Friends of Benton Park
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InFISSUE 44 / SEPTEMBERorm 2018 CREATING A CLIMATE FOR GREAT LEARNING, SUCCESS AND OPPORTUNITY 1 www.bentonpark.org.uk WWW.BENTONPARK.ORG.UK Issue 44 // September 2018 InForm www.bentonpark.org.uk Headteacher’s Message Welcome to Benton Park School and our annual edition of “InForm”. Once again, this edition is packed full of articles aimed at giving readers a flavour of the opportunities on offer to all our students across a full academic year here at Benton Park. Our academic rigour is reflected each year in our strong and solid examination results. Despite an unprecedented amount of upheaval in the examination system leading up to the results in 2018, we were very pleased with the outcomes for our students both at A Level and GCSE. It is incredibly rewarding seeing all the hard work of students and staff yield the desired results, enabling students to unlock the next stage on their chosen career path. It is also a really great pleasure to welcome back our successful GCSE students into our Sixth Form and watch them grow and develop in their learning. In addition to promoting a great climate for learning, we also aim to develop well rounded, balanced and resilient individuals by offering Exam Results a range of other opportunities, giving everyone a chance to succeed. We achieve this through our strong focus on the Arts and Sports as Benton Park Students well as a broad and varied range of extra-curricular activities. We from Year 11 and Year really do aim to offer something for everyone and all our students 13 were celebrating are encouraged to play a full and active part of school life. Our extra- this summer with some curricular programme shows the breadth of activities on offer each fantastic exam results; a year thanks to the commitment of our staff team. This magazine just reward for all their highlights just a snapshot of these opportunities. hard work. It is always an exciting day for those As Headteacher at Benton Park I feel really privileged to be leading concerned and a privilege to share in the emotion and elation such a dedicated and professional team of staff. We are constantly of our students, as they look forward to the next steps in their seeking ways to ensure the school continues to go from strength to education and chosen career paths. This year was particularly strength. Part of this work has involved recently looking at the key important as it reflected major changes in courses at both values that underpin our school vision, to ensure we continue to GCSE and A Level with the introduction of 9-1 grades and fully successfully create an excellent climate for great learning, success linear exams. and opportunity for all. Our key values which you will see running through all aspects of school life are: At A Level, our average points per entry has continued to rise showing that students are continuing to achieve higher grades • Resilience than previous years. There were also many outstanding • Collaboration individual results with Charlie Cunniffe achieving four A • Inspiration grades, and William Carrington, Emma Headley and Max Weir • Compassion achieving three A grades. • Endeavour At GCSE, students completed the new, more rigorous The Autumn term is always busy and a highlight is when we welcome examinations with great success showing that with the into school potential new families making important decisions support of their teachers they had adapted exceptionally well for their children on places in Year 7 as well as Post 16 choices. to the new linear exam system and specifications. Twenty one Our Open Evenings are always an exciting time for us as we enjoy students achieved at least one grade 9 with 21% of all grades meeting new families and we get the chance to showcase the best of awarded to all students at either grade A or the new grade what is on offer at Benton Park School. As parents/carers we would 7 or above. Again, there were some outstanding individual strongly encourage you to visit our school and speak to members performances across all subjects including Maggie Nott, of staff, students and other members of the school community to Catherine Balshaw, Lola Kinard, Joel Cargill, Hasan Ahmad, find out what we are all about. We pride ourselves on the strong and Lauren Webster, Abby Eccles and Estera Ulrich-Oltean all supportive relationships we have between home and school and we achieving at least ten grades at either A or the new grade 7 or strongly believe these are vital in ensuring all our students achieve above. It is with great pleasure that we accept many of these their full potential. These relationships start with our Open Evenings students into our sixth form to continue their studies. so please do come along to meet us. We look forward to continued and even greater success next I hope you enjoy reading this edition which highlights all the year with those students who have just moved into Year 11 wonderful opportunities on offer to our students. A further source and 13 already showing great promise. of information on the school can be found on our website at www. bentonpark.org.uk and please follow us on Twitter @BentonParkSch. Keith Briggs As always if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Deputy Headteacher us on [email protected] and we will be more than happy to assist you. Delia Martin Headteacher Discover us on Twitter today! @BentonParkSch 2 www.bentonpark.org.uk Life at Benton Park School An Insight into Transition Prom 2018 Last September saw us welcome into school a full cohort of 245 Once again the Prom was a huge success and all students looked excited new Year 7 students. This is a challenging time for our stunning. It was a privilege to spend an evening with all the young people and their families and we always do all we can to students who attended and celebrate with them their successful make sure the transition is smooth and supportive. It starts in years at Benton Park. As in previous years Friends of Benton the summer term where our students visit in small groups with Park generously donated money so that 24 students received their primary school, followed by a full visit for all the cohort. complimentary tickets for either receiving clean slates from Year 7 or These visits are supplemented by information sessions for for their dedication parents/ carers, as well as members of our team visiting and and commitment speaking to relevant staff at the primary schools. However, towards a particular subject. This is the tranisition doesn’t stop there. Each September our Year a remarkable 7 students visit Nell Bank in Ilkley. They take part in activities acheivement and designed to encourage and promote new friendships and team really gives students building, taking part in water carrying challenges, assault courses something to aim and orienteering, to name just a few. This is always a successful for throughout their first visit at secondary school and last year was no exception. time with us. Our students had a fabulous time and made some new and very positive relationships with their peers. Mr Mark Ross Key Stage 4 Leader This visit was closely followed by our Year 7 disco, which was once again supported by The Friends of Benton Park. This provided further opportunity for our students to socialise with their new- found friends and get to know the staff further. Last year they Student Leadership particularly enjoyed the dancing to our in-house DJ, the popcorn, candyfloss, sweets and slush puppies! After all these activities it Student leadership continues to flourish in school. Student leaders was time to meet with our are engaged in key decisions across school, they organise our new parents/carers at the charitable work and even assist with recruitment of staff. Early Year 7 Review Day also this year they had the opportunity to take part in a fantastic event held in October. It offered organised by Leeds City Council. The event was held to ensure the ideal opportunity for student voice was taken into account as Councillors enter a bid to parents to discuss their fund new and existing services for children around Leeds. Students child’s progress with Form were thrown into the ‘Dragons Tutors and look at how Den’ and given a remit to dream well they had settled into up new and exciting project life at Benton Park. It was ideas to help keep our local also key in helping us to children entertained at evenings continue building upon the and weekends. Ideas included all important home/school sport camps, treasure hunts partnership which is vital and performing arts groups in ensuring the future amongst many more. Students success of our students. had a great time engaging in a thoroughly democratic process Ms Jo Temple and voting for their favourite Key Stage 3 Leader activity which hopefully will be funded by the Council before the end of the year. Mrs Louise Roberts Student Leadership Catering Service The Benton Park in-house catering team are led by Kitchen Manager Debbie Derrick and multi award winning Executive Chef David Carrack of the Red Kite Learning Trust. Making nearly all our food from scratch using local suppliers, we provide break snacks, lunch, event catering and pre- order services to students and staff every day. We have 3 outlets offering a range of tasty, nutritious meals all compliant with Government Healthy Schools Standards. Our team make as much as possible from scratch using local suppliers and seasonal produce to provide full traceability.