Roding Valley High School newsletter December 2016

Newsletter

Roding Valley H i g h S c hool

December 2016

Aspiring to greatness...

This has been an extremely busy term at Roding Valley High School and I feel that it has been an incredibly positive time. I am delighted that our burgeoning Sixth Form is in such fine fettle with so many Year 12 students enjoying the challenges that A Levels bring. The fact that we were able to recruit so many of our highest achieving GCSE students was a tremendous boost for the school and I am looking forward to this cohort achieving some outstanding grades in the future. The Sixth Form Study Centre is a hive of activity as students complete their private study and prepare for their lessons under the supervision of staff. It is also a place where our Year 13s have been working on their university applications and it has been incredibly exciting to hear about the offers that individuals have already received. The fact that some of our students have interviews coming up at Oxford and Cambridge is wonderful and many others have applied to the Russell Group Universities so we wish them all every success.

We have held two highly successful Open Evenings this term; one for Year 6 into Year 7 Transition and one for our prospective Sixth Formers. It was fantastic to see so many parents and students attending these events and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to so many people who were interested in Roding Valley High School. The fact that these individuals were extolling the virtues of the school and were so keen to get their sons and daughters into the school suggests that we are heading in the right direction. I have made it clear that my Vision for the school is to ensure that Roding Valley is the school of choice for students, parents and staff in the

local area and beyond. If we all continue to work hard towards this goal I am confident that we can get there.

I would like to sum up by quoting Matthew Tinker who spoke so eloquently at the Sixth Form Open Evening.

He spoke about his reasons for staying on at the school to do his A Levels as he felt incredibly well supported and felt this was the best place for him to learn.

He finished by saying that “Roding Valley isn’t just a school, it is home”.

Mr J Luck Headteacher

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

01

Flashback to Results Day: Summer 2016

02

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Teaching and Learning at RVHS Learning Matters

to the Top It has been a very positive start to the academic year. We have shared with staff that the main priority for the school this year is to further develop the quality of teaching and learning across the range of subjects. From a detailed analysis of student outcomes it is clear that our most able students need to be challenged more rigorously if they are to achieve the very highest grades.

With this in mind we have introduced the “Teach To The Top” mantra (TTTT) whereby every teacher in every lesson is focused on stretching the most able students and scaffolding the teaching so that all other students can access it. It has already been shown that this has had an impact on rates of progress and from student feedback it is clear that our most able students, as well as middle and lower ability students, have recognised a rise in the challenge of lessons. This has also been evident in the recent lesson observations that have been conducted by Senior Leaders and Heads of Faculty.

Twilight INSET: 01 November 2016 was facilitated by Mark Martin Check twitter @urban teacher

An enjoyable and interactive Twilight session was run by Mark Martin, aka Urban Teacher.

He took staff through his teaching routine that has been embraced by many educators around the world.

The main outcome of session was to help teachers understand that routine to their lessons affect progression and attainment and ways in which to adapt routines to ‘Teach to the Top’ – our Teaching and Learning Mantra at Roding Valley High School.

K. Naidoo Teaching and Learning

03

Teaching and Learning at RVHS

500 Words Competition In February 2016, Year 7 students at Roding Valley High School had the chance to enter the Chris Evans ‘500 Words’ short story competition, one of the most successful story-writing competitions for children in the world. Students planned and independently wrote their own stories over the course of 3 weeks, resulting in a lot of creativity!

One Year 7 student, Jenny Lycett made it through to the next round of judging, with her quirky story ‘Brave Barbara’ about a superhero granny. The competition received over 123,400 entries and Jenny’s story was picked - as one of just 4,500 - to go to the Reading Agency for the second round of judging.

Congratulations to Jenny Lycett for making it through to the second round of 500 WORDS and keep on writing!

Miss Hanlon Teacher of English

Brave Barbara!

Hi, I’m Barbara. I’m your average granny. You know...wrinkly crin kly skin, grape green skirts, electric blue cardi. You name it I’ve got it! The re is one thing that separates me from the rest though...I’m a superhero!

Barbara Brooks by day Brave Barbara by night!

I’ve been doing this for a while now , so I’ve got quite a few stories up my knitted jumper sleeve!

