Birchwood Update 9/12/2019
- Josie Evans
- Dec 9, 2019
- 12 min read
Birchwood Update week Commencing 9/12/2019
Important dates for your diary:
Festive and reward events in the approach to Christmas
11 December – Year 7 reward trip to see Peter Pan – non-uniform
13 December – Birch Points reward non-uniform day – only for winning learners (winners will be informed)
19 December – Years 8 – 10 ice skating reward trip – non-uniform
20 December – Charity Christmas theme non-uniform day and 12.30pm finish
20 December - 6 January - Christmas break
Plan ahead - This term’s Important dates for Your Diary
January
16 January – Birchwood College Open Evening, 6-8pm
21 January – Year 11 and Year 13 Leavers’ photos
23 January - Year 11 Performance Review Evening 3.30pm – 7pm
February
6 February – Year 12 & 13 Performance Review Eve, 3.30pm – 7pm
27 February – Year 10 Performance Review Evening, 3.30pm – 7pm
March
19 March – Year 8 Performance Review Evening, 3.30pm – 7pm
23 March – Year 8 options deadline for choices forms to be returned
April
1 – 3 April – Year 7 residential to Menai
20 April – Year 7 Performance Review Evening 3.30pm – 7pm
Last day arrangements and Christmas assembly
Our whole school and college Christmas assembly will take place at 11.30am in the Sports Hall on Friday 20 December, the last day of term. Parents, carers and friends of the school are very welcome to join us for this event. There will be a brunch break earlier in the morning and then school and college will close for the Christmas break after the assembly at approximately 12.30pm.
Learners are also invited on our last day to wear Christmas themed clothing for a charitable donation of £1.
Two of our performers smash their external singing exams
After the success of last week’s show, we are delighted to announce that two of our key players have had terrific success in externally assessed singing exams. Amy, in year 9, who played Princess Jasmine in our show achieved a Distinction in her grade 5 singing exam and Sinead in year 10 who played one of her attendants gained Distinction in her grade 6 singing exam being just 5 marks from a 100% score.
Amy also sang on Wednesday at the Music Ambassador School’s Awards Ceremony, representing our school.
Well done girls we are very proud of you both. Is it any wonder the show got such fantastic reviews with you as performers!
Amy right, playing princess Jasmine with Sinead second in from the left as her attendant.
Birchwood College Christmas Markets; a great start to the festive season !
Last Friday, to get the festivities off to a start, and as part of their unit ‘planning an enterprise activity’, our college level 2 Workskills students ran ‘Birchwood College Christmas Market’.
The stalls were outside the College at break and lunch selling a variety of goods such as sweets biscuits, including some lovely homemade shortbreads and hot drinks. They also had a great idea to make Christmas prep easy for staff, selling ready-made Christmas Eve boxes, with lots of lovely treats for little ones that just needed a pair of special Christmas Eve Pjs adding… genius!
To add to the excitement, Warrington Wolves first team who train on our 3G pitch decided to join us to sign some autographs and pose for some selfies.
Well done to all the students involved they certainly brought Christmas to Birchwood.
Year 7 get the chance to quiz the professionals
As part of the careers programme in Learning 4 Life, Year 7 were visited by ten people from different professions. The aim was to raise awareness of the many different careers that exist and the skills and qualifications required. We had various NHS roles represented including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker and learning disabilities nurse. From Gleeds, we had an IT systems manager; from Sellafield, a mechanical engineer; and from Media & Digital Design and Web Studios, a graphic designer. We also welcomed a police officer currently training to enter the dog handling unit.
We would like to thank all representatives for making the sessions interesting and informative and explaining to learners the importance of qualifications as well as building up skills through extra-curricular activities.
The visitors commented on how engaged the learners were, the quality of questions asked and how much they enjoyed visiting Birchwood Community High School.
Well done Year 7 and thank you to all our visiting professionals who gave us their precious time.
Birchwood Christmas lunch
I hope that your child will join us on Tuesday 17 Dec for our Team BIRCHwood Christmas lunch. Mags and her catering team will be providing a festive feast for our learners and staff. To ensure everyone can sit and eat at leisure we will have two lunch sittings. Years 7, 8 and 9 will eat at 12.15 and Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 will have their lunch at 1.15pm. please note in the M1 Diner Christmas lunch will replace the usual menu options
The cost of the traditional Christmas dinner with vegetarian option is £2.30
Our uniform policy on coloured nail varnish and false nails
As the Christmas season approaches, we sometimes see the appearance of elaborate acrylic nails. Can we please remind parents, carers and learners that coloured nail varnish and false nails are not part of correct uniform and therefore not allowed in school. Form tutors do a standards check every morning and the protocol for breaches in incorrect uniform is as follows:
• Learner is sent to Year Team Office by form tutor at start of day
• YTO contacts parents to resolve the matter swiftly, which will involve removal of the nails
• The learner will not be allowed in lessons until the matter is resolved.
• One behaviour point is issued by the form tutor.
Please avoid disappointment and wasted money by making sure you wait for the holidays to have acrylic nails applied and of course make sure they are removed before we return to school in January. Thank you as ever for your support.
Keeping your child safe
This week’s safeguarding advice is specifically aimed at Year 11 who are sitting their Mock Exams over the next 2 weeks. Though these are internal exams they can also cause learners to feel stressed and worried. For advice form Childline on how best to deal with examination stress see 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 before, after school and at lunchtime .
