Middle Department Notices and Reminders

World Book Day

Thursday 2 March is World Book Day! We are celebrating this national event by transforming the Drawing Room and the Junior Hall into two huge bookshops provided by the Travelling Book Company. Pupils will have the chance to browse the books and make purchases.

As part of this national celebration of reading, each pupil will receive a £1 book token, redeemable against any book purchased on 2 March.

As in previous years, we invite all pupils and staff to dress up as their favourite character from a book, and we ask that £1 is donated to the World Book Day charity via this link Thank you to everyone who has already donated.

Please click here before Monday 20 February to complete the Google form confirming whether your child can participate in the book sale, their maximum spend amount and that you are happy for the cost of the book/books to be added to your account.

Kids Judge BETT 2023

Mr Buddie is pleased to announce that Beechwood has been chosen as one of only EIGHT UK schools throughout all spheres of education to participate in Kids Judge BETT 2023 on Friday 31 March.

Taking place annually at London’s Excel Centre, the BETT Show is described as “three days of inspiring connections, content, and product discovery, bringing together brilliant educators from across the globe.”

Kids Judge BETT is an initiative that allows school pupils to spend a day assessing and passing their judgement on the products and services being promoted at the BETT Show. As you can see from that list, there is an overwhelming array of companies exhibiting at the BETT show, and the show takes over TWO huge trade halls of the Excel Centre.

Ultimately, there is an awards ceremony at the end of the day on the main stage in front of hundreds of delegates, and the companies learn whether they have won these much-coveted awards. This year the celebrity presenter will be author, poet and activist, Michael Rosen.

This is a truly exciting opportunity for Beechwood pupils to be involved in a very high profile activity. We been invited to take a team of TEN judges to participate and we would like to invite all pupils from Year 3 upwards to apply to be in our jury.

To be chosen as a member of the Beechwood jury, pupils must meet these criteria:

Be in Year 3 or above;
Be available on Friday 31st March, from 0930 until 1600;
Have at least one parent or Trusted Adult who is willing to be their chaperone for the event;
Be able to arrive at the Excel Centre for 0930 using own transportation method;
Be willing to be wholly impartial when judging a product or service;
Have some interest in the use of technology.

If your child meets these criteria, then the next step is for them to APPLY to be a member of our jury, by completing this online form, copies of which are in the Google Classroom of each Computing class. Deadline for entries is 1600 on Friday 24 February.

A shortlist of applicants will then be interviewed in the first week of March, and successful pupils will be informed of their inclusion in the Beechwood Park Jury on Monday 6th March.

Mr Buddie looks forward to seeing applications from as many pupils as possible who wish to be chosen to join the Beechwood Park Jury.

This Week in Year 3

Hindu Temple Visit

The highlight of the week was our trip to the Hindu Temple in Bhaktivedanta Manor. The Manor is a spiritual sanctuary spread over 78 acres of land with beautiful gardens including one dedicated to the Beatle, George Harrison, who bequeathed the Manor House to the Hari Krishna community. There is also an organic farm, a protected herd of cows, a temple and a monastery.

The children had a wonderful time, learning about Hinduism, riding on a cart drawn by oxen, visiting the cows, trying on costumes and eating delicious vegetarian curry, which for many was their favourite thing! Thank you to Mr Wood for organising the trip.The staff commented on how well-behaved and interested the children were; they definitely demonstrated excellent Beechwood values!

English

This week in English, Year 3 have taken on the challenge of writing their very own adventure stories. After following our unit about the story of The Tunnel by Antony Browne, the children have written their own versions of the story. They have changed the characters, the setting and the important elements within the story, all while maintaining that key adventure story structure. Year 3 had great fun creating these and should certainly be proud of their efforts. Creativity has been flowing and they have all taken on board aspects of feedback to make their writing the best it can be.

Dance and Drama

Year 3 have been creating a dance about Winter – they enjoyed turning themselves intro whirling, twirling snowflakes, sharp, twisted & pointy icicles & mimed playing in the snow activities.

Forest School

With the longer days and the milder weather, Year 3 are very excited to be able to get outside into the woods again. We will be in the woods in the first week of the next half term:

Monday 20 February: 3D
Thursday 23 February: 3O
Friday 24 February: 3P

Pupils should come in to School wearing their School Games kit on Forest School days (with clean trainers or school shoes – not the footwear that they will wear in the woods). There is no need for other uniform on that day as they will remain in their games kits all day.

Pupils must bring waterproof clothing (red jackets and trousers if they still fit but there is no requirement for them to be red). Please send in layers if the weather gets cooler, especially waterproof gloves (we would always recommend that it is better to send in too many layers rather than too few; we will let your child know if it is unnecessary to wear them depending on the weather at the time of the session). Remember to label non-uniform items and check that wellies fit with thick/2 pairs of socks! Pupils may wear wellington/snow boots, outdoor trainers or walking boots. Please send them in a separate carrier bag to save mud transferring onto everything else!

