after the amazing Beechwood Park CrossCountry Championships, a sparkling Soirée Amicale, Poetry Performances, Instrumental Competitions, record admissions and scholarships success to senior schools, the magnificent Wizard of Oz and a few hundred
end of term reports, they still had the energy and drive to upload teaching resources to Beechwood Remote Access Learning! In support of your children’s educational continuity…and to my simply heroic Senior Leadership Team who have led with such skill and agility…chapeaux! In recognition of the cast and crew (and an army of supporting adults!) of The Wizard of Oz, let’s play out this term with a quotation from the Lion… What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk In the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? Why, Courage! This term more than ever before, we have all learnt to grit our teeth and to power over obstacles with a Growth Mindset, grit and determination…and in the end how prophetic those lines of Maya Angelou were in our Poetry Performance …Life Doesn’t Frighten Me at All. Look after yourselves and stay safe and healthy. With best wishes, Yours,
EDWARD BALFOUR HEADMASTER
Year 5 in the Forest
Classroom Canine
Year 5 pupils donned their wellies and hats to take their learning outside! Staff from across the curriculum devised outdoor-friendly activities, from minibeast hunts and classification in Science, to a Pi day tree diameter maths activity, from descriptive writing in the Treetops outdoor classroom to an egg drop Forest School team-building session. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed swapping the classroom walls for tree trunks and getting out into the fresh air.
Bruce, our new Wellbeing Dog, has been a splendid recent addition to the Beechwood Park Art Department. Making his first appearance during Children’s Mental Health Week, Bruce, who belongs to our Head of Art, Mrs Kelway-Bamber, is a lovely black Labrador who is happy to simply ‘chill out’ in the Art Room (or up on the mezzanine) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, whilst pupils are having their Art lessons. On the days that he is in School, Bruce is available to attend other lessons, form times and breaks. Pupils have been delighted with his placid presence; and are eager to visit him at lunchtimes too. Meanwhile, Bruce has loved lapping up all of the attention.
EMMA BALFOUR
LOUISE PAGE
The newsletter of Beechwood Park School, Markyate, Hertfordshire AL3 8AW
1
Books Books Books World Book Day
Storyteller John Kirk
The persistent rain did not dampen Beechwood Park’s enthusiasm for World Book Day this year. With pupils dressed as their favourite book characters, the School transformed into a living book and came alive with reading, browsing (and buying) books, games, quizzes and fun. All of the pupils thoroughly enjoyed seeing their friends and teachers in their amazing costumes. Congratulations to the English Department, Librarians and all the staff who helped make this day special, and not forgetting a massive thank you to all the parent costume designers at home!
Woodlands and Junior Department children welcomed storyteller, John Kirk, to spend the afternoon with them. The children were keen to volunteer, joining in with the action, dressing up and telling the story of The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. BECKY LE BAS
GRAINNE WILKINS
Poetry Presentation This year’s Poetry Presentation to Parents was a joyous celebration of performance poetry, by Years 3 to 6. Year 3 kicked off proceedings with, amongst others, a magical performance of ‘The Magician’ by Gareth Owen. Year 4 cleverly incorporated movie themes, treating their audience to a bit of 'Potter', 'Poppins' and 'Pan' magic. From the sweeping lines of Wordsworth’s ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ to the rhythmic pulse of ‘Dinner on Elm Street’, the sensitive words of Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me at All’ and the whirling verses of ‘Tarantella’ by Hilaire Belloc, pupils in Year 5 delivered their lines with real understanding, poise and confidence. And drawing the morning to a close, Year 6 entertained the audience with their animated performances of ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘Christmas Thank-yous’, ‘Macavity’ and ‘The Listeners’ - they had even devised their own costumes and choreography. Well done everyone!
THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Ovid at Beechwood Top A’s Latin class, this term, welcomed Mr Rowland, a Latin teacher at St Albans School. He helped us to translate part of Ovid’s Metamorphoses – the story of Daedalus and Icarus - and, as well as expanding our knowledge of Latin, it certainly reassures me that there is more Latin to come in senior school!
FREDDIE W (TOP KLB)
Author Inspires We were delighted to welcome Hertfordshire-based author Sarah Crossan to Beechwood this term. Sarah is best known for her books for young adults such as The Weight of Water and Apple and Rain both of which were shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. And her talk to Year 7 and Top Form, inspired the following poem.
