Weekly Newsletter

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

November 29, 2024

Headmaster’s Welcome

Dear Parents and Guardians,

I am pleased that the recent very wet weather seems to have disappeared at least for a while, and that milder temperatures are now on the way.

Our Year 13 pupils coped well with their trial examinations this week.

I had the pleasure of attending a most enjoyable evening of performing arts at the Winter Concert last night. The Pengelly Performance Centre has really transformed the performance space. Every single one of last night’s performances was superb. Great credit must go to the pupils and the staff for working so hard to make sure that the standards continue to improve.

Various year groups will be having end of term events over the next fortnight, which I hope they will enjoy.

The Year 9 Parent Teacher Meeting takes place at 5.30pm on Thursday 5^th December. I hope as many Year 9 parents as possible will be able to attend. There will also be some GCSE presentations for parents outlining GCSE options available next year during the evening.

Our annual Carol Service, based in St Dunstan’s Church, is on Tuesday 10^th December at 7pm. This is a compulsory event for all pupils. Pupils will have tea at School and then be transported to Cranbrook afterwards. Parents can park in the usual car parks in the Cranbrook area. We expect parents to sit with their children during the service and you will be ushered to the appropriate seats on arrival in the church. Any parents unable to attend the service can collect their children from Cranbrook Church after the service which should be over by 8pm.

Term ends at 4.55pm on Friday 13^th December.

As today is Black Friday I thought I should leave you with this joke. ‘Its Black Friday today, and I just got an iPhone for my husband. I thought it was a good trade!’

Have a nice weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Francie Healy

Headmaster

Latest Bethany Blog

This week’s blog has been written by Mr Willis, Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Bethany School. He reflects on the start of the academic year and our pupils’ inspiring commitment to mastering new languages, grammar, and topics.

Celebrating Multilingual Excellence

As I reflect on all that has happened over the past 2 ½ months since we returned to school in September I am full of admiration for the pupils we have in our MFL classes. They continue to work hard, getting to grips with new language, new grammar, new vocabulary, new topics.

This is no mean feat in a context where the rest of the time they are speaking English at home, with the friends or out and about. We are also lucky to be a school where pupils are drawn from over 20 different countries and every one of them brings a different perspective to the classroom.

Since I started at Bethany, it has been wonderful to see the department grow and flourish with a wide range of languages learnt. So, for example, this year we have Stella, Toby and Susanna studying French in Year 12. In Year 13 we have Elias sitting the Spanish paper 1 mock examination as I write this, which is a mammoth 2 hours long!

We also have two pupils in Year 12 studying other languages with tutors outside school – Asma is studying Persian and Aubrey is learning Italian; both of them sat GCSEs in the languages. Indeed this year, Aubrey sat French, Spanish and Mandarin GCSE, having sat Italian GCSE in Year 10. Because we are a multi-cultural, multi-lingual place of education here at Bethany, three Year 12 pupils are planning on sitting their A Level language exam a year early – Stella, Yu and Alvin.

We are very lucky to have such a rich and varied community of people who speak other languages.

Sadly in the UK, we are rather a monolingual country. Learning a foreign language, whether for pleasure or for work can also have some unexpected benefits:

If you have 10 minutes spare, I’d highly recommend a read of this excellent article:

Why Students Should Learn a Second Language

Mr Willis

Head of Modern Foreign Languages

Latest Sports News

The latest sports news from Bethany School. Only three sporting fixtures managed to survive the weather this week as many others succumbed to the elements. In other sporting news, Bethany’s swim team put in an impressive performance in the pool at their most recent gala, where they hosted Dulwich and Claremont.

Swimming | Bethany v Dulwich v Claremont

Bethany School’s swim team delivered an outstanding performance at their gala on Friday afternoon last week, facing strong opposition from Claremont and Dulwich.

The team put on a convincing display across all races, with standout performances from Oliver Martin and Harry Sweeting, who both secured crucial victories in their individual events. On the girls’ side, Beatrice Kay and Verity Davidson shone brightly, with each swimmer showcasing exceptional technique and grit to claim top finishes.

Although the visiting teams managed to take home some victories, Bethany’s depth and consistency across the board proved to be the deciding factor. From relays to individual races, the swimmers worked cohesively to all contribute to Bethany’s excellent performance in the pool.

Bethany dominated the majority of races and emerged as the overall winners of the event. This resounding victory is a testament to the team’s dedication and hard work during the extra training that they all have undertaken around normal academic lessons.

Swimmer of the Day: Oliver Martin

Captains’ Swimmer of the Day: Verity Davidson

Hockey | Bethany 1st XI v King’s Rochester

The 1st XI hockey team travelled away to King’s Rochester this week, fully prepared for what they anticipated to be a challenging match. The game began with both teams showcasing exceptional skill and determination, making for a highly competitive and evenly-matched first half. Each side demonstrated moments of brilliance, and the score at halftime reflected the balance of play, locked at 1-1.

