Our Girls are doing incredible things
This week’s blog is a celebration of the many amazing things our girls have been doing across school in recent weeks. I am so proud of their achievements and the manner in which they are able to blend their studies with other interests within and beyond school.
To begin, our Year 9 girls (Martha, Lucy, Betsy, Evalina and Emily) won this year’s AMEY Cup competition. Amey are a leading provider of full life-cycle engineering, operations and decarbonisation solutions, for transport infrastructure and complex facilities. They provide female students in Years 8 and 9 the opportunity to participate each year with the event designed to show just how many roles are available within the technology and engineering sectors, and the students are tasked with planning, budgeting, managing risk, and presenting their ideas to a judging panel. Our girls were up against several other schools all of whom were asked to design and present a vision for the redevelopment of Bradford city centre. They were brilliant throughout and were crowned worthy winners.
In sport, Beckfoot hosted around 150 students at the recent Bradford Schools Netball Trials. With only 25 spaces per squad available, the competition was really tough. Regardless, 10 of our students were successful and have been selected to represent Bradford this year. They are as follows:
- U13 – Millie, Bella, Esme and Iris (All Year 8)
- U15 – Poppy, Lily, Frances and Eva (Year 10), Lois and Hannah (Year 9)
A further 8 of our girls also trialled and although they were unsuccessful this year, we are incredibly proud of them too. We have never known such numbers of our students, female and male, to trial at this level never mind be successful in securing a place in a squad. It is truly brilliant not least because of the positive role modelling these students provide for so many more both in school and beyond.
In academic news Sophie (now Year 9) sat her Chinese GCSE exam this summer whilst in Year 8. That in itself is a huge undertaking but one that she handled brilliantly. Not only did Sophie pass her GCSE she got the highest grade possible at Grade 9! It was lovely for her to be celebrated in a recent assembly and for me to have the opportunity to congratulate her myself.
We must never take any of these achievements for granted. They are special moments for our students, their families and our school.
Finally, as you know, we have the most incredible and nationally celebrated and recognised careers provision at Beckfoot. Each year I wonder how they are going to be better for our students in their planning and delivery of opportunities throughout the year. I needn’t have worried. On Wednesday we hosted our annual Careers Fair in the main hall. 
Over 45 companies and education providers came into school to meet our students. A planned programme of access for all year groups was shared prior to the event and our students were advised as to how to navigate the fair, what questions to ask and how to seek advice and guidance around any particular provider they were interested in. Over the course of the day, over 1600 of our students accessed the fair with so many brilliant conversations taking place, contacts being made and Work Experience places being organised. These days are essential to connect our students with their next steps and future plans. These are things we are getting right increasingly at Beckfoot and I could not be more pleased.
As we draw near to the end of this half term, I am reminded of how special Beckfoot is. It has been an incredibly few weeks for school, students, staff and families and I want to simply say thank you.
Take care
Simon Wade, Headteacher