Sarah Crossan’s Talk
Exploring Roald Dahl What a whoopsy whiffling, hopscotch day out we had when we visited the Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery, in Aylesbury! We loved exploring the interactive exhibits, acting out parts of Roald Dahl’s stories and creating our own Disgusterus beards similar to Mr Twit’s. YEAR 1 TEACHERS
Tuesday, the 11th of February was An eventful day; Safer internet day, Woodlands’ grandparents’ day And Sarah Crossan The poetic author Writing in verse; Just my style Difficult, yet effective, Clever and time-consuming. But it’s worth it And she knows it Else why would she Teach us And with such passion. I loved it, Thought she was amazing Not like all the others; Saying the same thing over and over. No, funny, smart, clever Woman. I know I speak for all of us When I say this; WoW (Worth our While)
AKSHAN (TOP LHH)
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz
The show must go on! The cast and crew of The Wizard of Oz displayed fortitude, perseverance, adaptability and determination… in bucket loads on stage during the ‘behind closed doors’ performance of The Wizard of Oz. Professional photographer Michael Carver was in attendance and took some fantastic photos and the production was also professionally filmed, so we will have a lasting record of this fabulous production. Well done everyone, you were amazing!
LAURA HEGARTY
3
Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter
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The Arts Lamda Performances Our LAMDA pupils gave their parents a sneak preview of their work before their LAMDA exams this term.
Meet Mrs K-B Mrs Kelway-Bamber, if you haven’t already met her, is our new art teacher. Here is a little bit of background so you can all get to know her better. She told us that when she first drove up the Beechwood drive her first impressions were that the School had a really friendly atmosphere. Since she has arrived, the art room has evolved. It's neat, wellorganised and looks very colourful, and a couple of days a week, Bruce our wellbeing dog keeps a watchful eye from the gallery. When Mrs K-B isn’t teaching us at Beechwood she may be on the slopes skiing or doing one of her many hobbies like running, hockey and walking her wonderful dog, Bruce. Interestingly, Mrs K-B used to be a ski instructor and she first got into art when she was injured and couldn’t play much sport. So, that’s Mrs K-B!
FREDDIE J (TOP KLB)
Soiree Amicale Our much-anticipated annual Soirée Amicale performance to parents once again provided some highly entertaining and extremely amusing vignettes, not to mention original costumes! The wide variety of creative pieces were written, produced and performed entirely in French by our multi-talented senior department pupils. C’était fantastique!
ALISON BLISS
Somewhere Over the Rainbow On Fridays, Woodlanders enjoy a relaxing and engaging “Extending Stories” session, involving anything from painting to dancing, dressing up and building - based on stories that they have read during the week. After reading “Rainbow Fish”, Woodlanders used a variety of different coloured paints to create a rainbow, using straws to blow the paint and even hairdryers to make the paint move! In Science, they made “fizzing rainbows” using food colouring, mixed with white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. Their colours fizzed – Woodlanders are fascinated by rainbows!
SHIRLEY HAYMAN
Instrumental Competition London Adventures Over the space of two exciting weeks, this year's competition involved 22 different classes, with a total of 70 solo and 10 ensemble performances. At the Grand Final Concert in the Great Hall, the winners of each class performed to an audience of parents, family and friends. All 22 performances were of the highest quality and our guest adjudicator, Mr Philip Aird (CEO of the European String Teachers’ Association and professional violinist), was ‘bowled over’ by the standard. Congratulations to our overall winners, Poppy (5L) – Middle Department winner and Cecily (Top LD) – Senior Department winner. And a huge well done to everyone who participated in the competition.
JANE LODGE
4
On our tour of the Globe Theatre we learnt that originally there were only male actors and so they often had to dress up as girls. The area beneath the stage was known as ‘hell’ and the area above was ‘heaven’. Actors had to work hard to hold the audience's attention as the crowd could get very excited, loud (and a bit drunk!). After lunch we visited the London Central Mosque. It is a very holy place and so we had to be quiet and respectful. We were escorted to the praying hall which was really beautiful. The ceiling seemed never-ending and it had a huge chandelier which resembled (and represented) the sun. It was a really varied and fascinating day.
KAI (6MW) AND BEN (6CG)
In our Environment Pancake Day
Feeding Elephants
We celebrated Shrove Tuesday in true Beechwood style. At Woodlands Nursery, the youngest pupils decorated pancakes and made playdough pancakes. Meanwhile out in the bright sunshine, all of the pupils from Reception upwards gathered on the Astroturf for the annual Shrove Tuesday Inter-House Pancake Races where Junior Department pupils enjoyed cheering on older pupils and siblings as they battled it out for the Golden Frying Pan. There were cheers of encouragement and squeals of delight as pupils flipped their (plastic) pancakes into the House-coloured hoops. Congratulations to the ultimate winners, Saunders!
