Weekly Newsletter

Bethany is a leading independent co-educational day
and boarding school for pupils aged 11-18

November 10, 2023

Headmaster’s Welcome

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We had Remembrance Services for the various year groups throughout the week and due deference was paid by the pupils in each of the services.

The Bethany Tanzania training weekend, which took place last Saturday and Sunday was very successful.

Year 8 pupils completed their Curriculum Project on Wednesday, and made some very impressive presentations to an exacting panel of judges, outlining their vision for the old swimming pool area. I was very impressed with the quality of presentations.

We have a very good number of prospective Year 7 pupils sitting Entrance Assessments this coming Monday at Bethany and I would like to thank you for your great efforts in continuing to spread the good word about Bethany. It is clearly having an effect.

Although it seems a long way away at the moment, I would like to remind you that the Carol Service takes place at St Dunstan’s Church, Cranbrook on Tuesday 5^th December at 7pm.

I am pleased that the Year 11 pupils seemed to have coped well with their GCSE Maths Examinations this week and I wish them well in their mock examinations which start next Wednesday.

I am looking forward to seeing as many Year 11 pupils and their parents this evening at the Sixth Form open evening. Pupils who stay on for the Sixth Form at Bethany make terrific progress and they are then expertly set up for life after Bethany.

I came across this quote the other day, supposedly from a Year 11 pupil (in a different school) which made me smile. “Exams are good and make me realise I can sit idle for 3 hours without my phone!”.

Have a great weekend.

Francie Healy

Headmaster

Latest Sports News

The latest news from the Bethany School sports department, including an exciting update for talented netball player and Year 10 pupil, Olivia.

For the Bethany sports teams, a few fixtures succumbed to the elements this week, however, two football fixtures, a rugby fixture and our first swimming gala of the school year all survived the weather.

Netball | Olivia Selected For London Pulse

Congratulations goes to Olivia, Year 10 at Bethany, who has been selected as one of twenty athletes in the Kent Hub for London Pulse U15 Netball.

Olivia went on a trial for London Pulse back in September and received the good news to say she had been awarded a place in the U15 London Pulse Kent hub. There are four hubs across London, Kent, Middlesex and Essex, (80 athletes altogether), on a 20 week training programme which started in early October.

The coach for the London Pulse Kent hub is Kate Watts, who is also a coach for Langton and so will be coaching both Olivia’s junior and senior Langton teams this season. Another Bethany pupil, Sophie, is also in Olivia’s junior Langton team so they will hopefully build a connection which can be Bethany’s advantage when the school netball season offically starts next term!

Congratulations Olivia, and good luck!

Rugby | Bethany 1st XV v Ashford School

The 1st XV rugby team hosted Ashford School on Thursday afternoon.

Bethany started the game well, playing with pace at the breakdown and moving the ball swiftly along the back line into the wide channels. Ashford scrambled well with some last ditch tackling to keep the score line level. The visitors grew into the half with powerful running from their big physical pack and pressed for an opening score. Bethany defended superbly well as the pressure grew, covering teammates if the first line of defence was broken. Just before the break, a Bethany scrum five meters from their try line resulted in a charge down on the clarence kick and a race to the bouncing ball that was won by Ashford for the opening score and a 5-0 half time lead.

Bethany continued to defend very well in the second half as Ashford pressed for more scores, with good tackling all over the pitch and effective work at the breakdown from Will Edmeades Sterns and Tom Fyffe in particular. As the defensive effort began to take its toll, Ashford broke through from the halfway line and ran in a second score. Bethany continued to play with commitment, fast rucking and ball transition, resulting in several attacking positions inside the Ashford twenty-two after strong running from the forwards and in particular George Gardner who carried the ball very well all match. However, Bethany was not able to turn field position and pressure into points against a good defensive line. As the half entered the final ten minutes, a second charge down kick led to a third try under the posts for Ashford, and in the final minute, a quick pass from an attacking ruck and a charging run from one of the powerful forwards led to a fourth Ashford try.