Next Week

We are very excited to have our Year 3 corridor and stairs painted over half term. Mrs Pope has been stripping the boards in preparation and it has been so lovely to hear the children expressing dismay as their work comes down and how much they liked seeing it up there. We have reassured them that it will all end up in their Best Books so they are sufficiently mollified.

Kind regards

The Year 3 Team

This Week in Year 4

4B and 4R Forest School

4B and 4R had a super time on Monday at Forest School. The weather was cold but lovely and sunny-usually it rains when we go to Forest School! We had to work collaboratively in groups to hide a ‘pig’ from the other teams. We had to make arrows out of sticks to show them the way. If a team could not find another team’s pig the team that had hidden the pig had ‘failed’. We had to make it challenging but not impossible! We said that next time we could play the game but hide humans instead!

Thank you to Mrs Le Bas for a wonderful lesson!

Maths – Multiplication and Division

Last week, Miss Bailey’s Maths group used all of the work they have done this term on multiplication and division to earn points in a big class game. They worked together and had a brilliant time!

Geography

4B have been working hard on Geography posters about a chosen continent since last term. Their work was created with care, excellent teamwork and super research skills. Look what they managed to achieve!

Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

On Wednesday 4R discussed what ‘mental health’ means and what we can do to promote positive mental health. Mrs Routledge introduced the concept of ‘Mindfulness’ to her class and explained that we should try to live in the present moment and not dwell on negativity from the past or worry about what might happen in the future.

4R then took part in their first Mindfulness Practice led by Mrs Routledge.

This is what the children said afterwards:

‘I felt relaxed.’
‘My mind did wander a bit.’
‘It made me feel sleepy.’
‘I feel calm now.’
‘Can we do it again?’

It was a lovely and calm way to start our morning, we will definitely do it again!

Have a lovely half term!

The Year 4 Team

This week in Year 5

Sport in Year 5

Rugby

Despite the weather doing its very best to put a halt to the rugby season, the Year 5 boys have made the best of the conditions they have been given to keep progressing in their rugby development. Alongside practising their tackle technique and positional play, this season has also seen the introduction uncontested scrums and rucks into both their games and training sessions.

Although game time has been limited, all three boys’ teams have tasted victory this season with the most recent games against the mighty Lochinvar ending with resounding victories for both the A and B teams.

Netball

“This term in netball, we have been learning how to ‘clear out’ so that we are unmarked and in space to receive the ball. Also we have been practising leading (to pass the ball) and re-leading (to give them another option to pass)

We have also had some great victories in our matches this term but also we have got stronger by our defeats, learning from our mistakes. Most importantly, we have had loads of fun!” (Daisy – 5K)

Gymnastics

This half term, half of Year 5 have been having fun in their Gymnastics lessons and when we return from our holiday, the rest of the year group will get their chance. 

We have focused our learning on flight and specifically the 3 main parts of a jump – take off, flight and landing. We have incorporated the 5 main jumps – straight, tuck, straddle, pike and turn – into flight from different heights and using different gymnastics equipment. 

Over the course of the last few lessons, the children have had the opportunity to use springboards and trampettes and they have been introduced to vaulting. Both the straddle and the squat vault have been practised and the children have enjoyed giving both of these a try.

It has been fantastic to see their confidence grow with each attempt and many of those who might not have believed that they could complete a vault have surprised themselves with how much they have been able to achieve. 

Well done to Sonny and to Georgie in 5CB for going head to head in a fantastic Bake Off challenge!

Both contenders brought in the most delicious home-baked chocolate cookies and the Year 5 form teachers had the enviable task of tasting them … followed by the impossible task of choosing a winner!

The pupils are tempted to do a whole year group Bake Off next so watch this space!

The Year 5 Pastoral Team

From the Middle Department Library

Murder at the Museum by Alasdair Beckett-King

Bonnie Montgomery is the world’s best detective, though only her Grampa Banks has heard of her. However, people might have heard of the great Montgomery Bonbon, the well-dressed gentleman detective who (apart from the hat and moustache) looks suspiciously like a 10-year-old girl.

Together (though no one ever realises that they are never in the same place at the same time) they attempt to solve the mystery surrounding a highly suspicious death at the Hornville Museum.

The comedy of this fun and engaging read is enhanced throughout by Clare Powell’s dynamic illustrations.

The Library Team

Head’s Commendations

Congratulations to this week’s recipients of Mrs Cussans’ Commendations:

	Nurture	Inspire	Engage
Year 3	Amelie B, Louis L	-	Jack B, Aveer K
Year 4	-	Haotong G, Annabel M, Stella R	Amelia K, Sienna L, Stella R
Year 5	-	-	-