UKMT senior Maths challenge
Each year, a handful of students are entered for the UKMT senior Maths challenge, and this year both Alex Sawyer and William Blakey were entered for more prestigious competitions following their outstanding results. Alex was entered for the UKMT Kangaroo in which he received a certificate of qualification. William was entered for the incredibly challenging Maths Olympiad, in which he managed to achieve a certificate of merit. This was a sterling effort and both boys should be immensely proud of themselves in what is their last Maths challenge at Birchwood.
Birchwood’s British Physics Olympiad Gold Winners
Year 13 Physics students William Blakey and Alex Sawyer have had an amazing start to their final year. It started with their A level Physics teacher Mr William-Powlett encouraging them to enter the British Physics Olympiad; a test for the very best young physicists in the country and beyond. The Olympiad had nearly 5,000 of the best British students and International students entering. Amazingly both young men scored a Gold in the paper, putting them in the top 20% of results in the world. William was amongst the very best results in the cohort and was awarded a Top Gold and invited to try out for the British Physics Olympiad team with an even more fiendishly difficult paper. The good news didn’t stop there. A week after receiving the BPhO results both boys found out that they had received offers from Oxford University to study Physics subject to their grades in the Summer.
Young Musician of the Year 2022
Birchwood’s Young Musician of the Year 2022
Are you Birchwood’s next Pop or Classical winner?
How to Enter:
All you need to do is email a video recording of you performing your favourite piece in a communal space, e.g. your living room,
to Mr Grogan, mgrogan@birchwoodhigh.org.uk.
All styles and genres of music are welcome.
Closing date for entries is:
Wednesday 9 February and finalists will be announced on Friday 11 February.
Congratulations to Hans Tsui
Congratulations to Hans Tsui from Year 9 who was the lucky winner of last half term’s ‘Read, Review, Reward’ competition. Hans read and reviewed five books from the reading list – his overall favourite was ‘Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus‘ which he rated 4.5 out of 5.
This half term’s competition ‘Read around the World’ has been extended until Easter so there is plenty of time to get involved. You too could be the lucky winner of a £10 Waterstones gift card. For more information on how you can enter please contact Mrs Gibson jgibson@birchwoodhigh.org.uk
London Spanish Film Festival
Spanish A level and Year 11 students recently attended the London Spanish Film Festival, which took place at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington.
We met at Bishop’s Stortford train Station at 3.35pm and travelled into London via train and the tube. We arrived in plenty of time to be able to grab a bite to eat before making our way to the cinema on foot. It was so great to be in London again after so long!
We chose the film “La Isla de las Mentiras” (Island of Lies) which had a very unusual but interesting storyline. It was about a shipwreck off the coast of a small Galician island and how the people dealt with the incident, with lots of twists and turns.
I enjoyed the whole experience of watching the film in Spanish; it made me think about the cultural aspects involved and how the film was made (we study a film as part of our course). This trip was also very helpful in terms of developing my listening skills, and being totally absorbed in something different. I would recommend this trip to any Spanish student as it was beneficial and an enjoyable experience. We will look forward to the next one!
Alice Peacock, Year 13
Read, Review, Reward competition
Congratulations to Jonathan Crick Year 7, who was the lucky winner of last half term’s ‘Read, Review, Reward’ competition. Jonathan read and reviewed Dear Martin by Nic Stone and gave the book an overall rating of 8/10.
Jonathan is pictured collecting his prize, a £10 Waterstones voucher.
Mrs Gibson, Library Resource Manager
Birchwood “Unsung Heroes” receive their highly commended certificate at the Indies
On Thursday 18 November, Miss Munro, Mr Osborne and myself went to the annual Indie awards at the South Mill Arts Centre. Our PPE manufacturing team had been nominated for the unsung hero award by readers of the Bishop’s Stortford Independent. It was a fantastic evening with a red carpet and meal laid on by a local caterer. We were at a table with the other nominee; Dr Sian Stanley. It was great to put a face to a name as during our time manufacturing we were in contact on several occasions to ensure the PPE went out to where it was needed locally. We were so proud to be awarded the highly commended certificate in
recognition of our work over that challenging time.
Mr Stephens, Technology
Birchwood wins the immediate level at the annual Rotary young engineer challenge
On Tuesday 16 November we hosted the annual Rotary young engineer challenge. Teams from TBSHS, Leventhorpe and the Bishops Stortford College came to compete at three different levels. It was a really tricky task for all but our intermediate team of Lucy Moorfield, Rosie Thorpe and Severin Fleet took first place with our other two teams taking a close second in their
respective categories. Birchwood won the immediate level.
Students meet Olympian
On Thursday 21 October, four of our Year 9 students were invited to Hertfordshire Sports Village to become part of the Inclusion Champions Academy. Birchwood students, along with 60 other Year 9 students across Hertfordshire, took part in a two hour workshop where they had the opportunity to learn new skills and practise ideas, with a view to offering clubs for targeted groups of Birchwood students. Double Olympian and two times world champion rower, Tony Garbett was on hand to offer guidance and support. Even helping the Birchwood team when they were a member short in the sitting Volleyball event.
All of the students were amazing, Olympian Tony picking out the Birchwood students as being really pro-active and stand-out performers on the day.
Look out for the inaugural Inclusion Champions Clubs which will pop up at lunchtimes after half term. They will consist of a range of fun activities in a supportive environment.
House Staff Bake
Thank you to everybody who got involved with the Staff Bake Off this year.
A special thank you to everyone who baked, judged or donated.
The winners are listed below:
1st place is Miss Cuddington with her Reindeer mint chocolate cake
2nd Place is Mrs De Graaf with her orange and almond cake
3rd Place is Miss Long with her Kinder Beuno cookies