Thinking about becoming a teacher?

~ Schools Direct initiative trains Stoke teachers using local expertise ~

The Trust for Innovative Learning and Training (TILT), an educational co-operative that unites schools and colleges based in Stoke-on-Trent, has locally introduced the Schools Direct programme. 

The Government scheme offers a unique training route to obtain qualified teacher status (QTS). Along with other TILT members, Birches Head Academy will play an active part in the teacher training, sharing the school’s knowledge and expertise with the trainees.

Applications for TILT’s Schools Direct scheme, starting in September 2014, opened on November 21, 2013. The process is currently administered by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS). Applications for a Schools Direct place within TILT can be made on the Department of Education website.

The novelty of the Schools Direct scheme comes from the fact that, for the first time, schools can partner up and use their expertise and experience to train outstanding teachers for their community.

The Schools Direct programme uses existing knowledge from local schools in order to develop the teaching skills of candidates who wish to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS).

To be eligible, candidates must have a UK undergraduate degree or a recognised equivalent qualification, a GCSE grade C or above in English and Maths, and a GCSE grade C or above in science, in the case of candidates wanting to teach primary or key stage 2/3 (ages 7-14).

“Each student has different needs and aspirations; there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for education. Offering each and every pupil the type of support and encouragement they need is one of the main challenges teachers face,” explains Karen Healey, head teacher at Birches Head Academy.

“The Schools Direct initiative brings a change to traditional teacher training. It allows local schools to bring their expertise together and train outstanding teachers for the local community.

“The initiative particularly benefits co-operative trusts like the TILT, because each member brings unique skills to the mix. For example, the Abbey Hill Special School and Performing Arts College provides specialised insight on training for inclusion. The ultimate purpose of the Schools Direct programme is to give a new generation of teachers the tools, knowledge and personal skills to respond to the complex needs of their pupils.”

TILT is a Stoke-on-Trent co-operative of schools, who actively work together for their community, and are committed to offering the highest educational standards to their pupils. TILT offers staff, trainees and associated teachers the ability to access training and support programs with Chester University, the strategic partner of the group, and other continual professional development providers.

Currently, the Trust for Innovative Learning and Training (TILT) consists of the following primary and infant schools: Abbey Hulton Primary School, Carmountside Primary Academy, Etruscan Primary School, Forest Park Primary School, Grove Junior School, Hamilton Infant School, Northwood Broom Community School, St Marks CofE Primary School and Waterside Primary School.

Abbey Hill Special School and Performing Arts College is also a member, along with the secondary and post 16 providers Birches Head Academy and Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College. The higher education provider is the University of Chester.

The news – brought to you by local teens

~ Birches Head students launch hyperlocal media website ~

Birches Head Academy in Stoke-On-Trent is working with students and staff from Staffordshire University’s journalism school to set up an online hyperlocal media outlet for the their community. The online platform called ‘BirchesheadLive’ will be hosted by Staffordshire University’s StaffsLive website and will feature news pieces written and edited by the students themselves.

Hyperlocal media covers events and topics which are of interest to an extremely small geographical area, such as a borough or a neighbourhood. These news stories wouldn’t necessarily be covered by larger media outlets, but could be relevant to local residents. The outlets also emphasize reader input and interaction more than mainstream media.

This progressive extracurricular project gives students interested in pursuing a career in journalism or media the chance to get hands on experience and set up their own news website.

For the first time, the students will look beyond school grounds for stories, including the whole of the Birches Head community, and wider area, and will cover articles about newsworthy topics in the area.

The student team behind the project is the Birches Head Academy Reporters. The group currently consists of seven students who write articles for the school website and produce broadcasts on Ice Radio - the academy’s own station. In September, the students visited the Staffordshire University Newsroom at the Stoke Campus. They were given a tour of the state of the art facilities and had a training session on how to write, edit and publish stories for the Bircheshead Live platform, which is expected to launch in the next few weeks.