Final score: Bethany 0-24 Ashford School

Player of the match: George Gardner

Coaches Player of the Match: Will Edmeades Stearns

Football | Bethany U13A v Claremont

Bethany and Claremont were lucky enough to play on as most matches were cancelled this week due to the weather.

Despite the adverse weather conditions, both sides attempted to and indeed managed to play a passing game of football. Bethany conceded two early goals before they settled into a solid rhythm of play. We defended and battled against a technically effective opposition, some of which were physically bigger, stronger and quicker than the majority of the Bethany squad.

We therefore defended in numbers making a very big pitch as small as possible, which helped us to contain the opposition for the rest of the game but hindered us when trying to create space and break the oppositions defensive lines at a high tempo.

When we won back possession we were very close to each other, allowing us to string several passes together in tight areas, on the odd occasion we managed to find Henry Greig on the left wing (who had a great game), he caused Claremont countless problems down their right hand side. Henry dribbled into the 18 yard box, unleashing a couple of shots as well as crossing to his teammates. Unfortunately, we failed to capitalise on his endeavours leaving Bethany trailing by two goals at half time.

We are blessed with some very good technical players, especially in the midfield areas, they and others will prove to be very effective in a few years time. In the meantime we will continue to adopt a passing game, trying our best to limit touches, as a pass and move game plan would allow us to retain possession as well as create more goal scoring chances.

Final score: Bethany 0-2 Claremont

Player of the Match: Gus Tuson

Coaches Player of the Match: Henry Greig

Football | Bethany U15A v Bedes (away)

Both Bede’s and Bethany were evenly matched throughout the entire game, with Bede’s having access to a couple of academy players at Brighton, who made life difficult for our midfield and defensive lines, thus scoring a great individual goal dribbling past a few of our players before scoring Bede’s first goal.

Bethany continued to press playing some delightful football, as both sides did throughout both halves. Having won back possession after a tackle on the sideline, we took a quick throw in down the line to Daniel Villa Garcia on the left-side of Bede’s middle third, with great pace he skipped past the resilient Bede’s defence to score Bethany’s first goal, drilling the ball into the Bede’s goal.

VIDEO: Daniel makes it 1-1

Bethany’s second goal also came from the Bede’s defensive left-side, with Jonah (who had a great game) collecting the ball in our midfield third to then find Daniel with a great aerial ball over the Bede’s left back. Daniel collected the ball, looked up to then cross the ball for Oscar Scott to swivel and volley the ball into the back of Bede’s net, great technique from Oscar giving Bethany the lead.

VIDEO: Oscar puts Bethany 2-1 up

Bede’s equalised after a few passes between their defenders into the midfield, where they found their best player, who turned to then dribble into our penalty area past several Bethany players. He then squared the ball into our six yard box for a Bede’s player to shoot and score into Bethany’s goal.

The second half was very much the same as the first, very competitive with both sides playing out from the back, and through the thirds when possible. Bethany slightly had the edge in this half having hit the post on several occasions.

However, the score remained the same, with both teams deserving something from the game.

The entire Bethany squad played very well. Our Captain Ollie Hughes giving his typical captain performance, leaving everything on the field of play.

A special mention to Hux Maunder-Allan, whose decision making was superb throughout, Sam Lobo, who read the dangers very well, making countless tackles and interceptions, to stop the opposition in their tracks. Lucien Franklin with his pace, giving Sam the confidence to drive forward to intercept and breakdown Bede’s progression.

Jonah Burrows who grew in confidence throughout the first half, making much needed tackles and passes. Oscar Scott, once again had a great game, scoring a very good goal. Lucien, Charlie Eddy and Chris Hanslip Ward all had a commanding presence.

Seb Baines was brilliant at Left Back, calm in possession enabling him to find teammates under pressure, which helped us to both win and retain possession in difficult areas of the pitch.

