I am writing to let you know that I have decided to retire as Headteacher of Beaufort Community School at the end of this school year. After 15 years as Headteacher of Beaufort Community School I feel that it is the right time to step aside to allow a new and younger face to take on the leadership of the school. The next few years are likely to be a time of significant change in education both locally and nationally and it is important that the school can appoint a new Headteacher to take the school forward on a long term basis to more success in the future.

The Governing Body will be advertising for a new Headteacher in the next few weeks. They intend to interview in early March so that the person appointed can familiarise themselves with the school during the Summer Term. I will keep you informed in future newsletters.

We said farewell this week to Mrs Burns, Assistant Headteacher for Key Stage 3, who has started her maternity leave. Mrs Greening will take over as Assistant Headteacher for Key Stage 3 and Miss Harris will cover Mrs Greening’s role as Head of Inclusion.

From the Headteacher……

Thank you to all parents, staff, governors and friends of the school who supported our Carol Concert at Gloucester Cathedral last week.

This year we held the concert in partnership with our two primary school members of our Learning Trust—Harewood Junior School and Grange Primary School. Well done to all the performers and readers for ensuring such a memorable evening—and a perfect way to start the Christmas festivities.

At the end of this term we say farewell and thank you to two members of staff. Mr Richardson, Head of Science, is retiring and Mrs Wailes, Maths/ICT, is moving with her family to Essex. In addition Miss Hillier,  Textiles, will be starting her maternity leave. Our best wishes go to all three colleagues .

Finally my own very best wishes for Christmas and the New Year  to everyone connected with Beaufort Community School.

From the Headteacher…… 

The views of parents and pupils at our school are very important in helping us monitor how we are doing and in planning for the future. Every two years we commission the University of Keele to carry out an independent survey of parents and pupils and then write a detailed report for myself and the Governors which is very important in shaping our plans for future developments. In the past we have sent out paper survey forms. However this year the University will be carrying out an on-line survey of pupils during Citizenship lessons and a significant number of parents, for whom we have e-mail addresses, will receive a web link to the questionnaire. Please complete this as soon as possible as your views are valuable to us. All replies go directly to the University of Keele and remain anonymous, and no individual pupils or parents are identified in the final report. 

We hope all our new Year 7 pupils have settled into their secondary school education. The Year 7 residential week at Liddington was a tremendous success and was enjoyed by both pupils and staff who took part. Immediately after half term we have arranged a tutor evening for Year 7 parents to come in and discuss progress so far with their son or daughter’s tutor. Parents will have received a letter with a reply slip to make an appointment—please return to us as soon as possible. We have also brought forward the Year 11 Parents Consultation Evening to Thursday 10th November 2011. We feel that such an important evening is better held earlier in the year if we are to work together to ensure the best possible exam results for pupils in Year 11.  Please make every effort to attend this vital meeting.

Reminder -

• Friday 21st October—end of Term 1, 3.15pm
• Monday 31st October—staff training day—school closed to all pupils
• Tuesday 1st November—start of Term 2, 8.30am
• Friday 16th December—end of Term 2, 12.30pm

From the Headteacher……

Welcome back to a new school year at Beaufort Community School and particularly welcome to those new parents and pupils joining us in Year 7, and other years. We are trying to increase the use of e-mail and our website to communicate with parents. Hopefully most parents will have received both this newsletter and our parents handbook by email. Please help us by letting us know your up to date e-mail address and always check our website for current information.

We welcome a number of new members of staff -

Miss Baber— Girls’ PE, Miss McConnachie—Design Technology, Miss Mistry—Drama, Mr Price—Geography, Mrs Richards—Design Technology and Mr Roberts—ICT.

In addition Mrs Hankey will be the Deputy Headteacher during this academic year.

From the Headteacher……

At the end of a very busy year we say farewell to a number of members of staff who are moving on to new challenges or taking a well earned retirement.

After 24 years at Beaufort Mrs Gorrod, Deputy Headteacher, leaves us to take up the Headship of Bucklers Mead School in Somerset. Three long serving members of staff will be retiring, Mr Heywood-Thomas, Mr Taylor and Mrs Butler, and we wish all three a very happy and long retirement. We also say farewell to the following members of staff—Mr Weston, Miss Williams, Miss Hawcroft, Mrs Christian, Miss Carnie, Mr Ball, Miss Snell and Mr Whitaker. My thanks to all of them for their contribution to the life of our school and my best wishes for the future.

We were delighted to hear of the success recently of a former Beaufort student, Clive Lewis. Clive was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June for public service in his work to promote the achievement of young people from poorer backgrounds. Clive is the Director of a local company, Globis, which is based at Waterwells, Quedgeley, and was our Guest of Honour at the Governors Presentation Evening two years ago.

Can I finish by thanking all pupils and staff for their hard work during the last year. I am sure we will see the results of their labours in our examination results this summer. In the meantime, I would like to wish you all a very enjoyable summer holiday.

From the Headteacher……

All parents should have received a copy of the summary letter from the Lead Inspector following our recent Ofsted Inspection. We are very pleased that Ofsted recognised the strengths of our school, particularly the very rapid rise in examination results at Key Stage 4 and the quality of care, guidance and support provided to pupils. There were two key areas for improvement identified in the report. Firstly to further improve the quality of teaching across the school based on the outstanding practice already within the school. Secondly to encourage pupils to take greater responsibility for their own learning. Both of these action points will form important themes within our next School Development Plan.  A copy of the full report is available to read or download on the school website. However if you would like a paper copy, please contact the school office and we will post a copy to you.

From the Headteacher……

You will have read in the press and heard on the television news about possible cuts in funding to schools, particularly in view of the local government funding levels announced this week. The Government has said that the amount of money allocated to schools will stay the same during the forthcoming year. However there are many additional pupils of primary age and as a result the share of the education budget to secondary schools is likely to be reduced. In addition local county councils have yet to make decisions about how they will allocate funding to schools. The result is that Beaufort Community School will certainly face a reduced budget for the forthcoming financial year but by how much we do not yet know. Both I and the Governing Body are committed to ensuring that we maintain the best possible education for pupils at our school and will do all we can to ensure that any reductions in expenditure have the least impact possible on work in the classroom.

Two cuts in expenditure which have already been confirmed are the abolition of Education Maintenance Allowance for 16-18 year olds and the ending of the School Sports Coordinator Programme. Pupils at Beaufort Community School have benefited hugely from both of these schemes and we are doing all we can to register our opposition to these changes.

We will know more after Christmas about the impact of the Government’s spending decisions on schools in Gloucestershire and I will keep you updated in our next newsletter.

We say farewell to Mrs Townsend who is joining Gloucester Academy and we welcome back Mrs Stratton who returns from maternity leave in January.

My best wishes for Christmas and New Year to you all.