Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

Newsletter

Roding Valley High School

March 2014

Roding Valley High School teacher receives Lifetime Achievement award in Essex Teaching Awards

A long-serving teacher at Roding Valley High School in Loughton has received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Essex Teaching Award 2014.

Stephen Murray was among those honoured at the inaugural awards presented at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School at Anglia Ruskin University.

Mr Murray said: “I am absolutely thrilled by this award and would like to thank the school for nominating me.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my 32 years teaching in the Epping Forest

area and have had the privilege of working with excellent students, colleagues and parents.

“Teaching is a hard, full-on job but each day is different, nearly always enjoyable and each day usually has its own moment of magic.”

Headteacher Paul Banks said: “Stephen’s contribution to the school and the local community is amazing

and he thoroughly deserves this award.

“There are thousands and thousands of children in the Loughton and Epping Forest area who have been taught by Stephen over the years and this award recognises his dedicated service to these students and the community.

Alderton Hill, Loughton, Essex IG10 3JA t: 020 8508 1173 e: office@rodingvalley.net www.rodingvalley.net

continued overleaf...

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...continued from page 1 “I can think of no better person to receive this award.”

Mr Murray was one of four Essex teachers to receive a Lifetime Achievement award.

All the winners will now be entered into the National Teaching Awards run by Pearson.

The Essex Teaching Awards were open for nominations during October and November. More than 100 nominations were received from headteachers, governing bodies and students.

School celebrates the arts with showcase evening Roding Valley High School celebrated the ‘arts’ in KS3 when students from years 7, 8 and 9 either exhibited their Art and Expressive Arts work or performed music, drama and dance.

The evening (Tuesday, February 11) was a sell-out and the work produced was of a very high standard.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening where the visual and performing arts came together to celebrate the work and effort of the younger students.

The Creative Arts team are extremely proud of the students who participated and it demonstrated the true value of arts subjects in education.

Year 9 student Matthew Tinker said: “My heart was racing underneath the bright lights. The crowd’s applause overwhelmed me and it was such a buzz. It was also amazing to see the talent from other year groups.”

Year 7 student Eva Randall said: “The production was really fun to perform. I think everyone did really well and that the audience were very impressed!

“Roding Valley’s Creative Arts faculty has helped me a lot this year. The hard work paid off and considering most of the performers were aged under 14, I think Roding Valley have put on a great performance.”

Headteacher Paul Banks said: “The standard of Expressive Arts work on display was also superb and every single student involved should be incredibly proud of their efforts.”

Former Roding Valley High School student through to the next stage of BBC talent show ‘The Voice’ Luciee Closier, who left Roding Valley High School last year, was picked by Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson in the last of the ‘blind auditions’ to be part of ‘Team Ricky’ in the next stage of the competition.

Students on stage Violinist Vivian Lee

As a student at Roding Valley, Luciee regularly performed at school concerts, school shows, performances and Open Evenings.

Headteacher Paul Banks said: “Luciee is such a talented performer and we are thrilled for her.“I really hope that her performance on ‘The Voice’ will be the first step towards a very successful career and, on behalf of everyone at Roding Valley, wish Lucy every success.”

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

Below: Students perform the Pirates

Top Chefs visit Roding Valley High School On 17th January, the Food Technology Department at Roding Valley High School, hosted workshops for Year 9, 10 and 11 students.

Roding Valley High School presented with Epping Forest Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition cup Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing returned to Roding Valley High School to present the Epping Forest Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition Cup which the school retained.

Mirna Shiekha, 15, and Laura Barritt, 16, who were the school’s speakers at the competition held last November, received individual cups from Mrs Laing who also presented the trophy and certificates to all members of the school’s debating team.

Seven schools took part in the competition which was held at Roding Valley High School as the cup holders.

Mrs Laing said: “Once again there was a very high standard and I commended everyone on the hard work that all of the teams put into their speeches.

“It is great to have such enthusiasm in our local schools for the art of debating and I know that these young people are going to go from strength to strength.”