One morning I sat in my ancient chair-passed down for generations - and gazed out at the incessant rain slipping down the window like a child on ice for the first time. “A great day for a fete!”

I murmured to myself. Suddenly, I jumped out of my chair with a start. “THE CAKE!” I shouted to nobody. I was supposed to collect it from the vicar you see.

Once I got to the vicarage, I knoc ked on the heavy oak door. It ope ned, followed by a “come on in,” and I looked arou nd his house in awe. It was the tidie st, nicest smelling, grandest house I had ever seen (even better than min e). He took me into the kitchen, where on a porc elain white cake stand stood the prize cake: Gooey peanut butter topping, crus hed peanut sprinkles, peanut butt er essence and oozing melted chocolate flow ing down the cake like a stream.

Proudly, the vicar told me it was for the “guess the weight of the cake ” competition. Without warning, my brolly handle started to glow a myr iad of luminescent colours! I bent down, my back only clicking once this time , and opened up the magical umbrella ...pervading from the center, a holo gram!

It showed that the boy who won the competition was allergic to nuts and when he won he would have an ana phylactic shock. “Oh dear, oh dea r,” I muttered to the vicar “What, is there a problem with my cake?”

“Sort of.”

“Well, what is it?”

“The boy who is exceptionally goo d at guessing cake weight is aller gic to nuts!”

“Oh dear, oh dear indeed! What will we do?” We decided we could save the peanut knickerbocker glory for later and whip up a new marvel!

Unfortunately, there were only ten minutes until the fete and the ‘gue ss the weight of the cake’ competition was up first! “We don’t have time to make another cake,” wept the vica r.

“Yes we do, I can use my superpo wers and make an even better one with no nuts at all!”

So that’s what I did and with a BIN G, BANG, BONG the nut cake vanished and in its place, on the porcelain white cake stand, stoo d a glorious chocolate wonder! “Qu ick, let’s get it down to the fete,” emphasised the vicar. And so we did, just in time for the cake competition. The boy won and than ks to my superpowers he did not have an anaphylactic shock!

I hope you enjoyed my story, may be (if you’re good) you can hear another one next time.

Jenny Lycett

04

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Teaching and Learning at RVHS

Othello Lecture Day The Othello Lecture Day was both insightful and a great experience that reinforced everything that has been learnt in class thus far. The day provided some original and noteworthy interpretations on Othello, from lectures such as ‘Trust and Betrayal, The Role of Women’, to ‘Racial Otherness’.

Every lecturer tackled a different topic and in my opinion they were brief but filled with ideas. I feel that was imperative in making sure the day was neither tedious nor repetitive. I found the day as a whole incredibly helpful in furthering my understanding of the play’s context and critical views of Shakespeare.

Furthermore, the entire experience gave a valuable insight into what university lectures would be like.

Had I the chance, I would be more than enthused to attend again – to absorb yet more ideas.

Jessica Galloway – Year 12also we will be

Accelerated Reader Years 7 and 8 have made an incredible start to their Accelerated Reader challenge – to reach one million words read. Already several students have smashed the challenge before Christmas. ☺ The record breakers in Year 7 are: Madeleine Leach, Ethan Campbell, Chloe Norwood, Joshua Swinson, Leya Hines with Harriet Tate, reaching over two million words and Oscar Woolard who currently stands at a staggering total of over three million words read.

In year 8 Emilie Buckley, Elysia Filaitis and Finley Dickson are currently over one million words read.

These students have set the bar very high for both of the year groups. With several months left to catch them, the challenge is on. Congratulations to all our millionaires and come on the rest of Years 7 and 8, don’t miss out on the opportunities to win prizes and get on the rewards trip. GET READING. Mrs L. Routledge Head of English

05

Teaching and Learning at RVHS

UKMT Senior Team Maths Challenge: 16 November 2016 Caprice Foster (Year 13), Sophie Humphreys (Year 13), Chloe Humphries (Year 12) and Lauren Humphries (Year 12) braved the Central Line and travelled to Queen Elizabeth University near Mile End to take part in the Regional Finals for the Senior Maths Challenge. We were one of 37 schools taking part and the team were given several Maths problems to solve. They started with “10 Questions” and although the questions were difficult, we displayed grit and resilience and survived the first round.

