This month we had an incredible opportunity for our Year 9 students, with touring theatre company Quantum Theatre, coming in to perform Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy ‘Macbeth’. Year 9 will be studying Macbeth in the summer term and so this visit allowed them to see the story unfold in the way that Shakespeare intended, through a fantastic, engaging performance. The cast of Quantum Theatre were brilliant as always and our Year 9s could not take their eyes off the performance. The sword fighting scene at the end created lots of excitement!

A big thank you to all of our Year 9 students. You represented Henry Beaufort well. Quantum Theatre said you were a fantastic crowd, and they would love to return! We are looking forward to seeing this engagement and excitement in the summer term, when we tackle Shakespeare’s tale of ambition!

 

Poetry Live! Bournemouth - Wednesday 28^th February 2024

This month, we had the pleasure of taking 95 Year 11 students to the Poetry Live event in Bournemouth. The event had a star-studded line-up of both poets and senior examiners, including the likes of Carol Ann Duffy, Imitiaz Dharker and John Agard. The event offered our students an invaluable opportunity to delve deeper into the works of the poets behind the anthology aspect of their GCSE Literature course. Our students truly made the most of this opportunity, with many of them asking some great, insightful questions and making detailed notes that will be really useful to them when revising for their Literature exam.

As always, our students were an absolute credit to Henry Beaufort and represented the school excellently. I could not be prouder of our young people for their incredible attitude and engagement on the day!

Mr Cameron

 

I would like to start by saying a huge thank you to all the students involved in the Spring Concert on Thursday 7^th March 2024.  They filled the Sports Hall with the most exquisite sounds and both Mrs Saunders and I were overwhelmed with pride, admiration, and positivity after such a wonderful evening of music.  In the Music Department, we embrace and thrive on music from different cultures and genres and like to celebrate music that is diverse.  We had everything from sublime Beethoven to heavy rock – we loved it all!

We broke with tradition this time and started the evening with the wonderful Resonate Choir.  The harmonies and strength in the students’ voices gave us a brilliant welcome.

Throughout the evening, we were treated to excellent performances from all three GCSE classes in Year 9-11.  It is so wonderful to showcase the range of instruments and talent of our GCSE students.

We also had the Chamber Choir, which is ably led by Ms Orba, our singing teacher.  The Chamber Choir really gave us a masterclass in how to sing beautifully and also to bring the performance aspect of concerts to life with their well-coordinated and uplifting choreography.

As has become tradition, we ended the evening with the Jazz Band, who, under the leadership of Mr Wilson, has really grown in both numbers and quality. They have really bonded as a group of musicians and their fantastic sound is down to sheer hard work at both Jazz Band rehearsals and also their dedication to practising their instruments outside school.

I am genuinely proud of every musical performance in the concert. However, I must highlight the exceptional performance of the school orchestra, which I believe sounded truly amazing. Their remarkable attention to detail and the development of their musical skills over the past two terms have been evident. I am incredibly proud, as it takes considerable hours and effort for an ensemble to achieve such a cohesive and impressive sound.

We were also treated to various other ensembles, such as the Flute, which included students who have only been learning the flute since September alongside the other more experienced musicians.  We also had stunning solos and gorgeous duets.  What a wealth of talent!

As always, it was our Year 11 students who really led the way for the evening in both their support behind the scenes but also in their high-quality performance. They are all wonderful students to work with and are hardworking individuals and true role models for the younger students.  As I said after the concert, I really hope that Year 7-10 were paying attention as we would love them to follow in Year 11's footsteps! Mrs Saunders and I would like to thank Year 11 for being so delightful and inspiring to work with and making our jobs an utter delight.

So what’s coming up for us?

Well, we’ve got a summer concert on Tuesday 2^nd July.  This will be a slightly smaller affair in the drama rooms – posters and letters will come out during May/June.

