Beechwood Lion Lent 2017

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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

1

Around the School Woodlands Nursery

Cathedral Visit

This term, Woodlands Nursery has welcomed a variety of Woodlands family members into the Nursery. They have enthusiastically joined in the fun and experienced what their children or grandchildren get up to first hand.

At the start of term, some 25 Woodlands Nursery parents were greeted with coffee and delicious Danish pastries. As well as having the opportunity to chat with one another and some key members of staff, they were also able to see the Woodlanders themselves who delighted in demonstrating their musical skills.

Other exciting events included ‘Mummy in the Mix’, ‘Grandparents’ in the Groove’ and ‘Daddy’s Dinner Date’ which have allowed adults to join in the fun, share learning experiences and gain a real insight into Woodlands' life.

On a recent visit to St Albans Cathedral, our Reception children were able to explore the Cathedral using their sense of touch, investigating the materials used in and around the building. They located the Roman brick, flint and limestone used to build the Cathedral and they considered the use of wood and glass throughout the building. The children identified the properties of all of these materials e.g. rough, smooth, hard, shiny, transparent and thought about why certain materials were chosen for different jobs.

As we worked our way around the building, we encouraged the children to describe the materials and to answer questions about them.

During the visit, there was even time to try out a spot of tile rubbing - we were very proud of the results!

After our delicious picnic lunch provided

by Angie, the children joined a tile making workshop using the designs they had spotted earlier as inspiration. We were able to bring the tiles back to School, where they have now been painted and varnished.

SHIRLEY HAYMAN

RECEPTION TEACHERS

British Pie Week

Pi Day Pi Day (March 15th) was marked in Maths lessons across the School involving various creative activities.

In celebration of Pi Day, Year 2 went on a maths adventure to discover pi. Inspired by the story of 'Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi" the children measured the diameter of different circles and checked that the circumference was actually ‘3 and a bit times the length'...and indeed it was!

YEAR 2 TEACHERS

Continuing the theme of pi(e)s, in celebration of British Pie Week, every pupil in 7A Maths group chose their favourite type of savoury pie, side dish, and dessert pie!

We are pleased to announce that beef & onion pie was the winner, (served with gravy), and dessert was a tie between chocolate pie, banoffee pie, or no dessert (for those watching their waistline!).

All presented here in a rather fetching... pie chart, of course...#BritishPieWeek!

KEVIN VOCKERODT

Science Week As part of our National Science Week studies, we were delighted to host 10 fertilised chicken eggs supplied by Living Eggs who work with schools across the UK. At the end of our 10 day ‘eggsperience’ the chicks were re-homed to a free range farm. Children from across the School were captivated!

JOANNE BEGLEY

Phasels Wood Year 4 braved the wet and cold weather to take their first ever visit to Phasels Wood Activity Centre. The inclement conditions did not stop them from having huge amounts of fun as they challenged themselves on the Cresta Run, Rolling Rock, Archery and Blind Trail. The result? Lots of muddy but very smiley faces!

CHRIS KNELLER

History Prize Congratulations to Tom B (Top MSR), James M (Top TM) and Alex M (7JRB) who reached the final round of the Townsend-Warner History prize this term. Tom finished 89th and was awarded a Townsend-Warner card of commendation for finishing in the top 100. Both Alex and James also did well finishing 137th and 202nd respectively.

ANGHARAD GRIFFITHS

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Around PAGE X the World in 80 Days

'Around the World in 80 Days' was Beechwood Park’s 2017 annual production. Up to 5 different actors portraying one main character had multiple effects. Lines were more fluent and the performance smooth.

The team work between the actors and the tech team was excellent and the music and lights were precise and well-timed.

The costumes were incredible and couldn’t have been possible without Mrs Davidson and her team who put in an immense amount of time.

Mrs Hegarty manages to get all the performers to a very high standard and keep it fun!

The music, all composed by Mr Winn, was fantastic and really brought the show together!

AS REVIEWED BY TOP X ENGLISH

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Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter

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All the World’s a Stage Soirée Amicale Parents flocked to the Performance Hall for this extremely popular annual event. As ever, the evening was bursting at the seams with humour and talent, not to mention topical themes, resourceful props and elaborate costumes.

