Birchwood Update 7/1/2019
- Josie Evans
- Jan 8, 2019
- 9 min read
Birchwood Update week Commencing 7/1/2019
Mrs Bryan and all at Birchwood Community High School would like to wish you all a very happy and successful new year. We hope you had a restful Christmas break and return to school feeling invigorated and ready to work hard in 2019. We have high aspirations for all our learners, and with your help, we can make 2019 a year where each one of us will be successful in our own way.
Don't miss the opportunity to visit the best sixth form college in east Warrington
On the evening of 17 January, we will be holding our second Birchwood College Open Evening. If you have yet to visit Birchwood College or you have more questions, please join us between 6pm and 8pm. Mr Burrows, Head of College will give a short presentation at 6pm.
After our recent Ofsted Inspection, it was noted, “The progress for general applied qualifications is significantly above the national average”.
Staff and students will be available to discuss courses and any other queries so come along and see why our student are so happy and successful.
Christmas Theme Day, Friday 21 December
It might seem a long time ago now, but on Friday 21 December, we supported supporting St Rocco’s Hospice by holding a Christmas Theme Day on our last day of term. Learners and staff wore their own clothes to school. The school was awash with reindeers, elves and Christmas pudding jumpers!
We raised £486 for a great local charity. Thank you to all those who supported this worthy cause.
A fantastic pre-Christmas treat for one of our hardworking learners
Congratulations to Emily in 10EP who was the winner of last term’s BIRCH Rewards scheme star prize, a laptop.
We award BIRCH points to learners to recognise their achievements in school. The reward system celebrates our five “Team BIRCHwood” values; Believe, Independent, Respectful, Committed, Happy. This starts with good manners in and outside the classroom, but also recognises acts of kindness, or good citizenship around school. We celebrates when learners do well with their learning; making an extra effort in a lessons or completing an outstanding piece of homework.
Emily’s name was drawn from amongst all our highest achieving learners during our Christmas assembly, and she was able to go home with a brand new laptop. As you can imagine, she was delighted with her well-deserved reward.
Whole school reward trip Ice skating
All those who joined in with the whole reward trip, prior to Christmas had a brilliant time. The venue commented on the good behaviour of our learners and as always we were proud to take them out and they were proud to represent us.
Commando Joe’s Dave joins our team
We would like to welcome Dave Lambeth from Commando Joe's who will be supporting us one day a week until the end of this academic year.
Commando Joe’s is a team of elite instructors, with the purpose of helping children to realise their potential, through the teaching of character education and leadership skills.
Dave will be working with targeted learners, in particular Year 8 and Year 9 boys, to improve their self-esteem and attitude to learning. The programme of activities will develop learners’ confidence to have a go and to take on new challenges.
Lewis sweeps the board with his rugby skills
Congratulations go to Lewis in 7KJ who swept the board at his recent end of season presentation evening for his rugby team Ryland’s Tiger Sharks. Lewis was handed, not only one but two, highly respected awards for his efforts for the 2018 season.
Lewis was firstly awarded "Most Dedicated Player of the Year” after having played in every game throughout the 2018 season and only missing one training session due to being away on holiday.
Lewis, who is team captain, also came out on top to receive the very prestigious "Club Man of the Year" trophy for his strong leadership skills, teamwork, relentless defence, attacking flare, rugby skills and selflessness.
Lewis is particularly proud of his Club Man of the Year award.
After posting his success on Instagram he received some very encouraging messages from a number of Warrington Wolves players including legendary Ben Westwood, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Kevin Brown, Jake Mamo, Toby King and new signings Warrington and ex-Ryland’s local boy Danny Walker who commented “Well done Lewis, you must have killed it this year. Keep working hard and hopefully we will see you at Halliwell Jones“.
Keep up the hard work Lewis; we are very proud of you.
A great new service for learners who are also young carers
Are you a young carer or do you know someone who is?
Do you or a young person that you know look after someone with a disability, mental health condition, illness or addiction?
If so, there is someone to talk to and offer help and guidance.
Come along to our monthly drop in at the Willows meeting room. For dates, see the poster and any more information speak to Mr Crompton.
Keeping your child safe
When the excitement of Christmas is over, the winter can leave people feeling very low, and this obviously includes young people. For help in identifying signs of depression in young people, and who to turn to if you think your child needs medical help, see the advice from the NHS here
Extra-curricular timetable
Please take a look at our extracurricular timetable to see what great activities are available for your child to take part in both after school and at lunchtime .
Language Stars of the autumn Term
Well done to the learners below, who were selected at the highest achieving Language learners for the autumn term. Keep up the good work!
Have you booked with St. Rocco's for your tree to be collected?
We just wanted to remind you that our Tree Collection will be taking place on SATURDAY 12th JANUARY!
In return for your donation towards patient care at St. Rocco's, our volunteers will collect and recycle your real Christmas tree in an environmentally friendly way. Last year we were fully booked and collected over 2,000 trees, raising over £27,000 to help us look after our patients and their families. However, bookings are coming in fast now, so don't delay in signing up here if you would like us to collect your tree this year!
Year 7
Year 7 Residential Trip to Conwy Centre, Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 March 2019
Payment schedule:
Date Amount payable
25 January 2019 - £50
28 February 2019 - £50
Year 8
A date for your diary:
Year 8 Guided Choices Evening, Thursday 31 January, 5pm-7.30pm. More details to follow shortly
Year 9 - No specific information
Year 10
Our Applied maths group get hands on with pie charts
Pie charts can be hard to master if maths is not your best subject. 10Ma1s strengthened their understanding and had a little fun when Mrs Jenkinson and Miss Porteous really put pie charts into practice.
