Dear Parents and Carers 20 December 2017

For our last newsletter of 2017 I would like to thank you for your support in the last few weeks with our festive

activities: The Christmas panto last week was a resounding success with great performances from all the

students, fantastic music and a lot of laughter and we owe Mrs Jeffery who wrote and directed it, and Mrs

Sinnott, who choreographed it, a massive round of well-deserved applause; the BPA’s refreshments at the panto,

mufti day and cake sale raised almost £1000; we are delivering today a minibus full of new toys to the town hall

for the Sefton Mayor’s Appeal; we are collecting today to support our caterers, Mellors, in their fundraiser for

Zoe’s Place and by placing wishes on our Christmas tree we are raising money for Southport Foodbank.

Sadly, we are saying goodbye to 2 members of staff this Christmas as both Mr Glew who teaches French and

Spanish, and Mrs Morgan who is 2nd in the English department leave us to take up new positions in Keele and

Liverpool respectively. I would like to thank them both for all their hard work and commitment and wish them all

the best in their new jobs. I would also like to reassure all parents that we have been very lucky in securing the

services of two experienced and highly recommended teachers to take over in January.

Miss Daly our SENCO/English teacher is getting married during the Christmas holiday and will be known as

Mrs Weir when she returns to school. Our very best wishes to her and her new husband.

Today all our Year 11 students will be opening their envelope that contains their mock results. I hope they all

achieve the grades they were hoping for and that it will give them the confidence they need to tackle the next few

months. If their mock grades are below what they expected, they must learn from this experience, analyse their

strengths and weaknesses, and ensure that they use the next 5 months effectively to get fully prepared.

Today is also the last day of the festival of Hannukah and I would like to wish our Jewish students and their

families a belated happy Hanukkah and best wishes for the New Year. Tomorrow we will close the calendar year

with a Christmas assembly and, on behalf of all the staff and governors, I would like to wish you all a merry

Christmas and a very, very happy New Year. We finish tomorrow after assembly and boys will leave school at

approximately 12.20pm. See you all on Tuesday 9 January 2018.

POST BIRKDALE APPLICATIONS FOR YEAR 11

Year 11 pupils should be working on their college applications if they have not already done so. Ideally all

applications need to be made by the end of January. It is the students’ responsibility to meet this deadline – no

time will be allowed in school to complete applications. Representatives from some colleges will be in school in

the New Year to help those with specific queries or those who are struggling. The dates are:

Wednesday 10 & 17 January 2018 – Runshaw College

Tuesday 16 & 23 January 2018 – Southport College and KGV

These sessions will be held at lunchtime in U13.

There is no need to supply a referee, your Year 11 report will be sent to provide this information, including your

mock results, predicted grades, attendance and punctuality. Interviews for these colleges will take place in

school w/c Monday 5 February 2018. Miss Bailey

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS REWARDS

Congratulations to all the boys who received rewards for gaining the most merits over the last 12 days. The

names of the boys who won selection boxes are attached to this newsletter. Well done to them! Mr Pryor

YEAR 7 AND YEAR 8 GEOGRAPHY

January brings a plethora of creativity to the Geography department with Year 7 and 8 students working away on

their projects: Year 7 are putting together their interpretation of what the British Isles means to them in ‘The

British Isles in a Box’ while Year 8 are creating, in pairs, a PowerPoint presentation describing and explaining the

location, and human and physical geography of a city they have chosen. I cannot wait to be amazed by all

students – don’t forget that ‘wow factor’. Information is on your teacher’s door, along with the date of your

presentation. Mrs Sinnott

CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME – WEDNESDAY 13 DECEMBER 2017

A massive thanks to everyone who was involved in the School Pantomime last week - it was a fantastic event

and the boys involved should be very proud of themselves. Mrs Jeffery

BIRKDALE HIGH SCHOOL ANIMAL CLUB

The boys at the Animal Club have been hard at work getting the cages, tanks and vivariums ready for the

animals, as they prepare to go to homes for the Christmas holidays. It is great to see so many boys volunteer to

take the animals home, especially the Year 7 group.

This is a crucial time for the Club as there is a full close down of the school, therefore all the animals have to be

taken care of away from the school. Thank you to all those boys (and parents) who are willing to give up their

time to look after our animals.

