Beech House School

Beech House School

Annual Carol Service

As is our custom, Beech House pupils visited St Chad’s Church, Sparrow Hill, for our annual Carol Service on the last Friday of the Autumn Term.

The service started traditionally with Once in Royal David’s City, followed by other carols and a selection of Biblical readings telling the story of Isaiah’s prophecy of a Messiah, the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and Jesus’ nativity story.

Pupils from Years 5 to 11 led the service through readings and prayers, whilst pupils from Years 3 and 4 acted out tableau scenes to illustrate various stages of the story.

We then reflected upon the events of Christmas Eve in 1914, when spontaneous peace broke out in the Trenches and pupils learned about the football matches and exchange of gifts between combatants.

The Vicar of Rochdale, Mark Coleman, then took up the theme of the Great War for his Christmas Address.

As the service reached its conclusion, pupils received Christmas token gifts from Friends of Beech House, before finishing term for a well-deserved holiday. Our thanks go to the Vicar of St Chad’s and the Church Wardens for hosting us on this occasion and helping to make the event so enjoyable. 

Golden Mosque Visit

Year 7 pupils from Beech House took time out of school to visit the Golden Mosque on Lower Sherriff Street - as the culmination of their term’s studies of Islam. They were met by staff from the mosque’s Madrasa and started their tour by watching a video presentation about the mosque itself and about the Five Pillars of Islam. 

Volunteers were then invited to practice wudu - washing in preparation for prayer. This proved amusing, as some pupils struggled to remove shoes and socks and then wash their feet without saturating themselves, but - of course - the process also had a serious side, because it offered pupils the opportunity to investigate why wudu is so important.

This activity was followed by a tour of the building - and exploration of the musallah (prayer hall); this is a beautifully decorated, tranquil room where we were able to inspect, at first hand, key features such as the mihrab and minbar.

One of our boys, Shaees, very bravely offered to demonstrate the prayer ritual - and in doing so, impressed not only his fellow pupils but also the mosque staff!

The visit ended with pupils watching some more video clips to extend their knowledge of Islam and traditional Muslim hospitality - in the form of chocolates and juice.

Pupils’ write-ups of their visit show how much they enjoyed it and how valuable it was for them to visit and see what they had been learning about in theory in the previous weeks.

We would like to thank our new friends at Mosque for giving up their time to show us around; our trip was most enjoyable.

Parents Evening

Parents are reminded that Year 3 and Year 7 Parents Evening takes place on Thursday 15 January, starting at 18.00.

House Points

The Upper Prep Ruby award for 50 House Points was awarded to Inaaya Ahmed.

The House Point totals are: Saturn 20, Mercury 17, Neptune 14 & Jupiter 7.