Meurtre dans l’eurostar par 7A a eu une bonne histoire, c’était vraiment drôle quand Justin Bieber est mort dans le train et Sherlock et Dr Watson ont dû découvrir le tueur. Et à la fin c'était Kim Jong-Un. Ils ont parlé de bon français, il y avait beaucoup de personnages. Danny La pièce de 7B2 Phineas et Ferb était très marrant. Il y avait une chanson au début. J’ai beaucoup aimé la perruque de Kieran et il a bien joué. Sam B L’histoire de «Le Bon Gros Géant » était très bien parce que c’était semblable au livre et au film et nous avons pu comprendre la pièce plus facilement. Tom B

J’ai aimé aussi Emplacement, Emplacement, Emplacement parce qu'ils ont bien joué et j’ai beaucoup aimé les personnages, surtout Ant, Dec et Adele. George D J’ai aimé aussi la pièce de 6C, parce que c’était une bonne histoire et Toby était un très bon présentateur. La classe avait une grande confiance et ils ont parlé très clairement.

L’histoire était très amusante et j’ai compris toute la pièce. Thomas P et Alex M Chaque classe a présenté une pièce mais ma pièce préférée était 6B1. Il y avait une chanson qui s’appelle ‘Liberée Délivérée’. Les vêtements étaient très marrants! Gracie L’histoire de « Blanche Neige et les sept nains» était intéressante; mon acteur préféré était Henry parce qu’il était très bien comme la reine méchante. Jack R Dans “L'école de Super-Héros: Iron Man et Batman (Ben et Manit) ils étaient drôles et Hulk (Henry) il était vraiment super!

LAMDA

Year 6 at the Globe

As a culmination to their LAMDA drama lessons, earlier this term 26 pupils from Year 4 to Top Form took their LAMDA Acting Exams. They also acted out some of their examination pieces for their parents in a delightful lunchtime performance.

The pupils had been carefully prepared for their examinations by our fantastic LAMDA teachers one of whom, Imogen Slaughter, is currently appearing in Simon Godwin’s new production of Shakespeare’s 'Twelfth Night' at the National Theatre.

Imogen is part of the ensemble and is also understudy for Tamsin Greig who plays the part of Malvolia. So, now it is our turn to wish "break a leg" to you, Imogen!

Year 6 enjoyed a fascinating day at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. An exhibition gave us an intriguing insight into life in Elizabethan England and we learnt a lot about the theatres, and the bard himself. Then an expert guide took us on a fascinating tour of the iconic Globe, bringing the space to life with colourful stories of the original Globe of 1599, of the reconstruction process in the 1990s, and how the ‘wooden O’ works today as an imaginative and experimental theatrical space. The children loved the concept of being ‘penny stinkards’ in the pit and were later wowed by a demonstration of sword fighting.

LAURA HEGARTY

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Ça m’a fait rire quand Ben est entré dramatiquement.

C'était ma pièce préférée. Ils ont bien joué et j’ai bien compris la plupart du temps. J’étais très impressionné par l’originalité Archie L, Harry M et Edward R ‘Fantastique Señor Zorro.’ - je l’ai adoré parce que c'était une idée très originale. Tu as eu beaucoup de leaders mondiaux y compris: Donald Trump, Kim Jong Un et finalement Vladimir Putin. Olly J’ai beaucoup aimé Top X «Le jour de Noël», L’histoire était intéressante. J’ai beaucoup ri quand Thomas est arrivé en scène. Sam H.

We finished off the day with a blustery walk across the Millennium Bridge (making notes for a piece of creative writing) and of course, since no trip would be complete without it, the obligatory visit to the gift shop!

En route back to the coach, we stopped off at the 'Bank-side Poets for Hire' who offered to pen us a poem for the small charge of a £1, we couldn't resist, however the children weren’t hugely impressed with the results and believed that, with their own skills, they could make a fortune! You have to admire their entrepreneurial spirit!

GRAÍNNE WILKINS

Music Guitar Workshop

Composition Competition Early this term, pupils from Year 4 to Top Form were busy composing in their class music lessons. The group compositions were recorded and entered into this year’s Music Composition Competition – with over 100 entries in all. The Music staff spent a very enjoyable weekend listening to all the pieces and choosing the finalists and those to be commended. The standard was extremely high!

