…WE DID IT!! We’ve got our Green Flag!

Over the summer, we received our Green Flag award from the Eco-Schools initiative! This is an international education programme which encourages children to get involved in promoting environmental awareness in their schools and communities.

Last year, our Prep School Eco-Commitee and Pre-Prep Eco-Club conducted an environmental review and compiled an action plan to improve the School’s green credentials. Focusing on biodiversity, litter and waste, children and staff organised a host of different activities to support their application for a Green Flag. They hosted a plant and cake sale, constructed and installed bird boxes, conducted litter picks, and organised food surveys and assessments with catering staff. And all that hard work was worth it!

The flag was presented in assembly on Wednesday morning, and is now flying proudly on our Croquet Lawn. However, there is no rest for our Eco-Committee. The children are busy planning activities for the coming year to renew our application for next year, and they are on the hunt for new members… Children should get in touch with Mrs Waters if they would like to join the team this year.

Say hello to Zac, Siobhan, Izzy and Kuber; this year’s Graduate Assistants! Our Grads work across the School, supporting the children right the way from Nursery. As well as taking on important break and lunchtime duties, the Grads coach some of our sports teams, and support our boarding team in the evenings. For our Grads, there is never a dull moment!

Year 4 visited the Wilderness Centre in the Forest of Dean on Thursday for a teambuilding day packed with fun activities. The sun was shining and the enthusiasm was high. The children were divided into groups and took part in low ropes, orienteering, spider web and sling shot activities. All of the children had a super ‘can-do’ attitude, and got stuck in with their friends to solve problems and work together. Listening, planning and replanning were all needed in order to be successful.

The egg drop from the roof at the end of the day was the pinnacle, and remarkably every egg survived the fall! Staff were so impressed with the children, they really were a credit to Beaudesert.

Our Year 7 children are currently on their way back from Ullswater following a fantastic week in the beautiful Lake District. We will include a full report in next week’s Buzz but here’s a sneak peek of some of their adventures.

This week our Art Department would like to highlight the work some of our Year 8 children are doing as part of their art scholarship applications. During activities time this week, the children used sticks and ink to draw skulls as beautiful still life pieces. We cannot wait to see what else they produce this year.

Year 2 have kick started their topic-based learning with a wonderful visit from Gloucester Waterways Museum. We built a ‘canal’ and learnt about the history of canals. We also dressed up in traditional clothing, looked at artefacts from narrowboats, and took rubbings of the brass plaques that decorate the interior of the boats.

In PSHCE, Year 2 children have each made their own Harold the Giraffe. Harold helps us with our PSHCE and wears his SCARF, which stands for Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship.

Year 1 have been continuing to study the topic Ready, Steady, Grow. We have been reading the book The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss, and observing what we are able to do now and what we will be able to do in the future. We have been thinking about how everyone looks, how we are the same and how we are different, by labelling body parts and by painting pictures of ourselves. We have also been enjoying reading in different ways during Literacy lessons, recognising numbers as words in Maths lessons, and learning about Pablo Picasso and Cubism.

In Reception, we have also been thinking about how special and unique we are. We experimented with colour mixing to create our very own skin tone paint, and used mirrors to carefully observe our facial features to help us create our self-portraits. We have also enjoyed starting our phonics lessons, sorting sounds and making ‘i’ insects to connect to our letter sounds.

Nursery have been continuing to get to know their teachers, their friends and their environment. We had lots of fun looking at photos of ourselves and our classmates, and using loose parts to decorate these and make ourselves look funny! We are proud of our children and our parents for managing to say goodbye a little more easily each day, and for how the children are settling into their routines.

It has been wonderful to see the children engaging in our activities programme, enjoying Ballet, Judo, cooking, crafting, constructing, singing, and having their first go at violin, recorder and glockenspiel this week.

Anna Packman, Head of Pre-Prep

Starting the year with a bang, Henry and Kasper are beginning their new podcast series by interviewing Beaudesert Park’s Headmaster, Chris Searson. Tune in to this extended episode to find out what advice the Headmaster would give his younger self, what superpower he would like to have, and why he loves working in a country prep school…

It has been another lovely week in the Boarding House. The Year 4 and Year 5s had a fantastic evening out in the grounds, exploring BOB and playing a giant game of manhunt. The Year 8s are getting into the swing of having the House to themselves on a Wednesday evening. They are really enjoying having the freedom to choose from an array of different activities. Senior supper has also been a huge hit!

Later in the week, the Year 6 children played the most enormous game of sardines inside, which saw some very imaginative and impressive hiding spots.

We have opened up the new and improved ‘Snug’ recently, which the Year 8s described as “awesome” …So we think it went down well. It has added another area in the House where the children can have a little quiet space if and when needed.

We are looking forward to our Friday night boarding tonight! Have a lovely weekend.

Oli and Debbie Jones, Houseparents

Book boarding

Organisation for the Autumn Fair is hotting up… We can now announce a full list of exhibitors who will be with us on Saturday, 15th October from 8:30am to 3:00pm.

The School will also be hosting a stall, selling our Beaudesert mugs, and our brand new (and very exciting) Christmas decorations!

Make sure you book it in your diary!

We hope to see lots of you at our Learning Support Coffee Morning on Tuesday, 27th September from 8:30am. Whether your children receives Learning Support lessons or not, all parents across the Pre-Prep and Prep School are welcome to attend and meet our Learning Support Department, including our two new Learning Support teachers, Mrs Conway and Miss Powell.

Last Saturday, members of the Beaudesert Show Jumping Team travelled to Rectory Farm to take part in the Cheltenham Ladies’ College Show Jumping competition. This is always the first show of the school year and the children performed really well, getting both team and individual placings in a number of events.

The 40cm class is a brilliant class as it allows younger or less experienced riders to have a go and, if needs be, be led or advised on where to go. It is judged on style, rather than speed. Well, style we had, and Isla rode a beautiful round to finish in 2^nd place, one point behind the eventual winner. The team of Archie, Isla and Sophie were only 2 points behind the winning team to come 3^rd overall. A great result.

We had some lovely clears from Sophie, Honor and George in the 50cm, but they were not quite fast enough to get into the placings. The pace was stepped up in the 60cm and the team of Archie, Honor and Amelie placed 2^nd, with Amelie taking individual 8^th. This was just the start of the placings for Amelie, who went on to take 3^rd place on Star in the 70cm, then 1^st place on The Pepemeister after a fantastic round, winning the Topsy Corbett Cup.

In the Championship qualifiers, Scarlett produced two lovely clears to come 9^th and 11^th in the 70/75cm and 80/85cm respectively, and Ottilie also produced a brilliant clear on Labanasigh Bruce to take 9^th in the 80/85cm, riding with skill and precision. This has set her up well for the School Equestrian Games Championships this weekend.

Overall, it was a great day. Well done to all who took part and thank you, as always, to the parents who helped and supported. If anyone is new to the School, or has recently started competing and is interested in hearing about shows and joining the Equestrian Squad, please contact j.davies-smith@bps.school.

We are hosting a whole school Open Morning on Friday, 30th September from 9:30am to 12noon. If you know any families who may interested in visiting Beaudesert and seeing more of the School, please do direct them to our website Admissions section, to register for the event.

This week the Pre-Prep children have enjoyed sweet and sour pork with rice and prawn crackers on Tuesday, roast turkey with stuffing, roast potatoes and red cabbage on Wednesday, classic sausage and mashed potatoes on Thursday and fish fingers and chips to finish the week! Delish!