Learning Superstars
Please find our star learners of last week for our English, languages, geography and science departments
Year 7
Have you secured your child’s place on our year 7 residential?
In April, we are organising a trip to the Conway Centre for all of Year 7. This will be an ideal opportunity for learners to experience new and different activities and to encourage them to start Year 8 with a focus on making good progress throughout the curriculum.
The cost of the trip is £200 per learner. This includes transport to and from the centre, board, lodgings and the cost of all the activities. The cost can be payed in instalments.
To secure a place, please pay a non-refundable deposit of £50 and complete the medical information required on Parent Pay as soon as possible.
For full details of the trip and how to pay see the letter here
Year 8 - No specific information
Year 9 – No specific information
Year 10 - No specific information
Year 11
National Citizen Service - a great way to spend 3 weeks of your summer holiday!
What is it?
National Citizen Service (NCS) is open to all 16 and 17-year-olds in England.
It helps you build your skills for work and life, while you take on new challenges and meet new friends.
It runs in the spring, summer and autumn. You’ll have a short time away from home and take part in a team project that will help your community.
NCS brings together young people from different backgrounds and helps them develop greater confidence, self-awareness and responsibility. It encourages personal and social development by working on skills like leadership, teamwork and communication.
Participants develop a social action project to deal with a local issue they’re passionate about and spend 30 hours putting the project into action in their community.
If you are interested and sign up before Tuesday 31 December, you can go for just £30 rather than the normal fee of £50. There are also bursaries available. See here for further information.
Year 11 Revision Launch PowerPoints
Thank you to all those who attended our Year 11 revision evening last week. We hope that you found it of benefit. All of the resources from the evening can be found on our website if you click here it will take you straight to the right area. It is the button right at the bottom, the tab called ‘Make it Stick – Learning, Memory and Revision’.
For those who could not attend the event, a copy of the ‘Make it stick’ booklet will be in your child’s form box today.
Year 11 Mocks examinations - Monday 9 – Friday 19 December 2019
Below you will find information regarding the year 11 mocks, which will take place in December. Please help us by ensuring that your child is aware of their examination dates and that they attend school throughout this period.
These exams will be completed under exam conditions and are a good test to measure how much progress learners have made in preparation for their exams next summer
A letter about the examinations can be found here
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 you would like to book a careers appointment for your son/daughter to discuss their post 16 options please email our Careers Adviser Mrs R Morris rmorris@birchwoodhigh.org
College Open Events
Birchwood College Thursday 16 January 6-8pm.
If you didn’t manage to make it to our October college open evening, or if you would like to consider courses in more detail, it is not too late as we would love to welcome you in January. If you have any concerns or questions in the meantime please contact Head of College, Chris Burrows on cburrows@birchwoodhigh.org.
Our next open Evening will be on Thursday 16 January , 6pm - 8pm . We look forward to welcoming you to the event.
Birchwood College
Two of our students are moved by a 'lesson from Auschwitz' On Tuesday 12 November two-year 13 History students, Emily Travis and Lily Harrison, and Mrs Garratt took part in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ visit to Auschwitz in Poland. This was a packed one-day visit with other students and staff from across the north west of England. Following a 6.30am flight from Manchester the group went by coach to Oswiecim. This was the town renamed as Auschwitz by the Nazis and was the first stop of the day so that the students could see the ordinary background of the Jewish people who were then removed and taken to camps. The students were then taken to Auschwitz 1, which now acts as a museum displaying amongst other very emotive artefacts a book of 4 million Jewish names, as you can imaging the book is huge. The group then visited Auschwitz – Birkenau, the large concentration camp where thousands of Jews and other prisoners were gassed and cremated. The visit was very informative and incredibly moving, one of our students described it as ‘walking in dead people’s footsteps’. The visit finished with a short memorial service and the lighting of candles.
Emily and Lily will now produce a display to capture their visit.
Other School information:
A Reminder of our policy regarding sugary drinks and junk food in school
Please find a letter here from Ms Mills reminding you of our policy on such items. At the moment we are seeing a great deal of energy drinks, sweets, chocolate and takeaway foods in school and as per our policy on these banned items they will be confiscated or disposed of. We hope that you understand why this is a priority for our school and your child’s learning and development.
Difficulties in viewing the Update.
Last week some people told us they were having difficulty viewing photographs in our update. The problems relate to using Microsoft Internet Explorer. If you are experiencing problem and are using Internet Explorer as your web browser, please close and re-open in another browser such as Google Chrome.
Useful Contacts for your child and to to keep by your phone:
Year 7 Team Office in Art Building
Year 7 Team Leader & Officer – Mrs Butler: Telephone extension 202
Year 8 and 9 Team Office is at the top of main corridor
Y8 & Y9 Team Officer – Ms Hickson: Telephone extension 290
Y8 Team Leader – Mrs Jenkinson/Ms Gilchrist
Year 9 Team Leader – Ms McAlinden
Year 10 and 11 Team Office is in D&T/EPR building
Y10 & Y11 Team Officer - Mrs Bird: Telephone extension 229
Y10 Team Leader – Mrs Jones
Y11 Team Leader – Miss Russell
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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