“The project is an amazing opportunity for our students to gain useful knowledge of how local media outlets work,” explains Rob Smith, Birches Head Academy extended services manager. “It allows our students to get creative in a field that some of them will one day work in. It’s also a way of building on what they have already learned by writing for the school website and producing broadcasts for the school radio. It’s challenging them to learn more about modern journalism.”

 “The Staffs Live website is an established source of news for the whole of the county,” adds Jamie Summerfield, community managing editor of Staffs Live. “We’re setting up a number of smaller sites under the Staffs Live umbrella to really tap in to what’s going on in local communities. Working in partnership with local communities is essential and we’re delighted to be working with young reporters from Birches Head Academy.”

The Birches Head Academy News Team members are Lewis Cropper, Chelsea Still, Corey Forrest, Kayleigh Rasdell, Ryan Carter, Rebecca Harrison and Jamie Evans.

Further collaboration between Birches Head Academy and Staffordshire University is planned while this new initiative is developed.

Birches Head Academy grows it like no other

~ Gardening brings students, staff and community together ~

As finalists in Morrisons Young Gardener of the Year Awards, Birches Head Academy in Stoke-On-Trent has won 10,000 vouchers to spend on gardening resources. The school’s gardening programme has been immensely successful and the produce is now being used to supply the school kitchen.

Half of the child population in the UK currently has access to Morrisons ‘Let’s Grow’ scheme, with 26,500 schools currently registered.

The popularity of the programme has taken the nation by storm and Birches Head Academy is no exception. The school’s own Grow It group was set up just over a year ago by Sarah Wright, Director of CPD (Continual Professional Development). Members have been meeting on a biweekly basis and exploring the benefits of growing their own fruit and vegetables.

Using the gardening equipment provided by the Morrisons scheme, the Grow It group has worked alongside the school’s Personalised Learning Centre to cultivate a small plot of land on school grounds. The produce is given to its members and often used to supply the school cafeteria. The scheme is encouraging Birches Head Academy students to learn more about the advantages of a healthy diet and the importance of environmentally friendly and sustainable methods of food production and consumption.


The Grow It group at Birches Head Academy is an inclusive organisation, consisting of students, parents, grandparents, staff and community members who meet every Wednesday and Thursday to learn about gardening. They are always welcoming towards new members and are currently looking to extend their reach.

To show its support, the local community has donated funds and equipment to the Grow It community. The group is currently collecting vouchers which will be used to purchase more seeds and gardening equipment.

“We started from scratch, but thanks to everyone pulling together, we’ve achieved quite a lot in a very short time,” says Wright. “The Grow It group teaches pupils how to grow their own flowers, vegetables and fruit, while having fun in the process.”

The community has been constantly increasing in numbers since it was set up and its popularity has convinced the school to make more facilities available to the students. “I am impressed to hear,” says local MP Rob Flello, “that the school is using extracurricular activities to promote academic achievement”.

This academic year, the Grow It group will also plant flowers in meadows around the school with seeds they harvested from the Coronation Meadow in Basford, Staffordshire.

One World, One City, One Birches Head

Earlier this summer, year seven, eight and nine students from Birches Head Academy took part in its annual Out and About Week. Starting on July 8, the school participated in a number of activities across Europe. Students who took part, christened the week of activities One World, One City, One Birches Head. 

During Out and About Week the timetable is suspended and the students take part in various cultural activities. The school was divided into its house teams; air, fire and water and the students cooperated with each other to develop their extra-curricular skills.

As part of the project young people from Birches Head visited Paris, Belgium and Liverpool. Other trips included Waterworld, West Midlands Safari Park, Tamworth Snowdome, Bolton Gates Riding School and Rudyard Lake.

To mark the end of the week, teachers, parents and partners of the school were invited to attend a Caribbean carnival organised by the students in partnership with Stoke Caribbean Centre.

The students also made costumes and masks for an All Around the World Parade. Patricia Ball, who deals with inclusion support at Birches Head Academy, introduced students to Caribbean dance routines.

Fourteen year old Ryan Minton and twelve year old Aphena Thompson showcased their newly developed Caribbean dance skills to the audience at the carnival.