The second round was a “cross number” with horizontal and vertical clues and the girls solved them in pairs. One pair using answers from the other to gain clues and using them to solve their own questions.

The final round was a “relay” and answers were used as input for next questions.

We managed one bonus point for quick

problem solving skills and had lots of fun tackling the tougher questions.

We are looking forward to 2017 and will know what to expect in the next Regional Competition.

Mrs E. Vermaak

Primary School Maths and Science Visit: 17 November 2016 On Thursday 17th November we had the privilege to welcome 28 Year 5 students from Alderton Primary School to the Mathematics and Science departments. They started with a Smarties activity and produced a tally / frequency diagram and even a colourful bar chart.

The highlight was eating the Smarties!

After a quick visit to the Canteen, they walked over to the Science department and were entertained by the Science Technicians – releasing the genie in a bottle / mixing “stuff” / making jelly babies cry and trying to build our own helium air balloons…

It was a very entertaining day and we are looking forward to the next Primary School visit in January 2017.

Mrs E. Vermaak

Art in Action Students sat a 6 hour exam on Tuesday 29 November. The large images created were based upon the theme of ‘Human Forms’ and each student has created a personal response based on their own investigations throughout the term.

Our next phase of study is from January, when the final GCSE papers are released and students prepare for their final exam in April.

Mr D. Tisdale Head of Art

06

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Teaching and Learning at RVHS

Cipher Challenge 2016: Fighting Gravity The Cipher Challenge is back, and so are Harry and Charlie! But this time it is different. Harry has been called back to help crack difficult ciphers to try to solve the mystery of the murder of young scientist, Jamelia, who worked on research into gravitational waves. But who would want to kill her and why?

Throughout the past two months Ella and I have been working in a team helping Harry decipher the codes and trying to solve Jamelia’s murder. It is a race as we are competing with other teams trying to crack the codes as quickly as possible to score maximum points. For each challenge, the message is encrypted in a different way with the difficulty increasing every time. Some challenges appear to be nothing more than random letters grouped in blocks of five so that the size of the individual words cannot be seen, which we must decode with few clues.

Decoding these Ciphers have helped Ella and I improve our computer programming skills as we have been using PYTHON (a computer programming language) to make decoding these codes easier.

This year there are 4 teams at Roding Valley taking part, a team in Year 7 and 8 and of course our rivals the Maths Staff with whom we are currently ranked

joint number 1! These teams have been meeting after school on Thursdays when the challenge first comes out to see if we can crack the codes together by sharing ideas and learning the skills needed to break the codes. The last two challenges are very tricky and take longer to solve.

It is a race to see who will finish it first, Ella and I or the Maths Staff!

After doing this for two years now, we have learnt a lot about codebreaking and programming and are really enjoying it.

It’s such a great feeling when you finally solve a cipher from the meaningless code, words start to appear and the message starts to make sense. Although it is very challenging, it is also very rewarding breaking a code!

Both of us can’t wait to do the challenges again and hopefully more teams will get involved with us next year!

Saskia Cushings (Year 9)

Vigenère Keyword Cipher Challenge 6 and 7 were encoded using the Vigenère cipher. This cipher makes use of a keyword and in this example, we will use the keyword “NSA” to encipher the message “Charlie, I have found Martin.”

All the punctuation and spaces are first removed. The message is then put in blocks of three, the same length as the keyword.

The table has the original message in blocks of three in the middle row and the top row has the keyword repeated through the whole message. Each letter of the keyword is lined up with a letter in the original message.

A Caesar wheel is then used by rotating the outer wheel until the letter N (first letter of the keyword) lines up with the letter A in the inner wheel. Any letter in the original message that has the letter N above it in the table is now encoded using the wheel in this configuration. This process is repeated for each letter in the keyword until the entire message is encoded as shown in the third row.

NSA NSA NSA NSA NSA NSA NSA NS CHA RLI EIH AVE FOU NDM ART IN PZA EDI RAH NNE SGU AVM NJT VF

The enciphered message is then put into blocks, usually five, to disguise the keyword length as shown.

