April 2016 - Birchwood High School

APRIL 2016
BIRCHWOOD NEWS
25 Anniversary
INSIDE…….
West End Elle high fives
Sir Elton John! …. Page 9
Help us celebrate 25 years of
Birchwood
As part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations at Birchwood, we ran a
competition for students to design a logo to commemorate the occasion.
Taavo Moran designed the winning entry and received £20.00 in Amazon
vouchers and the three runners up Kathryn Day, Talha Mehmood and Joe
Hall each received £10.00 Amazon vouchers. Well done to everyone who
entered. Watch out for more competitions in the coming weeks.
Pasta King Competition
students win iPad
minis…..Page 9
On Saturday 25 June the school will be commemorating this milestone with
various sporting events, competitions for students and a 25th Anniversary
Celebration on the Saturday evening for all staff past and present.
We will be contacting as many past staff members as possible, but we may
not reach everyone, so if you are interested in joining us please contact Mary
Augustine on maugustine@birchwoodhigh.org.uk or call 01279 713193 for
details.
If you have an article you would like
included in the next edition please contact us: newsletter@birchwoodhigh.org.uk
Teachers took part in the
Paris-Roubaix ……….Back
Page
Headlines
Dear Parents
You will be aware that the Government wants every school in the country to be an
Academy by 2020 as set out it its recent White Paper (March 2016) https://www.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508447/
Educational_Excellence_Everywhere.pdf
Birchwood High School is already an Academy and has been since 2011. An Academy
means being directly funded by the DfE and has the autonomy and freedom to employ its
own staff, be responsible for land and buildings and manage its admissions process. The
White Paper also calls for all schools to become members of Multi-Academy Trusts
(MATs). MATs are groups of local schools that work together for the collective good of the community they
serve, in genuine partnership. Birchwood is already a member of The Bishop's Stortford Educational Trust
(BSET) which consists of all the secondary schools and has full support from all the local primary schools
from the local area bar the Herts & Essex High School who have decided to create their own MultiAcademy Trust. Our aim is simple: To work together to ensure that children and families living in and
around Bishop’s Stortford receive the best possible education provision and that sufficient places are made
available to meet demand.
The Members of the Bishop's Stortford Education Trust comprise key representatives from both the
secondary and primary school consortia. Our aim is to work together for the future of high quality primary
and secondary schooling in Bishop’s Stortford and the surrounding villages as well as specifically
sponsoring the new schools to be built within the Bishop’s Stortford North development.
 Independent Chair – David Royle
 Chair of Secondary Consortium - Principal of Hockerill Anglo-European College – Richard Markham
 Principal of Birchwood High School – Chris Ingate
 Headteacher of The Bishop's Stortford High School – Dale Reeve
 Headmaster of Bishop's Stortford College – Jeremy Gladwin
 Headteacher of Leventhorpe School – Jon Locke
 Headteacher of St. Mary’s Catholic School – Andrew Celano
 Chair of Primary School Consortium – Headteacher of All-Saints CofE Primary – Heidi Otranen
 Vice Chair of Primary School Consortium – Headteacher of Furneux Pelham Primary – Brigid Dyson
 Prof Ian Martin, new Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin
 Dr. David Frost, Senior Lecturer at Cambridge University
Photograph left to right: Chris Ingate, Jeremy Gladwin, Brigid Dyson, Richard Markham,
David Royale, Heidi Otranen, Jon Locke, Dale Reeve
You will be aware that one of our first objectives is to launch a successful bid to support the opening of the
three new schools in Bishop’s Stortford North but our aims are much wider than this and include:
 To provide a strategic overview of school places to ensure sufficient places are made available for
primary and secondary schools to meet local demand – this includes bidding to sponsor new and
existing schools
 To provide support and advice for schools in order to adhere to the DfE’s academy programme by 2020
 To provide effective CPD and school-to-school best-practice
 To support peer-to-peer school challenge partnerships
 To support ITT and Staff Recruitment by providing local School Centred Initial Teacher Training
placement and collective teacher recruitment
 To invest in effective school-led research and development
 To support financial procurement through collective purchase
 To work collectively with regards to curriculum planning and resourcing
Update on our bid to sponsor Bishop’s Stortford North Schools
Further to previous newsletters, BSET will be applying to sponsor the two new primary schools and
secondary school in Bishop’s Stortford North. For further information, please take the time to look at our
new website: http://www.bishopsstortfordeducationaltrust.org.uk/index.php.
