MESSENGERSpring Term 2017

Y8 Careers Day

Headteacher’s MessageI am delighted to welcome you to Beckfoot Thornton School. Beckfoot Thornton is anon-denominational, non-selective school, welcoming girls and boys from allbackgrounds from the local community. We have 1450 students in our school withover 150 in our sixth form.

The school joined the Beckfoot Trust in October 2016 and I took up post asheadteacher in March 2017 following the departure of Rob Browning. I haveexperience of leading schools as a headteacher; I have been one of Her Majesty’sInspectors of schools (HMI) and have led educational initiatives nationally. We havenow embarked on a school improvement journey that will create a truly great schooland a remarkable learning environment at the heart of our local community. We arewell supported by the Beckfoot Trust and by parents through our Local School’sCommittee. The first stage of this journey is to secure basic expectations aboutuniform, equipment and behavior; I look forward to your help with this.

Our core purpose is to inspire ourstudents to achieve the best thatthey can. We are ambitious,caring, proud and passionateabout our students. As a school,we are committed to fulfilling thiscore purpose in all that we do.Indeed our school motto ‘ENJOY –LEARN – SUCCEED’ very muchreflects our ethos, and our imageof the ‘Beckfoot ThorntonLearner’ illustrates the skills andqualities we are seeking tonurture in our students. We havea burning desire to smash downglass ceilings and create trulyremarkable learningenvironments for students andstaff to work within.

If you wish to find out more about any aspects of the school please look at ourwebsite, www.beckfootthornton.com or do not hesitate to contact us.

Jeremy Richardson, Headteacher

.Y8 CAREERS DAYVarious external visitors came into school to talk tothem about next steps and career choices. Therewere representatives from the Army, various localColleges, Bradford University as well as speakersfrom Prospects, Exceed and City Training Services(Apprenticeships).

Students were able to get hands on with someactivities and with others they had time to reallythink about what they wanted to do in the future.With this came work on how they could achievetheir goals, what paths they needed to take to setthemselves up with the right qualifications and whatimage they needed to portray themselves with inorder to be successful.

There were 12 different sessions and studentsattended three. The idea is that they now sharetheir experiences and discuss ideas and knowledgewith their friends.

Monday 3rd April 2017

ENGLISH

Getting to Grips with Structure How does the writer use structure to engage their audience?

Students were given a handful of megablocks; on each they wrote down what each section of thearticle was about and labelled it. Using the blocks as stimulus, 10B4 were then able to identify thestructural devices and evaluate the impact on the reader.

Yr11 Writing Boot Camp

Students in lessons and in Period 6 revisions sessions, have had a chance to experience the Writing Boot Camp; a fast paced and sharply structured approach to the writing sections of the English Language exam papers. With stamina writing blocks, cardio vocabulary builders and even some star jumps for good measure, Year 11 have had a full workout!

Successful new

teaching techniques

Songs of Innocence andExperience

Year 12 English Literaturestudents have tried anexciting method of revisingpoems for their study ofPolitical and Social Protestwriting with a BlakeBoardgame! The Songs ofInnocence and Experiencemonopoly board is a lot offun and has sparked greatdebate about the keyelements of study.

Tragedy

For the A-Level EnglishLiterature exams, year 13have been revising the keyelements of the tragedygenre, bringing togethertheir understanding of thethree set texts; King Lear,Richard II and The GreatGatsby.

ICT.

Year 9 students have been using the www.lcrtechgoals.com platform to learn a range of new skills from designing websites for the lead singer of The Rifles to creating websites, coding in HTML5, CSS

and JavaScript.

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Raspberry Jam at Beckfoot Thornton, sixth form area, Friday 28th April 17:30-19:00Book a ticket at the link below to avoid disappointment as limited spaces are available.

Everybody welcome and light refreshments are available. Students in Years 7-11 please bring aparent/carer, older sibling or relative. The Jam is being led by Alan O'Donoghue using RaspberryPis to explore the world of coding.

www.eventbrite.com/e/beckfoot-thornton-raspberry-jam-tickets-33115195441?aff=eac2

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HISTORY

After winning an internal school homework competition Chloe Hall and Cerys Kelly in Year 9embarked on an intensive (but free!) 4 day trip to Belgium and France. The purpose was to visitvarious battlefields and memorials in both countries commemorating the 100th anniversary of theBattle of the Somme.

Whilst a necessarily thought provoking (and at times moving) trip both pupils found theexperience extremely fulfilling and added greatly to their knowledge of World War one.

Canadian Battlefield Memorial

Chloe Hall &

Cerys Kelly

Year 9

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Easter Egg Competition

The History Department ran a boiled eggcompetition for Easter and there weresome great imaginative and creativeentries. Eggs had to be decorated torepresent a character past or present. Welldone to everyone who took part. Here aresome of the winners!

We gave out Easter eggs and chocolate tothe following winners - Aimee Grantham,Ellie Hall, Angel Harris, Raygan Troy, AishaYasser, Amber O'Keefe, Annie Noble andSabah Aamir.

