Year 10 art pupils visited Wolverhampton Art Gallery for the ‘British Art Show’, a landmark touring exhibition that celebrates the vitality of recent art made in Britain. Organised every five years by Hayward Gallery Touring the exhibition brings the work of artists defining new directions in contemporary art to four cities across the UK.

You can find out more about the show here: https://britishartshow9.co.uk

Year 10 drama pupils were starstruck after their excursion to see the premiere of a brand new play based on the inspiring life of Floella Benjamin turned into a life coaching session from Baroness Benjamin herself!
Coming To England had its world premiere at the Birmingham Rep on Thursday 31^st March. It is based on the children’s book by Floella Benjamin and illustrated by Walsall-born Diane Ewen.
The book tells the story of how Floella came to England from Trinidad as a child. Floella is best known to many as the presenter of children’s programmes such as Play School, Play Away and Fast Forward and she is also an accomplished actress, singer, author, businesswoman, and politician.

After the play, our pupils met up with Baroness Benjamin and she talked with them for some time, sharing with them her advice for life. All pupils – and their teachers – were completely hooked and inspired.

14 of our pupils from Year 9 and Year 10 were selected to visit De Montfort University to have an insight into the Dance BA (Hons) course. The pupils participated in a three hour practical session, where they explored a variety of contemporary dance techniques with university lecturers and students. They were challenged with a choreography task to allow them to understand new ways of devising content. 

The pupils were also given a tour around campus by third year students who were able to answer questions that our pupils had about the course and university life.

All pupils enjoyed their visit with many commenting on how much they had gained from the experience. 

Year 10 have made such a fantastic start to their languages GCSE courses, with over 80% of the year studying a language. 44 of our pupils who have really impressed this year were nominated by their teachers to take part in a masterclass organised by the University of Birmingham to take part in a taster session. 

Our pupils were able to listen to a talk about languages courses and combinations at the University followed by a taster session. The languages on offer included Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, as well as the two workshops our pupils took part in – Italian and Portuguese. 

Pupils enjoyed the speaking practice in the new languages, with Italian being the most popular by far! They also had a brief walk through the main campus in the sunshine. 

A ‘bom día’ (good day) for Barr Beacon’s linguists!