The Competition Final, in front of an audience of excited parents, grandparents and friends was adjudicated by Mr Andrew O’Brien (Director of Music from Haileybury School). Mr O’Brien commented on the amazing display of talent at Beechwood Park.

The Middle Department trophy went to Verity, Ruby and Jessica for their song ‘Perfect Christmas’. The Senior Department trophy was awarded to George, Will and Sebastian for their energetic rap about Beechwood Park!

61 guitar pupils from Beechwood Park and Aldwickbury came together for an afternoon workshop led by guitarist, Gary Ryan. All pupils had worked hard on a piece that they had been studying in their lessons (‘Uptown Funk’) and had great fun playing it en masse as guitar ensemble along with their two guitar teachers, Marc Gambrell and David Burden. The afternoon ended with a short concert to friends and parents where Gary Ryan also played some of his own compositions, inspiring pupils and parents with his incredible playing.

JANE LODGE

JANE LODGE

Lea Singers

Senior Choirs’ Concert Members of the Boys’, Girls’ and Chamber Choirs delighted parents in the Senior Choirs’ Concert where they performed a range of pieces – an excellent preparation for those attending the Choir Tour to Belgium.

Matilda Arts Performance Inspired by their earlier trip to 'Matilda the Musical' in the West End, Year 5 developed this theme through their work in Art, DT, English, Drama and Music culminating in a wonderful Arts Performance to parents.

For the first time, Beechwood Park pupils had the opportunity to participate in one of our ‘Beechwood Concert Series’ performances. The Lea Singers, composer Alexander L’Estrange, singer and conductor Joanna L’Estrange and band members, a leading jazz trumpet player Mark Armstrong and Jonny Gee on the bass, were joined by members of our Year 3 and 4 choirs for the world premiere of Alexander L’Estrange’s composition ‘Song Cycle: Vive la vélorution with children's choir’. The event had been eagerly anticipated by music publishing giant Faber Music so we certainly put Beechwood Park on the map! Thank you to Taylor Walton for their sponsorship of the event.

JANE LODGE

Junior Music

In the first of our KS1 assemblies in March, Year Two provided parents with a truly artistic Music and Dance display, reflecting their work this term. The pupils opened with a multilingual 'Greeting Song' followed by the curiously named ‘Ebeneezer Sneezer’. The 'Junk Food Song’ gave us a taste of three part singing and the afternoon ended with the aptly named ‘Good Bye Everyone’, replete with tambourines and chimes.

Later that week, Year One, in their assembly began with an energetic performance of ‘Five Little Froggies’ followed by the sedate yet amusing ‘On my toe there is a flea’. Chimes then resonated in a mesmeric rendition of the Fukien Boat song from China.

Then it was the turn of Reception parents who were treated to delightful display of songs, actions and dance moves. The children launched off with a dynamic counting song ‘Dr Knickerbocker’ followed by the first of two seasonal songs ‘Wet, wet, wet’ closely followed by ‘It must be Spring!’ with its vision of birds and beasts.

AMANDA JARVIS

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Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter

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Sport RugbySafe RugbySafe is the RFU’s player safety and wellbeing programme to support clubs, schools, colleges, universities and participants at all levels of the game. This is something that we have embraced and the Beechwood Park Sports Department have been working hard to ensure that we are providing a safe and enjoyable experience for our pupils.

In addition to the many coaching qualifications that staff already hold, all rugby staff at Beechwood Park now have the RFU Teacher Licence in Rugby Coaching and Refereeing, following an inspiring course with Neil Rolling from Independent Coach Education.

Our Matron, Claire Humphreys, has created a programme specifically for our pupils on how to identify possible signs of concussion which she has presented to Years 3 to Top Form.

In addition to this, earlier this term we were delighted to welcome Ben Sheath (Saracens Rugby Development coach) for a Strength and Conditioning Workshop with all the boys from Year 5 upwards which was extremely informative and beneficial for all.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

1st XIII Set High Standards The 1st XIII have had a cracking start to the rugby season winning both of their matches. They have played an exciting, open brand of rugby and with tempo and intensity. I have been delighted to see them using the width and depth of the pitch to score some outstanding tries – they have already scored 20, and from a variety of players.

