Bishop's Stortford Car Boot Sale
BOOT SALE IS POSTPONED DUE TO EXTREME HEAT
Sunday 17 July 2022
Birchwood High School CM23 5BD
(weather dependent)
Pearse House playing field
Sellers: arrive from Dunmow Road entrance 10.30am
Public: 11.30am – 2.30pm
Public parking is in the school car park and pedestrian entrance to the car boot sale is in Parsonage Lane opposite the school
Sellers: please note payment is by card: Cars £12/Small vans £14/Large vans £16
Entry for buyers: £1 per adult, children are free
Toilets and refreshments
PSFA Big Summer Raffle is here!
PTA Big Summer Raffle – Once again we will be taking part in the Big PTA Summer Raffle. Tickets go on sale on Monday 23 May from www.bigptaraffle.co.uk
All proceeds raised will go towards the purchase of new saucepans for the food tech rooms. Each £3 ticket will provide 12 chances to win up to £5000.
Year 9 Football runners up at Districts
Year 9 Boys Football Team came runners up in the District Football tournament at Saffron Walden on Tuesday 22 February. They reached the semi-finals after five wins, two draws and one defeat before beating Boys High in the semi-final by 3 goals to 0. They then lost a competitive and close final 1-0 to Bishop’s Stortford College.
Year 9 visit the British Science Museum
Our entire year nine cohort were offered the opportunity to join the coach trip to the British Science Museum in London. Whilst being split across two visits, one for the X-side and one for the Y-side, uptake was fantastic, and the excitement in the morning between our students was evident as they boarded the coach to go.
On arrival, groups were each given a map and itinerary which were designed to ensure that they maximised their trip by visiting and experiencing as many of the displays and interactive exhibits as possible.
Some of the key attractions that we visited included;
The Flight zone - where overhead walkways allowed students to get up close to aeroplanes suspended in the air.
Students examined exhibits from the pioneer days of aviation, including the world’s most authentic Antoinette monoplane (1909), Amy Johnson’s Gipsy Moth and the Vickers Vimy, which first flew across the Atlantic in 1919.
The Engineer Your Future zone - An interactive exhibition to get students thinking about their futures, where challenges, games and films helped them to understand what engineers actually do.
A particular favourite was the Energy Hall zone, where students discovered how steam power shaped the modern world.
A wonderful day was had by everyone. The Science Faculty
Birchwood’s Young Musician 2022 Final
On Thursday 24 February Birchwood’s Young Musician 2022 Final was held in the school hall. The competition final, which is in its eighth year, was judged by Mr Peter Foster who is head of Bishop’s Stortford Music School. It was a wonderful evening of music and the performances were outstanding. The range of talent on display was inspiring and the final included solo performances on clarinet, flute, piano, saxophone, voice, cello, heavy metal guitar and drum kit. We would like to thank all students who entered the competition, the quality of entries made deciding on the overall finalists exceedingly difficult, and many thanks to Peter Foster for judging the final and Mr Stock for accompanying.
Just the ticket!
Students celebrated 25 years of World Book Day by finding Golden Tickets which had been hidden around the school site. The activity, which was based on Roald Dahl’s classic book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was organised by English teachers Miss Long and Ms Cuddington and Librarian Mrs Gibson.
Mrs Gibson, who is a keen advocate of reading for pleasure in order to raise literacy standards among children and young adults said “The school ran a number of activities throughout the day but it was the Golden Ticket challenge which really got the students buzzing. They were extremely excited and eager to get involved. Students from all year groups took part and visited the library to exchange their ticket for a free book and chocolate. World Book Day 2022 will certainly be remembered for a long time to come by students and staff alike”.
UKMT senior Maths challenge
Each year, a handful of students are entered for the UKMT senior Maths challenge, and this year both Alex Sawyer and William Blakey were entered for more prestigious competitions following their outstanding results. Alex was entered for the UKMT Kangaroo in which he received a certificate of qualification. William was entered for the incredibly challenging Maths Olympiad, in which he managed to achieve a certificate of merit. This was a sterling effort and both boys should be immensely proud of themselves in what is their last Maths challenge at Birchwood.
Birchwood’s British Physics Olympiad Gold Winners
Year 13 Physics students William Blakey and Alex Sawyer have had an amazing start to their final year. It started with their A level Physics teacher Mr William-Powlett encouraging them to enter the British Physics Olympiad; a test for the very best young physicists in the country and beyond. The Olympiad had nearly 5,000 of the best British students and International students entering. Amazingly both young men scored a Gold in the paper, putting them in the top 20% of results in the world. William was amongst the very best results in the cohort and was awarded a Top Gold and invited to try out for the British Physics Olympiad team with an even more fiendishly difficult paper. The good news didn’t stop there. A week after receiving the BPhO results both boys found out that they had received offers from Oxford University to study Physics subject to their grades in the Summer.
Young Musician of the Year 2022
Birchwood’s Young Musician of the Year 2022
Are you Birchwood’s next Pop or Classical winner?
How to Enter:
All you need to do is email a video recording of you performing your favourite piece in a communal space, e.g. your living room,
to Mr Grogan, mgrogan@birchwoodhigh.org.uk.
All styles and genres of music are welcome.
Closing date for entries is:
Wednesday 9 February and finalists will be announced on Friday 11 February.
Congratulations to Hans Tsui
Congratulations to Hans Tsui from Year 9 who was the lucky winner of last half term’s ‘Read, Review, Reward’ competition. Hans read and reviewed five books from the reading list – his overall favourite was ‘Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus‘ which he rated 4.5 out of 5.
This half term’s competition ‘Read around the World’ has been extended until Easter so there is plenty of time to get involved. You too could be the lucky winner of a £10 Waterstones gift card. For more information on how you can enter please contact Mrs Gibson jgibson@birchwoodhigh.org.uk