Following on from our successful run with Matilda in the Theatre Royal in January 2023, we are now really excited about our next production, which will be ‘Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’ (teen edition).  This will be performed in the Theatre Royal in Winchester:

• 1^st night Wednesday 22nd January 2025 7pm
• 2^nd night Thursday 23rd January 2025 7pm
• Final night, Friday 24th January 2025 7pm

The energies of the Expressive Arts staff and students will now be dominated by our rehearsals and preparation for this huge production.  Please spread the word and encourage your friends and family to come and watch at least one performance.

It is the magical combination of dedication and support from students, parents, teachers, and the wider community that enables us to put on these concerts. So finally, a very big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who supports the Music Department at The Henry Beaufort School. 

Mrs Seddon

Head of Music

Happy Chinese New Year!   

新(xīn)年(nián)快(kuài)乐(lè)!

At Mandarin Class this term, Year 7s  have been learning about family, friends, and animals. Year 8s have been learning all about countries and describing holidays. This led us nicely onto the topic of Chinese New Year which was celebrated on the 10^th February over the course of 15 days. We welcome the year of the Dragon (龙🐉）this year in 2024.

Both students from Henry Beaufort and Westgate School were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make ‘baobuns’ 包🥚and ‘dumplings’饺子🥟. Mrs Golding from Rome, the Technology Department, and Mrs Pan kindly offered their expertise in making these delicious foods in under an hour. It felt like ready-steady-cook!

The results were amazing and students had fun learning Mandarin in terms of preparing food, which forms a huge part of the culture.

       

 Mrs Pan        Mrs Hallett        Mrs Golding

Since September, a group of 28 Year 8 students have been taking part in the Brilliant Club Scholars programme. This programme gives students the opportunity to explore higher education and build key skills to succeed in the next stages of their education.  

The students took part in seven university-style tutorials that were delivered by PhD tutor. One group focused on ‘What is War’ and the other group looked at a biology theme and their course was called the ‘Stem Detectives’.  

At the end of the tutorials, students had to submit a 1,500 – 2,000 world essays demonstrating the subject knowledge, written communication and critical thinking skills they have developed throughout the programme. The essays produced were exceptional. Once submitted, the students received a mark 1^st, 2:1, 2:2 or a 3^rd class honours and had a sit-down feedback session with the PhD tutor.  

On Wednesday 28^th March, the students then attended their Graduation Event to celebrate their achievements at Bath University. It was a great day. Students get to experience lecture theatres, listen to students about what life is like as a University student and what they could study. We then had a tour of the impressive Bath University campus and the day finished with the graduation-style certificate awarding.  

This day hopefully builds their understanding of higher education, to help them make informed choices for the future and decide whether the university route is the right one for them (although a little way off yet!)? 

These students were amazing throughout and were a credit to the school.

 Well done to all the students involved! 

The Henry Beaufort School is excited to announce the 2025 whole school production, hosted at the Theatre Royal Winchester will be ‘Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’.

 

 

 

This amazing musical is about Jamie New, who is 16 and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation.

 

Supported by his brilliant, loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies, and steps out of the darkness into the spotlight.

 

Sixteen: the edge of possibility. Time to make your dreams come true.

 

We would be so grateful if you can speak to your child and discuss and encourage them to attend the audition for their year group.  If your child has an interest in performing on stage – whether it is a non-speaking role, a member of the chorus or a lead role please encourage them to come along. Or it could be that they would like to help backstage and we would welcome them to attend at the auditions also.

 

The auditions will take place afterschool 2.40pm – 3.45pm, students will need to head to Drama 1&2 at the end of the day.

Monday 26^th February Years 7 and 8

Thursday 29^th February Years 9 and 10

 

Although a little way off please save the dates for this amazing production at the Theatre Royal, Winchester.

1st night Wednesday 22^nd January 2025 7.00pm

2nd night Thursday 23^rd January 2025 7.00pm

Final night Friday 24^th January 2025 7.00pm

 

We are very much looking forward to this exciting production – if you have any questions, please contact Mrs Miles (kim.miles@staff.beaufort.hants.sch.uk).