“All the staff at Birches Head worked as hard as possible with the pupils to make the week memorable,” commented Karen Healey, head teacher at Birches Head Academy. “The objective of Out and About Week is to give the students the opportunity to experience things they wouldn’t usually have the opportunity to do.

“Last year’s theme was the Olympics, so this year we had to match its success. We chose to embrace a cultural theme,” explained Healey. “We invited in year six students from local schools to take part in the week and taught them, along with our own students, to cook Italian, Hungarian and Thai food.

“We believe that there are certain aspects of a child’s learning that must be developed through creative and physical activities, Out and About Week helps to achieve this,” concluded Healey.

Budding photographers snap up top prize

A team of amateur photographers from Birches Head High School have won first prize in the Rotary International Great Britain and Ireland’s (RIBI) Young Photographers competition. The winning portfolio came from a group of year nine and ten pupils who impressed the judges with their creativity and composition skills. 

Michael Johnson (15), Erkan Kose (15), Jake Lockett (16), Emily Haynes (16) and Lenena Gilbert (15), submitted their individual creations as part of a group portfolio. They took home the top prize for the Senior Category, age 14-17, in a ceremony that took place at the City of Stoke-On-Trent Sixth Form College.

RIBI the organizer of the Young Photographers competition is the association of Rotary clubs in England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, comprising 53,000 members. Rotary International forms a global network of business, professional and community leaders who volunteer their time and talents to serve communities locally and around the world.

Working in conjunction with teacher Daniel Jackson, the group of five students first learned the basics of photography and how to process their images.

"We took our inspiration from the mundane and simple, day to day objects around us," explained Michael Johnson, a year nine student at Birches Head High School. "We wanted to show that even ordinary things can be photographed beautifully if light, colour and the right angle is used," he finished.

The grand prize was £50 of Wimberley’s gift vouchers, which were used to buy arts and photography supplies.

“This competition has provided students with a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable artistic skills that may become more than a hobby in time,” said teacher Daniel Jackson after the event. “Photography competitions are ideal for those creative pupils that are also interested in technology. Mentoring the group and following their progress was an inspiring journey and, we'll definitely include photography classes in next year's curriculum.”

ICE Radio’s star turn at Birches Head High School

Students at Birches Head High School have created their own radio station with the help of local technology pioneers Bitjam. The Stoke-on-Trent school launched the station at a recent Brazilian themed open day, with the long term aim of broadcasting beyond the school to the wider local community. A sample of Ice Radio can be heard at www.spreaker.com/user/iceradiobhhs. 

As a result of the open day’s Brazilian theme, the magazine-style radio show, featured South American singing, dancing and drumming, as well as live animation projected onto a screen to create an environment for the music.

Bitjam helps schools, businesses and public sector organisations to deliver technology in innovative ways. The company teamed up with Birches Head’s students and staff to form a working team and get ICE Radio under way.

With 12 magazine style broadcasts already under its belt, Birches Head High School has now begun reaching out to other educational establishments in the community. Using TILT, a Co-operative Trust made up of five member groups of stakeholders, students at Birches Head plan to encourage institutions ranging from local primary schools to Staffordshire University to join ICE Radio’s listeners.

On the open day, Bitjam hosted an iPad DJ workshop and helped students run the radio station at the front of one of the classrooms. Birches Head’s young presenters took it in turns to co-host the show. Bitjam’s origins as a digital music collective, bringing together people at venues in the local Stoke area for iPad and laptop jam sessions, was put to good effect.

Founded by creative directors Ben McManus and Carl Plant, Bitjam helped Birches Head students run the open day and produced the broadcast, which was heard outside of the school by about 80 people in some 30 countries around the world.

ICE Radio is currently applying for a further round of funding to turn it into a regularly broadcasting station for the local community. To this end Birches Head High School’s ambition is to partner with other organisations in the region, having been emboldened by an OFSTED report which gave the school an ‘outstanding’ ranking for its ability to create partnerships with the community.