The boys have trained to a high standard and there has been a particular focus on game play as well, with the boys taking ownership of their decision making and analysing their performances. Captains George and William have been outstanding in setting high standards for the team which all of the boys have embraced. Keep it up!

JAMES BARRINGER

Visit from Olympic Medallist Olympic Silver Medallist Ruaridh McConnochie, member of the Rugby Sevens silver medal winning team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, spent the first day of the Lent term with us. He hosted a Q&A session with Years 1 to 4 and talked about his experience at the Olympics in Rio which gave pupils an extremely valuable insight into what it takes to be a successful athlete. Later in the day he held some inspirational rugby workshops for boys and girls from Year 5 to Top Form.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

Herts Cross Country 18 children from Years 5 to 8 took part in the Herts Cross Country Championships at Verulamium Park, St Albans. As always, the event saw hundreds of runners from different age groups and schools across the county. All Beechwood Park runners performed brilliantly and fought hard until the finish line. Special mentions must go to Robert (Top MSR) and Euan (7LHH) who both finished in the top 20 in their races.

A fantastic start to the Cross Country season!

MARK RIDLEY

Stormont Cross Country Netball & Hockey Festival On a chilly Thursday afternoon, all of the girls in Years 3 and 4 travelled to Heath Mount School for a sports festival.

Each of the eight teams played both a hockey and a netball fixture. This in itself was a challenge, the girls having to consider and play to the different rules, restrictions and tactics. However, they all coped very well and it was certainly brilliant practice for the future.

There were some fantastic individual and team performances, some girls demonstrating the benefit of attending school and local clubs which allow for great improvement in skills, confidence and tactics. Many people commented on this; well done!

Despite the cold weather, perseverance and determination shone through and the girls were delighted with the hot chocolate that was available after the matches had finished. It helped to warm them up!

ALEXIS HAMILTON

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This term, one U11 team and three U9 teams took part in the 8th Annual Stormont Invitation Cross Country Championships, hosted by Queenswood School. For many it was their first ever cross-country event and they were extremely excited! The U9 race was first with 60 runners taking part. All the girls ran well, with ‘Beechwood A’ finishing 3rd, ‘Beechwood B’ 4th and ‘Beechwood C’ 9th, out of 10 teams. Special individual mentions go to Eliza (7th), Amelia (8th) and Sylvia (9th). Following the race the U9s cheered on the U11s. Kara was the first home in 20th place, closely followed by Chessie in 22nd. The U11 team finished equal 5th overall, out of ten teams. Well done to all the girls who took part.

ALEXIS HAMILTON

1st Place at St Martins

Beechwood Park competed in this annual road race relay event against 9 other schools.

We had 3 teams of 4 runners in the Under 13 Boys, Under 11 Boys and Under 11 Girls. All runners complete a mile lap handing over to their team members in a relay with excitement and suspense! Beechwood came 2nd in the U13 Boys race and we won the U11 Boys race.

Congratulations to Alex (6AB), Milo (5B), Eddie (5M) and Harry (6GR).

MARK RIDLEY

Sport

PAGE X Links with Luton FC As part of our partnership with Luton Town Football Academy earlier this year, we were able to arrange for some of their coaches to run a masterclass with Year 3 and Year 4 pupils. We were delighted to hear that Tommy (4L) had been spotted by one of the coaches; he has now been selected for Luton Town Centre of Excellence and will hopefully soon move into the Pre Academy. Tommy will join Freddie (Top MSR) and Euan (7LHH) who are both in the Luton Academy system. This is a wonderful opportunity for Tommy and we wish all three boys the best of luck with their football development at Luton Town.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

More Orienteering Success!

Fencing Bronze Medal We began a new programme of fencing at Beechwood Park in September 2016; we invited Paul Davis Fencing company to run a Junior, Middle and Senior club on a weekly basis.

The clubs have been hugely popular and we have had to start a waiting list! Archie (Top GW) was chosen to participate in the Herts Senior County Championships as well as the Eastern Regionals and Josie (4K) has just competed in the Girls’ Sabre U10 British Championships at Stratford upon Avon where she won bronze! It’s wonderful to see this sport go from strength to strength.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

Record Breaking Swim Time After Beechwood Park selected Joshua (Top GW) to swim at the Dacorum Swim trials, he made it into the Dacorum team for the HSSA Secondary Schools Inter-District Championships in March. Joshua’s medley winning relay team broke the record which was set in 2005. What an achievement!