Here you will find further information about BSET and the new schools. There is also an important
feedback form which I would be grateful for any views and perspectives on our broader aims or specifically
the new school provision.
These are indeed exciting times.
Dr Ingate
House
We can announce the results of our staff ‘Get
Birchwood Moving Challenge’, totalling up the
number of steps taken in the Spring term.
Members of staff submitted their totals just before
Easter – please see below for the results!
It was very close between
the top two members of
staff but the overall winner
with an amazing total was
….
Mr Alan Wastell, a member
of the site team, with a
massive amount of
1,507,888.
Followed closely by
Mrs Mary Augustine with
a grand total of 1,149,436
steps.
This equates to a distance of 750 miles
approximately which is an average of 60 miles per
week throughout the Spring term! An incredible
achievement! A prize will be winging its way to
Mr Wastell very soon…and a voucher for
having his shoes re-heeled!
Year 7/8 Disco
This year members of the house system organised a
year7/8 disco to raise money for the three chosen school
charities. The disco took place on the 23 March and was a
huge success with a total of 57 tickets sold, including
many tickets that were sold on the night. All students had
a fantastic time with everyone dancing along to the
Macarena, Cha Cha Slide and competing in the limbo
competition. This was a very tight competition. However
after many rounds the judge, Miss Pope, announced that
the winner was Katie Morris!
The success of the disco means that a grand total of
£231.83 was raised! Many thanks to the Platinum
Leaders and other Sixth Formers who also helped sell
sweets and drinks on the night.
A special thanks to Mr Newman for giving up his time to
help set up the sound and light equipment which
created incredible effects on the dance floor! Also to Miss
Pope for supporting the whole event and Miss Bowman
for helping to teach DJ Joe to use the
equipment. Also many thanks to all the teachers who
helped run the event on the night.
Sarah Macpherson, Year 13
Birchwood Visits Oxford University
After a nice lunch it was onto one of the more exciting
portions of the day: the college tour. Birchwood went on
to visit St Hugh’s College, one of Oxford’s newest
colleges that was originally an All Girls’ College dating
from the 1900’s. Our
friendly tour guide
introduced us to the
portrait of Aung San Suu
Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize
winner born in Yangon,
Myanmar (Burma) and a
famous alumnus of the
College. In 2008 the U.S.
House of Representatives
voted 400–0 to award Suu
Kyi the Congressional
“The sum of every integer from one to infinity somehow
Aung San Suu Kyi,
Gold Medal.
adds up to -1∕12.” Similarly, the sum of all moments
a Nobel Peace Prize winner
Clearly, nothing but the
during Birchwood’s Sixth Form visit to the Mathematics
best comes from Oxford!
Institute at Oxford University added up to a spectacular
The whistle-stop tour gave that valuable feel of life as an
and informative day of learning, discovery and potential!
Oxford student - extremely important for potential
Oxbridge candidates. With the longest activity out of the
On 18 March, we - six of Birchwood’s eager Year 12
way, we were back for three more thrilling lectures;
Further Maths students - arrived at school, our
enthusiasm untouched by the early 6:00am start. Nothing Physics, Earth Sciences and Chemistry. These were only
available to students currently studying these subjects.
was remotely close to dampening our spirits, until the
Concluding the day, Birchwood was present for three of
minibus was all too suddenly slowed down by an
the most valuable courses; ‘A Day in the Life of an
onslaught of early morning traffic. Fortunately for the
Undergraduate,’ ‘How to Apply to Oxford’ and a’ Mock
students, teacher extraordinaire, Mr Crolla, was able to
Mathematics Interview’.
conserve momentum, so to speak, by providing us with
clipboards and maths homework during the journey. With
Differentiation and Integration to keep us company, the
bus journey flew by and the maths group arrived in
Oxford, stylishly a little late. The worst Oxford had to offer
was now behind us, our day was on the up and all
seemed positively correlated from then on.
Just in time to catch the first lecture on “Computer
Science” at the Institute, we hastily took our seats and
buckled up. Looking around the lecture hall you would
find one lively, comical Oxford tutor, several Maths
teachers and roughly 250 of the brightest young
mathematicians the UK had to offer. Computer Science
wore a friendly face and the lecturer quickly eased us into
this fascinating and exciting field. We were introduced to
It would be fair to say we got more than we bargained for,
new algorithms and new concepts that gave us just a
with the “Mock Interview” and Oxford Application talks
small taste of what the subject had to offer.