Learners printed their work on a cake topper and then baked a cake from scratch.
Year 11
Mock Results
Year 11 will receive ALL their mock results together on Tuesday 15 January. This will mimic GCSE results morning, to give our learners a taste of what will happen in August when they receive their actual set of results. Afterwards they will be reaping the rewards for their hard work as they go for a reward trip to the Trafford Centre with Ms Gilchrist
Dates for your diary
On Tuesday 22 January, Year 11 will be having their final official leavers’ photos taken.
Please be aware that the date of the Year 11 Performance Review Evening has been changed to WEDNESDAY 13 FEBRUARY to avoid a clash with the Prague Residential visit.
Year 11s, visit the Halliwell Jones stadium to find out about careers in Engineering
Towards the end of last term, Matthew, Ben, Connor and Matthew from Year 11 spent a day at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and took part in a range of activities to help them find out more about the engineering sector - a growth area in the North West.
Companies represented were:
Highways England – civil engineering
John Crane – industrial & manufacturing
CAL International – a concept to production engineering company based in Knowsley
Costain - technology-based engineering solutions in the UK’s energy, water and transportation sectors
Essar – chemical engineering
They discovered the importance of STEM subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and the key skills required in this sector. The boys said they learnt a lot and it will help them as they make their post 16 choices.
For information on careers, please contact our Careers Adviser Mrs Morris: rmorris@birchwoodhigh.org
Looking to the Future and next steps for Year 11
According to the Government, young people must stay in education or training until at least the age of 18. See the information here
They must do one of the following:
stay in full-time education, for example at a college/6th form
start an apprenticeship or traineeship
spend 20 hours or more a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training
Learners have been following a careers programme throughout year 10 to prepare for this and will continue to learn about post 16 options, through Learning4Life lessons this term, assemblies and presentations.
If your son/daughter requires a careers interview to discuss post 16 plans please contact our Careers Adviser, Mrs R Morris rmorris@birchwoodhigh.org
Birchwood College
Don't miss the opportunity to visit the best sixth form college in east Warrington
On the evening of 17 January, we will be holding our second Birchwood College Open Evening. If you have yet to visit Birchwood College or you have more questions, please join us between 6pm and 8pm. Mr Burrows, Head of College will give a short presentation at 6pm.
After our recent Ofsted Inspection, it was noted, “The progress for general applied qualifications is significantly above the national average”.
Staff and students will be available to discuss courses and any other queries so come along and see why our student are so happy and successful.
A date for your diary
On Tuesday 22 January, Year 13 will be having their final official leavers’ photos taken.
Other School information:
Keeping in touch gets even easier with the introduction of the Xpressions website
We are pleased to announce that Groupcall Xpressions is now available to access on your computer via a website. The login page can be found here.
This gives you a further way, as well as accessing the APP on your mobile phone and tablet, to view information about your child
Once you are set up you will be able to see information such as:
Free messages sent by the school delivered to the app
Attendance and absence information
Attitude to learning (“ATL”) scores for each lesson.
Daily/Weekly timetable information
Xpressions is completely free of charge to you and supports Apple iOS, Android devices and now Windows operating system.
In order to use the Xpressions, school must have your correct mobile number and email address on our school system. Forms are available from the school office to check and update your details or you can simply email them to the school. You will need to make sure you keep these details up to date in future to maintain access to the service.
We hope that you take advantage of this new service, which has replaced our ParentsLive system. If you have any issues or need to know more please contact Mr O’Reilly here at school on aoreilly@birchwoodhigh.org
Mobile Phones, Earphones and Speakers in school.
Phones and headphones may be brought in to school but must be kept in bags or zipped in blazer pockets out of view at all times. Learners must not use phones at any time on the site between the bells at 8.50 and 3.00pm unless they are asked to do so by a teacher in a lesson for a reason that is related to learning. In this case, the teacher will issue instructions on the use of phones or headphones, which must then be followed. If a phone is out during the school day, even to check the time, this will be confiscated. There is a staged system of sanctions and mobile phones, earphones and speakers are counted as identical items. If you think a learner is using a smart watch in the same way as a mobile phone, please speak to their Year Team Leader or Year Team Officer.
If a learner is concerned about an issue at home and feels they need to speak to a parent, they need to go to the Year Team Office and discuss this with Year Team Officer. Staff should confiscate mobile technology items that are visible and in use during the times specified. They should be taken to the school office. The system of sanctions are:
Stage 1 - First offence
The item is confiscated and locked in the school safe
The item is collected by the learner at the end of the day
One behaviour point is issued by the Office
Stage 2 - Second offence
The item is confiscated and locked in the school safe
The item is collected by the learner at the end of the day
One behaviour points issued by the Office
Stage 3 - Third Offence
The item is confiscated and locked in the school safe
Parents/carers are informed and asked to collect the phone at the end of the school day
One behaviour points is issued by the Office.
Children on site out of school hours
As a Community School, we welcome clubs and booked activities to use our facilities and school grounds outside the school day. We have become aware though that there are groups of both learners and ex learners on site in the evenings. Please make your child aware that learners are only allowed on site after the school day, if they are part of an organised and booked group. Thank you for your co-operation.
School Nurse: Please note that the school nurse comes into school every Wednesday from 12.15- 1.30pm and is available in the BSR Mentoring Room if any learners or students have any health related issues they would like to discuss.
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