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Smashed Project – Year 7 Performance

On 4th March, Year 7 pupils had a performance from the Smashed Project performance theatre group as part of their learning within their PSHE curriculum. The performance was about the dangers of drinking alcohol and about peer pressure leading young people to drinking even when they knew that they should not. The story followed a teenager and his two older friends. Despite his academic success and talents outside of school as a footballer and athlete, he succumbed to peer pressure and drank more than he should have done. Aside from the immediate after-effects, he knew it was not in his character and felt ashamed of his behaviour.  

Pupils engaged well with the content and in the forum theatre afterwards had the chance to provide some really excellent answers, showing how well informed they are about the dangers of alcohol. They also knew what to do if someone they knew was in a similar situation, offering a wealth of answers about what they could do to support a friend or peer. 

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Long Service Staff Awards

A huge congratulations to our staff who attended the annual Matrix Academy Trust long-service celebration meal last Friday. They joined colleagues from across the trust at the wonderful BANK.  Racking up over 700 years’ service collectively across the trust.  Another huge thank you to you all for your continued dedication to our community. 

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Enterprise Masterclass

A group of our Year 9 pupils took part in an Enterprise Masterclass at the University of Birmingham. Following a tour of the campus, pupils created their own business ideas around a UN Sustainable Development Goal. They discovered new ways to generate creative ideas as a team and all pupils successfully completed an elevator pitch, which developed their presentation skills. Pupils were able to have a taste of studying Business at university and even took part in work that is usually given to undergraduate level students. 

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National Offer Day

Admissions

It is National Offer Day.  If you have been successful in your application to Barr Beacon School for Admission into Year 7 2024, we will write to you shortly with a welcome letter and information about forthcoming key dates.   If you have changed address since you applied, please contact postbox@barrbeaconschool.co.uk so that we can ensure we have the most up to date information for your child.  

If you were not successful on your application, please follow the link for information about Appeals to Barr Beacon School: https://barrbeaconschool.co.uk/admissions/ 

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Here Come the Girls! International Women’s Day 2024

This week we have celebrated International Women’s Day across the school, with pupils having a thought provoking assembly on gender inequality around the world. Pupils found out that gender equality is still something that we can’t take for granted. Around the world, 28 young girls are forced into marriages against their will every minute! And 1/3 of women will experience violence in their life time, a figure far lower for men. But even in our own country, the gender pay gap is shockingly high for women doing the same roles as men. Year 7 pupil, S. Bains in 7B2 commented “I am shocked that women in India earn 34% less than men!”

The assembly pointed out that women shouldn’t have to be exceptional to be worthy of comment. A woman engineer shouldn’t be something unexpected, for example. 

In order to support women in the school, out of the school, our mothers, grandmothers, friends, sisters, nieces and aunties, we must all think carefully about how we contribute to the society we live in and how we are considerate of others, never normalising the idea that women are any different to men in terms of capability and capacity for success.

This week our forms will be completing their pledges to #inspireinclusion and say how they will support women in being equal.

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LGBTQ+ Month – Healthcare and Medicine

Barr Beacon pupils have learned in assembly about the Beacon Values of Equal to Everyone and Never Discriminate which learning about LGBTQ History. This year’s focus has been on the contribution made to history by scientists and physicians that are within the LGBTQ+ community. Pupils learned about how, until 2003, the government made it impossible to teach about and learn about LGBTQ+. This meant that huge swathes of history were not acknowledged. In 2017, the goverment apologised for its pass policy, recognising that this was wholly inappropriate. 

LGBTQ+ communities have existed throughout history and are recorded as far back as ancient civilisations such as Mesopotamia, Roman Empire, China and Ancient Greece. These cultures included gender non-conformity and diverse identification that even defy modern identification. In short, LGBTQ+ communities are a part of our world and pupils were taught about role models we should be celebrating such as Cecil Belfield Clarke, a Barbadian physician and civil rights activisit and Sophia Jex Blake, an English physician who fought for women’s right to access the field of medicine.

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PwC Visit

PwC visited the school to talk to our Year 12 students who are interested in pursuing apprenticeships. PwC offer a range of School Leaver Apprenticeships and Flying Start Degree Apprenticeships programmes. Representatives from the company spoke about their own experience of working for PwC and gave tips to succeed with their competitive application process. 

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Are you Barr Beacon School Alumni?

CALLING ALL BARR BEACON SCHOOL ALUMNI

If you’re a former student of Barr Beacon School, we want to hear from you!

Your experiences since leaving could help to motivate and inspire our current students to feel more confident in making decisions about their future. We’d love you to join our Alumni Network and stay connected with the school.

We’ve partnered with the national education charity Future First, who specialise in helping schools like ours to stay connected with their former students. 

You can choose how and when you help – perhaps you can act as a career and education role model, provide work experience or become a mentor in person or online.

To sign up, just follow this link and fill in the online form – we promise it will only take a couple of minutes

https://www.futurefirsthub.org.uk/register/barr-beacon-school

We look forward to hearing from you.

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WPR Agency PR Workshop

Year 12 Business and Media students took part in a PR workshop, run by WPR Agency. 

After learning about what working in PR involves, and its differences to advertising, students were set a task. They put together an pitch for a new restaurant in the Bullring, encompassing media coverage, social content, influencer engagement and events. Our visiting speaker was very impressed with the innovative ideas from each group and praised students for their creativity and excellent team work when formulating ideas. 

Students said they enjoyed the chance to ‘have a go’ at a real career and valued having the chance to work in a team. They were interested to share their ideas and hear what the other groups had created, and one student even said “I didn’t realise before, but I am actually more creative than I thought.”

Contact Info

Barr Beacon School
Old Hall Lane
Aldridge, Walsall
West Midlands
WS9 0RF

T: 0121 366 6600
postbox@barrbeaconschool.co.uk

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Friday: 8:00 am - 3:30 pm

Copyright 2024 © All Rights Reserved

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