Final score: Bethany 2-2 Bede’s

Player of the Match: Hux Maunder-Allan

Coaches Player of the Match: Sam Lobo and Seb Baines

Watch full highlights from this match by clicking here

Swimming | Bethany Junior & Inter v Sevenoaks School (away)

The Bethany Junior and Inter swimming teams travelled to Sevenoaks School on Monday for their first gala of the year.

With twenty swimmers making up the teams, including several debutants, all travelled with excitement and enthusiasm to put their recent training efforts into race competition.

All swimmers performed very well against strong opposition, and it was commented on how much improvement the whole squad had made with their competitive swimming by the opposition coaches. All swimmers raced very well and pushed the Sevenoaks competitors for first placed position in several races.

Special mentions to Grace Holmes for outstanding first place positions in the individual medley and breaststroke races while Beatrice Kay achieved an excellent second position in the butterfly race.

Harry Sweeting achieved an outstanding first position in the butterfly and backstroke races while Jack Le Vine and Hamish Henderson swam very well in the front crawl and backstroke races.

The squad continue to train hard and look for to hosting Claremont and Dulwich before Christmas and then returning to Sevenoaks School in the New Year for galas against Sevenoaks, Lingfield College and St Olaves, before hosting Sutton Valance School.

PICTURED BELOW: The swim squad training hard in the Bethany indoor pool

Latest Bethany Blog

This week’s Bethany blog has been written by Mrs Shapland, who is the Head of English and Media Studies at Bethany School. She writes about the additional skills learnt from completing homework and not just the homework task itself.

The Value of Homework: Is it worth the fight?

Whilst I write this for you all, it is particularly the Year 7 parents I think of. As many of you know, I too am a Year 7 parent. The transition to senior school has been utterly exhausting in our house, not least because of the change in homework patterns and trying to balance this with all of the exciting opportunities that are on offer in terms of extra curricular clubs: whole school production rehearsals and line learning are far more exciting than science recall quizzes, history essays, reading comprehension or spelling practice, apparently! To say there have been moments of dispute about priorities and effort is a bit of an understatement.

Add in the fact that my own enthusiasm for homework is somewhat lacking (probably killed off by lockdown learning), forgive me for confessing that I can often be found shouting, “THIS IS POINTLESS,” into the void.

So why bother? Why bother setting it, why bother doing it, why bother supporting our children with it? Especially, if all it appears to do is take away time from more pleasurable and equally valuable activities?

The answer to this is somewhat complex.

Whist we always aim to set tasks with a real value for learning at Bethany, actually the soft skills being learned with homework far outweigh the benefits of the tasks themselves.

In the English and Media Department we have chosen to dedicate one of the two timetabled Key Stage 3 reading homework tasks over to spelling, from this week. We are using a programme many pupils are familiar with from their previous schools called EdShed. The gamification of the learning means the pupils are keen to give more challenging spellings a go and can work completely independently. So whilst, we obviously value pupils spelling and seek to help them improve, actually the value gained from challenging themselves and controlling their own learning is probably far higher than being able to recall the number of fs in professional – especially in the digital age of autocorrect and spell check.

And what of the reading prep on the timetable? I have espoused before on the value of reading for pleasure. However I also know, as a parent, asking if a reading homework has been completed usually takes the pleasure out of the process. It mystifies me how one evening I end up with a protracted negotiation about “lights out and please stop reading now” and the very next night reading the very same book for just 10 minutes because it has been set as homework is an absolute abomination. One the one hand, parent me probably needs to stress less: so long as reading is happening I can sign it off as done. On the other, particularly when there is a lull in reading activity, I resort to the advice I give parents as a teacher: read together. Actually, there is so much more value to be had from reading together than reading alone, particularly for struggling readers. The discussions around characters values, whether the text is interesting and enjoyable all add to both the pleasure of reading and the development of communication, not just about the text but about the wider world.

And finally to my own anathema: the written homework. Oh the fights I go through at home. Oh the pile of marking I procrastinate over starting at work. And then I remember my why.