The lectures were over in a rapid thirty minutes and next being almost priceless for a potential Oxford applicant.
Much of this information completely changed
in store for us was the topic of “Statistics”, another
perspectives of not just how to apply, but also the
intriguing field which provided us with extensions on
importance of certain aspects of one’s application and
concepts not unfamiliar to our AS Maths course. The
negligence of other features.
lecturer was once again light-hearted and cheerful; she
Not only did this day fill us with captivating, compelling
made this complex topic accessible to the entire
and thought-provoking new concepts about many
audience. Once our time was up, the student body was
split, with many going to ‘Maths meet Philosophy,’ whilst different fields and areas of study, Birchwood’s day at
those who study Physics had ‘Engineering’ as an option. Oxford University also provided some
important and beneficial information
The Engineering talk, for me, was a true highlight out of
the many mind-capturing lectures available and Canadian about applications and interviews for
Oxbridge. It truly was an amazing,
Water Engineer, Gabrielle Bouchard, talked us through
what it means to be an Engineer, erasing the stereotypes maths-filling experience.
and showing us the hundreds of possibilities available to
students, from nano-engineering to chemical-engineering. Paul Shellard, Year 12
The list was huge.
Dates for your Diary
Berlin 2016
We arrived in Berlin in the middle of the day
and after putting down our bags, were
whisked away by our guide and given a tour of
the city in the mild rain. Covering the
centre of such a richly historic city in half a day is no small task but when we
returned, we had seen the Brandenburg gate, the German Parliamentary
building and the Berlin Wall, as well as the hotel window which Michael
Jackson infamously dangled his new-born child. We had also visited the Jewish
Holocaust Memorial which serves an array of meaningful metaphors from the
relative silence at the centre to the individuality of the stones representing
each person who was murdered. The next day we travelled by tram and train
to a (former) Stasi prison so well known for torture, false confessions and
intimidation to such an extent that not a single person even tried to escape.
To this day former prison officers still defend the actions taken there, despite
the horrific methods used. That day ended in a visit to the Checkpoint Charlie
Museum, in which we saw how similar issues continue to this day in parts of
the world, less fortunate than ours.
Following the 9-hour “sleeper” coach, we arrived in Krakow and had a tour of
the old city. Having not done a great deal of research into this myself, I was
taken aback by how beautiful the city was. We toured some traditionally
Jewish areas as well as learning about the foundation of Krakow and its
involvement in Schindler’s list. That day we talked to a Holocaust survivor,
Monika, she had been very young at the time and had later investigated the
people who had risked their lives to save hers. For me, the most chilling thing
she described was “A few days later the gentleman came back with his wife
and they came back and the room was full of sick starving children one of
whom was so sad it couldn't cry. I didn't think a baby just a few months old
could have such sadness in its eyes. That baby was me”.
There are different ways of viewing Auschwitz. Before going I had thought I
could concentrate on the numbers; I enjoy being able to look at the world
from a larger scale rather than a personal one, and to a great extent I
managed to convince myself of that while seeing the camp. But in reality I
came to realise I was merely hiding behind statistics, I had been viewing this
as one tragedy with six million victims, when I should have seen it as six
million individual tragedies. What made me change my viewpoint was a room
filled with shoe brushes. I spent what must have been no more than a
minute but what felt like an hour just looking at them; several looked similar
to ones which I own. Numbers are not a rational way of rationally viewing
things such as this, they are a way of treating people as something less than
that. While the scale of devastation in the holocaust is vast and undeniable;
this trip made me see it as
personal to myself.
2016
Summer Term 2016
Monday 11 April to Friday 22 July
Half Term
Monday 30 May to Friday 3 June
CPD Days 2016
Please note that the school is closed to
students on all CPD days, unless a member
of staff has asked students to attend.