We were delighted to receive photos from the Elephant House at nearby ZSL Whipsnade Zoo showing the resident Asian elephants enthusiastically tucking into a mouth-watering collection of branches from Beechwood Park School. The various branches had been accumulated as a result of recent tree lopping in the School grounds and the Beechwood Park Grounds Team will continue to work with Whipsnade on this mutually beneficial initiative. Recycling at its best! JULIA ROUSE
Striving to be an Eco School
LOUISE PAGE
As we try to make Beechwood Park more environmentally friendly, we are engaging in a drive to gain Eco School accreditation. We have launched a survey asking pupils for their opinions about the environment and climate changes and plan to compare the outcomes with the national survey conducted by BBC’s Newsround. The responses will shape the School’s future environmental plans, which include an (as yet unnamed) ‘Environmental Club’. Pupils have been making a concerted effort to recycle their waste via new recycling bins available in each classroom of the School. This recycled rubbish will be sorted and recycled by ‘Cory Riverside Energy’, one of the UK’s leading resource management, recycling, and energy recovery companies. Meanwhile, Head of DT, Mr Fox has been putting the recently acquired Precious Plastic Shredding Machine to excellent use and initial tests look very promising. Everyone has a part to play in making Beechwood a ‘greener’ place to be. Thank you for all of the hard work so far.
LAURENCE DARCY
Animal Husbandry This term, not only has the Science Department been home to a family of mice (the caged variety), but in the second week of March, ten beautifully fluffy chicks hatched out under the watchful eye of Chick Cam. Adept in the art of animal husbandry, the Science Department also produced some rather less fluffy ‘pets’ for Year 3. Each class received a wormery to help them understand the vital role that worms have in helping to create soil. Pupils learnt what the worms like to eat and, eagerly but briefly, removed the covers each morning to see how much apple the worms had consumed in the night.
Spring Haiku Silk petals unfold Revived by the thread of sun Spring disrobes layers
NATHAN M (6AH)
Pi Day
JOANNE BEGLEY
Computational Challenges Huge congratulations to all the pupils from Year 5 to Top Form, who took part in the international Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge this term in their CS lessons. Many achieved merits and distinctions and a group of our pupils, fifteen in total, went on to take part in the 2020 Oxford University Computing Challenge. This achievement puts those pupils in the top 10% of this international competition. Amazing!
Year 3 focused on all things circular and after reading Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi, maths investigation was the order of the day. Was the distance across the diameter of a circle really 3 and a bit times the circumference? Yes, it was! Continuing all things circular, pupils investigated mixed fractions as well as counting in halves and quarters using pizzas and oranges, whilst pupils in Year 4 used the numbers of Pi to create a city skyline picture. We challenged older pupils to have a go at the rather intriguing Pi-Ku competition. Piku, it turns out is a distant relative of Haiku… think Haiku with word lengths that reflect the numbers in Pi!
MARION WRIGHT
PIERS CASIMIR-MROWCZYNSKI
5
Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter
5
What an Experience Gong Xi Fa Cai! Beechwood Park celebrated Chinese New Year with a delicious Chinese lunch, complete with fortune cookies. In the Junior Department, pupils had the opportunity to delve deeper into Chinese New Year to learn more about this special celebration. At Woodlands Nursery, Hugo's mum and grandad told everyone about China and taught them some calligraphy. Pupils explored the Chinese New Year story with finger puppets and had a thrilling visit from a dancing panda. Year 1 spent the week leading up to the Chinese New Year learning about associated customs and stories and pupils in Year 2 enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year in their class music lessons, where they played a whole class rhythmic piece using drums, gongs, claves and other instruments which were all given new Chinese names. They learned that Chinese music often uses 5 notes called a pentatonic scale and they accompanied a song about a Chinese dragon using these notes.
LOUISE PAGE
Safer Internet Day Safer Internet Day 2020, also known as SID, involved a huge amount of idea sharing, discussion and positive thought. It was an excellent event and Beechwood was placed firmly ‘on the map’ thanks to Mr Casimir's energy and initiative. Many activities took place across the School including resource sharing, pupil talks, eSafety sessions, video clips and quizzes. There was also an abundance of information available for staff and pupils.