Bitjam and Birches Head High School have also recently worked together to open a hack lab at the school to improve its student’s computer skills and nurture their creativity. The lab aims to teach pupils how to hack into everyday technology, such as gaming equipment, and give the devices a new purpose.

In one project, students used a Nintendo Wii remote to emulate an interactive electronic white board. A future project is based on the idea of integrating an iPad into a reception table, so its touch screen functionality can be used to flip through documents while in a waiting room.

Birches Head Hack Lab helps students get STEM

Stoke-on-Trent's Birches Head High School has opened a hack lab to improve its student’s computer skills and nurture their creativity. The lab aims to teach pupils how to hack into everyday technology, such as gaming equipment, and give the devices a new purpose.

Part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) curriculum, the first project from the hack lab involves students using a Nintendo Wii remote to emulate an electronic white board.

The new classes have been getting the pupils creative juices flowing and the results have been truly astounding. A future project is based on the idea of integrating an iPad into a reception table, so its touch screen functionality can be used to flip through documents while in a waiting room.

"These kinds of activities give pupils the chance to learn on their own and question things around them," explained Sarah Williams, Assistant Vice Principal for Teaching at Birches Head High School and the initiator of the programme. "As students encounter problems it enables them to find creative technology solutions.

“In the case of the iPad coffee table, finding the right type of glass that would enable the touch screen functionality is proving to be quite a challenge," recalls Williams. “This is a genuine materials science question and a long way from the tradition of teaching STEM using egg boxes and straws!

“The pupils have taken to the hacking lab brilliantly,” enthused Karen Healey, Birches Head’s head teacher. “We want children to question technology and think deeply about the future of ICT. We want them to recognize that the pace of technological change is incredible and that they can be part of that," she explained.

The project has been launched in partnership with Stoke based creative technologies firm BitJam and has a three year vision of teaching STEM skills to the pupils at Birches Head. Given the interest and innovative results it has achieved, the school expects the Hacklab project to be extended.

There has even been talk of investing in a mobile hacking lab, which would give pupils at other schools in the local community the opportunity to experience the hacking lessons.

The sessions take place at lunch time and after school and the turnout is always high, which testifies to the children's interest in technology and questioning the traditional use of common devices.

Scalextric4schools puts students on track for engineering

A team of budding engineers from Birches Head High School are celebrating success in the 2013 Scalextric4schools competition. Year nine pupils Ryan Carter and Kris Starkey, both 14, fought off fierce competition from 13 rival teams to take the chequered flag in the prestigious competition. 

With entries from England, Scotland and as far afield as Russia, the event had a truly international flavour and saw the Stoke-on-Trent students emerge victorious.

Working in conjunction with teacher Simon Hooker, the technically minded student duo designed and manufactured their own race worthy Scalextric car, before presenting their project to a judging panel. 

Initially, a team of year nine pupils, all with an interest in engineering, began working on the project in September 2012 during an after-school club. 

Under the guidance of Mr Hooker, subject leader for technology, Ryan and Kris saw the project to fruition, culminating in the final event at RAF Cosford.

The competition was run in partnership with Scalextric manufacturer Hornby and software company PTC, who provided its CAD (Computer Aided Design) software, Creo, free of charge. 

The boys used the Creo software to create a concept car; they were then able to manufacture a foam prototype which was tested in a wind tunnel to assess the effect of environmental change on the car’s performance.

Once happy with their prototype, the Birches Head team called upon the services of Aston University. The team there helped move the project forward by allowing the pupils to use the University’s 3D printer to manufacture the parts required to build the car. With the build complete, the car underwent a track test that enabled the students to enhance their slot car driving skills.

The final of the Scalextrix4schools competition took place on Sunday June 16 at the RAF Cosford Museum, giving the young engineers an opportunity to showcase their designs. The Birches Head A-Team was the overall winner of the event, taking the podium for fastest lap.

“This competition has provided students with a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable extra-curricular skills,” commented teacher Simon Hooker after the event. “Ryan and Kris have demonstrated enthusiasm throughout the whole process and thoroughly deserve their win.”

The talented pupils are now hoping to build on their success by pursuing careers in engineering.