This document has been written to reassure pupils joining us in Year 7, September 2020. While Covid-19 impacts upon our typical day to day ways of working, some of our usual processes will have to alter but hopefully it won’t be too long before we are back to Barr Beacon School’s ‘normal’.
Before you start in September, we will send you clear instructions on where to enter the site and our safety procedures so these are not included here. Instead, we’ve aimed to give you a flavour of what ‘normal’ will look like when we get back to school fully.
You should arrive at school by 8.40am each day. You can enter the site via the bottom gate on Beacon Road or if you have caught a school bus you can enter via the gate in the Sports Hall car park. You can only enter through the top gate if you have permission from Leadership.
All school gates close at 8.45am so if you are late, you will need to enter via ‘late gate’ at the top of the school site. If you are late, you may receive a break time detention.
Once you are on the school site, you can go to the top playground, the bistro or the icentre.
You could arrange to meet a friend but if you don’t know anyone else, don’t worry. There will be lots of staff about who are really keen to meet you. They will welcome you to reassure you and guide you, especially in the first few days as you get to know new faces.
It’s best practice to catch the bus that will get you into school with plenty of time to spare. Don’t risk being late by catching a bus that just gets you in before 8.40am.
But, if you do miss your bus, don't worry - get the next bus. If you arrive to school after the gates have closed, go straight to the top gate and then to reception where a member of staff will be able to help you.
It is important to check how much money you have on your Wisepay account every day. But, if you forget, you can go to your House Office, where your Head of House will be able to help you. Remember we are a cashless school so reminding your parents to check your account is vital so that you can make any purchases on site.
Making a checklist of things you'll need each day when you start will help you to be organised. It's useful to check your bag each day before you leave too but some times we forget things. If you leave your packed lunch at home, you should go to your House Office where someone will be able to help you.
If you don't bring your kit, you will be given kit from the PE department to wear. This isn’t optional. Your PE kit should be one of the things on your checklist for the evening before PE lessons.
It's normal to feel worried about making big changes like starting a new school or meeting new friends but don't worry. Everyone in year 7 is in the same situation. If you do feel nervous, you should talk to your Form Tutor who you will see every day during registration. They will be able to give you some strategies to cope with the nerves that we get when we start something new.
You can also talk to the Prefects who are year 11 pupils. They wear special ties so you can identify who they are. Their ties are plain black with a Barr Beacon emblem in the centre. A Prefect will always be willing to listen and help you.
You should make sure that you pay attention when your teacher is setting your homework so that you get all of the details you need recorded in your planner.
Sometimes, even though we try, we don't always understand our homework when we get home. If this happens, you should go and see your teacher as soon as you can but definitely before the work is due to be handed in.
You can also go to homework club which runs each evening. At homework club you will find help and encouragement too. We'll let you know which room homework club will be in when you start in September.
Avoid leaving homework until the last minute. That's often when problems occur.
The best way to avoid this is to pack your bag each evening before school so that you are ready for the day ahead and you don't have any distractions before you leave the house.
If you do forget to bring your homework, you need to go and speak to your teacher before the lesson. Don't wait until it's time to hand it in.
Teachers may set a detention if homework is not handed in on time.
You will have a timetable that you will write into your planner which will include 5 lessons each day. Every day you will need your stationery (see the Induction Booklet for what is required) and you will need the books and homework for the lessons of the day. Your bag should be packed and checked against your planner each evening.
Don’t bring every book you have every day because that is a lot of books to carry. It’s a good idea to keep a box at home where you store your books so that they don’t get lost when you take them out of your bag.
You will have PE each week. You must remember to wash your kit ready for the next week so that it is clean and fresh. When you are deciding on which school bag to buy ready for September make sure you consider being able to fit your PE kit, your books and even your lunch in at the same time.
You can wear a coat to school but you are not allowed to wear coats in school. You will be directed to remove it as soon as you enter a building. Make sure that all of your possessions are labelled with your name.