Summer Term 2016
Monday 27 June 2016
Tuesday 28 June 2016
2016/17
Autumn Term 2016
Monday 5 September to
Wednesday 21 December 2016
CPD Days 2016/17
Thursday 1 September 2016
Friday 2 September 2016
Friday 30 September 2016
Thursday 5 January 2017
Friday 6 January 2017
Thursday 29 June 2017
Friday 30 June 2017
Occasional Day
Monday 24 July 2017
Trips and forthcoming events:Events for May:
2 May
Bank Holiday
3 May
Year 7 Duxford Trip
6 May
House Charity Day
10-11 May Year 8 Hindu Temple
16 May
Year 12 Study leave
17 May
Year 10 Parents’ Evening
20 May
Year 9 Thorpe Park Trip
27 May
Year 13 Leavers BBQ
Alex Apen, 10MSR
Why not follow our new
exciting Facebook page, to keep up to
date with the latest news
https://www.facebook.com/BirchwoodHigh-School-771249749658790/?
fref=ts
Scout of the Year
On 19 March Niamh Payne 8JTN was presented with the
Discovery Scout of the Year Award 2015 the first
Sawbridgeworth Scout group. She was nominated by scout leaders for achieving her
Challenge Badges, Staged Badges (including over 20 Hikes and First Aid courses) and
Activity Badges.
Common reasons for winning the award include being a good friend, attending all
meetings and being a good patrol leader. Sawbridgeworth Scouts has been a fixture in
the community for 108 years. Niamh has been a part of the Scouting community for
eight years, she began in Beavers, and has been a Scout for the past three years. She
follows in the footsteps of her brother Nick, a former Birchwood student, who won the
Explorer of the Year award previously. Niamh said ‘ I was surprised to win the award as I
wasn’t expecting it at all.’ Well done Niamh!
Museum of the Mind
On the 15 March, Year 12 Psychology students went on an
AS level psychology trip to the Museum of the Mind which is
attached to Bethlam Royal (Psychiatric) Hospital. First we
learnt about the history of psychiatric hospitals and how
treatment of mental illness has changed over the years. We
also learnt about old psychological theories, for instance the
idea that the shape of somebody’s head corresponded with
their mental health (phrenology). Afterwards we had time to
look around the museum where we got to see multiple
exhibits, including one that showed us the amount of words
that were originally related to mental illness. You never really
think about where words come from, so it was interesting to
see how many are related to psychology! Lastly we watched
a video with a scenario of a depressed girl wanting weekend
leave from the hospital, we had to weigh up the pros and
cons of letting her go and then come to a decision. It was a
really interesting trip which gave us lots to think about, and I
particularly enjoyed learning about the history of psychiatric
hospitals as it showed how different today’s treatment is.
Jess Brown 12SBR
Tuesday 15 – Saturday 19 March 2016
From Tuesday 15 March to Saturday 19 March, Tom
Capon took part in the Rhodes Centre adaptation of
the History Boys, a play by Alan Bennett. Tom
Capon is part of a theatre group called ‘Phoenix’ and
the director of the play ‘Jeanne Stacey’ saw Tom
performing in the group and thought he would be
ideal for the part of ‘Jimmy Lockwood’.
There was a strong field of actors with many older
actors playing the other student roles. Tom was the
youngest actor on stage alongside professionally
trained actors and he didn’t know any of the team
before they started rehearsing, but they got on really
well and people have commented that they acted like
they had known each other for years.
Every night was packed out and Saturday night was a
full-house. There was an excellent audience
atmosphere, a fantastic setting, staging and direction
of play with resounding applause at the end. Tom
has recently been awarded a Jack Petchey Award for
young people who have achieved their potential by
inspiring, investing in, developing and promoting
activities that increase their personal, social,
emotional and physical development.
Sports Desk
Boys’ Football
Whilst the main football season is nearly over, we have had two cup games
since the Easter break:
Year 8: Birchwood travelled away to play their semi-final against
Leventhorpe. The opposition started brightly and put Birchwood under
constant pressure. An unkind ‘bobble’ deceived goalkeeper Connor Lee which resulted in a goal for
Leventhorpe. The turning point of the game came almost immediately with ‘birthday boy’ Gene Kennedy
scoring an equaliser with Birchwood’s first real scoring opportunity. Shortly before half time Birchwood edged
ahead with a second goal from Dan Freegard, a lead they maintained until the break. The second half saw
Birchwood revert to four at the back with Ricardo Pacheco and Callum Law dealing with everything thrown at
them. A couple of superb saves from Lee late on kept Leventhorpe goalless in the second half. A late goal from
Mason Wheatley meant that Birchwood move into the final as 3-1 winners. A fantastic team effort and a
particularly strong second half performance from everyone. Connor Lee, Charlie Wood, Ricardo Pacheco,
Callum Law, Connor Heatherington, Jody Bogue, George Baggs, Patrick Sankey, Mason Wheatley, Gene
Kennedy and Dan Freegard.
