Beaconsfield High School
| Motto | Disciplina et Doctrina |
|---|---|
| Type | Grammar |
| Headteacher | Ms Annette France |
| Specialisms | Technology & Language College |
| Location |
Wattleton Road Beaconsfield Buckinghamshire HP9 1RR England Coordinates: 51°36′14″N 0°38′38″W / 51.60391°N 0.64377°W |
| Local authority | Buckinghamshire |
| DfE URN | 110528 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Students | 1114 |
| Gender | All girls |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Cedar, Willow, Maple, Rowan, Beech |
| Colours | Royal Blue |
| Website | www.beaconsfieldhigh.bucks.sch.uk/ http://learning.beaconsfieldhigh.bucks.sch.uk/ as the VLE for students |
Beaconsfield High School (commonly known as Becky High) is a girls' grammar school in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. It is a Foundation School, which takes girls from the age of 11 through to the age of 18. In order to gain admission into Beaconsfield High School; students from Buckinghamshire primary schools are required to take the 11+ examination and score an average of 121/141 across both exams, although students who score in the region of 117 will be considered for 'appeal'. The school has approximately 1,100 pupils with around 150 in each year group. Girls are split into one of five houses in entry to the school. The school has around 60 classrooms and built a new 'sixth form area' last year which brought around 12 new classrooms, a fully equipped computer room, a new canteen with a larger seating area and a new common room which have all proved to benefit the majority of the school.[1]
Academics
In September 1997, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) awarded the school specialist school status as a Technology College. It has also been awarded a second specialism as a Language College.[2] In the 2008 exam series it achieved a 100% pass rate at GCSE with an average of 502 points per candidate, and a 100% pass rate at A2 with an average points score of 397 per candidate. As of the 2012 A-Level results, Beaconsfield High School managed to obtain the best A-level results in Buckinghamshire.
Houses and Form groups
On entering the school in year 7, each student is placed in a form group in which the entire form are in the same house. Students stay in the same form groups until the end of year 8, where they will be required to move and meet other students from different houses. There are five houses; Beech, Cedar, Maple, Rowan and Willow. Students in year 12 can apply to be prefects, and one can apply to become a head of house prefect which is considered to be a senior role. The heads of houses are required to encourage students to adopt a 'house identity', run house focuses every other week and organise the house pantomimes by themselves.
'House identities' are also achieved through the organisation of interhouse competitions; the main ones being Pip Cups, Pantomimes and Sports day. Pip cups are inter-house sporting competitions such as netball, hockey and gymnastics. Each year group from year seven to eleven are required to take part.
Timetable
Previously, the school ran on a timetable of 8 lessons a day, each lasting 40 minutes and the school day ended at 3.45pm.
However, this changed at the start of the 2007-8 school year,and the timetable now consists of 5 different periods, each an hour long, and 2 breaks- one lasting 20 minutes starting from 11:10 am and another lasting an hour for lunch at 1:30 pm with the school day finishing at 3.30pm.
8.50: Registration/ Assembly
9.10: Period 1 lesson
10.10: Period 2 lesson
11.10: Break (20 minutes)
11.30: Period 3 lesson
12.30: Period 4 lesson
1.30: Lunch (one hour)
2.30: Period 5 lesson
During exam periods, lunch and Period 4 switch in the timetable to allow for lunch before afternoon exams.
Facilities
Beaconsfield High School have a wide range of high quality facilities; both for sporting and academic hobbies. The school is equipped with three netball courts which are converted into tennis courts in the summer, a 400m athletics track, a fitness gym and a sports hall which was opened in 2005 and can be used for sports such as; indoor hockey, indoor netball, badminton, volleyball, gym, trampolining, indoor athletics and many more. Both the astroturf and sports hall have benefited the local community since clubs often hire out these facilities after 6pm.
Since the school is a recognised as a specialist language and technology college, these facilities are excellent. There is a language lab for students taking either French, German, Latin or Spanish and these are where the oral examinations take place in the summer. However, the school recently dropped the German language option and is only currently allowing students who join in the first year a choice of French, Spanish and Latin. Those students who decided to take Latin forward to GCSE level are expected to also take a modern language. Recently, the school changed around its system for taking language exams, unlike previous years the students will not be taking their languages a year early (year 10) and instead will follow the traditional system whereby students take language exams in year 11.
The school's newly opened sixth form building consists of a well equipped computer room and the library also provides computers as well as a 'study area' for students who wish to work in a silent and unobtrusive environment. All of the classrooms have interactive white boards.
Head Teacher
Penny Castagnoli became head teacher in 1995 and retired from her post in August 2009. Owain Johns, deputy head and the head of design and technology department was the acting head teacher although the school made a decision to employ Sally Jarrett who was offered the role and then stepped down following the controversy published in the Daily Mail Newspaper. From April 2012, Ms Annette France was appointed as head teacher.[3]
References
- ↑ "Schools Directory". Buckinghamshire County Council. Retrieved 2006-09-07.
- ↑ "Specialist Schools Home". DfES. July 2006. Archived from the original on 3 August 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-02.
- ↑ "Facebook campaign forces headteacher to resign after pupil power revolt". Mail Online. Retrieved 5 March 2012.