One day, in the very near future our young people in Key Stage 3 become young people in Key Stage 4 with exams to pass. 20 minute tasks migrate to 40-50 minute tasks because learning really does need consolidating so that exam taking is successful. Then, of course, our young people in Key Stage 4 become young adults in Key Stage 5. Key Stage 5 contains much more complex material to get to grips with and pupils have much more time on their hands to self manage. Homework becomes not just about passing exams but about learning to become self sufficient, successful adults running homes and enjoying fulfilling careers. A 20 minute reading comprehension might not seem that important but when a young person has learned to self start that task, complete it independently, seek guidance on corrections and been prepared to make changes and develop their ideas, they have learned far more than whatever was in the text they read: they have learned skills that will one day make them self-starting, independent adults that know how to be the very best version of themselves.

Do I hate homework? Yes.

Do I hate fighting to get it completed (as a teacher and a parent!)? Yes.

Is it worth the fight, the detentions, and the marking? Indisputably, yes.

Every tasks intrinsic value goes way beyond the task set.

Mrs Shapland

Head of English and Media Studies

Remembrance Poppy Project

Bethany’s Year 9 pupils have crafted touching Remembrance pieces, each a unique representation of their individual ideas and perspectives.

As part of their prep, they designed a stunning poppy installation, a collaborative effort that engaged the Year 9 classes. This heartfelt showcase was shared in the chapel this week, a testament to their creativity and reverence for those who sacrificed for our freedom.

The amazing poppy installation and art pieces are currently in reception and being admired by all of our visitors.

Enrichment Spotlight: Scotney Castle Conservation Outreach

Bethany School collaborate with Scotney Castle and pupils visit as part of the conservation outreach programme. During this, Bethany pupils engage in an enlightening exploration of woodland management, discovering the significance of carbon trapping and mastering effective wood cutting techniques.

In these sessions, pupil’s impeccable behaviour and dedicated work ethic were evident as they collaborated and skilfully wielded tools like the bow saw, silky saw, and loppers.

Pupils not only honed their practical skills but were also able to work as a team whilst also assuming some individual responsibility. The experience in the woods not only expanded their knowledge but also highlighted the importance of conservation and camaraderie.

Their dedication and newfound skills will hopefully contribute to a greener future.

Tanzania Training Weekend

On Saturday 4^th the group of pupils who are going on the Bethany Tanzania 2024 expedition arrived for their training weekend.

The purpose of this weekend was to check fitness, use essential equipment and consider various aspects of travelling and staying in a developing country.

The weekend started with a 19km walk through the Kent countryside. The group had the chance to test their boots, their daypacks and their legs during this trek. To ensure they had sufficient sustenance, food was bought in advance for lunch, dinner and breakfast on Sunday to a budget of £2.50 per person, so the provisions were handed out and sandwiches were made before setting off for the day.

In the evening, due to the very inclement weather conditions, it was decided that the group would sleep in the Assembly Hall, as sleeping in buildings will be a possibility in Tanzania and the British November weather is not likely to be encountered when out there! During the evening there were group discussions about areas for consideration such as health and hygiene, animals and insects, travel and interaction with the local people. Everyone participated well, before settling down for the night.

The next morning the first order of business was breakfast. After a porridge and honey start, the group enjoyed trying out other equipment, such as the shelter tents and learning how to move someone who was injured. Finally the students packed up their belongings and a True Adventure leader came to meet them and their parents to discuss the trip. It proved to be a very successful weekend and we were delighted with the group.

Meet Liam: Bethany’s EAL Star of the Week

Ms Rendall-Jones, Head of English as an Additional Language, has begun nominating pupils for EAL Star of the Week. This week’s star is Liam, originally from Hong Kong, who has been at Bethany for nearly three years.

Ms Rendall-Jones caught up with Liam to ask a few questions about his favourite things about Bethany School.

Q. Liam, how long have you been at Bethany school?
A. I arrived in Year 8 so have been studying here for nearly three years.

Q. Do you board at Bethany?
A. I used to be a weekly boarder but now I am a day pupil and live with my parents in Maidstone.