CLARE LECKIE-HARBORD

Beechwood Park has had its most successful year in orienteering so far. We have retained the Hertfordshire Schools' Orienteering Competition for the third year in succession. Oliver (Top GW) won the Year 8 boys’ competition, with Zack (7AE) second and Nathan (7AE) third. The Year 6 competition was won by Gregor (6CD), with James (6AG) finishing second. Ben (5M) won the Year 5 boys’ competition. Sophie (5B) and Abigail (5M) jointly won the Year 5 girls’ competition and Holly (4L) came 3rd in the Year 4 competition.

ROB HUMPHREYS

England National Cadet League This year Beechwood Park participated in the Table Tennis National Cadet League for the first time with an U13 boys’ team. This competition is aimed at grass roots players looking to experience a competition early on in their career against high level players from across the country.

Tom (7CLH), Archie (7AE), Max (7JRB), Harry (7LHH), Darcy (Top GW) and Alasdair (7LHH) all represented the School. This was a brilliant opportunity for the boys to be involved in and be exposed to such a high level of table tennis. The competition was extremely tough but many of our boys managed to secure a number of games and sets. Congratulations to the boys for their dedication to the sport over the year and for showing a real hunger to improve and progress.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

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ESSA National Qualifiers

IAPS Table Tennis Finals Eight of our pupils entered the National IAPS Table Tennis Finals which took place earlier this term at Edge Grove School. Daniel (6CD), Christopher (6IS), Herbie (6CD) and Tom (4L) played in the U11 section; they all played well and a special mention goes to Tom who is only in Year 4 but shows great potential! In the U13 section Tom (7CLH) and Archie (7AE) played well with Archie making it to the top 16, Darcy (Top GW) played in the quarter final against Charlie (Top TM) (sadly only one BPS pupil could go through!), and Charlie had a great semi-final (11-8, 10-12, 11-9) narrowly missing out on the final by 2 points.

This event is always a fantastic experience with lots of opportunity for development and plenty of exciting table tennis to watch.

KYLIE-PAUL LE BAS

Beechwood Park were represented by two very strong teams at this year’s ESSA National Qualifiers. Harry (6IS), Toby (6AB), Gregor (7LHH), Fergus (6IS), Jess (5B), Freya (5B), Adeola (5R) and Vivie (6CD) all put on a brilliant display and swam their hardest. The girls unfortunately didn’t make the final; the boys made the group finals but narrowly missed out by 0.05 seconds to go to the Nationals in Sheffield.

CLARE LECKIE-HARBORD

Golfing Glory George S and Eddie W from Year 5 have taken part in the Hertfordshire Mid Handicap Stableford Competition which was held at Knebworth Golf Club.

A competition open to anyone under 16 years old and with a handicap greater than 12, they both faced some pretty tough and experienced competitors. Despite being some of the youngest golfers at the competition, both boys played superbly in what were challenging conditions, with Eddie coming 3rd in the Junior School category and 21st overall and George finishing 23rd place out of 60 overall. Well done boys!

CHRIS KNELLER

Swimmers Make National Finals Earlier in the term we took a team drawn from Year 5 to Top form girls and boys to the IAPS regional swimming qualifiers; there are 28 qualifying events across the country.

Our swimmers competed both in the individual strokes and in the relay races. As a result, six of our pupils have qualified for the IAPS National Swimming Finals to be held in May at the K2 Centre in Crawley. Four pupils will swim individual strokes in the U12 or U13 races (in order to be selected they have to come in the top 16 fastest times in the country). An U12 boys’ Medley team has also been selected for the finals; they were in the top 12 fastest race times in the country. The pupils who have been selected are: Joshua, Alasdair, Kieran, Henry, Jack and Max. We wish everyone the best of luck.

CLARE LECKIE-HARBORD

Beechwood Park School’s Newsletter

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Boarding and BPSPA

BPSPA, Alumni and House News

Boarding Wow! It’s been a busy term in the Beechwood Park Boarding House – Ultimate Laser Tag, Boarders' Olympics, Sock Wrestling Championships and The Great Boarding Quiz – to name only a few of the activities that have taken place so far. But the highlight of the term possibly has to be the Crystal Maze evening.

