Beech Hall School’s Senior Head Girl and Senior Head Boy, Miss Anna Kingsley and Mr Jack Meeks (both 15) stepped into the position of Joint Head Teacher recently as part of a comprehensive induction into their new roles of responsibility at the school.
Taking the day seriously, ‘Miss Kingsley’ and ‘Mr Meeks’ as their classmates addressed them, arrived bright and early at the Tytherington-based school, ready to formally greet parents, staff and pupils before the day’s hectic schedule.
Following officiating at a parent breakfast event, the Joint Head Teachers interacted with pupils at the school assembly where they wrote 50 Olympic postcards and presented merit certificates before being treated to a real taste of decision making at the top.
First on the agenda was a meeting to discuss 2020 extracurricular activities and brainstorm ideas for next year’s school charity events, followed by a meeting with Mr Steve Collins regarding a personal safety training programme.
Afterwards they met with Beech Hall’s Head Chef, Mr Steve Hicks, to plan the healthy and nutritious winter lunch menus, before short listing for the schools learning support roles. They also took an active role in playground duty prior to welcoming parents to the pre-school, infant and junior Christmas performances.
James Allen, Headmaster explained: “At Beech Hall we are keen to empower our pupils as much as possible, so building confidence and developing key skills for their onwards journey, such as independence and decision making, are all central to our school ethos. The initiative built upon this with both pupils doing admirably well throughout the day.
“As Senior Head Girl and Senior Head Boy, Anna and Jack will get heavily involved in representing their counterparts by sitting alongside the Beech Hall staff to make key decisions on areas such as our charitable calendar for the 2019/20 academic year, and this exercise gave them a valuable insight and confidence for the year ahead.”
Anna, who aspires to work in law or psychology, comments: “It’s been really interesting to get involved in so many important decisions. Not many pupils would get the opportunity to have this experience so we’re both really grateful. My favourite part was being able to share my feedback with the Headmaster and we even talked about getting another Netball coach for the girl’s team!”
Beech Hall School is a non-selective independent school for children aged from six months to 16 years old. It is situated in a stunning 16-acre site with two listed buildings, playing fields and a swimming pool.
Part of the Riverston Group, Beech Hall is committed to providing a child-centred education which focuses on every individual child’s strength and gives each one the opportunity to achieve a wide variety of academic, sporting and extra-curricular goals.
Bespoke, quality teaching is at the heart of Beech Hall’s core values and the recent renovation has made the personalised learning approach all the more achievable.
