House System

The House System has become an integral part of the student experience at Birchwood and continues to grow year on year.

The System is built upon the key principles of ‘Encouraging all, Supporting all and Welcoming all’ and strives to provide all students with a diverse range of opportunities and experiences that encourage engagement and community cohesion.

Birchwood House Shields

Introduction

Each House: Hadham (Red), Waytemore (Yellow), Dane (Green) and Stort (Blue), is led by a team of Sixth-Formers; the House Captains. The Captains work collaboratively with Mrs Collyer (Head of the House System) to arrange a wide variety of inclusive House Events, Competitions, Charity events and Assemblies.

Each Tutor group has been allocated one of the House colours (2 per House per Year group) so that the students and Tutors can support and encourage one another.

Houses and Captains

Please see Mrs Collyer or Mrs Peet if you would like to get involved in our house system!

Head House Captains

Daisy Dunn

Scarlett Dillon

Deputy House Captains

Ivy Felstead
Lydia Griffin

Social Media Role

Yasmin Khan

Treasurer Role

Dennis Earle
Zoe Ranger

Secretary Role

Lois Wright

Communications Role

Molly Dorman

Stort
Amber Mayer
Jack Pillinger
Cameron Scott
Charles Spencer
Matthew Winder
Katrina Zune

Hadham

Ilinca Dionisie

Dane

Sydney Godden
Darcy Loveday
Anelia Nicholson
Harriet Nineberg
Alfie Wood

Waytemore

Paige Squires
Ruby Waller

Stort House Leaders

Logan Reid (Year 7)
Piper Sweett-Heals (Year 7)
Harry James (Year 8)
Lily Shillito (Year 8)
William Beaumont (Year 9)
Sam Chandler (Year 9)
Will Gilbank (Year 10)
Paige Squires (Year 10)

Hadham House Leaders

Jake Smith (Year 7)
Murray Clarke (Year 7)
Hartley-Anne Langley (Year 8)
Neala Goddard-Bird (Year 8)
Sophia Coles (Year 8)
Leighton Bishop (Year 9)
Rishel Pereira (Year 9)
Jodie Field (Year 10)
Mollitta Sturrock (Year 10)

Dane House Leaders

Evangelene Doyle (Year 7)
Rejs Gjoni (Year 7)
Charlie Osbourne (Year 7)
Amelie Higgins (Year 8)
Alfie Hobday (Year 8)
Matthew Reader (Year 9)
Dillon Browne (Year 9)
Elizabeth Okubanjo (Year 10)
Jessica Hobday (Year 10)

Waytemore House Leaders

Ruby Rowland (Year 7)
Mateus Bezerra Tiosso (Year 7)
Harry Gilbank (Year 8)
Callum Dargue (Year 8)
India Purton (Year 9)
Rosie Pressland (Year 9)
Cecilia Davey (Year 10)

Charities

Bishop's Stortford Food Bank Logo

Local

The Food Bank is here to help anyone in Bishop’s Stortford and the surrounding villages experiencing a food crisis. Through the incredible support of the local community, we have the food, funds and volunteers to make sure no one goes hungry. If you need food, please ask for help. No one should have to go hungry – ever.


National

The Fire Fighters Charity assists thousands of serving and retired fire service personnel and their families in times of need.


International

The Sparkle Foundation is a non-profit organisation set up to create sustainable brighter futures for orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi.

House Points

The House Points System aims to recognise all contributions towards school life made by the students. This is in the spirit of creating a culture in which individual achievements are celebrated as a collective and students can experience a sense of belonging. Academic, extra-curricular and pastoral achievements are all recognised via the System. The winner of the Annual House Cup is announced during the last week of term in a whole school House assembly.