Year 9: The Year 9 football team finished another successful season
by becoming District Plate champions. The boys won 3-0 in the final
against Hockerill. Lewis Tremill opened the scoring after just 1 minute,
however the rest of the game was close with both teams creating a
number of chances. Goal Keeper Jack Willmott made some fantastic
saves to keep the score at 1-0. It was only in the final 5 minutes of the
game that Birchwood extended their lead. Max Wilson scored an
amazing free kick from the half way line, before Jake Wildman slotted
in a one on one chance in the final minute of the game. A big well
done to the team!
Rugby
In the last week before Easter, the Year 9 rugby team played in the final of the Hertfordshire County Cup. The
final was played on the immaculate first team pitch at Old Albanians’ Rugby Club against Parmiter’s School.
Unfortunately, this time our boys came up short,
losing their first match of the entire season.
Whilst the result was probably fair, the boys put
in a good performance all the way until the final
whistle. The whole event was a great
experience for the boys, which involved having
their own changing rooms, running onto the
pitch out of a tunnel, and having a post-meal
with the opposition. The boys even managed to
meet England Grand Slam winners Owen
Farrell and Billy Vunipola who had been training
at the ground with Saracens. A big thank you
goes out to all the parents and families who
went over to support. The team will certainly be
back bigger and stronger next year!
A reminder you can follow all the latest information on upcoming sporting fixtures and recent results by following the
official Birchwood PE twitter account. Just search: @PEbwood
Sports Desk
Rugby Celebration meal: The Birchwood 1st XV rugby team had their
celebration dinner at the end of a very successful season after they
became Hertfordshire district champions and Hertfordshire Shield
champions. The boys all deserved huge credit for their work this
season, but a few individuals also received special awards. Firstly, the
Year 13 boys who are leaving this year received their squad shirts to
keep as a memento for all the hard work they had put in. These boys
were: Billy Dixon, Josh Reeves-Morris, Zac Jeffery, Ewan Sears, Ben Mishan, Will
Johnson and George Hogan. In the main awards; Ben Mishan received the Most Improved Player for his
progression throughout the year. George Keen won the Players’ Player of the Year award, which was voted for by the
whole squad. The Coaches Player of the Year award was given out by coaches, Sean Carey and Mr Ruggins. This was
closely contested between Greg Barton and Ewan Sears, with Ewan Sears taking the award. This was a fantastic way to
end a great season. The boys that remain are already looking forward to next year.
Clubs This Term
Here are the after-school clubs being run by the PE department after Easter.
Monday
Rounders (all years)
Cricket (all years)
Tuesday
Fixtures night
Wednesday
Athletics (all years)
Thursday
Fixtures night
Friday
Well done to Ashley Sutton,
former Birchwood High School
student, who has had a superb
start to his British Touring Car
Championship career. He
finished fourth, sixth and tenth
to clinch the Jack Sears Trophy
for top rookie.
Louis makes winning debut for U14's
Louis Altham made a winning start
for the Hertfordshire U14's Boys’ Golf
team by winning both his matches in
the County Boys’ SE League.
Played in a triangular format and
held at Southern Valley Golf Club in
Gravesend, he defeated both his
opponents from Kent and
Essex, by the same comprehensive
margin of 4 and 3.
Well done to
Mr Ruggins who completed the
London Marathon in an impressive
fours hours and thirty minutes. He
was raising money for Breast
Cancer Research UK. At the time
of going to press Mr Ruggins, his
partner and his sister have raised a
massive £6000.
New Windows for C block.
Birchwood is very fortunate to have excellent facilities but this comes about through continual re-investment and
effective maintenance. To this end, following a successful bid to the Government we have been awarded £450,000
to replace all the windows and doors in C block. The project is currently in the planning stage but will take place over
the summer months. The work will improve the work spaces in C block by reducing solar gain in summer and
increasing insulation in winter. The work will help to reduce our energy bills, will greatly enhance the appearance of
the building and will prolong its life in good fettle for the future.
There will inevitably be some disruption while the work is carried out but we will endeavour to keep this
to a minimum.
West End Elle
high fives
Sir
Elton John!
Elle Nash received a high five from
Sir Elton John at the end of her
160th performance of Billy Elliot.
Elle played quirky Susan Parks —
one of Billy’s dance teachers, Mrs
Wilkinson’s ballet girls at the Victoria
Palace Theatre. Sir Elton, who wrote
the music and was
attending the final show on Saturday
19 April, gave Elle a high five when
he came on stage for the final
number.
Birchwood to have artwork displayed at Glastonbury.
