Just when you think you know the abilities of your students…
Last week we welcomed over 95% of our Year 9 students and their families into school as part of our options process for GCSE study. It was a lovely evening with families engaging with staff from across our faculties and listening to us talk about the importance of getting GCSE option choices right for GCSE study.
That was followed by my senior staff and I sitting with each student to listen to their views on readiness for GCSEs and their thinking behind the choices they were hoping to make. I was privileged to have 40 young people scheduled to sit and chat with me and I was blown away by the nature of those conversations. Just when I thought I knew the capabilities of our students I was forced to think again; they were amazing. They spoke about what they were thinking in terms of their options, who had helped to guide them at home, their future aspirations and their complete understanding of how important this stage of their educational journey is. Lots spoke about Post 16 study, university, apprenticeships, their commitments within and beyond school and their absolute desire to be successful at Beckfoot. For me personally, I was struck with their ability to make eye contact as they spoke, their warmth in conversation, their confidence (not arrogance) and their personalities. What a week it has been for me and I thank each of them.
It was our Beckfoot Student Leadership elections last week too. What a feat of organisation that was. The whole process began with lots of students applying to be considered to take part. Those successful in their applications were invited to present to the whole school via our assembly programme and have their names and areas of focus shared on our ballot papers. On Wednesday 18 January over 1600 students came in a very organised fashion to cast their vote in polling booths in E13. Our Sixth Form student helped Ms. Senyk throughout including the counting of votes and getting the results ready to be shared. It was a complete joy to see the whole thing run so well and for our students to be so respectful of the process. In the end the following students were elected and will work alongside school leaders to help shape the direction of travel of our school for the next 12 months:
- Monroe (Year 7) – focus on EDI
- Imaan (Year 7) – focus on disability awareness
- Nathan (Year 8) – focus on ECO
- Frankie (Year 9) – focus on enrichment
- Mikey (Year 9) – focus on tutor time
- Harrison (Year 9) – focus on technology
Well done to each of them and to all who were brave enough to put themselves forward. They will all make a huge difference to our school.
As always I try to use this Blog to share with you all some success stories involving our students and this week is no different. To begin I want to congratulate two Sixth Form students who are doing incredible things in the world of athletics. Lara (Yr 12) took gold in this year’s Bradford School Cross-Country championships held last week. This is the second year running that she has won this competition. She goes on to compete in the West Yorkshire championships next month. Ollie (Yr 13) continues to shine on the 60m track racing in the Northern Indoor Athletics championships last week. Despite being just 17 years old he races as an U20 and won his race in a season best time of 7.08 seconds. Wow! They are two very special students doing wonderful things beyond our school.
Also in our Sixth Form, Toheed learned this week that his application to the Cambridge University Exploring Law Conference 2025 was successful and that he would be offered a free place such was the quality of his application. Toheed is such a lovely and humble young man who should be very proud of himself as there were over 1260 applications for only 250 places. Of those, only handful were funded. What an achievement.
Nell (Yr 8) was selected to represent West Yorkshire in netball in the Autumn. Last weekend she played her first games at that level against Humber, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. Speaking with Nell she thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was delighted that she played almost every minute of every game. What an achievement for her. We wish Nell well for the rest of the season with West Yorkshire and school and we are so proud of her and all she is doing.
Finally, I want to share some news about Sorrel in Yr 8 who is an incredibly talented artist with a particular aptitude for portraiture and anatomical drawing. At just 12 years old she has been offered a place in her first art exhibition (for adult and teenage student artists) and is likely to be the youngest exhibitor. She is thrilled. Her pencil drawing ‘Daphne’ will be exhibited and for sale in Saltaire Art Gallery next month. She is so modest and we are very proud of her and what she is doing in the world of art.
School feels really great and the last couple of weeks only serve to remind me of just how lucky I am to work with such a wonderful school community.
Simon Wade, Headteacher