Headteacher Paul Banks said: “’This is a fantastic achievement for the school as we have now won this event three times in the last four years.

The sessions were provided by two chefs from SODEXO Quality of Life Services. The sessions involved the chefs demonstrating how to portion a whole chicken and then use it to make a delicious chasseur dish. They also demonstrated vegetable cutting techniques and showed the students how to make chocolate decorations to use for garnishing. The Year 10 and 11 students were able to try their hands at making their own chocolate decorations and then use them to garnish a dessert.

It was a very interesting and rewarding day for all concerned and we should like to extend our thanks to the chefs from SODEXO who gave up their time to provide this opportunity for the students.

“I believe that the skills developed by debating are essential for young people to learn and I am very proud that we have established a successful programme of debating at the school.

“I would like to thank Ms Kyriakou for all her hard work in promoting debating across the school and Mr Murray in organising last year’s debate which was held at the school.

“I would also like to thank Eleanor Laing MP for her continued support of all the schools in the Epping Forest area.

The other schools taking part were Epping St John’s School (runners-up), West Hatch High School, Davenant Foundation School, Braeside School, Debden Park High School and Chigwell School.

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Charlie and The Chocolate Factory Review

By Eva-Joanna Randall and Claudia Mills On 11th of December 2013, the majority of Year 7 went on a school trip to see the newest hit in the West End; ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- the musical’ in the Theatre Royal.

Upon arriving, we were all shocked by the majestic interior design of the theatre, and even though the performance was yet to start, the stage decoration looked incredible!

After settling down in our seats, the lights dimmed and the orchestra started to play…

The show had started and everybody was already intrigued about the unfortunate life of Charlie Bucket, played by Troy Tipple. Along with many heartfelt songs and comedic

scenes, Roald Dahl’s tale came alive on stage.

Willy Wonka, played by Douglas Hodge, brought us into the magical world of the chocolate factory, where we were introduced to many insane inventions, such as the everlasting gobstopper, the glass elevator, and of course the well-known OompaLoompas!

For us, the stand out performance of the night was ‘Pure Imagination’, sung

by Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket.

In the scene, they were both stood in a glass elevator which appeared as if it was flying through a starry night sky. Not only was this a magical performance, but the vocals were also outstanding.

Rich, dark, but not too sweet, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory truly is a scrumptious treat for all the family, so go and get your own golden ticket now!

Year 9 Life Skills Group Raising money for our chosen charity (Cancer Research) On Friday 24th January 2014 six students who attend the Life Skills group made fairy cakes and decorated them. They sold the cakes to students and staff at break time and lunchtime.

d Thomas Sugg 9U Minty Holmes 9W an d tech room and I “We borrowed the foo the cakes.” really enjoyed making

The students had to calculate costs and profit during the previous lessons.

Students also made posters to advertise the event around school and raised nearly £30.

Here are some comments from the students involved.

Charlotte Garvey 9R es in the “We were selling the cak outside m the d sol hub. Some of us king and ma ed joy en lly rea I b. the hu selling them.”

Demi Braxton 9T “I enjoyed selling the cakes and would love to do it again.”

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

Freddie Morrell 9X “We made posters and put them up around school. I enjoyed selling the cakes to people.”

Shyla McDon ald 9V “We did it to he lp our charity. part was mak ing the cakes The fun and icing and decoratin g them.”

Epping Forest Youth Council Elections On Thursday 13th March, the school hall was converted into a polling station with polling booths and an official ballot box, ready for the whole school to come down to vote for Roding Valley High School’s two Youth Council representatives for the Epping Forest Youth Council.

Carina Sander and Olivia Tinker currently in Year 10 have represented Roding Valley for the past 2 years, making a significant contribution to the decisions that affect young people in the Epping Forest area. Their time in office has now come to an end and two new candidates will be elected following the count of votes made by our students.

