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
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.
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