After regrouping and reenergising during the halftime break, the team came out with renewed focus and determination. They elevated their game to a new level, displaying some of their finest hockey of the season. Their impressive teamwork and fluid link-up play proved too much for King’s Rochester to handle, effectively shutting down any attempts by the opposition to regain momentum.

The tireless effort and sharp attacking moves paid off handsomely as Bethany took control of the game, eventually cruising to a commanding 5-1 victory. Goals came courtesy of Olivia James, Elsa Taylor, and Safi Chettiar, whose finishing prowess capped off an outstanding team performance.

Final score: Bethany 5-1 King’s Rochester

Player of the Match: Stella Flynn and Safi Chettiar

Coaches Player of the Match: Elsa Taylor

Hockey | Bethany U15A v King’s Rochester

The U15A hockey team took to the field for their final fixture of the season, facing a determined King’s Rochester side. Both teams came out strong, making for an evenly matched contest from the outset. The game featured thrilling end-to-end play, with possession hotly contested and regularly switching between the sides. Each team created scoring opportunities, but it was a tightly fought battle, with neither side able to establish a clear advantage in the early stages.

That balance was finally broken in the last ten minutes of the first half, when Bethany’s persistence paid off. Amelia Bickford seized her opportunity, skillfully finding the back of the net to give Bethany the lead. This goal energised the team, and it wasn’t long before Mia Castle added to the score line with a superb finish, doubling the advantage just before halftime.

VIDEO: Amelia opens the scoring

VIDEO: Mia doubles Bethany’s lead

The second half saw King’s Rochester come out fighting, determined to claw their way back into the game. They managed to score a well-earned goal, keeping the tension high as the clock ticked on. However, Bethany responded with grit and composure, putting in a full defensive effort to hold the opposition at bay. Goalkeepers Eleni Haines and Izzy Andrews were outstanding, with Eleni making crucial saves in the first half and Izzy stepping up in the second to deny King’s further opportunities.

As the match approached its conclusion, the team sealed their victory in style. A perfectly timed assist from Cecily Chettiar set up Amelia Bickford, who confidently slotted the ball into the goal for her second of the day. It was a fantastic team effort that showcased both individual talent and excellent collaboration across the squad.

VIDEO: Amelia scores her second of the game

The final whistle confirmed a hard-fought and well-deserved 3-1 victory, marking the end of a memorable season for the team. Congratulations to all the players for their commitment, skill, and teamwork throughout the game, and a special mention to the goalkeepers for their outstanding contributions. What a way to finish the season!

Final score: Bethany 3-1 King’s Rochester

Player of the Match: Cecily Chettiar and Honor Cassleton Elliott

Coaches Player of the Match: Lily Marshall

Football | Bethany U15A v Beechwood

The Bethany U15A football team hosted a strong Beechwood side this week, who arrived boasting several academy players in their starting lineup. The visitors demonstrated their quality immediately, opening the scoring just five minutes into the game. Despite this early blow, Bethany refused to back down, and Max Morgan delivered a clinical finish to level the score at 1-1.

Beechwood, however, maintained their dominance and showcased their attacking prowess, adding two more goals before halftime to establish a 1-3 lead.

In the second half, Bethany displayed their typical high standards of determination and resilience, along with making strategic substitutions to shift the momentum. Their efforts were rewarded when Sam Lobo found the net with just 10 minutes remaining, narrowing the deficit to 2-3. This goal gave Bethany renewed hope, and moments later Oliver Canderloro struck the back of the net with a crucial equaliser, bringing the game to 3-3 with only a couple of minutes left on the clock.

Sensing an opportunity to snatch victory, Bethany then made a bold tactical decision, pushing Christopher Hanslip Ward into an advanced position for the final moments. The gamble paid off spectacularly as, in the dying seconds, he pounced on a rebound opportunity, calmly slotting the ball into an empty net to secure a dramatic 4-3 victory for Bethany.

The final result was arguably the best of the season for Bethany, who were playing against a superior opponent, but it was nothing less than the team performance deserved.

Final score: Bethany 4-3 Beechwood

Player of the Match: Max Morgan

Coaches Player of the Match: Thomas Gerrish

Pupils Dazzle At Winter Concert

The Pengelly Performance Centre hosted this year’s annual Winter Concert to a packed auditorium of parents and staff on Thursday evening.

The performance showcased elements of Dance and Music with the Music Scholars performing the Christmas Song “Light of the World” and the Year 13 Band performing “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. Dance pupils were performing a mixture of GCSE dance pieces and excerpts from next year’s School Production “The Little Shop of Horrors”. Bethany School’s answer to Michael Bublé opened the evening with Thomas crooning his way through “The Big Fat Man”.

