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Weekly Newsletter

January 10, 2025

This Week:

Headmaster’s Welcome

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Dear Parents and Guardians,

 

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025. Christmas has been and gone and I hope that you had a joyous time during the festive season. The pupils have settled back into School routines very well.

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Bethany has also been very fortunate with the weather in comparison to other parts of the UK. Thankfully there was only a light dusting of snow during the week and we were able to carry on as normal.

 

As I said in my end of term letter, if we are impacted by adverse weather you will be informed directly by the School. Hopefully this will not be necessary.

 

The next two weeks may be stressful for our Year 11 pupils as they have their trial GCSE examinations, I wish them well. Similarly, some of our Sixth Form Pupils sat external examinations this week and will have some more over the next fortnight and I hope they get their grades that their hard work deserves.

 

I am looking forward to the Year 13 parent teacher meeting on Thursday. It will take place in the Pengelly Performance Centre and it starts at 5.15pm. I hope as many of the Year 13 pupils as possible as well as their parents attend this meeting.

 

As we embrace the new year, I will finish with a quote from Albert Einstein who once said “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow”.

 

We seem to be living in an age where negative news is accentuated and the positive underplayed. We all have a lot to be grateful for and we should try our best to look on the bright side at every opportunity. Hope springs eternal!

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Francie Healy

Headmaster

Latest Bethany Blog

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The first blog of the spring term has been written by Mr Davies, Head of History and Politics at Bethany School. He talks of successes and dedication of pupils and revisiting blogs of newsletters past.

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As I may have hinted before, it is always a cause of great celebration when Mrs Cooper emails to say that it’s my turn to write the Head of Department’s blog for the newsletter, and I literally burst forth with joy when my inbox pinged on Tuesday.  However, for the rest of the week I have struggled somewhat with writer’s block; in fact, I have failed dismally even to get to the writing stage because I couldn’t manage to think of a topic to write about.  I am now about an hour from Mrs Cooper’s deadline and, as anyone will tell you, you don’t want to miss a Mrs Cooper deadline; so I have redoubled my efforts.

 

I considered writing about the excellent book I’m reading on the 2016 US presidential election by PJ O’Rourke, but I did books four blogs ago.  Mind you, I will tell you in passing that PJ O’Rourke is my New Favourite Thing, and I will be digging out many more of his books.  Anyone who can come out with such corkers as this is worth reading: ‘The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn.  The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.’

 

Then I considered writing about historical and political movies, but I did that in my last blog.  Mind you, I will tell you in passing that I am currently watching on Netflix the excellent mini-series Self-Made: Inspired by the Story of Madam CJ Walker and I would love to tell you how it finished, but a lorry crashed into a telegraph pole at the bottom of Winchet Hill earlier in the week and completely took out my broadband connection for the last few days, so I’m stuck halfway through the last episode.

 

With the Year 11 mock examinations coming up very soon, I considered writing about where to find the best revision resources, but I did that in 2023.  Mind you, it’s worth mentioning in passing that all of your child’s teachers will spend hours making a huge range of materials available to them on Teams, and the exam boards themselves have all of the past papers and mark-schemes available on their websites.  YouTube has a million billion trillion videos on every exam subject, many of them put together by teachers, some of whom evidently have far too much time on their hands (not at Bethany, obvs).  Revision now is so much easier than it was in my day…

 

Our Year 9 pupils have just started our WWI Old Bethanians research project, so I considered giving you a flavour of that, perhaps with an exemplar of the finest work we’ve seen; but I did that in 2022.  Mind you, I will mention in passing that I am filled anew with admiration each time I look at the whole School photo from 1905 – which shows a very large number of pupils who would go on to fight on the Western Front – and realise the sacrifice of that generation – and the next – made for us.  The work that our Year 9s do in our research project is our tiny attempt to pay tribute to that.

 

Then I considered writing about the plethora of splendid visits that the History & Politics Department has put on over the years, but I did that in 2021.  Mind you, I will mention – just in passing – that I visited Bebbanburgh (now Bamburgh) Castle back in the October half term, and what a magnificent spectacle it is.  I could also mention that my interest in the castle and this visit was inspired by the Last Kingdom books by Bernard Cornwell and also the resultant Netflix series of the same name; but I may already have covered that elsewhere.

