It has been great to see the sun this week, hopefully summer is finally arriving once it stops raining! The Year 11s and 12s are now on study leave and we all wish them well with their exams which are now in full flow. Year 13s start their study leave at half term. Students are expected to be in school for lessons in subjects in which they have not yet sat the examination. The school will continue to offer a full complement of revision sessions after school and during half term to continue to support the students at this crucial time. Details are included later in the bulletin. Please see our 15 Tips for succeeding on the day of the exam on the following pages. Last week’s assemblies were dedicated to raising the profile of Mental Health Awareness week. The assemblies were led by Year 10 students Jermaine Adae- Bosompra, Zoe Newton-Kisly and Maisha Khondkar, ably supported by Miss Williams. As part of the assembly they made a video, I attach the link, it is an excellent collaborative piece of work. Well done to all involved a very important message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtXdufJ7Bt4 Mr Banks and I have continued to interview for staff and we have had some high quality applicants. This week we have appointed an excellent MFL teacher, French/Spanish speaking, who will work alongside our new Head of MFL, Mr Melvin, who starts with us next week. Mr Melvin is an experienced teacher who is currently a Head of Spanish. We have made appointments in Science and will have high quality teachers in all three specialisms, Biology, Chemistry and Physics from September. Internally we have appointed Miss Williams to lead next year’s Y7. Mrs Mason our careers advisor has been taking groups of Year 10 students on an employability programme in London called SKILL! It is a one-day enterprise programme where students join forces with professionals from a range of corporate partners, together devising and pitching big ideas that tackle everyday problems. The aim is for students to grow in confidence whilst gaining exposure to the world of work (the workshop is hosted by one of our corporate partners) and building the skills which employers find attractive. Skills like problem-solving, creativity, communication and teamwork. This is an excellent opportunity for students and compliments their CV writing and preparation for work interviews. The results of the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge sat by some of our Year 7 and 8 students were released this week. The results are very positive with 44 of our students receiving a certificate placing them in the top 40% in the country! Four of those students received the Gold Certificate which places them in the top 6%! Special mention goes to Ewan Briggs who was awarded Best in School and Best in Year 8. Chloe Norwood and William Whitehall were awarded joint Best in Year 7. Many in our school community will know Mr Murray and will be delighted to hear that he has been appointed Deputy Mayor of Loughton for this civic year. Mr Murray has worked at Roding Valley High School for 36 years, he has always been an asset to the school and I am in no doubt he will be an amazing Deputy Mayor. We have been receiving a few complaints from local residents regarding the behaviour of a minority of our students in the evenings and early mornings around the local area. Parents are responsible for the actions and whereabouts of their children outside of normal school hours. Students should behave in a way that brings credit to our school on their journey to and from school and should not be out late into the evening in school uniform. I would hasten to add that the majority of our students are incredibly well behaved, polite and respectful but there are a handful who bring the school into disrepute. Where these individuals are known or identified I can assure you that there will be severe sanctions and we are liaising with the police / local community as appropriate. The school did issue a safety warning on Thursday as there have been reports of a man approaching youngsters in the area. A silver car has been stopping to ask for directions and then persuading people to get into his car. Please remind your sons/daughters to stick to all the usual routes to and from school and walk with friends where possible. Please agree a safety plan with your child and in the event of them feeling uncomfortable or scared, tell them to come back to school, contact yourselves or ring the police. Have a lovely fun, but safe, weekend. Mrs S Jenner Head of School
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