The 6 students who put themselves forward for election are Natalie Walker, Amber Wigley, Matthew Tinker, Jake Forecast, Doncho Atanassov and Drew Lachman. Each candidate ran a campaign in the lead up to the election, battling each other for votes. They each presented their manifestos in assembly, outlining why they should be elected onto the Youth Council.

I am extremely proud of the 6 students, they conducted themselves maturely and professionally throughout the campaign and it is a shame that they can’t all have a seat on the Youth Council; it is really difficult to choose between them.

Every student in the school was given the opportunity to vote, which was an excellent experience for our students. It was set up as close to an actual election as possible, so students could experience what it is Iike to vote in an election.

We will find out who our representatives are in 10 days time.

Good luck to all 6 of them!

Brilliant Club On Friday February 28th twelve Year 10 students attended a lecture at the University of Sussex as part of the Brilliant Club. The lesson was given by Dr. Philip Peters and as part of a lecture series to introduce students to University current research and study.

The day began with a lecture followed by a tour of the University and then lunch. The day finished with a group meeting to explain to the students what the Brilliant Club is all about and their expectations.

The club hopes to: (i) Provide an academic challenge that takes them above and beyond their current key stage, (ii) Develop a range of core academic skills, (iii) Model how to become independent learners, and (iv) Broaden horizons about what excellent learning is.

Our next meeting is 7th March when we will get our second lecture and start our science challenge.

p of sixteen Year 11 For the past few months, a grou in order to support students have been fundraising charity Roding Valley bian Zam the es, Beyond Ourselv have joined with. taking place throughout There have been numerous events place every Friday take s the past few months; cake sale e week, a variety of lunchtime and throughout fair trad offer, alongside the on were ds delicious fair trade goo profits going towards all with ds, tban wris bia’ Zam m ‘Tea day 4th March, Tues On bia.

Zam in ect the ongoing proj many amazing with , show t Year 7 participated in a talen to instrumentalists, ers rlead chee from ing rang ers perform support and with their whole year group showing Beyond Ourselves the encouragement for their peers and period, funny cards and project. Throughout the Valentines petition were available com r’ bea the a ‘guess the name of ed a very successful prov to students and teachers, which g events in omin upc y man still are re fundraiser. The Olive Tree’ ‘The n’s ghto Lou process, such as a meal at ents performing. stud ic mus E GCS 11 Year of p grou with a hard to raise money The students have all been working new ideas for and and are constantly inventing fun y. enjo will yone ever that fundraisers

We had a great day out, we are now looking forward to the lectures at Roding Valley and the follow up trip in April to London.

Barbara Jeans Science Teacher

Katie Scott Year 11 Student

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World Book Day Report by Olivia Tinkler

On 6th March, Roding Valley celebrated World Book Day in style. Teachers dressed up as favourite characters from books (English came as a collection of different literary detectives and Maths spent the day as Where’s Wally!).

Activities were run in the hall during lunchtime including a book swap, word games and a Library Quiz. A live Twitter feed ran throughout the day with students tweeting their 140 character book reviews and commenting on the day in general.

From the tweets, it was clear to see that everyone was having a really great time. #RVHSbookday was certainly trending on Twitter in school that day.

Some students took part in filming the World Book Day activities along with other students from across the school. We interviewed teachers about their favourite books, childhood authors and of course... their costumes. The films showed students taking part in World Book Day themed lessons. We also filmed the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ initiative. At 10:30am a bell was rung and lessons were abandoned in favour of reading for thirty minutes. This took place throughout the

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school regardless of the lesson you were in. It showed us that reading is not just for English, but a whole school activity.

Spot the Differe nce

The short films were later edited and uploaded to the Roding Valley Youtube channel.

World Book Day was a fun and engaging day enjoyed by everyone.

Most importantly it got us all reading.

DEAR - Drop Everything And Read by Laura Barritt During Period 2 on Friday 7th March, the bell rang halfway through the lesson. The huge importance of World Book Day, meant that the school decided we should take a break from our normal lesson so we could read our books. Beforehand some of the English teachers visited every classroom dressed as a character from a favourite book.

