I issued a letter to parents earlier in the week about the need to represent the school in a positive light whilst on the journey to and from school and whilst wearing our uniform in the community after school hours. I cannot stress highly enough the importance to the school of students behaving properly whilst in our uniform. I have made it very clear to students that anyone whose behaviour outside of school whilst in our uniform falls below the standards we expect in this school then they will face very serious consequences. I would be grateful if you have not already discussed this matter with your child that you please do so. Congratulations to Francesca Cavadino (8R) who captained the Essex Ladies Under 13 Cricket side last week. Francesca also took part in a coaching session at Harlow Cricket Club last Friday with the Essex Side and they were coached by Darren Sammy (West Indies T20 Captain) and former internationals Herschelle Gibbs and Saqlain Mushtaq. There follows further in this bulletin a picture of Francesca with Darren Sammy. Also congratulations to everyone in the school community as we raised just under £1000 for the British Heat Foundation in our non-uniform day recently. I know that lots of parents, friends and students have been following the Team Zambia blog over the last week or so to follow the experiences of our staff and students who have been working with the Greater Joy School. I am genuinely humbled when I have been reading about the work our students are doing and reading about their experiences certainly puts a lot of things into perspective. I am so proud of our students and staff and the work they have done and they arrive back in the UK on Sunday morning. If you haven’t already done so and you are interested, you can follow the link to the blog: http://beyondrodingvalley.blogspot.co.uk/ We held interviews yesterday for the positions in our senior prefect team. The interview process was rigorous and every student who was interviewed did incredibly well and was a credit to the school. I am delighted to announce that our Head Boy next year will be Naru George (10X) and our Head Girl is Carina Sander (10V). Deputy Head Boys are Mitchell Scanlan (10W) and Mehdi Ajami (10T) and our Deputy Head Girls are Olivia Tinker (10S) and Alice Bonning (10Q). Well done to those who were selected and well done to everyone who was interviewed. Parents should also have received a letter regarding the school closure to students next Thursday (10th July) as a result of industrial action by a number of trade unions. I have spent the last few days exploring every possibility to try and keep the school open to some students but, in the end, the sheer number of staff taking part in this action has left me no choice but to close the school. I appreciate the inconvenience that this will cause parents, particularly as we are also closed on Monday as a result of the Tour de France. I hope parents will understand that we always try and keep the school open but both of these events are completely outside of my control. Just a reminder that the next Parents’ Forum is on Thursday 17th July at 6pm in the school. Also the last day of term, Tuesday 22nd July, is an early finish and students will be dismissed from 12.20pm. I wish you all a good weekend. Paul Banks Headteacher
You can follow us at www.rodingvalley.net , on Facebook at the ‘Roding Valley High School Official’ page or on Twitter (@RodingValleyHS). You can also sign up to our free electronic media release service at rodingvalleymedia@gmail.com