April 2016 - Birchwood High School
Transcription
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 [email protected] or call 01279 713193 for details. If you have an article you would like included in the next edition please contact us: [email protected] 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.