THE BEAUMONT WIDER COMMUNITY

“Students make extensive contributions to the community, both that of the school and the wider community.” (Ofsted Report 2008 - full report available here)

We aim to enable our pupils and their families to see themselves as ‘global citizens’. We seek to promote this through our curriculum and the development of links and supporting activities with the wider community, including partner schools all over the world.

Beaumont became a member of the Comenius Project in 2003, and is linked with schools in Sicily and Slovakia via this British Council initiative. Joint visits are organised between the three schools in order to compare lifestyles and cultures in the three countries. The aims of the Comenius Project, to which the school subscribes are to

• Develop an understanding of the environment and culture of different regions in Europe
• Promote global citizenship through communication technologies including video conferencing
• Broaden children’s understanding and knowledge of European countries, their cultures and values, promoting an attitude of respect, tolerance and empathy
• Include pupils from all cultural backgrounds, ability and religions
• Make friends across Europe
• Give pupils a new arena in which to present their work

Our commitment to fostering an international dimension to school life has been recognised with the achievement in 2007 of the International School Award from the British Council. We successfully re-applied for this Award in 2011.

As a Specialist Language college, we are particularly proud of our programme of exchange visits and trips abroad. All students have the opportunity to engage in foreign travel, beginning in Year 7 when study trips to France and Germany are available. In subsequent years study visits to Spain, France, Italy and Germany, are available to language students, and A level language students also have an opportunity to undertake work experience abroad. Exchange visits with students in schools in France and Germany are also organised.

Students from India and Spain also visited Beaumont in 2011.

Our students also have many opportunities to sample life in different parts of the world via an extensive programme of trips and visits not specifically linked to the languages curriculum. These opportunities help to promote wider cultural understanding as well as providing invaluable ‘life experiences’ for our students. There is an annual ski trip abroad, and regular, although less frequent, trips to far flung parts of the world including China, the USA, Italy, Iceland, and Hong Kong. Sixth form study trips such as a summer 2008 one to Honduras provide further significant opportunities for our students to experience a different culture and grow in maturity and independence. Our music students now undertake an annual concert tour; in 2008 they performed to audiences in Vienna, in 2009 to those in Paris, and in 2011 in Prague.

As well as travelling to, and welcoming visitors from other countries, our students work to support communities less fortunate than their own through fundraising for and promoting increased awareness of various national and international issues. Students have been involved in Genes for Jeans, Children in Need, LEPRA and Teenage Cancer Trust campaigns, and each year provide filled ‘shoeboxes’ as part of Operation Christmas Child. Members of staff also undertake sponsored events in support of national charities which always raise significant support from members of the school community. In recent years the school has also been linked with an initiative to fundraise for the Hillview Township project in Cape Town, South Africa, and with Ntshilini Senior Secondary School in Eastern Cape, South Africa. Students have been involved in various initiatives to enable them to have a greater understanding of International dimensions but also to help raise funds to support the school.