Beths
Grammar
School

Week ending Friday 30 June 2017

The last few days have been extremely busy ones.

We started off last Thursday with Sports Day and, luckily, the weather held for us just about. The results from the day were as follows:

1st Hurst 964
2nd Eardley 895
3rd Abbey 870
4th Brampton 846
5th Cray 829
6th Wickham 809

On Friday 23 June, the Year 12 Language Ambassador team attended the 14th Annual UK Chinese Teaching Conference hosted by Katherine Carruthers at the UCL IOE Confucius Institute.

I spoke first and introduced Beths’ new student-led outreach programme, giving colleagues some practical tips on how to get started with student-led outreach work in Mandarin. Then the students took over and demonstrated their Chinese taster lesson (which they’ve now taught at four different primary schools with great success) and explained their processes. Finally, the students and I all took questions about the programme.

The students did a fantastic job and were very professional, and I was pleased to see how enthusiastic our Chinese teaching colleagues from across the UK were to see them in action. By the end of the workshop, the majority of the 40 or so colleagues who chose to attend this workshop said they would consider trying something similar in their own schools, simply as enrichment for Year 12 or as part of Duke of Edinburgh voluntary work, for instance.

By Miss McLeod, Subject Co-ordinator Chinese Mandarin

On Monday 26 June, we hosted our Year 6 Parents Evening for the new students, and their parents, joining us in September. It was a glorious evening and very successful with Independent Catering serving samples of the food they serve to students, the PA manning the Snack Shack and Year 7 ambassadors and House Captains welcoming the students to their form groups. The students are back again next Tuesday for their induction day when they will spend time within their form groups and playing team games on the field to help with their transition to Beths in September.

On Tuesday 27 June, we held our Summer Soiree, which again was a huge success, despite the weather, a large audience witnessed a varied programme of orchestral, ensemble and big band music as well as solo performances. Well done to all who took part.

Also on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 June, we hosted our Year 12 Induction Days which, again, were very successful. We look forward to welcoming many of the students who visited us an offer for September.

Our Chair of Governors, Mr Kirk, would like to invite all to attend St Mary’s Church Bexley’s Summer Fair on Saturday 8 July commencing at 11.30am. The fair will be opened by the Mayor of Bexley and there will be a number of stalls and activities, including bell ringing and organ demonstrations to enjoy. Admission is only 50p and so, if you are free, then please come along with your family and friends and support one of your local churches.

Finally, we are also looking forward to a busy week next week. We have three new Year 5 open events planned along with our Year 6 students joining us for their induction day on the Tuesday, our Higher Education and Careers day for our Year 12 students on the Wednesday, Year 13 also have their prom on the Wednesday evening and our advance Year 8 camp preparation team also set off for the New Forest with the first group of Year 8 students leaving on the Saturday. We’ll report more on these next week.