“The talent at Bethany remains so high.” Mr Bolton, Director of Performing arts said. “The difference this year was being able to provide a space and use stage equipment that suited the quality of the performers. Rehearsing this year has been an absolute pleasure!” The Pengelly Performance Space was opened in October this year and has already been used for evenings of Drama and a Year 11 informal music night. “We are really enjoying this space.” he concluded.

The pupils were superb and for many it was their first taste of live performance at secondary school with Year 7’s Lily, Leo and Samuel taking to the stage. Mr Ramsden operated the lighting and sound equipment with Mrs Williams accompanying the musical items. Mrs Payne provided the dancers, with the evening hosted by Mr Bolton himself, it was a unanimous success, and we look forward to future events Bethany Performing Arts have to offer.

Boarders’ Tee Time Adventure

With Storm Bert overhead and the rain looming, Bethany boarding pupils still managed to make the most of their trip to Dino Golf and the Tonbridge Golf Centre, and had a fun day ‘out of bounds’.

We left Bethany just after 10am and headed straight for the Dino (Crazy) Golf course which had been booked in for 11am. The course normally takes around one to one and a half hours but the boarders all got around the course in around forty five minutes due to the cold and spitting rain. On the positive side of things, it wasn’t raining cats and dogs at this point in the day.

To warm up we all spent lunch in the local McDonalds where everyone treated themselves to a very large eating session and took over a number of tables and just enjoyed the relaxation and conversation.

After this we headed back to the Golf Centre and it’s driving range where the boarders borrowed golf clubs and spent a great deal of energy hitting golf balls down the course. It was great to see the pupils enjoying themselves so much. By this time it was raining very hard indeed but we were under cover which was great.

After a couple of hours, Aldi was the last stop to restock with food for the week. Then the minibus trip back to School. It was a wet trip but a very good trip and hopefully we will do it again in the future.

Mr Norman

Trip Leader

Something Very Fishy About Year 7 Artwork

Year 7 pupils have been looking at all things fishy this term, and have produced some fantastic artwork.

Derek Deyoung is an artist who focuses on close up fish paintings and Year 7 pupils have taken inspiration from these to create some vibrant oil pastel drawings of their own.

Pupils have enjoyed exploring the media of oil pastels and worked through technique sheets to explore what the oil pastels have to offer. This was messy work and all pupils got stuck in which was great to see. They put this practice into good use when creating smaller studies of DeYoung’s work and they look fantastic.

The Year 7 pupils are a really creative bunch and I look forward to seeing their art skills develop as they travel up the school.

Mrs Smart

Head of Art

Christmas Card Competition

Over the half term holiday Year 7 pupils were tasked with designing a Christmas card to be the official Christmas card of Year 7 this year. There was a L3 merit up for grabs for the winning design, as well as the opportunity to have the design professionally printed.

The competition had a few caveats to ensure that what was submitted would respond well to being digitally enhanced and printed. The design also had to be Bethany themed. This inspired some very interesting takes upon what that meant with some fantastically creative attempts to build in the various core values and the learning habits. There were also some great takes on the Bethany tree and some of our buildings.

The deadline for this was shortly after half term in order to give time to have the design sent off and printed. I was very pleased with the quality of the entries which made judging a difficult task. Ultimately it was whittled down to Oliver and Leo being selected as honourable runners up, both creating designs that used a mixture of artistic techniques and met the Bethany themed brief well. However, the winner of the competition was Arabella who produced a fantastic design, which included a superb drawing of the School Chapel decked out for Christmas.

Mr Clough

Head of Year 7

Learn With The Lords

This morning the A Level politicians plus an invited audience of select Year 11 pupils gathered in Room 1 for our Learn with the Lords meeting with Baroness Pitkeathley, who has been in the Lords since 1997. She worked as a social worker beforehand and says that she will always have a soft spot for Sir Tony Blair, who elevated her to the peerage – this was something she never even considered as a possibility for most of her life.

Baroness Pitkeathley started by giving us a rundown of the role of the House of Lords in modern politics, as well as an insight into her particular role as Deputy Speaker of the Lords (she doesn’t shout ‘Order!’ as they do in the Lords, but she says that if she stands and says, ‘My Lords’ in her sternest voice then that normally does the trick).

Charlotte kicked off with a series of questions focusing on the General Election result and also the role in our legislative process of the Lords as an unelected chamber. Baroness Pitkeathley said that she doesn’t like the democratic deficit this creates and would rather see an at least partially elected chamber; although she said that she would also be keen to retain the independence that the cross-bench peers bring.

James then asked whether she felt that the measures in the recent Budget were fair. Baroness Pitkeathley said that there were things that had been difficult but that when presented with a £22bn black hole, money had to be found somewhere, and she noted that for all of the media furore, there had been very few real ideas as to alternative sources for the money. James also asked how Baroness Pitkeathley thought government should adapt to the views of younger generations and she was very keen that the vote be extended to 16 year olds, and said that the current disengagement of young people from politics was a problem.

