This blog is moving!

A very happy new year to all readers of this blog!

As we've mentioned before, the Publicity and Communications sub-group of the SLG has been planning to more-fully integrate the SLG blog with the school website.  We're now ready to announce that this will be the last post on the blog at its current home, and that the first post of our new blog will soon be live on the Beckfoot School website at www.beckfoot.bradford.sch.uk.  This will allow our posts to appear as news on the main Beckfoot School page, without users having to click through to a second website to read news from the SLG.

This blog will remain live, though no longer updated, at this address for the foreseeable future, as an archive of previous posts.

We'd like to sincerely thank the readership of this blog for sticking with us since November 2009, and we hope that you will follow us to our new home.

See you there!

SLG Update

Here's an update on the latest work of some of our sub-groups.

• The Leaders of Learning sub-group has decided on its first project as part of the Bradford Students Leading Learning initiative.  They are going to be looking at what makes learning special, and they are starting to interview randomly-selected students from across the school.
• The One Community sub-group is working on plans to mark World AIDS Day on Wednesday 1st December.  Assemblies will be held on that week to inform students about the effects of AIDS.
• The Curriculum sub-group will be contacting other Student Leadership activities across the school about their work.
• Finally, for now, this blog continues to be updated with our work.  However, following the work of the Publicity and Communications sub-group, the blog may be moving to a new home, so watch this space - any changes will be announced here.

As ever, thanks for reading the blog.

Welcome

Apologies for the late start up of the blog this year, we’ve had a lot of work these past few weeks, so here is a quick update on what we have been doing.

Firstly, congratulations to everyone who has made it onto the SLG. We had our first full meeting last Monday with our new members and look forward to working with them in the future. All our nominees were excellent and are soon to be involved in other up and coming projects.

The main items on the agenda are the following and should give you an indication of our current focus:

1. Leaders of Learning

2. Election of Student Councils and nominations of yr7 candidates for the SLG

3. Coordination and communication – with other Student Leadership groups around school

4. One community group

5. Publicity and Communications

6. Beckfoot Ambassadors

As always, you are welcome to join any leadership group above in which you have an interest and can ask members of the SLG or Mrs Halls if you have any questions.

Thanks for visiting our blog!

The SLG

Hazelbeck greetings

As you may know, Hazelbeck School, the school which is going to share the new building with Beckfoot, has just opened, straight after the Easter break.  To wish the students and staff at Hazelbeck well with their new school, members of the SLG have been recording Beckfoot students' good wishes at break times over the past week.  These are being assembled into a video, which will be played for the students at the school.
Best wishes to everyone at Hazelbeck from Beckfoot School!

SLG Update

Sorry that there haven't been many posts lately.  However, quite a lot's been happening over the last few weeks, so here's an update:

• A representative of the Eco Group has visited a meeting to discuss their work so far and their plans for the future.
• A science teacher visited to discuss a future student leadership opportunities for Key Stage 3 in the department, while the existing post-16 Science SLG has attended to update on progress.
• Teachers from several Bradford schools have visited the school to discuss Student Leadership in their schools, following the secondary-school heads' conference we attended in January.
• Three members of the SLG have attended the Governors' Student and Curriculum committee, discussing our work up to now.
• We have presented to the English staff, preparing for student leadership being introduced to this department.
• We have been involved with the staff Innovation Group, with possible student leadership opportunities coming up.
• A Year 7 assembly on anti-bullying has been presented with support from the SLG and the head of Year 7. A student leadership group is now working on follow-up PSHCE sessions.

It's now the Easter holidays, so we'll be back at the start of the summer term with more news.

SLG Update

Here's what the SLG discussed at our latest meeting:

• Representatives of the Science Student Leadership Group - a Post-Sixteen leadership group - visited our meeting to talk about the group's progress up to now and its plans for the future.
• Members of the Student Leadership Group will soon attend a meeting of the School Governors to discuss who we are as a group and what we are working on at the moment.

Come back next week for more news and updates.

SLG Elections - Year 7

Major news from the SLG - tomorrow (Friday 12th February) will be the Year 7 SLG elections, which will take place during form time.  Good luck to all candidates!

SLG Update

A report from our latest meeting:

• The biggest news: Year 7 elections to the SLG will take place during PSHCE on Friday 12th February.  All Year 7 students have the chance to vote, after hearing your candidates' speeches in assembly on Monday.  Good luck to all candidates!
• We had as our guest a member of the science department, who currently runs the Science Student Leadership Group.  He was taking to us about what our role is (that is, as an 'umbrella' of student leadership opportunities in school), and how it fits into the Beckfoot community as a whole.
• We are pleased to announce that the total for the Haiti appeal now stands at almost £2500.  This is in no small part due to the efforts of the Fairtrade group - thanks a lot.
• On Wednesday 3rd February, a member of staff from another school in Bradford will be visiting to find out more about Student Leadership in Beckfoot.
• Finally, some members of the SLG will be taking part in an event for trainee teachers on Wednesday, to discuss the role of Student Leadership in Beckfoot and to give them the chance to ask any questions they might have.

