The School Birthday
The "School Birthday" is celebrated annually around 29 September. On this day, former students of the school (called "Old Girls") visit and a marquee is erected on the back terrace. During the morning there is an assembly, attended by the whole school as well as visitors where the Silver Badges read speeches on a topic of their choice. In 2009, this topic was "Notable Women in History", whilst in 2010 the topic was, "New Beginnings". A cake competition is held, where students can enter cakes for one of four categories: Junior Novelty, Senior Novelty, Junior Traditional and Senior Traditional. The cakes are judged during morning breaktime and the winners announced.
Periods 3 and 4 take place as normal, although are usually considered 'fun' lessons, after which pupils return to their form rooms to do fun activities with their form prefects (Year 13s). After lunch, each year is allowed to wear non-uniform and does a separate year activity — aided by Year 12s. The activities are:
- Year 7: Outdoor Cooking or The British Heart Foundation Skipping Challenge (2009) — Year 7 use gas cookers and cook on the tennis courts or in the Greek Theatre. Members of the sixth-form help with the cooking. If it is raining, the cooking takes place under the School Birthday marquee or science labs. After 2010, instead of outdoor cooking, the task was changed to "Year 7 Fitness Challenge" as cooking posed a health and safety risk. However in 2011, the pupils in year 7 will once again cook.
- Year 8: Murder Mystery — filmed by the Silver badges, each year tells a different story in which one teacher is killed by another. The Year 8s must travel around the school collecting clues from the Year 12s which point towards the identity of the killer. Once the activity is over, they hand in their choice of murderer and the motive before watching the end of the recording - which finally reveals the murderer.
- Year 9: The Woodford Challenge takes place on the field. Year 9s travel around the field doing quizzes and puzzles.
- Year 10: Bowling
Read more about this topic: Woodford County High School (London)
Famous quotes containing the words school and/or birthday:
“Dad, if you really want to know what happened in school, then you’ve got to know exactly who’s in the class, who rides the bus, what project they’re working on in science, and how your child felt that morning.... Without these facts at your fingertips, all you can really think to say is “So how was school today?” And you’ve got to be prepared for the inevitable answer—”Fine.” Which will probably leave you wishing that you’d never asked.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)
“Since mothers are more likely to take children to their activities—the playground, ballet or karate class, birthday parties—they get a chance to see other children in action.... Fathers usually don’t spend as much time with other people’s kids; because of this, they have a narrower view of what constitutes “normal” behavior, and therefore what should or shouldn’t require parental discipline.”
—Ron Taffel (20th century)