A lot to celebrate, a lot to be proud of and some reminders.
Today’s blog is packed with stories of individual and collective achievements. It is about the range of personal development opportunities available at Beckfoot and a few reminders about looking after your mental health and getting the important things right.
Sporting success
Boxing: In early October, Year 10 student Muhammad K, clinched the Schoolboy Yorkshire Title, dominating a tough contest against an exceptionally talented opponent. It is an incredible achievement for him and reflects not only his talent but also his attitude to hard work in the gym. Muhammed has been working towards this goal for some time and assures me he is not done yet. His ambition in the ring is matched with his determination to succeed in school and in life. His approach to balancing his commitments and his passion is wonderful and stands him out as a role model for other athletes and students. His family, his coaching team and everyone at Beckfoot is rightly proud of him. The future can hold the most wonderful adventures for Muhammed if he continues to work hard and shine as he does. Well done young man.
Fell Running: Last weekend, we had 3 pupils travel to Sedbergh to take part in the English School’s Fell Running Championships. For those not familiar with fell running: depending on their age, pupils were running between 2.7 and 6km with up to 250m of ascent, a river to cross and the recent weather to fight against! Nevertheless, our students did extremely well with Finley M finishing 15th in the Year 7 race, Hannah D finishing 10th in the Year 8/9 race and Harry B crossing the line in 6th place in the Year 10/11competition. This incredible set of results meant that, as a team, our students, representing Beckfoot, finished 11th in England! We are so proud of them and what they have achieved for themselves and our school. When you consider there are thousands of secondary schools, both state and private, across the country, what they have done is so special.
Netball: In recent weeks lots of our amazing girls have been attending trials for this year’s Bradford Schools Netball representative and development squads. This year a whopping twelve of our girls have been selected which is a fantastic achievement for them and extremely exciting for the PE team and our school. There were huge numbers of trialists from schools across the city in each age group making their selections even more impressive. We are rightly proud of all the girls that took part. Each of them commits so much time and effort to get to this level and their success is very much deserved.
U15 Representative Squad
- Millie H
- Nell B
- Lois P
- Esme M
- Matilda K
- Hannah H
- Bella McA
U13 Representative Squad
- Sienna O
- Ivy S
U14 Development Squad
- Monroe S
- Lucy B
- Jasmine W
England Cricket: Year 12 student Charlie P has this week returned from International Cricket duty with the England U22 team. Charlie travelled to Sri Lanka as part of the England squad for the Indoor Cricket World Cup. This significant event brought together the best teams from around the globe to compete in a thrilling showcase of skill, strategy, and sportsmanship. The competition ran from 27th September until 4th October with Charlie having to meet up with the squad in advance as part of their preparations. Charlie is one of the youngest members of the squad and was selected after years of sacrifice and training to develop his skills with bat and ball. He travelled as a right-handed batter and a left arm pace bowler and played in every game of the tournament. His stats were very impressive, and he helped England to a wonderful 5th place finish overall. He had the most amazing time away with the team and made friends and memories for life. He is an international athlete with international and world cup experiences to his name all whilst being the humblest of young men. We are so thrilled for Charlie and what he has achieved.
Personal Development at Beckfoot
Trips and visits have dominated our half term one with so much happening in terms of curriculum and enrichment activities since September. This aspect of our work is so important because it supports learning to come alive often beyond the classroom and our school. It provides our students with the experiences that enrich their lives and provide the memories that will last a lifetime. Most importantly this work opens minds and broadens horizons.
Women’s Premier League
Last weekend Ms. Holmes organised a visit to the Unity Stadium, formerly known as Leigh Sports Village, to watch Manchester United ladies play Chelsea. Almost 50 students joined staff for the Friday evening game to watch a top-level encounter between two of the best teams in this year’s WSL. Our students got to watch some of the best players in the world and see for themselves the level many of them aspire to. I love that our staff are willing to provide these opportunities for our young people.
