Baker’s Beacon Blog – Week 23

Dear Parents,

There are school quizzes and there are Beacon School Quizzes. I’ve presided over and attended many a school quiz but I have never been at one where you have actual buzzers and then buzzers which then relay to audio which announces ‘University Challenge Style’, a boy’s House and then his surname. A fully interactive AV experience for everyone. Great fun, enjoyed by all and, as I am increasingly coming to appreciate, very ‘Beacon’. I even got one of the ‘answer smash’ questions correct that no-one ‘buzzed’ to answer: Mr Langley asked “Another word for a catastrophe”, alongside an image of Dr Who’s Police Box. Radio silence from the teams and the audience so I piped up with, “Tardisaster”…House Point to Mr Baker…

The production was of such a high specification it reminded me of BBC Children’s TV Quiz Show in the 1980s called ‘First Class’.  Teams from various schools around the country competed in a format that involved traditional question/answer rounds but also visual image questions, music rounds, and, what was amazingly exciting at the time, a video games round. Team members had to try and score maximum points on such classics as ‘Paperboy’ and ‘Hypersports’ and the viewers (well this one at least) looked on in wonder at this completely unfamiliar concept that had never been seen on television before. In one of the series, Dr Challoner’s got all the way to the final. It was anyone’s to win right up until the final round and one of ‘our’ team incorrectly answered “Alien” to a question asking to name a sci-fi film that starred Sigourney Weaver. The answer on the card was “Aliens”, which we all thought in the playground the next day as grossly unfair. I think the story even made the Bucks Examiner that week – different times…

As we race towards the end of term, no let up in the fun and games on Amersham Road with House Treat Monday, Year 4 production and the Easter Hat Parade to name but a few events next week. Mr Robinson has also told me that if I want to see some high class sporting action I need to come and watch the footballing maestros that are our 1^st XI in action on Wednesday. I will do that and then referee some, I’m sure, similarly talented athletes at Parents vs Staff football after school on Thursday. Football, as always, will hopefully be the winner…

Have a good weekend,

Nick Baker

Follow me on…