There are many ways in which students are able to earn House points…

  • House Events:  Sports Day, Birchwood’s Got Talent, Strictly Birchwood, Band Night…
  • House Competitions: Countdown, The Cube, Design a poster/ticket, Big Fat Quiz of the Year…
  • School Activities: Being part of a School Production, signing up to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, logging on to view Interim reports…
  • Random Acts of Kindness (RAK): Students are nominated by others for these points
  • Attendance: 100% Attendance = 10 Points; Green (above 96%) = 5 Points; Improving from Red to Amber = 10 Points
  • Behaviour Bonus:  For every day students in a house receive no On-Calls, their House receives 1 Point
  • Achievements: Every Achievement point received by a student is converted to a House point

Weekly House Points:

04/03/2019

483

Stort

476

Hadham

491

Dane

608

Waytemore

L-R: Stort, Hadham, Dane, Waytemore

Total House Points:

Autumn Term

L-R: Stort, Hadham, Dane, Waytemore

16163

Stort

18775

Hadham

20160

Dane

18029

Waytemore

Updated 11/3/2019

How to earn House points

For your reference, house points are awarded according to the following schemes. Staff and students are all able to earn house points.

Student House Points

Categories​ Points​ Awarded for…​
Academic achievement 2​ For excellent results in an interim test or controlled assessment.​
Contribution in class​ 2​ Fantastic work or participation during a lesson​​
Excellent home learning 2​ Going above and beyond with a piece of home learning​​
Excellent progress​ 2​ Showing clear improvements in a subject area.​​
Excellent effort​ 2​ Showing determination or perseverance​​
Helping at a school event 5​ Volunteering at a faculty/whole school/ house/leadership event​
Helping duty student 3​ Being a helpful duty student​​
Literacy (per book read)​ 5​  ​
Random act of kindness (RAK)​ 3​ Doing something positive for a fellow member of the Birchwood Community ​​
Regular participation in a school club 5​ 5 points each half term for regular attendance to a club​
1st place School Competition 5​ Taking part in a school competition and coming 1st place​
2nd place school competition​ 4​ Taking part in a school competition and coming 2nd place​
3rd place school competition​ 3​ Taking part in a school competition and coming 3rd place​

Staff House Points

​​​​​​​​​​

Categories​ Points​ Awarded for…​
Friday Sport 2​ Attending a Friday Sport session
Assisting school products/ concerts ​ 3​ Helping with a school production or concerts
Awarding a RAK 1​ Awarding a RAK to another member of staff or student
Running a club ​ 5​ Running an extra curricular activity/ club
RAK 5​ Doing something positive for another member of the school community
Staff House Event 3​ Taking part in a staff house event
Staff House Event- Organise 5​ Organising a house event
TLDW/ M.Ed. 5​ Completing a TLDW project or a M.Ed.​
School Competition 5​ Organising a school competition
1st place 10​ 1st place in a school competition
2nd place 5​ 2nd place in a school competition
3rd place 2​ 3rd place in a school competition
Litter picking 5​ Organising a form litter picking session

Latest News and Events

Events

Latest News

Essex and Herts Air Ambulance

On the 28 November 2019, the House Captain team embarked on a journey to the air base in North Weald to meet up with our local charity; the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance. This is an amazing charity as they help so many local people with limited support from the Government. Local donations, including the £1,555.33 raised by Birchwood High School last year, is the only way they can fund this operation which saves countless lives.


Halloween

On Wednesday 23 October we had our first House Charity day which was Halloween themed. All of our students were in non-uniform and some staff and Sixth Form students were dressed up in Halloween costumes!
There were plenty of events that took place such as the traditional Halloween cake stall, pumpkin competition and spooky song off.
The winners of the Pumpkin Competition were:
Bat = Erin Hinken and Frankie Gilder
Tree = Daisy Evans, Grace Limrick and Holly Thompson
A massive well done to them for getting involved! House points have been awarded for this.
At lunch time the Sixth Form House Captains ran the Halloween live maze. This maze was held in the drama studio and included live actors. The Year 7- 10 students who took part, thoroughly enjoyed it.


Colour Run

Revised date for Colour Run is Friday 20 September (see attached poster for details) subject to the weather forecast.
There is still time to join in!
Available to all students.
Minimum sponsorship £10.00 per student to enter
Sign up and collect your sponsor form from Mrs Collyer, B11.
All money raised will go to Sparkle Malawi.