LOUISE PAGE
Jewish Museum
EMMA BALFOUR
Our Reception pupils set off, this term, on their very first school trip. In a buzz of excitement, they ventured to St Albans Abbey, for some practical research as part of this term's topic on buildings and construction. During their visit, the children spent time in the Abbey learning about the materials that had been used to make this awe-inspiring building. Inspired by what they had seen and heard, they then took part in a clay tile workshop - a brilliant hands-on experience.
RECEPTION TEACHERS
6
Year 3 took a trip to the Hazard Alley Safety Centre in Milton Keynes - the first purpose-built safety education centre in the UK - designed to look like a village, complete with a variety of ‘hazards’ that children might encounter, both at home and out and about. They spent time in the rooms of the pretend house, learning about how to keep themselves and smaller children safe, and what to do if there was a fire. Pupils also learnt how to put someone into the Recovery Position and to keep checking to see if they are breathing. Such an exciting, engaging and educational day!
YEAR 3 TEACHERS
One week after Holocaust Memorial Day, Year 5 visited the Jewish Museum in North London as part of their TPR studies. The museum tells the story of the history and heritage of Jews in Britain through universal themes of migration, family, faith and culture and offers a fascinating insight into Judaism. This visit was a first for Beechwood Park pupils. The Museum’s mission is to surprise, delight and engage all people, irrespective of background and faith, in the history, identity and culture of Jews in Britain. The museum did not disappoint, and offered an engaging, experiential experience which allowed a deeper understanding of the Jewish way of life.
St Albans Abbey
Hazards for Year 3
Year 3 Explore Hinduism Hinduism Day brought with it an experiential day packed-full of engaging activities, for Year 3. The Great Hall was transformed into a fragrant and colourful haven as, throughout the day, pupils prepared for a pretend Hindu wedding, painting their faces, learning how to dress correctly and adorning themselves with garlands and bindis. They also learnt about some of the Hindu gods and found out which ones we should all pray to, to ensure a good marriage. They heard about the principles of living a good life as a Hindu and listened to some prayers in Sanskrit. Pupils also enjoyed learning a traditional Gujerati stick dance, called Dandiya Raas.
UNA OATHAM
Sport Rugby TREDS
York House Cross-Country
The match against WestBrook Hay, was a great example of the core values of Rugby being put into practice: Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship (TREDS). We went into the match with confidence, although we perhaps needed more Discipline. WBH scored a couple of good tries down the wing but some great Teamwork and strong crash balls from Eddie and Alfie which broke their defensive line resulted in some impressive tries. As we approached the end of the game a WBH player went in for a cracking tackle on Callum taking him down but injuring himself in the process. After showing Sportsmanship, the referee called time. The match was over, 5-4 to Beechwood. We Respected the decision to end the match. The sense of Enjoyment filled the bus on the journey home, as well as the smell of mud! Well played boys!
Our U11 and U13 cross-country teams competed in this first cross country event of the year. The U11 girls achieved some fantastic results and won the team event with 34 points, over 60 points ahead of 2nd place. The U11 boys finished 5th, the U13 boys 4th and U13 girls 4th, with the girls coming 2nd overall and the boys 4th. Special mentions to Eloise who medalled in 3rd, Oscar in 4th, Arthur 5th and Adeola 6th.
KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS
ALEXIS HAMILTON
Bridgewater Cross-Country Well done to all of our runners who took part in the cross-country event at Bridgewater School. There were some amazing individual performances and our Year 6 girls won team gold and our Year 6 boys, Year 5 boys, Year 4 boys all won team silver! What a fantastic team effort!
ALEXIS HAMILTON
BPS Cross-Country IAPS Netball We left school at the crack of dawn and arrived at Felsted in the falling snow. We won our first match against Bancroft (4-1) and then beat St Mary’s (7-1) with some great shooting from Maggie and Maya. The third match was tough and sadly we lost 7-4. Our next match was against Dame Bradbury and we finished the morning with a pleasing 6-2 win. We won our game against St Cedd’s, 6-1, placing us joint first in our pool. Incredible! We went into our final match strong and even more determined. It was a close game which we narrowly lost, 4-5. This was an amazing experience and we are really proud of what we achieved.
We welcomed 17 local schools and over 400 runners to Beechwood for our annual crosscountry event. Beechwood teams performed really well; the U11A girls’ team and U13A boys’ team both won their races with some fantastic high finishes. The U9A girls finished 2nd, the U11A boys 3rd and the U11B girls 5th. We also had some individual medallists. Eddie won the U13 boys’ race, Arthur S won silver and Eloise won bronze in the U11 girls’ race.
