Colour Run
We are a Good School - Ofsted 2019
Birchwood’s commitment to supporting students outside the classroom came across very strongly in our recent Ofsted Inspection Report. As Principal, I have always felt that we get the balance right between strong academic progress, enrichment and pastoral support, but it was very reassuring to find that Her Majesty’s Inspectors came to the same conclusion. Whilst the school was judged to be ‘Good’ in all categories, our outstanding commitment to personal development and welfare is very justifiable and I want to, at this point, give praise to those members of staff who have pastoral or welfare responsibilities as well as those who give freely of their time to run clubs and educational trips. This report puts us in good stead for the future!
Rome and Naples
Year 8's annual humanities trip to Rome and Naples left students in awe of the fresco's, paintings, and architecture. They visited the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum to name but a few places. Consumed lots of ice cream and pizza!
Sports Day
Waytemore won the House Sports Day. Thank you to Cornelius PLC for supporting this event and sponsoring the new House flags which look amazing!
Aerozone
Two groups of lucky Year 8 students visited Stansted’s Aerozone on the 3 and 4 July for a fantastic STEM based school trip. On both days we were greeted with a presentation on the history of the airport and its development over the last 75 years and then, depending on the day, students either met some armed police, were spoken to about apprenticeships in the fire service or were lucky enough to have a fascinating talk from one of their pilots. The second session either involved a visit to the Ryan Air hangar where students got to see a full size plane in bits, spoke to a trainee
engineer, sat in or even flew a flight simulator and some lucky students, and teachers, got to have a go on the emergency slide.
Spanish Festival
Two A level Spanish students, along with Miss Roderick and Mrs Madsen, took a trip down to Portobello Road for a fabulous, culturally
immersive and enriching experience. The Portobello Spanish Festival aims to “bring a taste of spanish culture” to the streets of London, and it delivered. We explored the vast array of street stalls, the most popular in our case being the one selling churros con chocolate! There were interactive flamenco performances throughout the day, with live singers, but our highlight was later on, when we had the pleasure of experiencing a live Cuban jazz band, complete with the necessary flair and hip-shaking rhythm, as proven by Mrs Madsen and her son, Jago, with whom we had met up with earlier, taking to the floor to show us how it’s done! It was a fitting finale to a great day, enjoyed by all!
Summer Prom Concert
Summer Prom Concert
On Wednesday 3 July we held our Summer Prom Concert in the school hall. The talent was outstanding with many students from across all years involved.
Performances included winners from Birchwood’s Got Talent and Young Musician of the Year competitions as well as Orchestra, Vocalise, Senior Choir, a Rock Duet and even a Ukulele group! Even the audience got a chance to join in with a rousing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ finale.
Mr Grogan and Mr Stock would like to thank all staff and students who took part and for all their hard work and dedication.
Summer Prom Music Concert
Summer Prom Music Concert
Wednesday 3 July
Tickets are now available from the Finance Office
Quiz Night
Calling all Quizzers....
Birchwood PSFA
Friday 28 June
7.00pm-11.00pm
School Hall
£12.00 per person
Aldeburgh and Southwold
A group of Birchwood’s A Level Geography students recently embarked on a 4-day excursion, two days devoted to the physical side of geography in Aldeburgh and Southwold and the other two days were to focus on the human aspects in the city of Cambridge. This trip is part of the A Level course and was for us to further explore and develop our primary data collection methods. This would then in turn aid us with our independent investigation, which counts as 20% towards our final grade.