Dear Parents,
The Beacon is a beautiful school in many ways but if you could choose its least aesthetically pleasing angle, you couldn’t get much worse than the rear aspect of the Osborne Building that has been the backdrop for our annual school photograph these past few years. We have, therefore, decided to swap this for the splendour of Willsfield for today’s whole school photograph and, with the small window that the weather allowed us, managed to pull it off. Getting over 500 boys and 125 staff over to the field…then into height order…then all smiling at the same time…was some feat of Beacon engineering, but I have no doubt the final shot will be a fitting addition to the dozens of photographs that adorn the corridors and depict the history of the school. The photography company remarked to me at the end that the boys as a group were of the ‘very best’ they have worked with during this photo ‘season’.
Thank you to the 124 of you that have so far contributed to our parental survey. Even though it will remain open until the end of term, I couldn’t resist taking a quick look at the results this week and they make for interesting reading. No spoilers until we have the complete picture, but there appear to be a number of clear trends that we have already considered and can action very quickly for the new school year. There are also a few more indicators that will give us further thought to implementation as we strategise the future development of the school. If you haven’t already, please do complete the survey HERE – this is very much ‘our’ school; governors, staff, parents and most of all the boys – everyone’s opinion is a valid one and can help shape what has always been a traditional yet progressive school.
In most schools I have worked in, you know never to ask the Performing Arts colleagues “how’s the production looking?” in the weeks running up to the final performance. Usually you get very negative and overly dramatic responses such as, “no-one knows their lines”, “I need a whole week of rehearsals” or in one instance some years ago “seriously Nick, I think we’re going to have to pull it – the whole thing’s a disaster”. Not the case at The Beacon though, and when speaking to Zenelle Oosthuizen and Bex Livermore these past few weeks, they will excitedly proclaim, “Nick, we’re going really big this year…stand by Amersham!” for the Year 6 production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Year 8 show of Sister Act. Sure enough, yesterday we took delivery of the Chitty car itself, last seen on an episode of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’…Go Big or Go Home seems to be our motto with a school production…Go Beacon!
Have a good weekend,
Nick Baker