This really helped to get us into the spirit. It was an excellent lesson, lots of fun and really exhilarating to read for half an hour. It was great just to enjoy a book and relax for 30 minutes. For 30 minutes it was like the whole school was quiet and we were all escaping into our own little world.

Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

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We were entertained with footage from the World Book Day celebration which showed interviews, tweets and pictures of students and staff enjoying the fun at school on the day.

Year 10 students shared their experience of the Carnegie Shadowing project and demonstrated the use of the website.

They also presented their very successful Murder Mystery Evening which will be held again in the summer term.

Mrs Martin made a really informative presentation about the Accelerated reader, a reading project that we have been using for two years now and which has had an amazing impact on reading levels in the school. Despite the practice students were still nervous, but had a lot of fun performing in front of the parents and the preparation backstage!

On Tuesday 17th of March Roding Valley held an English evening open for all students from year 7-11 and their families.

There was a range of performances consisting of some amusing and clever Year 7 poetry readings, fascinating debate speeches from the Year 11’s and interesting Year 10 monologues. It was also an opportunity to congratulate students on their achievements with the awarding of the Year 7 accelerated reader awards and progress awards. The Year 8 section of the evening was particularly entertaining as students performed their very own version of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White in just 8 minutes.

The evening, hosted by Laura Barritt, Mirna Sheika and Callum Smyth, was an overwhelming success and it was great to get an insight of what everyone else was doing in English. Looking forward to next year already!

Georgia Maginn and Lorelei Booth

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Anti-Bullying Week Hello, we are ‘The Anti-Bullying Mentors’ and we help people who are getting bullied. Lower School Head of Year can e-mail the bullying problem to us and we get straight to work in helping the student with their problem. We have introduced ourselves in all year group assemblies so that the students know who we are and can approach us if they have a problem.

In the week beginning the 18th November it was AntiBullying Week. This year, the ‘Anti-Bullying Mentors’ have raised money for a charity called Kidscape, a charity which is keeping children safe from harm.

Kidscape is the first charity in the UK established specifically to prevent bullying and child sexual abuse.

Kidscape believes that protecting children from harm is key.

Over the week we organised cake sales and also led assemblies for Years 7-10 about Kidscape and also who students can speak to if they have a problem. Our cakes almost sold out and we raised £44.01. Thank you for your support and we hope we do another charity next year! In our assembly, we did a short drama presentation about cyber bullying. Phoebe Kemp, Laura Barratt, Molly Sparks, Chloe Bond and Matty Noble were the characters and performed an excellent piece of drama.

We will continue to work hard to support the message of anti bullying across the school and help students wherever we can.

Jake Forecast, Ellouise Lemon and Chloe Bond

“Bin and Gone” We are Year 11 students, and within our Citizenship lessons we have been studying the issue of recycling. Our group has noticed a recurring theme within the recycling system in the school, so have decided to take advantage of our position within the school to make a difference.

Over the past few years, recycling has become an increasing issue. The majority of homes recycle regularly, so I won’t tell you anything you already know.

However, it’s becoming apparent that many students in our school don’t recycle properly, preferring to put their rubbish in whatever bin is closer to them, or even to just leave it on the floor for our custodians to clean up (which is clearly a concern to the health of any wildlife around the area, mostly the main playground).

During an interview with our school’s site manager, Simon Hearn, we discovered that if more students in the school recycled, it would save our school important funding which could be spent to better the standard of learning materials and thereby further improve the school’s appearance. He made us aware that “there are two bins for bottle recycling to try and encourage people, but they are not full every day, when they should be full after break and again after lunch, but students are not using them”, which, for us, put the current state of recycling in our school into perspective.

We have recently put in place several recycling facilities around the school- including different bins for different materials around the playground, recycling bins in classrooms, and various assemblies on the issue.

Despite this, we feel the issue hasn’t been resolved.

