Birchwood Update 3/6/2019
- Josie Evans
- Jun 4, 2019
- 8 min read
Birchwood Update week Commencing 3/6/2019
Important dates for your diary:
6 June - Y12 Music students present live music from the 80s onwards 7.30 in Performing Arts (£3 and £2 on the door)
13 June – Year 12 Which Way Now event
14 June – Year 11’s last day in school. See Year 11 section below for more details
Week of 17 June – Years 7 -10 Examination week
27 June – Year 9 Performance Review Evening, 3.30pm – 7pm
28 June – Inset Day (Warrington Walking day)
1 & 2 July – Year 6 Induction days at BCHS
2 July - Year 6 Induction Evening, 4.30pm – 7pm
4 July – Year 11 Prom at Hallmark Warrington
9 July – Year 7 Celebration Evening, 6.30 – 7.30pm
11 July - Year 8 Celebration Evening, 6.30 – 7.30pm
16 July - Year 9 Celebration Evening, 6.30 – 7.30pm
17 July – KS3 show – Matilda, 7pm, Performing Arts Centre. AMMENDED DATE
18 July - Year 10 Celebration Evening, 6.30 – 7.30pm
Two of our learners take on the best in international cheerleading
Congratulations to two of our learners who have recently travelled to Florida to compete at international level in cheerleading.
The girls are both members of Rising Stars based in Warrington and Stockport, who give young people, male and female, from age 3 upwards the opportunity to have fun and perform through cheerleading.
Sophie from 10EP, who competes alongside her sister in the Rising Stars Ellipse International Level 5 Team, performed amazingly in the Florida World Championships to become the IASF Bronze World Medallists. What a fantastic achievement!
Prior to travelling to Florida her team became national UK champions and are the first UK team to win medals at the worlds championships in ten years.
In the second competition in Florida, Niamh in 11GP and her Level 4 team, Rising Stars Aurora, competed in the international invite only event. They narrowly missed a medal being placed fourth. Rising Stars Aurora, however are the current UK national champions.
Well done on your achievements girls, we are very proud of you both.
Harvey in 7ME is a real champion in our eyes!
Before half term was an exciting time for Harvey in 7ME as he travelled to London to pursue success in boxing.
Harvey, who is the Cheshire and Merseyside champion, north west champion and midlands champion in his group, boxed through to the national semi-finals in Crawley with a dream to box in the final.
The bouts were streamed live by England Boxing via You Tube so all Harvey’s friends and family anxiously watched as he took on his opponents.
Harvey boxed well but much to his disappointment didn’t make the final.
We are proud of you Harvey. To put in the commitment, dedication and hard work to box at this level, at your age, is fantastic and we are sure that in the future you will be victorious.
Keeping your child safe
Exams time
As we are heavily into exam season now, this week seems a good time to look helping your child cope with exam stress. Tests and exams can be a challenging part of school life for children and young people and their parents or carers. However, there are ways to ease the stress.
For great advice from the NHS on helping your child get through what can be a worrying time, please see here
Remember that exam stress does not always end when the exams are over. Many young people carrying on worrying about how they have performed in their exams and this can continue up to results day.
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 .
Learners of the Week
Well done to the learners below who were selected Learners of the week before half term by our languages, science and English department.
Year 8
Year 8 Girls HPV vaccination
All girls in Year 8 will receive a permission slip in their form box for the HPV vaccinations that will take place in school in June. Can you please check that your child has handed this to you and please read and return your permission for your child to receive the vaccination immediately please.
The documents can also be found here
More details regarding the date for vaccination will follow shortly.
Year 9 -
Year 9 Performance Review Evening Thursday 27 June, 3.30pm – 7.00pm
This valuable event gives you the opportunity to speak with subject teachers to discuss progress and achievement at a vital stage in their school life.
Your child should have brought home a letter regarding booking an appointment, which you can also find here.
We hope to see you all on the evening.
Year 10 - No specific information
Year 11
Important information Year 11 parents, regarding arrangements for Year 11 in their final weeks in school
A letter has been given to your child today in their form box with regard to the arrangements for their final weeks in school. A copy of the letter can be found here
Looking to the Future and next steps for Year 11
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
If your child is considering the apprenticeship route please be aware that many apprenticeships are now being advertised for school leavers on the gov.uk site, Find an apprenticeship, which can be found here
Year 11 Leaver’s Prom, Thursday 4 July 2019
This year the Year 11 Leavers’ Prom will be at the Hallmark Warrington on the evening of Thursday 4 July 2019. We will be leaving school at 6.15pm and returning late (approximately 12.30am).
All learners going to the prom must travel on the coaches provided. Arriving together on the coaches is an integral part of the evening. It also enables parents/carers to take photographs at school before we set off if they wish.
The Warrington Guardian photographer will be taking photos at school before we leave as will Mrs Evans, our Events Manager so make sure that you arrive in plenty of time for photographs.
We look forward to a special evening.
A date for your Diary.Year 11 last day in school, Friday 14 June 2019
For your information, the last day that your child will be in school is Friday 14 June. On that day there will be a science examination in the morning followed by our Leavers Celebration Assembly.
Please be aware however, that there are still 2 GCSE examinations after this date - German on 17 June and Polish on 19 June.
More details will be sent out nearer the time.
2019 Examinations
A full timetable of all summer examinations has been released and can be found on our website here
Results days 2019
A level/BTEC - Thursday 15 August 2019
GCSE/BTEC – Thursday 22 August 2019
More details will follow with regard to collecting your child’s results nearer the date.
Birchwood College
2019 Examinations
A full timetable of all summer examinations has been released and can be found on our website here
Results days 2019
A level/BTEC - Thursday 15 August 2019
GCSE/BTEC – Thursday 22 August 2019
More details will follow with regard to collecting your child’s results nearer the date.
Other School information:
Please support us in ensuring that our facilities are the best they can be
Please be aware of rules regarding learners being on the school site outside school hours.
Some damage has been caused to the site and a learner has been hurt trying to climb over the fencing. We would like to remind you that learners are not allowed on the school site at any time unless they are with a member of staff. The rule about this is below:
Unless there is a member of staff running a special extra-curricular activity, the school site is out of bounds for all learners on weekdays after school clubs have finished (usually after 4.30pm) and at weekends and during school holidays.
Please support us by making you child aware of this rule so that our facilities are the best they can be for us to use in school time and for the community to book and use out of school hours.
Thank you for your support in this matter
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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