Beechwood Lion Lent 2017

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The

Beechwood Lion Lent 2017

Around the World in 80 Days – page 3

From The Headmaster Dear Parents, The triptych over the reception desk entitled, Nurture, Engage and Inspire is by now familiar to us all. In accordance with Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the three panels define our core educational ethos. Look left and you will see, to the right of the Great Hall door, a beautiful new square wooden panel depicting the Beechwood Tree of Learning, which further illustrates our mission. The tree is planted in nurturing and welcoming earth in which it can flourish. Health, safety, security, happiness, wellbeing, fun, enjoyment, community and friendship provide rich nutrients and into which it can issue forth strong and healthy roots of engagement. Pastoral wellbeing therefore is the very essence of your child’s development at School. Operation Engagement at Beechwood, enables us, at as early an age as possible, to put aside the traditional but somehow abstract concept of ‘effort’ and to give children ownership of their School lives. It enables your child to develop a Growth Mindset in which they can be masters of their own destiny; they learn that their input determines their individual learning outcomes. Engagement is childcentred, empowering, active and resolutely focused on the development of pastoral confidence and academic independence.

The Beechwood Tree of Learning has a lush and inspiring canopy of verdant foliage. Whereas in the past, learning outcomes were merely knowledge-based, we inspire specific life skills in our pupils and they inspire us by putting them to good use! Beechwood Park takes the long-term view; these skills are ones which make them resolutely future-proof

against an ever-changing and ever-challenging world and prepare them for future success at senior school, university, in their working lives and beyond. We prepare them for a life of adventure and challenge, providing them with the adaptability and agility, the balance and boldness, the character and creativity,

decisiveness and discernment, emotional intelligence and empathy to empower themselves and others. Inspiring stuff! I have just finished reading through your child’s reports and once again am amazed by their levels of engagement. These are children, who willingly engage in more and more sophisticated activities as they make their own individual journeys through the School. They inspire us with their academic independence, their singing and their sporting achievements. I see children who (often literally) skip into School looking forward to being a part of the buzz that emanates from the Woodlands Nursery to the Top Form, across all areas of the curriculum, co-curriculum and underpinning pastoral foundations of the School. Your children are brilliant! They are part of something uniquely special at Beechwood Park. Thank you to our staff, teaching and nonteaching for their wonderful support of your children this term. It is not humanly possible to have squeezed any more inspiration into one term and it is time to disengage! Have a lovely Easter and we look forward to seeing your children skipping into School in readiness for the start of the summer term on Wednesday 26th April.

EDWARD BALFOUR HEADMASTER

World Book Day The Great Hall and Junior Hall were transformed into bookshops in the celebration of World Book Day. Pupils from Woodlands Nursery and the Junior Department visited the Junior Hall to choose from a huge selection of picture books, chapter books and non-fiction. As they perused the shelves, they listened to Mr Ingall’s story-telling. Meanwhile, in the Great Hall pupils from Year 3 to Top Form could choose from a

wide selection of titles, some of which were so ‘hot off the press’ that they were practically steaming! The excitement carried over to Friday, when pupils and staff dressed up as characters from books, and the whole school gathered in the Sports Hall, where prizes were awarded in each class for the best outfits. From a pantomime cow to the Invisible Man; from the Silver Falcon to the witch from The Room on the Broom, so much thought and effort had gone into costumes and it was a fantastic culmination to this brilliant event.

LIZ GREEN

The newsletter of Beechwood Park School, Markyate, Hertfordshire AL3 8AW

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