Woodland Fun Run
Last Sunday saw our first Woodland Fun Run which was a joint event organised by Birchwood PSFA and Summercroft PTA. The event included a 5K walk/run around Birchanger Woods and a 1K fun run around our running track for younger children with a themed treasure hunt. We also had bouncy castles, face painting and a variety of food and refreshment stalls. The event was open to all, including students and families from both Summercroft and Birchwood. Thank you to everybody who supported this event, we couldn’t have done it without our brilliant volunteer helpers and of course everyone who came along on Sunday morning to participate! We are also hugely grateful to Lednor estate agents for their help with marketing and to Waitrose for their donation of two hundred bananas.
We received some great feedback and are already starting on the planning for next year’s event. Our aim is to grow this event and have more involvement from Birchwood students and children from other local schools. If you have a company willing to help sponsor next year’s Woodland Run we would love to hear from you.
Willow Sculptor
The young carers group took part in a workshop run by sculptor Tom Hare. Tom is a renowned willow sculptor and has had his worked installed across the world, including Kew Gardens, Anne Hathaway’s house and Las Vegas. He worked with students to create “flying seeds” which have been installed by the greenhouse near C block. It is a fair to say the process was a test in the art of patience and perseverance as it was very intricate work. However, the results are outstanding! I would like to thank Bishop’s Stortford Rotary club for their incredibly generous funding of the entire workshop.
Mr Harlow, Young Carers
Girls Football Districts
The U15 Girls Football team came second in the Girls Football Districts narrowly losing to Herts and Essex.
The team was captained by Tally Miles in Year 10 and it is the last time our Year 10 girls will be able to play in the District tournament; thank you and well done to all the girls for their commitment to girls football during their time at Birchwood.
UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge
180 of our GCSE students took part in the UKMT Intermediate Mathematical Challenge. Our top mathematicians faced 25 multiple choice questions covering a broad range of topics that tested their problem solving and reasoning skills.
This is a nationwide competition in which the top-performing participants receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze certificate. Birchwood achieved 7 Gold, 15 Silver and 23 Bronze certificates, which is outstanding. Well done to all those who participated and a huge congratulations to all of those who achieved a certificate and qualified for future rounds; we are very proud!
DALBY FOREST
Fourteen students from the cycle club and three teachers went on a trip to Dalby forest.
The first second we all jumped on the minibus, we all knew this was going to be a fun weekend! We were all ready and set for our four hour journey up to Yorkshire. Saturday morning we all woke up and had our lovely breakfast that kept us going for the day. After we got dressed, we set off to go to the bike rental shop. The bikes were amazing. Then we started off with an easy trail altogether. In the afternoon we could choose the red or the blue trail. For dinner we went to a very nice fish and chips restaurant in Whitby. When we finished dinner we went to Dracula’s castle and we had a really nice view of the horizon and the sea.
I’d like to thank Mr. Barratt, Miss Rolfe, Mr. Gilbank and Will’s grandparents for an amazing weekend and I can’t wait till the trip next year!
Carnegie Shadowing
Birchwood Bookies are shadowing the Carnegie Medal again this year. The Carnegie Medal is a British literary award that annually recognises one outstanding new English-language book for children or young adults. There are eight books on the shortlist and our bookworms are reading their way through them all. This will culminate in an afternoon on 18 June when we cast our votes for our favourite book before finding out the official judges’ top pick. There is still time for students to get involved, just speak to the librarian to receive your Carnegie Shadowing booklet and start the reading journey.
Ms Hall, Librarian
Stem Club
This term we have focused on enriching the curriculum with a fun and educational STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) club. Students have made density rainbows using coloured sugar solutions and most recently engineered spaghetti marshmallow towers. In a race against the clock students worked as a team to build the highest tower possible out of dried spaghetti and marshmallows. The objective of this session was to explore structures and investigate what methods of building can make the tallest and strongest structure.
More fun will follow this summer as students are challenged to build a marble run out of cardboard. Using engineering students will make a cardboard marble run that keeps a marble running for 30 seconds. All of year 7 are welcome. C10 Wednesday lunch
times.
Mrs Pressland, Science
Woodland Run - Sunday 19 May
Tickets for this event are available from www.ticketsource.co.uk. Closing date for entries is Thursday 16 May.
Please see attached poster for details.
Year 11 Leavers Celebration
Good Luck to all of our Year 11 students. We wish you all best with your upcoming examinations.