.SPORTS LEADERSThe Beckfoot Thornton Sports Leadership Academy students have had a busy and exciting SpringTerm. Students have delivered a variety of events, through the National School Games project, toPrimary schools in the West Bradford Partnership. The students’ contribution towards thesuccessful running of events has been priceless.

•Bradford Winter Games, at which over 1200 athletes from across Bradford participated•West Bradford Primary Dance, Mini Tennis, Tri Golf, Change4Life Multi Skills, U11 Football•Talented and Gifted Easter Camp•Extra Curricular Activities

Currently we are operating three levels of leadership, delivered by a number of PE staff:•Level 1 - Students in year 9/10 are currently gaining leadership experience volunteering and leadingat events for the local Primary schools.•Level 2 - A group of students in year 11 are close to completing the nationally recognised 'SportsLeaders UK Level 2 Qualification in Sports Leadership.•Level 3 - Students in 6th have chose to complete the nationally recognised 'Sports Leaders UK Level3 Qualification in Sports Leadership.

All three levels provide students at Beckfoot Thornton with the opportunity to express andimplement their personality through leadership, coaching, support and mentoring of theirpeers and younger students. Local and national sport governing bodies, such as the RFU, LTA, YCBand FA link in with the Academy, deliver development workshops and support events.

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The overall aim and ethos of the Academy is to provide students with the opportunity to developtheir leadership through positive experiences. This is achieved by working with a range of youngpeople, members of staff, communities and school groups. Throughout the levels of leadershipthe combined outcome is for students to develop the skills, work ethic and confidence thatcontribute to making them more employable in the future.

NEW RECRUITS: If you're currently in Year 9 and believe you have the characteristics, skills andpotential to become a Beckfoot Thornton Sports Leaders please see Mr Tetley or a member of thePE staff in A8. Mike Tetley, West Bradford School Games Organiser

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The Year 9 Football team have had a 2016-2017 season to remember winning the Bradford

South Premier League Title guided by a committed and well balanced management partnership

between Mr Painter & Mr Miller-Hall. The most memorable game being a 2-3 victory (thanks to

Jack Crossley’s stunner) away at Buttershaw and having been 2-1 down with 10mins left to all

but seal the title. In the Bradford Schools cup the lads reached the Quarter-Finals but were

finally undone by an excellent St Bedes side who reached the last 8 of the National Cup for their

age group!

Stand out players this year have been Ben Cockcroft who has come on in leaps and bounds

defensively. Cameron Bouche is ever reliable at centre back and wins the majority of 50/50’s,

Luca Atkinson is always solid in Midfield both defensively and has the skills to lead attacks.

Kewell Canning-Crompton was our goal machine of which I lost count how many after about 3

games! Well done everyone.

U14 Boys Football PE

.PRODUCT DESIGNToy Testers

This week we have beenfortunate enough to have sometoy testers come in and play withour creations. Amy Cresswellsaid, “Charlie loved my toy, shesaid it was like the farm she hadat home.”

Year 11 have been working hardto design and manufacturechildren's toys for the EarlyLearning Centre.

Year 11 have been working extremely hard to meet their coursework deadline and are rightly veryproud of the professional finish that they have achieved. Period 6 workshops have been extremelywell attended. Well done Year 11 Product Designers your hard work has paid off.

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Post 16

A group of Year 12 students were given the opportunity to go to a regional conference to gaininformation about applying to Oxford and Cambridge. Throughout the day there were a series oftalks about the various courses on offer, student life at Oxbridge and how to make a competitiveapplication.

The subject talks allowed us to gain a better idea of which courses we may wish to apply for andwhat they entail as well as telling us what we can do to stretch and challenge ourselves now. The talkabout making a competitive application gave us insight in what we needed to be doing to prepare forapplication and also gave us tips for writing a strong personal statement and performing well atinterviews which would also be applicable to other universities.

Helen Barraclough and Cayman Lambert

Y12 Oxbridge Trip

SMSC Group &

Student Council

On 24th March Beckfoot Thorntonstudents and staff worked together tosupport Red Nose Day.

The SMSC 6th Form group organised awide range of fund raising eventsassisted by the Student Council.

Our bun bake, penalty shoot outcompetition, key rings, name a bearcompetition raised £576. Well done allconcerned.

Special thanks to Laila Fiaz and her mum who madesome amazing red nose cakes for us to sell.

TheBIG Trip

Tuesday 6th June 2017

For students from years 7,8,9,10, and 12 who have attended well and worked hard this year.

Available now on Parentpay - £30.00

Bank Holiday –Mon 1st May

Half Term –Mon 29th May to Fri 2nd June 2017

Summer Term ends Fri 21st July 2017

Holiday Dates 2017

NEW - Follow us on Twitter@Beckfootthornt1

Old uniform collectionWe have a small amount of uniform in school available for students toborrow in the rare event that they are not appropriately dressed.

If you have any uniform that no longer fits and would like to donate it toschool it would be appreciated. Please hand into our Student Hub or toMrs Haworth in A3.