KBD Dance
The Dance department invited KBD Dance, a local dance school in Bishop’s Stortford, to Birchwood to deliver a jam packed Commercial/Hip-hop workshop to our talented dance students.
The evening was a huge success and the Dance studio was bursting with energy for the whole two hours. Students from Years 7-10 danced their socks off to a fun, upbeat routine that gave students a real buzz. All students left the studio laughing and smiling having made the most of a fantastic opportunity.
The students were excellent and KBD Dance commented on the commitment and dedication of our students. Well done to all involved.
If you would like to find out more about the weekly classes that happen with KBD dance please visit www.kbddance.co.uk
KEEP DANCING!
Miss Adams
Stonewall school role model
Stonewall school role model Rabbi Irit Shillor from the Reform Community Harlow recently visited us.
Thank you Irit for answering our questions, hopefully we can arrange a visit to the synagogue.
Rotary Technology Young Engineer Challenge
Well done to Foundation Team who won their category at the Rotary Technology Young Engineer Challenge held at Birchwood yesterday.
Many local schools took part. It was fascinating to see how students invented instruments to meet the requirements of the challenge they were set.
Autumn Music Concert
It was a wonderful evening with many fantastic performances.
Congratulations to all students who took part and made it such a special evening.
Remembrance Rocks
As we commemorate the 100 year anniversary of WW1 the school wanted to remember each of the individual Stortfordian soldiers who died and we set ourselves the target of painting poppies on rocks together with the names of the 208 Stortfordians who are remembered on the town’s war memorial.
The idea was inspired by a combination of the ‘Shrouds of The Somme’ project and also the ‘Stansted Stones’ idea you may have seen on Facebook. We accidentally missed the end of WWI and went into WWII so rather than leaving the project unfinished we have created remembrance rocks for the remainder of the town’s fallen, as commemorated on the town’s war memorial.
Special thanks to Mr Morton for making this possible.
Christmas Dinner Tickets 2018
Christmas Dinner Tickets now on sale from the cafe until Friday 30 November.
Download the Christmas Dinner 2018 menu poster
Frantic Workshop
Year 10 and 12 Drama students were involved in a Frantic Assembly workshop led by a professional actor, Richard James-Neale. The style of Frantic’s work is to create non-naturalistic pieces through the use of movement and music and the purpose of this workshop was to inspire students to work in this style as they prepare for their devised exam pieces. The work created was touching, creative and thoughtful and Richard described the students as ‘warm and engaged.’
Break the code at Bletchley
On 6 July, almost fifty Year 9 students went to visit the wartime code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park. They took part in a guided tour of the site, hearing about the history of “Station X” as it was referred to, and finding out about some of the people who worked there, both the well-known such as Alan Turing, and the not so famous. They saw some wartime vehicles and the memorial to the Polish code-breakers who laid the foundations of the work done at Bletchley during the Second World War. The students also heard about some of the jobs that young people their own age would have had at the site in the 1940’s.
The group got the chance to explore some of the wartime huts and exhibitions, which house a fascinating array of memorabilia from the site, including Enigma machines, a model of the “Bombe” which was used to crack the Enigma codes, and a wide collection of letters and documents, including one from Winston Churchill himself.
Students were then given the chance to see a real wartime Enigma machine up close and even got to have a go at pressing the keys. This was followed by a challenging code-breaking puzzle which involved using different sorts of codes to establish the identity of a spy. Miss White, Maths.
Finally, we all got a chance to make the most of the sunshine as we enjoyed a picnic in the pleasant grounds of the Victorian manor house which sits at the centre of Bletchley Park. Thank you to everyone at Bletchley Park for making our day such a pleasure.
Daniel Summers
Maths Teacher
Cook-Off in Construction
In the last week of the summer term, Year 9 Construction students celebrated the completion of a bricklaying module, by enjoying a cooked breakfast on the brick BBQs they had built as their final project.
They had started this module, by doing a fantastic job of cleaning and tidying the entire Brick Yard, filling a skip the size of a minibus! Then they worked in pairs for two months to acquire the essential brick laying skills. The final outcomes, as shown in this picture, were structures to be very proud of.
Mr Newman
Construction
Willkommen an die Deutschen!
On 14 September, our German exchange partners arrived for the second part of the exchange. The partners spent the weekend with host families and went to places like London, Ely, Cambridge and more, seeing local tourist spots and learning about British culture and lifestyle.
Day activities included a day in school, a day trip to Cambridge and a town trail around Bishop's Stortford and Saffron Walden. They also went to London, seeing landmarks such as St. Paul’s and the London Eye.
They learnt so much about our culture while they were over here and we got to compare German and British
customs, looking at the differences in our attitudes and habits. It was fun to learn about the difference in language, especially when one of us played Dobble, a picture-based card game with our partner.
At the airport at the end of the week, hugs and farewells were exchanged and many tears were shed, but everyone had a fantastic time and we hope that lifelong friendships were made!
The students would love to thank Mr Bowman, Miss Roderick and Mrs Dixon for organising the exchange, as well as to those who participated from the Peter-Joerres Gymnasium and would fully recommend it to the next set of GCSE German students!
You can see more images of the trip on the Birchwood MFL Twitter page, @MFLbwood.
Mr Bowman
Modern Foreign Languages