Careers visit
This week our amazing Careers team took 40 of our Year 10 students to the Yorkshire Building Society Head Office for an Immersion Day. It was a full day of activities and talks with staff from all different departments and branches across YBS. Our students took part in sessions on delivering great customer service, fraud prevention, what employers want, the job market and problem solving as well as speaking to staff in branch, legal, marketing, estates and call centres dealing with mortgage applications and financial advice. The YBS staff said our students were the best behaved students they have ever had a on visit and thanked them for their participation and mature attitude. A huge thank you to the team and staff that made this day possible and such a huge success.
Girls and STEM
Earlier this week, Mrs Raybould took a group of Year 8 and 9 students on a STEM trip to Bradford University to take part in a series of challenges against other Bradford schools in an event called We Can Solve It. The event is designed to help bridge the gender diversity gap in STEM. We Solve It invites female students in years eight and nine to participate in an engineering project. The event showcases the varying pathways into STEM, builds essential skills, and inspires girls to consider sustainability in their future careers. For the second year in succession, our girls won the event bringing home yet another trophy for our collection. We are proud of them. They were all brilliant communicators which was noted by the judging panel. They had fantastic creative ideas and demonstrated great teamworking and leadership skills throughout. They will go on now to take part in the national finals early in 2026 and we are so excited for them to have the opportunity to shine at that level.
Congratulations to: Isabelle C, Martha F, Natalie L, Nicola L, Laura L, Tayyiba M, Monroe S, Hana T and Hannah W.
Geography A Level Blencathra trip
Monday saw the annual A Level field trip depart to Blencathra. Our students have spent the week away doing pilot studies and practice fieldwork techniques for their NEA. Each evening, they planned their investigations and each day they collected their own data for analysis and use. They have been fantastic and are a credit to our school throughout the week
World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10 each year to raise awareness about mental health issues and advocate against social stigma. The day aims to promote global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy. It serves as an opportunity for mental health professionals to discuss their work and highlight the importance of mental health in society. Each year, the day focuses on a specific theme to address various mental health issues and challenges faced by individuals worldwide.
Our commitment to Mental Health awareness and provision has been long standing at Beckfoot with Place 2 Be and the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) working to support our students since 2019. It is arguably the most important commitment we make financially to our families, staff and young people and we are proud of our work in this area of need. So much so that our Place 2 Be councillors, Rachel and Jess, asked me to include the following in this week’s blog.
Place2be is a children’s mental health charity that provides mental health support and counselling in schools; this can one-to-one and group counselling, place2talk sessions, and support for families and school staff to promote the emotional wellbeing of children and young people. At Beckfoot we have two qualified counsellors in school, Monday- Thursday who are onsite offering confidential support to our students as part of our mission to offer early intervention support. We wanted to share a little more about our school counsellors and put a face to the names.
Rachel
I have a degree in Accountancy and worked in the 6th Form here at Beckfoot for 10 years before leaving to become a counsellor.
I had a period of therapy when my children were little, and I was struggling. The therapy I received helped me so much that I decided I wanted to help others in the same way if I could and so I left Beckfoot and retrained as a counsellor.
I have 2 children, A boy who is age 25 and a swimming teacher and a girl, age 23 who is a dance teacher. I grew up in Keighley but now live in Bingley
Jess
I grew up in the Midlands, from a large, blended family with 8 siblings. I would now be categorized as having an ACE’s background and unfortunately school counselling was not a thing when I grew up. I really wish it had as it would have helped me process things a lot younger than I was able to when I accessed personal counselling as an adult. I moved to Bradford 12 years ago as my now husband grew up here. We have 2 children together, a 7 year old boy and 4 year old girl.
I have an English degree but retrained in my mid 20’s to become a counsellor after realizing working with young people and supporting their mental health journey was my passion. I have previously worked for Macmillan Cancer support, MIND and Inspired Neighbourhoods working with both adults and children.
Have a great weekend.
Simon Wade – Headteacher
