Welcome to Beechview!

I am very happy to have taken on the role of Headteacher this academic year and feel honoured to be working in such a welcoming, kind community with exceptional children, staff and families. 

Beechview Academy is a small, friendly Junior (Key Stage 2 only) school located in east High Wycombe, with children mostly coming from the Marsh and Micklefield areas.  We are very fortunate in our site, with large outdoor play spaces, along with  garden and woodland areas.  As part of the Marlow Education Trust (MET) we have also been able to draw on their considerable expertise, as well as developing strong links with our partner secondary school, Sir William Borlase’s, an outstanding co-educational school in Marlow.  Since joining the MET Beechview has undergone some of the most exciting changes in our history.  The buildings have been transformed, with over £2 million worth of investment, organised through the MET. 

We are now in a period of incredibly positive development and change.  Have a look at our curriculum pages and you will see that we have transformed both the content and our approach to teaching, with a huge emphasis on structured development and links across subjects and over the four years of Key Stage 2.  We have also been strengthening our links with our main partner, Marsh Infant School, which the majority of our children and families attend before joining us.  Like Marsh we place a heavy emphasis on creating a warm, nurturing environment, as well as focusing on ensuring that our children are fully ready for their next phase of education, as they move up to local secondary schools. 

Over the past few years we have not only transformed our site and our curriculum; we have also hugely expanded our wider curriculum offer, with the introduction of a daily Breakfast Club, available to all children in the school, to join the already existing access to the after school provision, available through our partnership with Marsh.  In addition to this wrap around care, Beechview is proud of its rich variety of after school clubs.  This year we are planning to have at least one sports club every day, plus at least one non-sporting club, with the offers ranging across a variety of seasonal sports plus everything from STEM club, to singing, cookery, art and book club.  There is always plenty to do!

Beechview is also very proud to be part of our local community.  This starts with strong relationships with our parents and families, and then expands with our links to other local and even national groups, ranging from our work with the Country Trust, with our local primary schools, our leadership of a local science partnership linked to the Ogden Trust, as well as links with Wycombe Wanderers, and, of course, our MET partners.  We work closely with up to 20 Sixth Formers from Sir William Borlase's, who come to act as mentors, help children with their Maths, listen to them read, and even run various stretch and challenge activities.  Add in our many community volunteers who come to us via School Readers, and you will see that Beechview's links with the community are very wide ranging.

Of course some of our plans were affected by the recent Covid outbreak.  During the lockdown period we remained open to Key Worker and Vulnerable Children.  We were also able to run live on line lessons for all children at home during the lockdown, which included lending out over 75 chrome books to ensure that every children had access. We were also proud during the two extended lockdowns to be able to support over 40 of our families with food parcels, resulting in a new partnership with the One Can Trust, which will be continuing into the future.  Although some of these things can now be scaled back down, we remain committed to helping our children and our families into the future.

We are back into full daily operation now, and we are even busy thinking of new things to bring back on board.  Beechview has always been a busy and vibrant place to learn, and we know that Covid has brought out this need even more clearly.  We look forward to our next year with eager anticipation!

Mrs Parry-Woolner

Headteacher