Year 7 pupils had the chance to watch a theatre in education performance from theatre company, Saltmine, as part of their PSHE programme. The play led pupils through the story of two friends, both with bright futures. Whilst Daniel began to turn t oa life of violence and crime, the other friend, a footballer, ends up dead as the result of a brawl. Much like Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is killed under Romeo’s arm whilst duelling Tybalt, both deaths were senseless, fuelled by unjustifiable paranoia and fear. 

Echoing our Beacon Values, the production and workshops afterwards, promoted the message of ‘Be Yourself’, being true to who you are and what you know is right. To think for yourself and not as a group. The message also linked to the values of ‘Acting Responsibly’ and ‘Owning your actions.’ 

Pupils valued the workshops after the performances in which they learned the truth about knife crime, the myth that carrying a knife protects you, the fact that most people that carry a knife end up hurting a friend or themselves. Pupils left the sessions very clear that knife crime is completely avoidable. The final message that if you ever encounter a knife, the best, and only proper response, is to run as fast as you can, hit home hard. 

Year 10 pupil Rio Jhalli has presented his own TED talk!

It is called ‘Three Generations of Beating in Time’ and it’s about his passion for playing the tabla drum. 

It’s amazing to see how self-assured Rio is; how talented he is and this is obviously a massive achievement.

To celebrate our most enthusiastic readers, 20 pupils across Year 7 and 8 were selected to enjoy a morning of Easter-themed activities, treats and socialising as a reward for their efforts in our Accelerated Reader programme. The Mini-Millionaires, pupils who have read (or almost read!) one million words, were drawn together to praise their dedication to reading and encourage a healthy competition among the most prolific readers in the school; as a result, we have readers topping the leader board between 700,000 and 2,000,000 words read.

We know that the more we read, the more readily pupils access the curriculum. Reading over a million words is a brilliant commitment not only to academic success but also a lifelong love of reading which will continue to open doors for our pupils for many years to come. Congratulations to all pupils selected and good luck to pupils who nearly ‘made the cut’ this time!

On Monday 7th February, the exam boards released their Advance Information, which is intended to help you prioritise your revision. The pupil guide written by the JCQ, who speak on behalf of all of the exam boards, is available here and we recommend everybody reads it carefully:

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/JCQ_Advance-Information-Student-Guide.pdf

A key point in the guide is this: “Your revision plans should take account of everything you have been taught.” 

Why should you need to “take account of everything” even if everything is not listed in the Advance Information?

When we learn new things, we build on top of things we have learned previously. Even if we are not asked exam questions about those things we learned first, we might still need that knowledge to understand what we learned later.

For instance, if the Advance Information specifies that there will be questions on Units 2 and 3 but not Unit 1, you might still need to have a good understanding of the material from Unit 1 to be able to answer questions on Units 2 and 3.

Your teachers will explain to you how this works in each of your subjects.

Here is the Advance Information for all of the subjects we teach.

GCSEs – https://barrbeaconschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Copy-of-Advanced-Notice-links-GCSE.pdf

A levels – https://barrbeaconschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Copy-of-Advanced-Notice-links-Y13.pdf

On February 9^th 2022 John Williams celebrated his 90^th Birthday.  John Williams is arguably the most influential film music composer of all time responsible for critically acclaimed films such as Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and Star Wars.  Pupils marked this special occasion through a variety of different themed events throughout the week.  The whole school took part in a John Williams virtually assembly where pupils discovered key facts about the composer and then completed a music quiz where they had to identify 10 famous Williams themes.  Drama club focused on the collaboration between Williams, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg acting out scenes from Jurassic Park, ET the Extra-terrestrial and Star Wars; the end of the session finished with some superb acting along to the main music themes from each scene.  Finally Music Club focused on performing some of Williams’ most famous pieces including Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter, the Imperial March from Star Wars and the Main Theme from Jaws; the session ended with a showcase from each pupil performing their chosen theme.

Year 12 English Language and Literature A Level students went on a trip to Sheffield Millennium Museum to visit an exhibition about the work of the Bloomsbury group, a bohemian and modernist collection of artists and writers based in early twentieth century London. 

As part of the visit, they attended a lecture by Dr Nicky Hallet, an expert in life-writing from the University of Sheffield, about the role of the LGBTQ+ artistic community in the early part of the last century, transporting us to Paris and the work of non-binary Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore and their links with Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackvill-West; we learned how the latter two wrote letters to their respective husbands on the fly covers of books bought in Paris about the rights of queer people.

Dr Hallet’s lecture inspired discussion about Charleston and the London of the 1920s and 30s, the challenges that queer people faced with the impending second world war and the trials of living secret lives. All of which provided an excellent grounding for the year 12’s study of the fiction and non-fiction writings of the Bloomsbury group.

Halimah said the museum “radiated tranquillity”!