Keep checking this blog for more updates on our work.

SLG Update

Two pieces of news from Friday from the SLG.

Firstly, a massive thank you to everyone in school, for their generosity in their donations to the Haiti Earthquake fund on Friday.  A final total will be posted soon, but we believe that a substantial amount has been raised for the fund.  Mr Horn (headteacher) said:

"Absolutely delighted that our student leaders took control of this and have generated such a generous response for the Beckfoot community.  Will we raise £2K? Great work team!"

Secondly, the SLG and other student leaders took part in a conference of Bradford secondary school headteachers in Leeds, discussing our work in the school.  The event, which involved a presentation and a discussion of leadership in school, was extremely successful.  From Mr Horn:

"Tremendous feedback from Bradford Secondary Heads about the quality of the presentation made to them by the SLG. Really confident, assured Beckfoot ambassadors. Many of the heads are very keen to learn more about what we are doing here and use that to model a similar student leadership experience in their own schools. Makes me feel very proud to work with these students."

 Keep checking the blog for more news!

BSF Meeting

Tomorrow, there will be an important and exciting meeting of the BSF Student Participation Group in the Conference Room.  All members of the BSF Group are invited.  If you cannot attend, please pass this message on to S4 as soon as possible.

Haiti Earthquake Appeal

On Friday 22nd January, we will be collecting donations to help survivors of the Haiti earthquake. There are many ways in which your donations could support the aid effort and so many people's lives depend on your generosity.

More information on our appeal will be posted around school over the coming week and information will be available from form tutors. Please remember that this is one of the poorest countries in the world and what little people had before this disaster has now become even less.

Please pledge as much money as you can. Thankyou.

We're back!

Happy new year, everyone, and welcome to a new term at Beckfoot!

Sorry for any delay in getting started again after Christmas with this blog.  This was the result of the poor weather conditions, which resulted in the cancellation of several meetings, the closure of school on a couple of days, and, as a result, a shortage of news to report.  We hope to be back to normal service soon, however, with what promises to be an exciting term on the Student Leadership front.  We'll be back with the latest news soon, so watch this space!

Merry Christmas!

Obviously, as the school will be closed for the next two weeks, there won't be much news on the blog.  However, you can see the latest edition of the Buzz newsletter here (scroll down to 'Beckfoot Buzz', and select Issue 2 (2009-2010).

Merry Christmas to all our readers, and we'll be back with more news in the new year.

eBuzz and eCon

A new and personalised system for recognising the achievements of Sixth Formers is about to go live.  More will be revealed soon...

Maths and Science SLGs

The new Science Student Leadership Group will have its first meeting on Wednesday.  Meanwhile, applications for the Maths SLG will soon be available from Maths teachers.

Eid Party

The Sixth Form Council have been busy as usual, and have just organised an Eid Party which took place on Monday evening.  Sixty students and staff attended.

Children in Need Update

I suppose it's a bit late for this, but, seeing as the blog only started on Monday, better late than never!

A quick update on Student Leadership actvities for Children in Need 2009:

• Student Councils organised many events, including 'Beckfoot's Staff Got Talent' and various competitions.
• The Sixth Form ran a 'Dress to Impress' event
• £145 was raised by two Sixth Form students dressed as the 118 118 duo
• Various bake sales were organised, including one by the form group in H7 and another by everyone in LS1.
• ... and much more!

£2308.05 was raised on the day, and an extra £300 has been donated through BeXfactor over the years.  Many thanks to everyone who got involved in fundraising!

Maths SLG

The Maths Student Leadership Group, which members of the SLG are helping to set up, will soon be up and running.  They are hoping to look at various aspects of the Maths Curriculum.

Year 7 and 8 elections

Year 7 and 8 SLG elections are currently underway.  The SLG will be coming around form groups on Friday to collect application forms.  Looking forward to seeing your applications!

Welcome to the blog!

Hi, and welcome to this, the Beckfoot Student Leadership Blog.  This will be regularly updated (at least once for every full school week) with all of the latest details about Student Leadership at Beckfoot.

To find out more, why not look at www.beckfoot.bradford.sch.uk, or talk to one of the SLG members in school.