Dear Parents and Carers,

I wanted to write to you all as we approach the end of our first week back following the summer break. It has been an incredibly strong week and it has been an absolute joy to welcome our students back into learning. I also wanted to open this letter by thanking you – this strong start is down to all in our Beckfoot community – staff, students and you, their families.

It is also a week that has been tinged with great sadness following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of everyone at Beckfoot School, I wish to express our deepest sympathies. Her service and dedication to her duties was exceptional. Our school will observe the period of mourning whilst continuing to support our students, families and employees. In tutor time today, we will remember her and allow students to ask questions following a presentation about her life and service. As and when more information is provided to us by the Department for Education, I will let you know.

I want to especially welcome our new Year 7 students and their families. I very much hope their first few days at Beckfoot have been enjoyable and that they are settling into life in our school. They have certainly made a very strong start and our collective impression of them is that they are a great year group that will thrive at Beckfoot and do amazing things with us over the next five to seven years.

Over the next few paragraphs I want to tell you about some developments over the summer and also about some things I feel you need to be aware of.

We have continued to invest heavily in our school. Our site team have done an amazing job of preparing the school to open and it was only last Friday that the painters left such has been the amount of work carried out over the past six weeks. We have painted large areas of school that were looking tired. We have invested in new flooring in all science rooms as well as new stools to sit on in those areas. We have installed new screen technology in many teaching rooms as well as further investing in our overall IT capabilities. We have redesigned our sixth form area following feedback from our post 16 students. For the first time, in this building, they now have a genuine common room but also a large quiet study area equipped with new benching, seating and IT facilities. It is important to me that our students have a school that is fit for purpose, is clean, looks after its facilities and is a place students feel comfortable and safe in. As I write, the school looks great and we will be encouraging everyone to help us keep it looking great throughout the year. We will continue to invest in our building and facilities and have plans to install some canopies in our outside spaces in October as well as continue to improve the quality of our food provision following feedback and tasting sessions with our students in the summer term.

The summer also saw a return to standardised A Level and GCSE exams which also meant a return to results days in August. We were thrilled with the performance of our students and delighted that so many secured their next steps in either education, employment or training. At A Level our average grade went from a C in 2019 to a B in 2022. The comparison with 2019 is deliberate due to it being the last year of standardised testing prior to the pandemic. At GCSE we secured the best results ever known at Beckfoot by some considerable margin. This summer’s success represents, for me, the hard work of staff and students over the last three years. It has not been easy and there have been many challenges along the way but our young people have lots to be proud of as have the staff. Seeing students doing well in August reminds us why we do what we do. A young person’s educational journey goes by in an instant and we must do all we can to ensure they have the very best chances of success in life whilst they are in our care. Below is a summary of our performance:

I feel it is right to make a point about attendance and the clear and obvious link to a students’ performance. It has always been clear that students do best when they attend school regularly. Being here everyday means they are less likely to fall behind in their learning thereby giving themselves every opportunity to succeed. We know that the quality of teaching at Beckfoot is strong and it is teaching that makes the single biggest impact on learning and exam success. Our students deserve the best we can provide for them but that is incredibly difficult if they are not here. Below is a chart that explains the link at Beckfoot between 2019 and 2022 and I felt it worthwhile sharing with you all:

I am very conscious of the varying reasons for absence but, nevertheless, I felt it important to share this with you.

I want to thank you for your support with the big decisions made last year including the decisions to ban mobile phones, the inclusion of Modern Foreign Languages into GCSE core provision, the tightening up of standards around uniform, equipment and readiness for learning and the introduction of Class Charts. I know they have not always been popular but we make decisions based on what we believe is right for our students and what will enable them to succeed at Beckfoot and in life. I am very clear that we are far from being a perfect school but we are a school moving forward in the right direction and that would not be possible without the support of a caring and ambitious school community.

Finally, we are excited at the prospect of what we can achieve together this year. Our staff are delighted to be back working with our students and our enrichment programme is back up and running from next week. I love the fizz of excitement and the buzz that is a feature of our school and I will be keeping you updated with all things Beckfoot on my blog throughout the year, do keep an eye out for this on our website and social media. It is a wonderful place to work and learn and I hope that your children will be happy in our care.

Best wishes.

Simon Wade
Headteacher

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