Yesterday we welcomed Dr Eve Griffiths and Antonia Thomas from Outreach, who delivered training to Matrix staff on understanding the effects ACES and trauma can have on our pupils’ mental health, behaviour and understanding, as well as how we can facilitate restorative conversations in school.  We learnt innovative new ways to support our pupils in building and maintaining positive, healthy relationships, resolving difficulties and repairing harm when there has been conflict. Thank you Outreach!

This year the iCentre celebrated World Book day by inviting a very special guest to Barr Beacon school to perform for Year 7s. Storyteller Maria Credali, who is a part of National Literacy Trust, has performed “Seven Years a Wolf” story. The story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in difficult circumstances, it explores the love of a father for his son and shows us how life can be not just endured but enjoyed – even in the most difficult of circumstances. An inspirational story, brimming with beautiful imagery, survival against the odds, and the triumph of good over evil. After the performance, we collected pupil’s feedback and here is what they said:

“The performance yesterday was well read and I enjoyed it, so did many other people” – Ishaaq Year 7

“The performance was incredible. I was in a trance during the entire thing. Thank you so much.” – Isabella Year 7

“I loved the performance. I thought it was great and I was listening and picturing it in my head.” – Evie Year 7

“I think that the performance was absolutely awesome! I could easily picture it in my head, that’s how good it was!” – Janelle Year 7

We are holding a short story competition for all Year 7s following Mrs. Credali’s performance. Pupils will have two weeks to write a short story using one of five short story prompts created by the library manager. The prize is a book of their choice paid for by the library. The winner will be announced in the next newsletter. Good luck to all participants. “

On 4^th 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. 

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. 

All of this week, you can access a large Virtual Careers Fair from home. With close to 100 exhibitors to visit, there will be lots of new careers to explore. 

Follow the link to take a look: https://ncw2024.co.uk/

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/ 

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.

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.