Baker’s Beacon Blog – Week 4
13 October 2022
Dear Parents,
Busy week this week (when isn’t there a busy week at The Beacon?) with dinners with our friends and colleagues at Haileybury and Winchester on Tuesday and Thursday evenings respectively. I have known these schools for many years but it feels different and somewhat fresh to go on behalf of our School rather than my previous one. As I have said before and increasingly appreciate, all of our Senior School feeders love Beacon Boys and I get a fulsome and warm welcome wherever I go, representing your sons. Next week, I will be travelling up to Edinburgh on Tuesday evening to attend the annual IAPS conference, which this year is being held in conjunction with HMC. Over 800 Heads of Prep and Senior Schools from up and down the country discussing trends and contemporary issues within independent education. I don’t know what the collective noun is for a group of independent school heads – I’m sure plenty can think of one – but I am sure there will be plenty of stimulating and insightful discussions and debates. Best practice is best shared, and collectively we come together to improve the educational experience of all the children within our sector.
And then, it’s back on Friday for the annual BPS Quiz Night. Many of you will be old hands at this but this is my first BPS Quiz and I am delighted to have two tables of colleagues who promise to give you all a good run for the title of Beacon Quiz Champions. I am not blessed with as comprehensive a general knowledge as some but always enjoy a quiz, in particular, the BBC2 show, ‘Only Connect’. This programme is a major event in our household and if Brigid or I ever get a question right (and yes, we do, as everyone does, hit ‘pause’ during the ‘Wall’) it delivers tangible satisfaction. This week was a bumper week as I got not one but two questions correct. I was so proud that I had to take a picture to remind myself that it had actually happened. One of the questions is above, basically, what comes next in this sequence? If any parent can email me – nbaker@beaconschool.co.uk – the correct answer (without watching again on iPlayer…), their son can have a House Point…
Have a good weekend and see you at the Quiz next Friday!
Nick Baker