PZAED IRAHN NESGU AVMNJ TVF Can you figure out how to decipher the message without knowing the keyword length? Could you be the next Cipher Champion?

Mr S. Rahman Mathematics KS3 Coordinator

07

Teaching and Learning at RVHS

Senior Maths Challenge We are off to a great start with the first UKMT Maths Challenge of this academic year. We have had great success in the Senior Maths Challenge in which some of our Year 11 students were entered for the first time along with our Year 12 and 13 students.

Igor Dasuzhau and Lauren Humphries were both awarded the Silver Certificates with another seven students awarded the Bronze Certificates. Igor was also awarded the Best in School and Best in Year 11 certificates. Lauren Humphries

and Caprice Foster were also awarded the Best in Year 12 and Year 13 certificates respectively.

All the students performed very well with extra plaudits going to our Year 11 students. We have high expectations of

their performance in future competitions next year. We are now looking forward to the Intermediate Maths Challenge for our Year 9 and 10 students.

Mr S. Rahman Mathematics KS3 Coordinator

Roding Valley Maths Challenge Here are some questions that are taken from past UKMT Maths Challenge Papers. Have a go!!!

1. What is the remainder when 354972 is divided by 7?

a. 1

b. 2

Junior Maths Challenge 2007

c. 3

d. 4

e. 5

2. Which of the following numbers is three less than a multiple of 5 and three more than a multiple of 6?

a. 12

b. 17

Junior Maths Challenge 2007

c. 21

d. 22

e. 27

3. Four of these shapes can be placed together to make a cube. Which is the odd one out?

a.

Intermediate Maths Challenge 2008

08

b.

c.

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

d.

e.

Extra Curricular Excellence

Year 12 RGS Lecture: 21 September 2016 On Wednesday 21 September, 10 of our Sixth Form Geographers travelled up to the Royal Geographical Society to attend a lecture hosted for able A-Level students. The lecture was titled ‘Cutting Edge Development in Mapping Science’ and hosted by the Chief Geospatial Scientist of the Ordnance Survey.

The students were made aware of just how many sectors of society rely on mapping and how far the work of the Ordnance Survey has come from the paper maps of old. Interestingly, we were informed (but led to question) the following target of the OS; “to represent 99.86% of real-world features within 6 months of completion.” Students questioned whether in 2016 and the age of instant connections and updates, six

months was good enough.

We concluded that with recent technological advances - perhaps not!

Following the lecture, Matthew Tinker took the opportunity to ask how the forthcoming parliamentary boundary review would affect the company and their work. The answer was that beyond a huge spike in internet traffic when the review was first announced, the OS would have little work to do until the changes needed to be mapped.

The 6th form students were engaged and interested throughout the lecture, demonstrating a fantastic commitment to their A-Level study of Geography.

We look forward to the next one!

Miss Stockings

Year 12 Geography Trip: 30 November 2016 On Wednesday, our 10 Year 12 Geographers headed up to the Royal Geography Society (RGS) to take part in their GIS Day. As part of a global day, the students were learning about the power of mapping and how Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are valuable both to their study of Geography but also in their wider everyday life. The day started with a brief induction to mapping and how GIS is used by almost every company and organisation- providing vast employment opportunities for any potential future Geographers!

We then considered how we could use this latest technology to explore noise levels in Hyde Park. Students downloaded 2 Apps to aid their investigation before heading out into Hyde Park to map the noise levels. With all the data collected digitally, returning to the RGS meant that data analysis could begin immediately and our Year 12s got stuck in with the software to analyse and present our findings.

Overall, the day was a huge success with the Year 12s enjoying themselves but also leaving equipped with new skills to help them in A-Level Geography and beyond!

Miss Stockings

09

Extra-Curricular Excellence

West Essex Schools Cross Country Championship With the Cross Country season well and truly underway, Monday 10th October saw a large team of athletes head off to the West Essex Schools Cross Country Championship. Arriving at Burnt Mill the team were excited to take on local schools with the opportunity of representing Essex in the next round of the competition if they placed high enough.