 

You may not have noticed (I do try to keep things seamless), but there was a short break in the writing there whilst I taught my Year 10s.  We’re looking at the disaster that was the Gallipoli campaign in WWI, and pupils are currently working specifically on a 16 mark source essay on whether they agree with the interpretation that the landings at Anzac Cove involved brutal fighting.  We went through the sources concerned and – no great surprise here – agreed as a class that the fighting at Anzac Cove was indeed pretty brutal.  In what became one of my favourite moments of the year so far, one of the pupils put up her hand and said she’d already finished the essay and could I take a look at it before she submitted it; I read it and it was almost faultless, I had to wrack my brains to come up with something she could do to improve it.  When I told her how good it was, she didn’t sit there and rest on her laurels, she immediately made the addition I’d suggested.  Shortly afterwards, in what became one of my favourite moments of the year so far, one of the boys put up his hand to make a point about one of the sources.  He came up to the front and we stood at the screen going over a short extract, disagreeing about how it should be interpreted; he continued to disagree with me despite my cogent explanation, and proceeded to use the quotation in the way he wanted using his equally cogent but almost entirely opposite interpretation.  Then I spoke with a boy who’d – not to put too fine a point on it – made a bit of a Horlicks of his last source essay.  He said he’d finished and could I go over it for him; he had used all of the feedback he’d received on his last essay to inform his writing this time and had produced a really well evidenced and explained argument, which made excellent use of the source material and his own knowledge.  You’ll not be surprised to hear that this became one of my favourite moments of the year so far.  I could give you more examples of little triumphs, the things that warm the cockles, but Mrs Cooper is standing over me with a pitchfork.

 

In hurried conclusion, then, I still have no idea what to write this blog about, but I suppose that – in passing – I’ve told you about how great our pupils are and how keen they are to use every bit of help and support they get from the teachers here; and it strikes me, perhaps belatedly, that this was the point of the thing all along.  As Hannibal said when he took his elephants across the Alps to fight the Romans, I love it when a plan comes together.

 

Mr Davies

Head of History and Politics

 

Reflections of Self: Year 9 Portraits

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Year 9 art pupils have come back with a bang and have clearly been creative over their Christmas break. They were set the very vague prep task of create a self-portrait in any media of their choosing. We wanted to see what they would do with such an open ended task.

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They have not only done that but they have really explored their personalities within these beautiful pieces of work. The range of media used is excellent and what they created were too good not to share. The pupils clearly enjoyed this task and their creativity has shone through.

 

The Year 9 pupils are going on to look at the artist Luke Dixon when continuing their portrait scheme of work with the intention of including more photography and line work. In the coming weeks they will then go on to  explore another artist who looks at a different media to really broaden their skill set. We are keeping the Year 9 pupils on their toes with their artwork, stretching and challenging them at every opportunity to really push the boundaries of their work and allow them to become more skillful and confident artists.

 

Mrs Clough

Art and Textiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bethany Pupils Of The Week

Each week in Assembly, ‘Pupil of the Week’ awards are given to pupils across the various year groups who have been nominated by their tutor.

 

This could go to an individual who has perhaps shone that week academically; demonstrated the values of kindness, tolerance, and respect particularly well; or represented the school or county in a positive way.

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Year 7  Pupil of the Week is Samuel

Sam had an outstanding first week of term demonstrating a real growth in confidence.

 

Year 8 Pupil of the Week is Will

Will helped a new pupil settle in to Bethany and was a good friend.

 

Year 9 Pupil of the Week is Fifi

Fifi has been an excellent shadow to a pupil visiting the school. Making them feel welcome to Bethany.

 

KS4 Pupil of the Week is Maisie

Ahead of her mock examinations next week Maisie has been proactive in working closely with her teachers ensuring she has the correct resources so she is best prepared.

 

Orchard Pupil of the Week is Honor

Honor is an absolute joy to have in the House. She is always super-reliable and super polite, her effort and attitude during prep time is first class and we don’t think that we’ve ever heard anyone say a bad word about her in the three and a half years she’s been here! A worthy recipient of the hallowed GOAT trophy.

 

Year 7 Pupil of the Autumn Term

As some of you may be aware, a pupil of the week award is handed out each week in Year 7 Assembly for a pupil who has particularly impressed in one way or another.

 

What many may not be aware of though is that this puts winners automatically in contention for our pupil of the term award. The top banana if you will of Year 7. The names of each pupil of the week for the past term are fed into the random name generator wheel and spun. Up for grabs is an Amazon Voucher and small trophy.

 

I am delighted to say that the Year 7 pupil of the term for the Autumn Term was Arabella.