Oxfam is a charity partner of the Glastonbury Festival and this year
the festival organisers have invited schools to take part in an
exciting art project.
The Sixth Form Oxfam Ambassador group at Birchwood has been
accepted as one of only twenty five schools in the country to
design the artwork on the panels which decorate the backstage and
VIP areas! These panels will be seen by musicians and their guests
as they prepare to perform or relax backstage. It’s a fantastic
opportunity for them to express their voice about global
issues. Participation was restricted to the first 25 schools who
responded.
Well done to Afia Khan who did so very quickly!
Pasta King Competition
students win iPad mini’s
Students took part in a Pasta King loyalty card competition. The
students had to fill in a loyalty card buying six Pasta Kings and
getting a seventh free. Students were then
entered into a free National Prize draw. Two of our students
Jemma Atkinson and Harry Platt each won an iPad Mini, other
prizes included Google play vouchers and cinema vouchers.
Birchwood Community News
Judo is a fantastic sport that provides great overall fitness, as well as discipline and self-defence skills.
We have great fun together, whilst training hard! We have over 115 members and are registered with
British Judo (the National Governing Body). The players compete regularly and we have representation
on the England and GB Squads.
Please visit our website to find out more about us www.bishopsstortfordjudo.com
At Birchwood we are proud of our excellent sports, music, drama and conference facilities. Our students make full use of these during the school day and
as part of our commitment to the local community, our facilities are available to hire during evenings, weekends and school holidays. Every month we will
be offering one of our regular hirers the opportunity to advertise in this section of the Birchwood News.
The groups and businesses that hire our facilities do so on a purely commercial basis.
Please be aware that the activities and views of those who hire our facilities are not endorsed by Birchwood High School.
The Apprentice Challenge
Throughout Year 12 we had lots of different
Apprentice Challenges. We had to get into teams and
organise an event to sell products to others around
the school. In preparation for this event, we had a
Project Manager and a sub Project Manager which
managed our groups in order for us to arrange
everything for the event. As a group we had to
discuss what products we wanted to sell which would
give us a profit. On top of that, we had to publish to
the school when we were going to do this event
therefore we had to make posters as well as create a
powerpoint to send to form tutors to let them know
when this was happening.
Also, in preparation for this event, we had to ensure
that as a group we had sorted out the money
preparation meaning that everyone had to give a little
bit of money to contribute to the challenge to let us
buy products to sell. This developed my financial skills
within business as working with money we needed to
make sure we had a good enough budget to buy the
products as well as have a float for the day to give our
customers change. On the day of the event, our team
decided to sell our products at breaktime and
lunchtime therefore as a group we had to make sure
that we knew where we were going to sell our
products and had equipment to put our products on
which we had to sort out. Teams sold a variety of
different products such as cakes, cream eggs,
chocolate bars. Other teams decided to do
activities instead to attract their customers such as
basketball games and mummy wrapping in tissue
paper. The day was about enjoying ourselves and
putting a real life event into practice so we gained an
insight about finance, the marketing and advertising of
business studies. Overall I think the day was very
effective and I learnt a lot from running this event. It
was a memorable experience to work with others that
I hadn’t worked with before and all working together
as a team to ensure the event went well. The whole
Apprentice Challenge was beneficial because it gives
you an understanding of selling products.
Fatima Hammond
Sixth Formers Triumph in EPQ presentations
The Extended Project Qualification Presentations were held in the school library over two days. Thirty three
Year 13 students have been working on their projects since July last year. They are required to write a 5,000
word dissertation and then make a formal presentation about their thesis to an audience.
This year’s topics showed diversity, talent and great creativity from the students. They ranged from ‘Should the
Jury System be abolished ?’ To ‘How has social media affected our generation? and ‘What constitutes effective
communication between patients and Health Professionals?
EPQ enables students to prepare for life at University including skills such as; time management, planning and
writing an academic paper. Admission tutors at University have
been known to offer students places on courses based on the EPQ
qualification which is worth 70 UCAS points, equivalent to a
further AS qualification.
One student commented that ‘EPQ has enabled me to acquire
essential skills and become more organised and independent’.
Recruitment for next year’s cohort will start in May.
Mrs de Graaf
Year 13 Business students took
part in the Young Enterprise
Tenner Challenge
Team Dynamite were runners up for the Tenner 2016 Advertisement competition. The external Young
Enterprise Judges said, “We loved the retro graphics and fonts. Lots of good information, very clear. Love
that the logo is incorporated at the bottom. Clever to make the price a different colour and size”.