Q. What is your opinion of Bethany?
A. It is a lot more relaxing than school in Hong Kong. We only have one main test a year whereas in Hong Kong there are three or even four tests a year.

Q. How have you found studying everything in English?
A. At first it was difficult but as the years have gone on I have got better. There is still room to get better yet!

Q. Is there anything you would like to change?
A. I really like the school lunches so I would like to get more food!

Q. What is your favourite subject?
A. My favourite is Food & Nutrition as we learn a lot of practical skills and get to eat what we make. We also learn about nutrition and how to eat healthily.

Boarders’ Outing to Rochester

It was a rain-sodden morning as the boarders made a dash onto the minibuses to avoid getting too wet before the journey to Rochester for their termly full boarders’ outing.

The prospect of touring Rochester Castle in pelting rain was not attractive to anyone, staff and boarders alike, but luck was on our side as the rain lifted, the clouds parted and, by the time we reached our destination, we were bathed in warm autumnal sunshine.

We always try to include a cultural element to our full boarders’ outings and, with Rochester Castle being one of the finest examples of Norman tower-keeps in the country, and with its complex history of destruction and rebuilding, it was hoped that it would inspire some genuine fascination amongst the boarders. We were not disappointed as several of them declared how interesting the visit had been as we left.

From the Castle, we headed to Rochester’s historic high street for lunch before making the short journey to the Pentagon Shopping Centre and Chatham High Street for a spot of shopping. It was interesting to visit somewhere new and to discover a whole range of shops which were different to the usual ones.

As we made the trip back to Bethany the heavens opened again but spirits were not dampened following a very successful day out, especially as we were back in plenty of time for tea!

Mr Vickerman

Housemaster, The Mount

Year 8 Pupils Complete Term Long Project

Following on from an exciting circus skills session, Year 8 DLS pupils completed a term of work designing and creating a leaflet that would teach someone else a skill that they are already good at.

These ranged from how to complete a pirouette to making fudge, there were even leaflets about carp fishing for the first time ever!

Leaflets needed to present the skill and have a step by step guide on how to do it, with clear explanations and good use of presentation.

The winner was Felix with his neat and well written leaflet on how to cast a fishing rod.

The two runners up were Isaac, who taught us how to achieve the perfect golf swing, and Benji, who used step by step pictures he had taken himself to show us how to do a rainbow flick.

Highly commended are Seb for his work on carp fishing, and Keelan with his very optimistic leaflet teaching us how to do a back handspring!

£1,290.00 Raised at Bethany Charity Disco

This years Junior Disco was a great success, the children had great fun and 86 tickets were sold across Years 7,8 & 9.

A huge thank you to the two businesses who came forward to support the event by sponsoring the total costs.

Great Hair and Beauty, Hoopers in Tunbridge Wells – kindly sponsored by Kimberly Le Vine.

Sole-Electrical Services Ltd – kindly sponsored by Dean Sole.

Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, all the money raised by tickets sales £1,290.00, will be split equally between the two chosen charity’s Demelza Hospice and The Brain Tumour Trust.

What a fantastic achievement! Thanks for your support.

The FOBS Team

Creating a Tech Agreement at Home

Don’t forget, the Online Safety Hub is now live! You can access it for free here.

The Online Safety Hub is a brand new online resource with lots of expert advice and guidance to help you as a parent, manage your child’s safety online. It includes information on the latest hot topics when it comes to keeping children safe, such as how to manage your child’s screen time, understand the latest gaming platforms, what they mean for your child’s safety and lots more.

This week, we look at how to create a tech agreement at home.

Creating a Tech Agreement at Home

Ever feel like you and your children aren’t on the same page when it comes to things like how much screen time is appropriate or what they’re allowed to access online? A tech agreement can help remove some of the ambiguity and set the tone for better digital practices for your family. To help, online safety experts have created this guide to use as a reference, enabling you to develop a family tech agreement that will work best in your own home.

Discover more

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Be at Bethany

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