Our Year 8 children rendered our Headmaster and Head of Drama speechless last night, as they performed in the opening night of 'Prophecy'. The musical tells the story of the mythical hero Jason, who is sent on an epic quest to find the Golden Fleece with his band of allies, the Argonauts, in exchange for his rightful title as King of Thessaly. The show follows Jason's adventures on the high seas, encountering harpies, hydras, and even a singing Golden Fleece.

If our first night is anything to go by, the second is going to be just as successful. Well done to all involved in such a fantastic production. We will be talking about it for weeks, months, years...!

We're so proud of our sports teams for competing in their final rugby and hockey fixtures on Wednesday. Our boys were unbeaten against Tockington Manor, delivering some excellent performances.

As we move into the final stretch of term, our girls start their pre-season netball training on Saturday, and our boys transition to football on Monday. Well done on an excellent season, all!

Huge well done to our team of Max, Arthur, Caroline and Belle who represented Beaudesert at the Clifton Maths Challenge this week. Against 16 other schools, they came a very commendable second place. They worked brilliantly all day, both as a team and in pairs, over the four rounds of challenges.

Thank you so much to every member of our community who donated to our Children in Need fundraiser two weeks' ago. Whether you dropped spare coins into our buckets at drop off or whipped up a cake for our bake sale, we raised a total of £644.36. This money will go a long way in supporting children across the country.

At Forest School this week, we have been gently hammering copper wire to make some rustic craft jewellery as Christmas gifts. We have also been observing our feathery friend, Joe Robin, who has been fluttering very close during snack time, in search of some crumbs... Or perhaps he just loves the sweet smell of the warming hot chocolate as much as the children on a cold winter’s day! Whatever the reason, his frequent visits have made our learning feel all the more merry and magical, building on the children's connection with nature and love of the forest.

In Nursery, we had some special visitors to help with our learning about celebrations and festivals, as Amber and Lily’s mummies came to tell us all about Thanksgiving. We loved hearing about the traditions and importance of togetherness at this time, and the children shared their own ideas about what they were thankful for; some highlights included gravy, unicorns and grandma!

In Reception, we have been learning about Hanukah, with related crafting and baking, and building our literacy skills with an abundance of reading and writing.

Some of us were lucky enough to visit the Dining Hall this week to act as taste testers for some possible new nutritious desserts (ones without any refined sugar) that are being trialled by our lovely catering team. Sweet potato and date brownies and coconut flapjacks went down particularly well. Yum!

We held a special assembly this week for our Year 2 girls, focusing on friendship and compromise. We discussed our School Values and how we can use active listening to help us navigate problems. Mrs Packman, Mrs Naish and Miss Bett were all incredibly impressed with the maturity and compassion that the girls demonstrated.

We have also been busy rehearsing for our Nativity and Nursery Songs performances next week, building our Maths skills, painting, building and learning about road safety!

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep