Second Hand Uniform
Please consider donating good condition items of second hand uniform, including maroon blazers,
maroon jumpers, skirts and PE Kit as stock for our second hand stall. Clean items of second hand uniform can be dropped in to our Student Reception.
If you are interested in purchasing items, please contact birchwoodpsfa@gmail.com
Sparkle Malawi
We would like to wish Sparkle Malawi a very Happy Christmas. This is one of our chosen House Charities this year, we are working in conjunction with The Cornelius Group to raise money and awareness of this charity. Sparkle the Unicorn is travelling around the UK with her passport, visiting various
companies who are supporting this charity this year. Sparkle Malawi's founder Sarah Brooke’s story is quite incredible. Whilst having a gap year from University and travelling through Malawi, she became seriously ill. She was rushed to one of the few hospitals in Malawi and given life-saving treatment because she had insurance and could afford to pay. While she was there, she saw children and adults receive inadequate medical treatment and often die as a result. This inspired her to set up Sparkle Malawi. Since 2015, Sparkle Malawi has helped educate 800 children, make 4700 medical interventions and serve 66,000 meals.
#SparkleAllTheWay#SpreadTheSparkle#BeTheChange#SparkleUnicorn
#UnicornChallenge2019#YouSparkle#Sparklemalawi
Inter Form Christmas Decoration Competition
The winners of this year’s inter form Christmas Decoration Competition are 7MCN who excelled themselves with the
Christmas theme including paperchains, snowflakes, festive log burning powerpoints, Christmas songs and festive scents! 8MCX came a close
second with a very impressive door decoration of Father Christmas. Well Done to all the forms who put the time and effort into entering the competition.
Carols by Candlelight
Melodious voices filled St Michael’s Church for our annual Carols by Candlelight service. Birchwood’s Vocialise and Chamber Choir were in excellent voice filling St Michael’s with seasonal cheer with many traditional carols, including “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Lucy Sherwood gave a wonderful solo rendition of “Once in Royal David City”, whilst Elizabeth Vandoorn sang “In the Bleak Mid Winter” accompanied by Vocalise. The carols were accompanied by readings from Mr Gilbank, Eve Bailey, Milla Sweett-Heals and Miss Payne and prayers by Rev D Williams. Special thanks goes to Mr David Pickthall MBE, our organist for the evening and Rev D Williams for inviting us to take part in this wonderful evening.
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.