The teams that took part were:
Dynamite: We ran a cinema club for years 7 to 11, giving 50% of the money to
our school charity Edies Butterfly Trust. The people involved in this event were
Connor Rickards, Cem Turpcu and Natalie Kariuki. The cinema club was in aid of
students enjoying a film at lunchtime. There were refreshments including Capri
Suns and we sold popcorn and chocolate at a reasonable price. We had a budget
of £10 and we bought all of our goods with this. We gave the students the
opportunity to choose which film they would like to watch via Netflix. We
charged an entrance fee of £2 and sold popcorn and chocolate for 50p. After the
event we made £24.50 profit and had to give £10.00 back to the school for the
tenner challenge. The remainder of the money will go to the school charity.
These boots are made for selling: We held a carboot sale with donations raised
from teachers , family and friends, in aid of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital at the Station Car park
in Bishop’s Stortford. The group members were Daniel Keating, Jessica Smith and Charlotte Harwood. We
raised a total of £83.82.
Squeaky Clean Car Wash: who set up their own mobile car washing business for staff in school as well as
friends and family. During free periods and our spare time we washed their cars for them. This type of car
wash is better than others because we went to them to wash their cars instead of having to come to us. We
asked for donations or had a set price of £2.50. The people involved in the Squeaky Clean Car Wash were
Ellie Mison, Rebecca Cole, Amy Perry. Overall we raised £50 with 30%-50% of the profits going to the Water
Aid charity.
The Master Bakers: sold cakes and doughnuts
outside the sixth form block at Birchwood at break
time on the 18 March. We sold out in 15 minutes and
made a total of £20.30. We donated a portion of our
profits to the International Ambassadors
Programme. Tom Nash, Liz Sidey and Matt Stevens
took part and we all worked together to buy the
products and contact local businesses for donations.
Easter Mug
Competition
Students from 9SWE raised a fantastic £100.35 for our
school charities:
Local - Grove Cottage
National - Edie’s Butterfly
International - International Ambassador Programme
Year 7 and 8 completed an
Easter Mug competition where
they had to design a new mug
which had an Easter theme.
There were some absolutely
brilliant entries.
The winners were:
Year 7 - first place
Eva Webb 7GWR
Year 8 - first place
Alex Pocknell 8THS
GSK Interschool Challenge
A group of year 10 students, Bridie Dunn, Ethan Ward, Thomas
White, Nathan Stanley, Bradley Payne and Joel Gubb attended
The 2016 GSK Interschool Science Challenge on Thursday 17
March. They won the overall Chemistry Challenge where they had
to make their own glue and then test its strength. There were 15
schools from the Hertfordshire area involved in the challenge and
the Birchwood team came fifth overall in the challenge. This was
the first time Birchwood had entered the competition and they were
highly commended on their effort by the organisers at GSK.
Year 6 Truncated Icosahedra Competition at Birchwood High School
On 26 February, 32 enthusiastic Year 6 pupils, from
six local primary schools, embarked on the
eagerly-awaited competition to construct the best
Truncated Icosahedron at Birchwood High School.
What is that, one may well ask oneself? Answer: It is
a mathematical solid derived by the famous Greek
mathematician, Archimedes around 250 BC,
comprising of 32 regular shapes – 12 pentagons
and 20 hexagons – and is today most commonly
associated with the everyday football!
The first session was delivered by 5 Year 11 girls –
Ella Staines, Vicky Behrova, Maria Palieva, Lexi
Guy and Georgia Waldock – who all taught the 10
year-olds how to fold A5 & A6 pieces of paper in
order to create the regular shapes. The primaryschool pupils, who have been attending weekly,
accelerated maths classes at Birchwood since
September 2014, were then divided into 8 groups,
each of whom confidently produced the 32 shapes
in a record 40 minutes – thanks to the careful
explanations and clear instructions of the Year 11
girls.
The other purpose for making these Archimedean
solids was for the pupils to present them as a
revision tool for their forth-coming KS2 maths exam.
Consequently, in sessions two and three, they used
their work folders from the last 18 months to select
and summarise important concepts as their designs
for the exterior of their solid. All eight groups
approached the exercise with such enthusiasm and
originality that it was going to be extremely difficult
to judge the best solid under the two categories
‘Best Design’ and ‘Best Construction’.
