We have been marking Black History Month across the School, particularly in assemblies this week.

Mr Holmes led an assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday  about why we mark Black History Month and spoke to the children about a number of important people in history including Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks and Nichelle Nichols who played Nyota Uhura in Star Trek. All of the children were challenged to find out about a figure in history that they have not yet heard of.

Mr Robinson led our Pre-prep assemblies this week and spoke to the children about Rosa Parks’ story.

Mrs Saunders spoke to the Year 7 & 8s about trailblazing composers including Chevalier de Saint-Georges (the first known classical composer of African heritage), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and George Walker, and played some of their beautiful music.

In PSHCEE the children have been focusing on identity, equality and the American civil rights movement. In Art, the children have been studying American artist Romare Bearden through their topic of collage.

Year 7 have been looking at the work of 20th Century African American artist, Romare Bearden. He is famous for his collages which he began to create in the 1960s as a response to the Civil Rights Movement.  His work explores his personal experience of growing up in the south and life of African Americans in general at this time.

In English the Year 7 & 8 children have also been analysing Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech during the March on Washington for jobs and freedom. One class got the opportunity to speak to two teachers from The Cottage School in Atlanta, who spoke about their experiences of segregation when they were younger and how Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech resonated with them.

As we come to the end of a slightly quieter half term in the Boarding House, we cannot help but look back on it with huge fondness. The atmosphere that has developed over the last 6 weeks has been tremendous and our little band of boarders, which has almost doubled over the course of the term, have been absolutely awesome!

On Monday, social distancing was the aim in a big game of laser tag! On Tuesday, it was the first night of Spotlight. A huge amount of fun was had around the grounds, where we made the most of the dry, but fairly cold, dark evening and to round off the week, on Thursday it was a triple celebration! Firstly (and most importantly), it was happy birthday to Amelia! Secondly, we spent our last evening together playing games on the Segways (Friday fun night was moved to Thursday fun night thanks to the upcoming holiday) and finally, another photo shoot was in order, to celebrate our inclusion in the Good Schools’ Guide to Boarding this year. A fine accolade!

From all of us upstairs, have a great half term, and should you be tempted with 4 or 5 nights after half term, please do get in touch.  Have a wonderful half term break … Tom & Joey Layton, Houseparents

In Nature Club this week the children have been creating land art with the beautiful materials available in Beaudesert’s grounds. Did you know that many of the autumn colours we see are in present in leaves all year round, but are masked by the green pigment in chlorophyll? Nature club have been learning all about it.

Following on from Mr Robinson’s assembly on Black History Month on Monday morning, William in 1N brought in his copy of ‘Rosa – My first Rosa Parks’ by Lisbeth Kaiser to share with the class.  This resulted in an impromptu class discussion on why some people are treated differently from others. In 1S this has led to lots of children bringing in their books from the Little People Big Dreams series to share with the class which have been very popular.

This week Year 1’s key literacy text was ‘Funny Bones’ by Janet and Alan Ahlberg and children had lots of fun making skeletons with straws and pretending to be skeletons themselves!

In Reception this week the children have been learning the Little Red Hen song and performed a wonderful rendition for their parents in class!

What fun the children have had at Forest School this term! Even the Nursery children are now coming down to the main Forest School site every week, observing the seasonal changes on their walks and exploring the different areas.

This term they have been investigating their senses and enjoying the sights, smells and tastes of Forest School! They have observed the leaves changing colour and smelled the berries, herbs and leaves whilst making dyes for fabric flags. They tasted the delicious blackberries and apples that they picked and cooked on the fire, got muddy making mud pies for Squirrel Nutkin’s hibernation “banquet” and practised mindfulness and “tree-bathing”!

The children have learnt all about different trees, leaves and made mobiles and fir cone creatures out of the ‘tree treasures’ they collected.

Some children even attempted fire lighting using flint and steel whilst learning about fire safety, and others have visited the pond and built their own hibernaculum; a place of shelter for creatures as they settle down to hibernate in the winter months.

As well as all the activities that have been on offer, the children have simply thrived being outside with their friends, visiting the pond, playing on the rope swings, den building, digging and getting their hands dirty!

This week we heard some wonderful music from our Year 3 & 4 assembly from Isla, William and Flora! The children really enjoyed listening to their friends.

Our Tenth Episode of Beaudesert Island Discs is now live, with guest teacher Mr Curr. You can listen to a playlist of the music mentioned in this episode on Spotify.

Firefly

We are delighted that we have our instrumental and singing teachers back in school, and Mrs Saunders is pleased to hear that so many pupils are settling back into a practice routine between their lessons. The key for progress when learning an instrument or singing is ‘little and often’!

Most of our instrumental and singing teachers are using Firefly to send home practice notes, music and sometimes videos to demonstrate pieces. It is a fantastic resource and so please do log on to the parent portal, or to ask your children to log into Firefly to check their Tasks for any practice notes from their teachers. If children have any questions or if you would like to write feedback for each of the teachers, please reply on the task using the ‘send a comment’ button. Our teachers are keen to hear from you and they are here to help.

There are many additional music resources, including the drum backing tracks on the Music Resources page. If anything is missing, please ask Mrs Saunders to upload these additional resources for you.

This week the Nursery have been having lots of fun outside enjoying the beautiful colours of Autumn around Beaudesert. They have been finding items in the Nursery and categorising them by their colour, as well as enjoying some water play – they were glad to have a spare set of clothes with them!

Over half term make sure you are practising the Jerusalema dance!  Mrs Crosbee has challenged the whole school to learn the dance craze that has gone viral in South Africa and we will be filming our version when we return in November.

Get the whole family involved and practice your moves at home with Mrs Crosbee!

9Mr Griffiths and Mr Dill are back with a podcast to keep you up to speed with all things sport at Beaudesert. This half term has been full of sport and it has been great to see all the pupils getting stuck in and enjoying being back out playing with their friends.