Baker’s Beacon Blog – Week 26

Dear Parents,

A rather cold, wet week and you can tell from the indoor nets and sound of cricket bags rolling across the quad that the boys are itching for sunshine and a bit of decent cricket weather.  Warmer from this weekend hopefully so the ‘Summer’ Term can feel a bit more appropriate and start properly after the Bank Holiday, particularly now the bluebells are out.  Although only flowering for a short time, the effect of a blue carpet in the various ‘Bluebell Woods’ around these parts is always a remarkable sight, and one I always look to capture as I cycle around the district.  They weren’t brilliant this past weekend but I will look out over the next few days and post my favourite next week.  If any Beacon boy visits some bluebells, do email their images to me at nbaker@beaconschool.co.uk and we can have a delightful, floral Chilterns’ montage in next week’s Lighthouse.

The multi-skilled Beacon boys continue to impress me as the year progresses.  When I was growing up in Amersham in the 1980s, boys from this school, had, way more than anything else, a fearsome reputation as brilliant and tough rugby players.  I can’t deny, that impression still holds, but it is a real strength of the school that we are known now as much for our breadth of opportunity in the performing and creative arts as we are for our sporting prowess. This was no better exemplified this week was I was invited to visit the ‘Knitting and Stitching Club’ by Ms Bell and Mrs Hardie.  In their breaktimes, boys have created some superbly detailed and perfect pieces of stitch work, shown here with master stitcher Farris, and are now working on a Beacon rug (that hopefully might end up in my office).  The technique was to use a latch hook to thread and knot each piece of wool.  It looked easy, the explanation straightforward, but my clumsy fingers certainly couldn’t master it and I took the picture and got out of there as my patience ran out.  On Tuesday, I join colleagues and parents at the invitation of the Year 8 Mastercook finalists to ‘Come Dine With Us’, serving up their ‘signature’ dishes.  Again, skills, this time of a culinary fashion, learned at an early age that will stay with the boys for a lifetime.

As a 50 year old who can’t sew on a button and is a hopeless cook, these boys regularly put me to shame…and that’s before you even try and throw me a rugby ball…

Have a good Bank Holiday weekend,

Kind regards,

Nick

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