Nicky Morris Athletics Competition

Gold medallists from Nicky Morris Athletics Competition

Cheque Presentation for House

This year has been a huge success for the House System as we have managed to raise a total of £12254.89 which is over double our record highest in the previous 10 years!
This money has been raised from events such as the Colour Run, non- uniform days, sponge a teacher activities and lots more!
Thank you to everybody who has helped to contribute towards this total. The charities that the money has gone towards were all very grateful!

House Summer Rewards Activity

Over 300 students were invited to attend the Summer Rewards Activity which was an inflatable funfair! These activities are put on at the end of every term and are normally for students who achieve over 100 House Points during that particular term. However, this time in order to make the event more accessible for all year groups, we have allocated the top 20% of each Year group in terms of House Points and those students were invited to attend.

As you can see from the images the students thoroughly enjoyed the activity that was put on.

Well done to all students who managed to secure a place!

German Trip the Goethe-Institut

A group of 24 German students from Years 9 and 10 recently travelled into London to visit the Goethe-Institut. Located in South Kensington and surrounded by a range of cultural sights, the institute is the central hub of German language and culture in the UK. During our visit, students took part in a German escape room (Fluchtraum), using tablets with augmented reality to scan for clues. Working in teams, they solved puzzles in German to find codes for various combination locks, with the aim of tracking down and catching a German hacker. Miss Roderick and I, as well as the staff working at the institute, were impressed with their understanding of German and their problem-solving skills. All students received some (vegan) Gummibärchen for their efforts and some German badges too. Despite train delays, our students remained positive and enthusiastic and we had a great day out!
Mr Bowman, MFL

Young chef competition

In June, Birchwood saw the return of the . It has been four years since this has been able to run and students from Birchwood, Hockerill, Herts & Essex and St Nicholas were very keen to show off their skill and talent. The students competed against each other to produce a three course meal for two with a tight budget of £20. They only had two hours to prepare, cook and present their tables which were judged by local experts. These included a college lecturer, the head chef at Novotel Stansted and the owner of Host.

Mr Kadlec worked extremely hard with our team of Year 9’s, Rebecca Bedwell, Amber Owen and Kiaya Payne, practicing at lunchtimes and after school to prepare for the event. They prepared an outstanding meal of duck dumplings, chicken and butternut squash curry with accompaniments and finished off with espresso cream filled profiteroles and they took the top spot, winning the senior category. Congratulations too to St Nicholas for winning the junior competition and the overall young chef.

It was a great afternoon for all and the judges highly commended all the students for their calmness under pressure and the skills they have shown. We can’t wait to defend the title next year!

Hot House Dance

Today two practitioners, Kate and ‘Damo’, came in from Hot House Dance and taught a workshop to year 8, 9, and 10 dance students as part of enrichment week. The students took part in a difficult cardio warmup and various technique-based exercises focused on training and strengthening them in order to benefit their movement skills and performance. This included performing tendu, swings, and contractions to benefit them in later classes. As well as this, the young dancers also learnt a challenging contemporary routine to ‘Louder Than Words’ from ‘tick, tick... BOOM!’ in which they performed to their peers at the end of the session. All students were focused and produced an amazing performance, proving how talented the dancers at Birchwood are.
The two teachers from the organisation Hot House, Kate and Damon, focus on the positive powers of dance and the creative processes to improve every individual. They both expressed how much they enjoy teaching classes at Birchwood and specified how great and engaged the dance students were.