Storm Aviation
Dr Allen and Mr Chumbley accompanied fourteen of our Maths students from Years 10 to 12 to Storm Aviation at Stansted Airport. Storm Aviation is keen to forge links with Birchwood and for our students to have an idea of the opportunities available to them with south-east based companies. We were given a fascinating tour of the company’s facilities which included a maintenance hangar and a teaching room – in which we learned about some of the applications of Mathematics in flight as well as aircraft maintenance and engineering. The students were enthusiastic and fully engaged throughout the day, asking many intelligent questions and came away with a sound knowledge of the opportunities available to them in the aviation industry.
Christmas was delivered to Birchwood Young Carers by Waitrose.
Christmas was delivered to Birchwood Young Carers by Waitrose. Tracy Whitfield, Community marketing champion from the Bishop’s Stortford branch came to school loaded with hampers for our Young Carers and food and drink to get the party started. The Young Carers enjoyed the celebrations, pulled crackers and partied with their friends. We’d like to thank Tracy for taking the time and preparing such amazing hampers and making Christmas time special for our young carers.
British Cycling Award for Young Volunteers
Congratulations to Alfie Snook, for completing his British Cycling Award for Young Volunteers (CAYV) programme. This combines an introductory workshop at the Olympic Velodrome, which covers the fundamentals of cycle sport and volunteering roles, with practical placements with our Go-Ride Clubs. He has worked towards a Bronze (12 hours) and Silver (24 hours) award completing both qualifications during this summer and autumn terms. Gaining branded volunteer clothing, certificates, memberships and his help and guidance offered to others has been appreciated as he is one of only three in the Eastern Region Silver young volunteers. Well Done Alfie!
Jack Petchey Awards
Congratulations to William Gilbank on receiving an Outstanding Achievement award as part of the Jack Petchey Awards programme. The Jack Petchey Foundation was set up by Sir Jack Petchey to inspire and motivate young people across London and Essex to do their best and reach their full potential. William won his award for taking every opportunity that has been available to him from: Cycle racing on the Road, Track, Cyclo-cross and Mountain Biking, to representing the East of England, Saffron Walden and Birchwood at Judo, to playing Cricket for Birchwood, Wendens Ambo and Great Sampford, and playing Rugby for Birchwood and Saffron Walden. He also is a member of the School Council, School Choir and School
Cross-country and Athletics teams. When asked on why he won. William said it was, ‘for doing what I do’.
Presents for the Elderly
Our lovely Sixth Form students are off to Broome End care home with all the presents they have collected.
Young Carers went to The Vire Zone escape room
Birchwood’s Young Carers went to The Vire Zone escape room in Bishop’s Stortford for an end of term trip. Students had the opportunity to try several virtual reality experiences – including spaceships, rollercoasters and defending a medieval town from invaders. There was also a chance to take part in an exciting shoot out experience in the Nerf arena before being treated to a pizza lunch. The main event of the day, however, was the main escape room, The Dam Busters, where students had to work as a team in order to crack codes and break free (which also involved some phenomenal teamwork in guiding an electric car through a tube!). The day was enjoyed by all and we would like to express our huge gratitude to Ian, Mel and Bec at The Vire Zone for providing such a fantastic experience.
Bronze Awards
Following their successful DofE Bronze Expeditions, seven groups of students gave presentations to staff, students and parents about their expeditions. This was somewhat nerve wracking for many of them as presenting to an audience of 50 is not something many 14 year olds have to do!
Presentations ranged from Video Blogs through to PowerPoint presentations and booklets tracking their expeditions and their completion of their aims. The effort they had gone to, both during the expedition and in preparing for the event was really obvious and made for some very entertaining presentations. For some participants this was the final aspect of their DofE awards and so they will be getting their certificates early in the New Year!
UKMT Senior Challenge
Last month, our top A Level Mathematics students, plus our most talented Year 11 student took part in the UKMT Senior Mathematical Challenge. These star mathematicians faced 25 multiple choice questions covering a broad range of topics that severely 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 one gold, three silver and 15 bronze certificates with Sam Sloan (Year 11) achieving the school’s highest score. With his gold-winning performance, Sam has qualified for the next round, which is an incredible achievement.
Well done to all those who participated and a huge congratulations to all of those who achieved a certificate. We are very proud!
Christmas Card Competition
Well done to all the students who took part in this year’s Christmas Card Competition. We had a phenomenal amount of high class entries this year. Congratulations go to Alexia Popa, Sydney Godden and Maddie Jennings for their winning entries, they each receive an Amazon voucher and the winning entry received 20 printed cards as well.
Christmas trees raise funds for PSFA
Dear Parents & Carers
The Birchwood PSFA has been invited to take part in an easy fundraising scheme for our school. For every Christmas tree bought through Squires of Stansted located at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers CM24 8GE, they will give £5 to the PSFA. It’s that easy!!! You can either print off the attached flyer to take with you, or just mention Birchwood High School at the point of sale and they will set aside £5 for the school.
Also, don’t forget that tomorrow is the December deadline to purchase Birchwood Bonus Ball numbers. If you are looking for an easy stocking filler, why not buy someone a number in the Birchwood Bonus Ball this Christmas? If you buy a subscription for the remaining 9 months, it will be a one off payment of £18. You should make a direct transfer into the PSFA account (Sort code 20-25-19 and account number 23298728) and email birchwoodpsfa@gmail.com confirming your payment reference by Friday 14 December for your payment to be acknowledged and a number allocated to you by email on Saturday 15 December.
For full terms and conditions please see the school website. Please note that we are closing the subscription date earlier than normal this month.
With thanks for your continued support of the Birchwood PSFA.
The PSFA committee.