When a member of staff raises their hand straight up in the air, this indicates that you need to be silent.
You should raise your hand immediately, stop doing whatever you are doing and be silent.
Leadership will raise their hand at the end of every lunch sitting for an orderly dismissal.
As silly as it sounds, start practising now. You could ask for some help at home or you could watch a ‘how to’ video on Youtube. We will tell you as soon as we can which House you are in so don’t buy a Barr Beacon Tie until your House and Form has been confirmed.
Each lesson will last for 60 minutes. We don’t have bells here so your teacher will tell you when a lesson is drawing to a close and its time to move to your next lesson. You will be expected to walk into your classrooms sensibly and quietly, take out your equipment and wait to be invited to be seated. All of your teachers will have allocated you a seat when you first begin so you will know where you are to be seated.
Each lesson will be different. You will usually have a book for a lesson where you will capture all of your learning. Teachers will give you feedback in your books too so it’s essential that you keep them safe and take them to each lesson.
Lessons are chunked into sections by the teacher so that your learning is being built upon over the hour. Some of the ways that we help you to learn and recall knowledge are: quizzing, using knowledge organisers, experiments and practicals, reading, discussing ideas and topics and recording or reporting through writing.
We will check your progress through regular assessments and give you feedback on how to improve or develop your ideas.
We use Red, Amber, Green and Purple so that you can see how you have achieved against your targets. If you are Red, you have underachieved against your baseline but if you are Amber you are on target. You will be given targets and actions to take to make progress for each assessment that you complete. Your baseline is the minimum level you should be aiming for.
Any lost property is handed in to reception. It’s always worth retracing your steps so that you visit the rooms that you have been in before you realised that your item was not with you. Make sure that you label everything with your name.
If you don’t feel very well, you should go to your House Office who will be able to help you.
In year 7 you can buy snacks and drinks from the hall at break time. You can eat the items that you buy in the hall. You could visit the icentre at break to complete homework or to read or you can go outside onto the top playground. Staff will dismiss you at the end of break to allow you to get to lessons on time.
Barr Beacon is a Telling School and we encourage you to tell us if something or someone is bothering you. You can tell your Form Tutor who you will see every morning or you can report issues to your Head of House too. Don’t keep things bottled up; share them and we can help to sort problems out.
Yes. We encourage pupils to bring their bikes to school to help them to keep healthy. We have a bike shelter where you can lock up your bike. You must provide your own lock. We expect you to wear a helmet when you are riding your bike and that you use cycle paths when riding to and from school if they are available. You must only push your bike when you are on school site.
We are a ‘Drink to Think’ school and we encourage you to drink water in lessons, but this can only be water. We have water filters around school, in the hall and the bistro, where you can fill up your bottles. We do not provide plastic cups and you cannot leave lessons to fill up your bottles so you need to plan the times when you want to fill up. Energy drinks and glass bottles are not allowed on school site. They will be confiscated. No eating is permitted in lessons.
Don’t panic. You can ask any pupil in year 8-13 or a member of staff and they will be able to help you. All sixth form students wear a blue lanyard and staff wear a red lanyard so you will be able to see who they are.
When you first start with us, we know that you will be finding your way around and getting used to where your classrooms are so we do make allowances for some delayed arrivals in the first week. But, we will expect pupils to be punctual to all lessons and ready to learn when they arrive when you have found your way around.
The Induction Booklet on the school website shows you a list of equipment, uniform and kit that you will need. It is expected that in every classroom based lesson you get your planner and equipment out on the desk ready to learn at the start of each lesson.
Your timetable will have a staff code and your Form Tutor will tell the names of your teachers. You will then write these into your planner. All of your teachers will introduce themselves to you but if you forget, all you need to do is ask them to remind you of their name. Remember, they will be learning everyone’s names too.
Finally, If you haven’t found an answer to a question you have, look in the Induction Booklet which can be found HERE where you should find the answers.
If you've got any questions that we haven't answered here, please email postbox@barrbeaconschool.co.uk