ALEXIS HAMILTON
Swimming Success Huge congratulations to Hugo R-S who achieved some outstanding results at the County Swimming Championships. He came 1st in the County in a whopping 8 events and 2nd in a further 4 events. Seriously impressive results! And congratulations to Adeola (Top CLH) who, at the Bedfordshire County Swimming Championships, won 8 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze Medals. She also won a Cup for most FINA points in her age group and has County Colours for her performance for Bedfordshire last year. Wow!
CLARE LECKIE-HARBORD
Herts Schools’ Champs There were lots of fantastic performances on display at the Hertfordshire Schools' County Cross-Country Championships. Huge congratulations to the Y5 and the Y6 girls’ teams who both finished in 2nd place, to Eloise who finished 3rd out of 141, Oscar 7th and Anna 10th who all qualify to run for Hertfordshire in the National Championships!
ALEXIS HAMILTON
MAGGIE, ISLA MC, EVIE, MAYA, LUCY & GRACE (YEAR 6)
Netball Week!
7
Beechwood Park celebrated 'Netball Week' this term, which kicked off with a trip to the Copper Box Arena to watch England, Jamaica, South Africa and New Zealand compete in the Netball Nations Cup! At School, events continued at a pace with inspirational Masterclasses from Dani McFarlane, Saracens Mavericks Superleague
player for Year 5 and from Chloe Essam, Saracens Mavericks’ Goal Shooter for Year 4.Throughout the week both boys and girls had the opportunity to have a go at the break-time shooting competition. What a fantastic week of events to celebrate this wonderful sport.
Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter
ADRIENNE HORN
7
House Matches, BPSPA and Charity News BPSPA, Alumni and House News House Matches The absence of parents cheering from the touchlines did not dampen the level of competition and performances! The atmosphere was fantastic; the standard was high. The matches were tense and competitively fought. The sportsmanship and team work were impressive. A huge well done to all the competitors and congratulations to the overall winners, Tudor.
From the BPSPA It has been a busy start to the BPSPA year. We have managed to support some BPSPA ‘firsts’ this term with the launch of the World Book Day Outfit Hire Scheme. What a lovely way to encourage us to be more sustainable and to make the burden of sourcing an outfit easier. Thanks to Leanne Valentine and the reps for their support in getting this project off the ground. If you have time to take stock of your own dressing up collection, we would be delighted to receive any that you no longer require, so please bring them in when School resumes. Whilst our Easter Egg hunt plans are thwarted, the children have not missed our thanks to Sarah Bremner, who was very quick to ensure the eggs were delivered to school so that the children received their chocolate treat. Thank you to the Junior Department who have engaged with us so positively to allow us to try something new. We will endeavour to run this event again next year. Sadly, our summer term plans are now on hold but I can reveal that the Ball team for 2021 have met and plans for this event are coming together nicely. I am delighted to say that we ran two visits to Keech Hospice this term. The feedback from parents was as positive as ever and Keech are very grateful to the School for our continued support. We may run another visit during the Autumn term so get in touch if you are interested in being part of this.
ALEXIS HAMILTON
SARAH WOODRUFF, BPSPA CHAIR
L&D Christmas Wish List
Koalas for Wires
Happy Days
We recently received these fabulous photos from The Luton and Dunstable Hospital fundraising team showing what the £1,810 proceeds from our BPSPA Young Entrepreneur stalls bought from the hospital’s Christmas Wish List campaign. Thank you very much for supporting this worthwhile initiative.
JULIA ROUSE
Beechwood Park’s new whole School Charity is Happy Days. In deciding upon a new School Charity, our Heads of House wished to support a locally-based, child-focused charity and they chose Happy Days based in Hitchin, which supports children with special needs: giving them access to days out; helping them to develop skills and build confidence in the face of adversity. Individual families are supported by the charity, as well as SEN schools. Happy Days also arranges special days for other charities including children’s hospitals, women’s refuges and victim support services. Happy Days will be our School Charity until January 2021 and Saunders, Sebright, Tudor and Stewart Houses will work together to raise funds for this worthy cause.
Very well done to Adam (5D) for throwing his time and energies into setting up a koala stall in order to raise money for the Australian wildlife charity, WIRES. He used his passion for 3D printing to create a huge number of koala keyrings and decorations. The funds he raised will be added to the total from the Year 5 girls’ ‘Name the Koala’ initiative and recent cake sales.
BRIDGET MANTON
Please check the School’s website for more information: www.beechwoodpark.com
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BRIDGET MANTON