Chris asked about assisted dying, the hot topic of the day – literally, as the Commons are debating it this afternoon. Baroness Pitkeathley said that she herself wanted the right to choose her time to die when the time came, and had two friends who had chosen to go to Dignitas; one had a terminal condition that would have resulted in intolerable disability and she supported his right to die, but the other was suffering from mental illness more akin to a deep depression and she felt that this friend should never have been accepted by Dignitas. Broadly she supports the notion but has great concerns about the safeguards. Her feelings are very conflicted, like many MPs debating the issue today, and she said that she felt the bill would be something that would be debated and discussed at very great length as and when it makes its way to the Lords.

There was a great range of questions asked, and the answers given were both full and frank. In common with the other Learn with the Lords sessions that we have enjoyed over the last couple of years – and perhaps in contrast to answers we might receive were a similar exercise to be done with the Commons – those answers were also less Party-political (although Baroness Pitkeathley remains under the Labour Party whip and still votes on most issues as the Party dictates) and more likely to consider the long term impacts of decisions taken today. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and we are already looking forward to the next one.

Mr Davies

Head of History and Politics

Young Enterprise To Feature At Goudhurst Christmas Fair

Our Young Enterprise team, Galahad, are prepared and ready for this weekends Goudhurst Christmas Fair. Click ‘read more’ to read an important message from Team Galahad!

REMINDER: Team Galahad will be showcasing, and selling, our products at the Goudhurst Christmas Fair on Saturday, 30th November!

This is a fantastic opportunity to explore our collection, find unique gifts, and support young entrepreneurs.

We’ve posted images of some of the items we’ll be selling on our Instagram page (see link below). Be sure to check our page to see them and we please ask if you could help spread the word by following us and sharing our posts!

We hope to see you tomorrow!

Team Galahad

Team Galahad Instagram

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.

Year 7 Pupil of the Week is Isla

Isla was nominated by her tutor for being consistently excellent across the board. She has been an unsung hero in Year 7 and fully deserves this weeks award.

Year 8 Pupil of the Week is Frank

Frank has been quite ‘frank’ly excellent this week. High effort scores in his lessons, numerous merits and displayed good commitment in sports.

Year 9 Pupil of the Week is Martha

Martha is, and always has been, studious, diligent, caring and talented. A fully deserving winner of Pupil of the Week.

KS4 Pupil of the Week is Izzy

Izzy has been excellent in Art and Spanish. She is consistent in effort and producing a good body of work showcasing her engagement and skills as an artist and all round diligent young lady.

Orchard Boarding Pupil of the Week is Aubrey

Aubrey has been awarded Pupil of the Week for his outstanding reliability, helpfulness, politeness and constantly cheerful disposition.

Mount Boarding Pupil of the Week is Antonio

Antonio wins Pupil of the Week for his outstanding helpfulness during the recent fire alarm. He remained calm and assisted both staff and pupils, ensuring everyone followed the safety procedures efficiently.

EAL Pupil of the week is Alvaro

EAL pupil of this Week is the lively and friendly Alvaro, from Spain. He arrived at Bethany in September this year and immediately settled into life in Bethany. He has been a very welcome addition to EAL with his lively manner and great sense of humour. His personality and his very good level of English has enabled him to make many friends, not only in EAL but in the school as a whole. He has excellent attendance in lessons and throws himself into any activities with engagement and enthusiasm. He justly deserves EAL Pupil of the Week.

One Drummer Drumming

Year 8 pupils recently had the exciting opportunity to participate in a drum masterclass at the school’s newly opened Performing Arts Centre.

Led by an expert percussionist, the session allowed pupils to explore different drumming techniques and rhythms, enhancing their musical skills. The engaging masterclass provided hands-on experience and encouraged pupils to collaborate and experiment with sound.

Lost Property Made Easy

We have added a new Lost Items application, available via the button below or on MySchoolPortal. This new application allows parents, and pupils, to check if we have found your lost item(s).

If you spot something that is yours, please send your child to the Lost Property Office (top of the Food Tech/Textiles building) between 1.30pm and 2pm every weekday. Items will be added with photos on a regular basis, so please keep checking.

Access the items list by either logging into the parent portal and then heading to School Information where the list can be accessed or by clicking the button below.

Bethany School Lost Property

Prayer Requests

In addition to the prayer group which meets as per the message below – If you would like the chaplain to pray for you or for someone you know, you can send your prayer requests to him using the link below and he will include them in his prayers for the school. All submissions are anonymous and won’t be seen by anyone other than the chaplain.

Submit a Prayer Request Form

Prayer Group

Upcoming Events

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Be at Bethany

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Annual Boarders’ BBQ

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