The boarders were transported into the world of the TV game show as they worked together in teams to take on the Maze! By selecting players to specialise in different skills such as mental, physical, mystery-solving, communications and other specific skill tasks, the boys and girls pulled together to try to complete various activities in order to win ‘Crystals’.

Guiding blindfolded teammates through tough obstacles, using Morse code to deliver secret messages, surviving the ‘minefield’, not breaking the egg and solving difficult riddles were just some of the challenges the teams faced. Competitive spirit was at an all-time

BPSPA News Your new committee At January’s AGM, we said goodbye to four wonderful committee members, Carly Jacques (chair), Michelle Morris (secretary), Louise Plunkett (communications) and Alex Morris (events liaison). On behalf of the whole Beechwood Park family I would like to thank them for all of their hard work and tireless efforts in supporting the social life of our school and the incredible fundraising efforts. Pippa Ridout (secretary), Nadia Davies (communications), Em Southcombe (events liaison) and I were elected to join Louise Lynes (treasurer) who has generously agreed to undertake another year on the committee.

This term has already seen the two brilliant junior and middle school discos where over 100 children bopped energetically. Thank you to the superb organisers, Alex Ray (middle school disco) and Kate MacKenzie and Nikki Grady-Smith (junior disco) for creating such fun events. We are also very grateful to all of the parents and members of staff who volunteered to help out.

March also saw our BPSPA volunteer ‘thank you drinks’. Our social events wouldn’t happen without all of the volunteers giving up their time and we are incredibly grateful to each and every one of you.

Fundraising success We are absolutely delighted to report that the BPSPA has raised an incredible £200,000 in total for Keech Hospice Care, our lead charity. Mark Relf, Keech’s Regional Fundraising Manager came to the School to mark the occasion and to speak to the children about the work they do in community with adults and children facing life limiting and terminal illnesses.

Not satisfied with this we are also delighted to report that we have hit our fund raising target of £20,000 to support the building of the new

high as teams fought their way to the final challenge...The Crystal Dome.

As hundreds of thousands of foil pieces were sent flying through the air, the Performance Hall was transformed into our very own Crystal Dome, worthy of Richard O'Brien himself! The teams were ecstatic as Forest School outdoor classroom well ahead of expectations! We’re really pleased that the children will have access to such a great outdoor learning resource.

Ice lolly stall The after-school Ice Lolly Stall will be back by popular demand during the second half of the summer term. We’ll be on the grass outside the Junior Department’s side gate selling ice lollies for £1. If you can spare a half hour to help out please get in touch via the BPSPA email and do pop by to buy a lolly! Let’s hope for blue skies and sunshine!

they raced around the dome in a frenzy to find as many gold pieces as they could, to earn points for their team.

Congratulations to the Purple Team who came out on top and beat the maze.

A-MAZE-ing!!

CLARE DEVINE

with only 500 seats available are sure to be in huge demand!

The children are also getting involved this year and will have an exciting Venetian themed art challenge to join in with over the Easter holidays with prizes available for the most spectacular creations!

Fun Night Year 3 under the leadership of Helen Davies are rapidly advancing plans for a circus themed Fun Night on Tuesday, 4th July from 6pm onwards.

Tickets are due to go on sale soon. As always please do consider giving up a half hour of your evening to help the stalls that the children enjoy so much run smoothly. The class reps will be drawing up lists soon – do get in touch.

It looks to be an exciting summer term ahead of us.

We’re excited to let you know that Mr Ridley is arranging some fun activities for children to take part in whilst their parents volunteer to set up (and clear away) both for Fun Night and the Ball. We hope that this will help our volunteers and would love your feedback.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help with our events and to everyone who gives up their time to support us.

HANNAH GRAY, BPSPA CHAIR

Beechwood Ball Plans for our spectacular summer ball are under way and our committee are working hard to put on a really memorable evening for us all on Saturday 24th June.

Tickets are due to go on sale after Easter and

We welcome suggestions, contributions and news of Beechwoodians, past and present, which can be sent to Julia Rouse at J.Rouse@beechwoodpark.herts.sch.uk

Please check the School’s website for more information: www.beechwoodpark.com