The Animal Club Mentors were treated to a Christmas party which I hold annually, as a thank you for all their

hard work and dedication during the last year. I did take the odd picture of the boys enjoying the festivities,

however I’ve been asked (told) not to submit any photographs as apparently it’s “not cool” to have a picture taken

wearing a paper hat from a Christmas cracker! Rest assured, those pictures will be revealed over the coming

months if any of those boys step out of line before the end of the summer term. You know who you are!

The Animal Club members still had enough time to create a couple of short festive videos for your enjoyment.

We hope you like them. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Birkdale High School Animal Club!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTdXL6UX-pM&safe=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9oFKoAAfk&safe=true Mr Leece

BILLY DAVIES – 9JQ

CONOR HARTWELL – 10PZM

On Sunday 10 December 2017 Connor

Hartwell, together with 4 other Fire Cadets, ran

from Southport to Preston to raise £200 for

Queenscourt Hospice.

Conor is pictured wearing the medal he was

awarded by the hospice.

Well done to Connor also for featuring in the

Emergency Services’ Christmas Safety

message video! Follow the link and see if you

can spot him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PtR0LGS

zdg&sns=em

A massive well done to Billy Davies in Year 9 who so far

has raised £262 for @CR_UK in memory of his Mum.

His target his £300. Please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/billy-

davies10 if you wish to support him

RAFIQ TENNAH – 11EJ

A massive thank you to Rafiq Tennah for organising the Year 11 hoodies. Rafiq was involved from the beginning

in sourcing the company, being involved in the design of the hoodies, consulting Year 11 pupils, producing a

PowerPoint presentation and ordering them. The project has been a great success so well done Rafiq!

SCIENCE TOTAL RECALL QUIZ LEAGUE GCSE

Well done to all boys who are currently engaging with the “Total recall” quiz league. The notice board will be

updated this week so you can check your position after the latest quizzes. The next quiz has been set and is due

on 12 January 2018. Ms Flood

Year 11

Year 10 Year 9

READING CLUB

BPA NEWS

Well, a MASSIVE thank you to everyone for your support for the BPA last week.

We raised a great £215.85 selling refreshments at the school’s pantomime, then a fantastic £176.50 at the cake

sale and then to finish things off £588.80 from Mufti donations. So.......£981.15.

So thank you for baking, buying, attending, helping and generally being brilliant. We would like to wish all

parents/carers a Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year. BPA Committee

Yours faithfully

Mr G Bourgade

Headteacher

Merry Christmas from all at Reading Club!

Regular attendees of Reading Club were

rewarded with an end of term party, enjoying party

food, party games and much fun! Reading Club

will be back in the New Year and new comers will

be made very welcome: Mondays, 3.15-4.00pm,

in G16 (Mrs Keating’s English classroom), ran by

Mrs Bradley and Mrs Stirling, juice and biscuits

first and a chat, followed by reading for pleasure –

all ability levels, a merit for every session

attended, regular attendees are rewarded with an

end of term party. Why not come along in the New

Year and give it a go? Mrs Stirling

12 Days of Christmas - Rewards

Day YEAR 7 YEAR 8 YEAR 9 YEAR 10 YEAR 11

12 Isaac Powell Thomas Rimmer Paddy Marchant Taylor Stanbrook Lewis Irwin/Lewis Hill

11 Jack Chard Rico Seddon-Davidson Reece Blackley Tobey Sykes Thomas Finegan/Jack Swettenham

10 Dylan Duncan James Bartlett Oscar Thompson Adam Hopper Arran Messenger/Alessio Francis

9 Kristian Barker Adam Dimba Dan Morgan Om Prathumpim Ethan Mobbs-Pursell / Sam Cooper

8 Marcus Burgess Sean Barry Jack Marrin Morgan McCreavy Sam Baldwin/Callum Park

7 Alessandro Chalmers Morgan Gaskell Lee Thompson Ryan Haywood Sam Johnson/Alessio Francis

6

Wilf Beadell Oliver Booth Dylan Barnfield Dylan Green

5

Sonny Rix Leo McEvilly Josef Saunders Kyle Finney

4

Dylan Duncan Thomas Morris Travis Nolan Thomas Hardy

3

Kenny Snape Joseph Berry Dylan Barnfield Lewis Rose

2

Harry Taylor Oliver Booth Ben Shearson Justin Rimmer

1

Thomas Dance Joe Rigby Jack Dixon Alex Hobby