Therefore, we have decided that it would be a good idea to encourage students to use the facilities they have been provided with, which, with your cooperation, would strengthen the effect which our fellow classmates’ actions has had on the lower years.

We feel strongly about this topic, and would appreciate your cooperation at home, which would thereby (hopefully) affect the quality of our school positively.

Adrienne Morris (Student) 11X Prefect

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

Roding Valley High School Careers Fest January 2014 Over 1,400 students and their families turned out to attend our annual Careers Festival held at Epping Forest College, Borders Lane, Loughton, to explore the different fields in work, education and training schemes that might be of interest to them.

The event, now in its fifth year, was organised by Mrs Mason along with the six Epping Forest District Secondary School Careers Advisors to provide students with a chance to view the different opportunities that are available to them during and post-education.

Parents and carers were also provided with new information and a huge insight into possible career opportunities for their children.

Along with the students from Roding Valley the event was attended by Year 9 through to Year 13 students and their families from the six Epping Forest District secondary schools including: King Harold Business and Science Academy, St Johns School, West Hatch High School, Debden Park High School, Davenant Foundation and Epping Forest College.

The event was attended by over 80 exhibitors who provided information and encouragement including local and national employers from private and

public sector organisations, universities and colleges. The University of East London remarked: “There were lots of interested young people and parents, asking lots of mature and relevant questions. A very good event - thank you!”

Companies that were represented at Careers Fest included Sainsburys, Barclays Bank, Future-talent and Solicitors Foskett Marr Gadsby and Head. The feedback from the exhibitors was also largely positive; the representatives from Lambourne End Centre for Outdoor Learning commented that Careers Fest was “…an excellent idea…we have attended similar events but for individual schools which weren’t as effective. It felt worthwhile and time well spent.” The event was also warmly appreciated by visitors. When asked how much the event helped plan for the future, over 75% of respondents said that it had been useful or very useful, and over 80% said that it was enjoyable.

Mrs Mason, the Careers Advisor at Roding, said: “It is our duty to provide information for the students and help them fulfil their ambitions. Some exhibitors were offering apprenticeships and taster courses. Personally, I hope every student, parent and carer who attended the Careers Fest benefited from the variety of exhibitors that we have provided for them and I hope that they have obtained a better vision of their futures.”

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West Essex Primary Athletics Final held at Roding Valley High School

Mathematics Mastery ‘It’s not about the levels, it’s about the understanding – having a Growth Mindset’ Our journey with the Year 7 students is half a year old. Mathematics Mastery, which has its roots in Singapore Maths, has given us all a fresh new perspective into Teaching and Learning Mathematics. Having been accepted on the programme run by the Ark Academy Group, RVHS has moved ahead by changing the way we deliver the subject to the Year 7 students primarily, although the teaching methods are being used in the older Year groups as well.

The main principles of Mathematics Mastery are; 1. Language development – by encouraging good written and verbal communication 2. Mathematical Thinking – by improving the learning of key mathematical ideas and processes 3. Deep Understanding – by making connections with previous learning, by applying concepts and researching information 4. Differentiation and Mastery for All – through mastery of key concepts by differentiation through depth, language development and mathematical thinking.

It is commonplace to see the use of manipulatives in the class, eg. Cuisenaire rods, bead strings, coloured counters and bar modelling tools. Students have engaged brilliantly with this new way of teaching and learning and teachers are already finding that students are developing into more resilient problem solvers.

Onwards and upwards we go.

Kumers Naidoo AST Mathematics

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter March 2014

The winners of each of the qualifying rounds met here on Friday 7th March to battle it out to become the overall WESSA Sports Hall Athletics Champion. Seven primary schools from the WESSA district competed in what was a closely run event. Hereward, Whitebridge, St Johns CE, Lambourne, Alderton, Chipping Ongar & Epping Primary were the schools involved.

Congratulations to St Johns CE Primary School who were the eventual champions (for the second year running). They will now go and represent the West Essex district in the county finals in Southend. Congratulations to everyone involved for their participation and effort levels, it was a fantastic event to be part of and a privilege to host.

