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.

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.