M. Neale, 10M1, was the first recipient of the silver badge for praise and received his badge and certificate in last week’s house assembly. M. Neale constantly applies himself to all aspects of school life both in and beyond the classroom. His hard work, excellent work ethic and community spirit make him a role model of excellence.

We congratulate him on his achievements and look forward to seeing him strive towards the gold award.

To find out more about the rewards and opportunities at Barr Beacon School, please follow this link: https://bit.ly/475SlWn

Our Reading Challenge 2024, has commenced this week in the Barr Beacon iCentre. 15 Year 12 pupils, acting as reading mentors to 15 Year 7 pupils, have enjoyed reading ‘Journey Back to Freedom’ by Catherine Johnson. Working together to build reading confidence and a love for reading, our Year 12s have taken a lead in engaging our Year 7s in their reading. In this picture, Reading Challenge mentor Z. Barkat is showing her mentee images of where the book is set to help him to picture the scene and immerse himself in his reading!

This week pupils have had assemblies about Holocaust Memorial Day: they have been reminded of the events of the holocaust and genocide of the Jewish people in World War Two. However, sadly that is not the last genocide that the world has seen. The assembly touched on genocides since then in Rawanda, Darfur and Cambodia, amongst others.

These messages were explored in terms of this year’s theme: the fragility of freedom. Pupils considered the seriousness of how our Beacon Values link to protection of our fragile freedoms every day. That living in a world where everyone is equal to others and never discriminates is essential to ensure such atrocities never happen again.

Episode 1: Express Yourself

Do you have a special talent you wish to showcase at our next big live event.  You will have the chance to perform on stage in front of a live audience in Birmingham in a state-of-the-art theatre Millennium Point on Thursday 18^th April 2024. Whether it be singing, juggling, stand-up comedy or anything in between, we want to see all your wonderful talents. Unfortunately, we cannot accept Dance entries this year due to the size of the stage. 

How to enter:

• Have one of your performing arts teachers record your performance (or film it yourself and email to your teacher). 
• A snippet of your performance can be submitted, please do not worry about submitting a performance in its entirety. 
• Your teacher will be able to submit your performance video to the Matrix judging panel.
• Finalists will have the opportunity to perform at our next big trust event and some school events this year.
• Solo entries and group entries are welcome.
• Submit your entry by 4pm on Friday 23^rd February 2024. 

World Braille Day falls in January each year. This year, to raise awareness, we had an assembly from our SENDCO, Mrs Walker to explore what braille is and how it was created. Pupils commented that they hadn’t known about braille beforehand!  

The SEND team has also offered two fantastic opportunities to sign up for: pupils have been challenged to sign up to either learn how to read braille or how to do sign language. Our pupils were excited to be able to learn about supporting those in our school community who may need differing forms of communication to support them.  

Our chair of trustees Sir Mark Aspinall has been invited to have his photograph taken to be placed in the Victoria Law court in Birmingham. Sir Mark has over 20 years’ experience in Law across banking, financial, media, NHS, Government and FTSE corporate sector and is currently a Judge and a Governor of a local authority Primary School.

We would like to take this opportunity to see your very best photography work and give you the opportunity to have your work hung in the law court for years to come. See below details on how to get involved with our Matrix photography competition.

Submission Criteria. You can submit up to three portrait style images, each image can be of the same or a different subject. Your images should be saved in jpeg format. Images should not be altered or edited, we want to see your original photograph. Cropping is allowed. Images should be sent with your full name, form group, school name and a short write up to explain your style of image. Submit your images to photography@matrixacademytrust.co.uk

Submission Deadline: Sunday 18th February 2024. Speak to your media/creative arts teacher for help and guidance.

What is Portrait Photography? Portrait photography is best defined as a genre of photography that involves capturing the identity, personality, facial expression, soul, emotions, essence, and the overall inherent character of a subject within a photograph.

Prize. The winning submission will be chosen by Sir Mark Aspinall and Mrs Draycott. The winner will receive £150 and the opportunity to take the commissioned image in Victoria Law Court in Birmingham. The winners photograph of Sir Mark Aspinall will be proudly hung in the court. The oldest image currently hanging in the court currently is over 180 year olds. This is a chance to take a photograph that will be seen in court for many years to come.

Over the last 2 weeks, we have been collecting donations for Bethany Food Bank based in Great Barr.

To ensure that we collected a range of items, each House was assigned a food group and the Sixth Form were responsible for donating toiletries and sanitary items.

We are grateful for the generosity and kindness shown as we do our bit to help others.  

Thank you to everyone who donated as well as to the Year 13 students who packed it all up ready for collection.

The donations have been collected by a representative from the Food Bank and will be used to support local families over the coming weeks.