Finally, well done and thank you our Year 9 pupils who helped lead and officiate the event and did so efficiently and maturely.

Luke Jones PE

Jack Petchey Award Katie Henderson February 2014 Katie was nominated for delivering a speech in assembly about the dangers of using mobile phones on the tube. She warned all the students to be more aware of their surroundings and Katie was incredibly brave and courageous to do so.

Laura Barritt Y11 Laura was nominated for being a fantastic student who has taken on an extra GCSE (PE) and truly showed what independent learning is, by getting top marks in her mock exam and practical grades.

Laura also helps out at Netball Club, coaching and umpiring and of course playing for the U16 squad.

Recently Laura has helped a young student in Year 9 to cope with school pressures.

Year 10 Health and Social Care heads to Anglia Ruskin University!

By Kayleigh Harman

On Tuesday 25th February, the Year 10 Health and Social Care visited Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford. It was a jam packed day, full of interesting activities which gave us an opportunity to find out more about health and social care at degree level and also an insight in to university life.

students in year 10 are keen to follow this career path so this was really worthwhile.

We even got to see a practice dummy being used in a labour scenario.

In the morning session, we were introduced to John, a senior lecturer at the university. He shared with us some of his stories about how he became a nurse and also told us about some of the difficult situations he had to work in. John then showed us how to do CPR on patients.

This was no ordinary CPR training; we got to do heart compressions along to music. We then got to see how to restart a patient’s heart using a defibrillator. After we all confident in doing CPR, John and the student nurse showed us to check our blood pressure. We then had a really interesting talk on midwifery; some of the

After lunch we all went to the surgery practice room, it was like a scene out of the TV programme “Casualty”. Lots of year 10 students were allowed to dress up in “scrubs” – also known as surgery clothing: blue body aprons, white mouth masks, hair nets and white rubber gloves.

The girls enjoyed dressing up and using the equipment!

For lunch we were invited to eat with the university students, they were really friendly and were happy to answer our questions.

A great day was had by all of the students in this group. We had lots of fun and learnt lots of really important information as well as some really useful skills that might help out in an emergency.

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‘Rainbow Fun’ There is a big transition for students from primary to secondary school. On Tuesday 28th January, the students from primary school (Year 5) visited the Science department for taster session to have some ‘Rainbow fun’.

Staff from science including Mr. McManners, Ms. Jeans, Mr. McNally and Mr. Ryan helped budding scientists to explore science fun. Students were fascinated with the experiments which included flame test, thermite reaction, flaming hands and making rainbows using acids and alkalis. They tried their hands on experiments under careful observation. I am sure they all had lots of fun and will be looking forward to starting their secondary school in September 2015.

Prison! Me! No Way! Year 10 students recently experienced a Crime and Safety Awareness Day entitled PRISON! ME! NO WAY! This involved a series of workshops throughout the day covering prisons, prisoner insight, knife crime, anti social behaviour and railway safety.

The day was not only informative but challenged our students to think carefully about the possible consequences of poor decision making.

Miles Ahmed: “the prisoner insight really stood out for me as they were real people sharing their life stories.”

“I particularly enjoyed the street scene activity as it was very interactive and fun to watch” - Billie-Lou Sargeant Austin Bradley: “I really liked the prisoner insight workshop as it showed us the truth about prison and they inspired all of us to stay on the right path of education.”

“The prison workshop was useful as it made us think about how valuable our freedom is” - Isabella Newman “This is the second year the Prison! Me! No Way! team have challenged and inspired our Year 10’s and the pupil feedback has been amazingly positive” - Stephen Murray (Year 10 Form Tutor)

Students follow us @RVHSTeam will be tweeting top tips, reminders, links and guidance for our students - everything from delays on the Central Line in the morning to revision tips and links for their GCSE’s.

SPORTSMARK

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Alderton Hill, Loughton, Essex IG10 3JA t: 020 8508 1173 e: office@rodingvalley.net www.rodingvalley.net