Wellbeing is front and centre at Beckfoot
Welcome back to half term four. I hope you all had a wonderful half term break, managed to get some rest and spend time with family and friends.
Over half term over fifty staff and students travelled to Austria to enjoy a week of skiing and other ski related activities. They left school on the Friday we finished for the holiday and returned over the weekend. The feedback from staff, students and families has been phenomenal and everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I am so grateful to the staff that planned and led this trip, to the students who represented Beckfoot so brilliantly and to our families who provided incredible support and feedback and gratitude for the opportunity. The most important thing is that everyone returned home fit and well and keen to return next year.
This week has seen our Year 11 and Year 13 students heavily involved in their full GCSE and A Level mock exams. Over the course of this week and next, they will sit full exams in each subject they are studying and the experience is so critical as part of our plans to ensure each of them is fully prepared for the summer. I have to say that they have been magnificent throughout because they care. Success matters to them. I have seen them each day to remind them of their responsibilities to themselves and the absolute necessity to invest in themselves and their futures NOW. They get it. I have also reminded them that they will learn a great deal from the process both in terms of the experience but also in terms of being clear about what they know at this stage and what they don’t. Staff will work very hard over the next few weeks, giving up evenings and weekends to mark the scripts and use the learning from that to plan for the journey to the summer. They are hugely invested in and committed to ensuring that our students will be well prepared for their exams and close the gaps in knowledge and understanding that emerge from the mock exams. It is for those reasons that this time of year is so important for us all. As always, I am humbled by our staff and students and the levels of care, compassion and interest that I witness every day. Beckfoot is a special place but it is at times like these that the culture of care really shows itself to all.
I would like to thank our families for their attendance at our virtual Year 7 parents evening last night. Our attendance figure was 98% which is a wonderful indicator of engagement with both Beckfoot and their child’s education. It was the first opportunity to hear first-hand how our Year 7 students are doing in their first six months as Beckfooters. They are a wonderful year group and are very important to us. They are so well cared for by their teachers and pastoral leaders. They have thrown themselves fully into life at Beckfoot and have been a huge part of both our curriculum and enrichment programmes in that time. I look at them every day and I see the young people they are growing up to be. They are kind, selfless, curious, interesting and genuinely decent young people. We are proud of them and simply wish to see them continue to shine in all they do at Beckfoot.
As you know I love to celebrate the achievements of our students and this week I have two very special Year 11 students to mention. The first is Oliver who competed in the 60m sprint event at the England Athletics indoor championships at the weekend. Oliver won his heart in a time of 7.03 seconds and qualified 5th fastest overall for the semi-finals. In that race he came fourth overall placing him as the eleventh fastest in the country this year. He is an amazing athlete with a bright future ahead of him. The second is Holly who has been selected to represent Yorkshire in the annual tennis county cup being held at Bath University next weekend. Yorkshire are competing against teams from Cheshire, Middlesex and Surrey. This is the first time she has been chosen to play at this level and she has worked very hard over recent years, whilst she is incredibly humble, she is also very excited. We wish her well. What is clear in the case of both students is that they are really bright, hard working and humble. They totally get the importance of hard work in terms of their sport, school and in life. They have an ability to find balance in all they do and I have little doubt both will go to achieve amazing things in their lives because of who they are, their mindset, their resilience and their drive. We are very proud of them both as we are of all our students.
Finally, I am very excited to let you know that we have been the recipient of yet another national award this week. We were informed, on Wednesday that our application for accreditation of transforming practice in wellbeing has been successful. This means that Beckfoot has met the highest standards of the Framework for Exceptional Education and that your work in this area is amongst the most effective practice nationally. We are thrilled, given our commitment to wellbeing over the past three years especially. This work has been led by Alex Denham and Aieshah Ickringill and supported by numerous staff and students over the past 6-8 months. For me, the process allowed us to really consider our provision and practice but also have it tested out via external moderation. That moderation involved staff and students who were incredibly proud of what their school is doing in this area. Our students were so articulate about the importance of the work being done around wellbeing and the impact it has had on family and friends especially since lockdown. The report we received this week was a moment to stop and reflect on what we do here and why we do it. It was also a time to really consider next steps in order for us to be better tomorrow than we are today. That is our determination.
Take care
Simon Wade, Headteacher