Session four proved to be the most exciting stage of
the activity for these children. Here they started to
assemble the solid by tessellating the two shapes
and, within each group, individuals assigned
themselves tasks – from strengthening each shape
with sticky-back plastic, attaching the shapes with
strong adhesive, to ensuring that the object
remained intact. Everyone had one hour to
complete the end product and, with the clock ticking
away, tensions were sometimes high, but teamwork
nonetheless always remained paramount!
Friday 18 March was the fifth and final session
when all eight designs were put on display, ready to
be judged. Approximately 40 judges – comprising of
teachers, Year 11 students and both administrative
and site-team staff – all made their way to D9 that
morning to observe the original designs and cast
their votes. It was an exciting day for the pupils who
thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were
amazed by both the attention and interest their work
had generated!
BEST CONSTRUCTION:
1st - Team 3 - Emily Scofield, Alex Payling,
Matthew Morris- Prieto, Daniel Meehan 46 Points.
nd
2 - Team 2 – William Howard, Charlie
Branchflower, Izzy Gordon, Will Pulfer –
34 Points.
nd
2 - Team 1 – Molly Womack, Jet Ezra, Freddie
Mayes, Lily Edwards – 34 Points.
We must not forget to thank the Year 11 girls, who
took time out from their GCSE preparation to help
set off the competition, and to all the judges who
helped to create such an exciting climax to this Year
6 activity. We must also acknowledge the
invaluable and constant support from all six primary
schools since the accelerated classes commenced.
Thorn Grove, All Saints, Manor Fields,
Summercroft, Manuden and Windhill – a big
‘THANK YOU’ to you too!
And now, for the final results……..
BEST DESIGN:
1st - Team 1 – Molly Womack, Jet Ezra, Freddie
Mayes, Lily Edwards – 66 Points.
nd
2 - Team 3 - Emily Scofield, Alex Payling,
Matthew Morris-Prieto, Daniel Meehan 25 Points.
3rd – Team 6 – Olivia Glover, Alice Crewe, Sam
Cooper, Henry Wright – 24 Points.
Well done to you all! Angelo Crolla
P.S. For those who may be interested to know…. ‘Icosa’ is the
Greek for ‘twenty’ and ‘Hedra’ is the Greek for ‘faces of a
plane’. An Icosahedron is made up of 20 equilateral triangles.
If the 12 vertices of the Icosahedron are cut back (truncated)
the triangles can each be reduced to 20 hexagons and, at the
same time, create 12 pentagonal holes, thus producing a
Truncated Icosahedron!
TLC
International
Ambassador
Programme
Teachers Tame
‘Hell of the North’
Four teachers from Birchwood High School took part in the
Paris-Roubaix challenge on Saturday 9 April. The ‘Hell of the
North’ is so called because of the 20 miles of cobbles that the
Birchwood TLC Live team had to navigate. The cobbled roads
bisect the countryside and are remnants of the Napoleonic
age, only used now as farm roads and for bike racing! The ride
itself was 90 miles long and took Mr Charles Gilbank, Mr Chris
Heydinger, Mr Andy Barratt and Mr Thomas William-Powlett
five and a half hours to complete. Team leader Mr Gilbank said
‘It was hell, everything hurts, the roads are brutal, even your
eyeballs bounce, we are delighted to have tamed the cobbles
though!’ Birchwood Cycling would like to thank TLC LIVE and
Palmer & Martin for their ongoing sponsorship of the team.
It has been a quiet time for the
International Ambassador Programme
but that’s not to say things are not
happening behind the scenes … We
are delighted to announce a visit from
our South African Partner School in the
next month. Floyd Dipale will be
attending Birchwood for the first time,
in order to cement the relationship and
develop further links for the future. We
will be asking the ambassadors to
support Floyd in his stay here.
Hopefully in the next issue will be an
interview with Floyd about life at
Seiphemelo High School.
We are also delighted to announce that
Paul Walsh, who is linked to our school
in India, has been awarded an MBE for
his services to the Commonwealth,
rugby and young people. Paul was a
diplomat in Calcutta before leaving to
set up his own charity called the Jungle
Crows. The Jungle Crows have
actively worked with Kalinga Institute
as well as deprived children in the
region of Kolkata (as it is now known)
to bring them rugby but also develop
diverse skills such as: personal safety
and hygiene to interview techniques
and employability. Mr Gilbank will be
attending a reception at the House of
Lords to honour Paul.
If you would like to be involved in the
IAP please contact Mr Gilbank at the
school.