Following recent success in other Cross Country fixtures, our boys’ team, performed well and came second out of 11 schools. Alfie Binet led the team home in 6th and we are hoping that this will lead to Essex selection for him - well done Alfie! Louie Cooper (10), Austin Francis (12) and Edward Johnstone (13) packed closely together to secure a high position for the team before William Whitehall and Thomas Whellams closed the team in 37th and

Loughton Town Council Xmas Card Competition There were over 280 entries to the annual Xmas card competition and, again, Roding Valley has scooped the Secondary Schools section winner and runner up!

44th position respectively. Max Collings was our lone representative in the Year 10 and 11 race and once again racing well, came 27th.

Our Year 7, 8 and 9 girls’ team saw their efforts rewarded with a win in the team competition! All of the team ran fantastically well which saw us finishing over 20 points ahead of the second team! Ella Margetts led the team home in 2nd with Sulola Olisesan

close behind in 9th. Ella will be selected

by Essex in the next round of the competition - we wish her luck.

Azra Ozerin (14), Teagan Andrews (15) and Mia Ali (22) then finished well to secure our win.

Good luck to all of our athletes selected to run for Essex and well done to everyone to took part in this race.

Miss Stockings

Our Sports Teams Round-up

Year 7 and 8 Rugby

Year 7 Football

Winner - Finnley Packwood 7R Runner Up - Scarlett Downie 7X There is now an exhibition of a selection of entries, including the winners and runners up at Loughton library from 28 November to 11 December and then at Debden library from 15 December to 3 January.

Thank you to the many students who entered the competition and congratulations to our winners!

Mr D. Tisdale Head of Art

ll

Year 8 Basketba

Prison Me, No Way! On the 21st November the Year 9 students were treated to a very valuable life experience from the PMNW team.

The day consisted of workshops, visit to a cell, a former prisoner insight and how to stay safe in this troubled world. The students were impeccably well behaved and encouraged to discuss various situations and how the law affects their life. They also were given an insight into how the choices that they make may impact on their future.

A fun, educational and motivational day!

Mrs M. Cain

10

Year 10 Basketball

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Enriching the curriculum

Lambourne End Trip Students who visited Lambourne End : Harry Harrison-Wall, Tommy Hulme, Leo Cowan, Aimee Garvey, Casey Mathews, Darren Ingram, Ellie-Louise Griffiths and Stephen Hill.

In the morning the students took part in Bush Craft Skills which consisted of learning about the different berries on the trees with some background history, what to eat and what not eat, tasting Elder berries and Sloe berries, collecting fire wood, building the fire and, making, cooking and eating bread. This was a great exercise in getting the group to listen to instructions, watching and then taking part.

In the afternoon they took part in the team building activities; one of which was to hook a hoop through the arm of each one. They all held hands and the aim was to get the hoop all around the circle of 8 students without breaking the link. All eight of them learnt to support and communicate to get the hoop around the linked arm circle. All the students played a key part in finishing this by communicating well, helping others and getting on well with everyone. After about 6 tries they got their time down to 21 seconds - which was amazing!

Clair King

Year 7 Christmas Service 2016 Year 7 students visited St Mary’s Church in Loughton for the school’s annual Christmas service on the morning of Monday, 5th December 2016.

The students were faultless in public and during the service. Each student individually decorated a shoe box that was filled with a range of items for children around the world less fortunate than themselves, to enjoy during the festive period. The shoe boxes were donated to the charity Samaritan’s Purse on the day.

During the service Chloe Buckley and Tyne Brownlie performed amazing solo recitals, which certainly got us all into the festive spirit.

Mr C. Hudgell Progress Leader of Year 7

11

Enriching the curriculum STUDY Skills Days for Years 9 and 10 Year 9 and 10 students enjoyed a day each of our staff’s expertise during their Study Skills Days. They attended motivational assemblies, and sessions on Mind Maps, Extended Writing Exercises, Constructing Revision Timetables, making Flash Cards, Revision Techniques with Sixth Formers, Careers sessions and Brain Training exercises.

The feedback has been very positive from students as they felt it had improved their study skills.

Year 11 students will also have their opportunity in December in preparation for the GCSE examinations.

RoQA

Quality Kite Award for Careers Education Information Advice and Guidance On 29th December Mrs Mason was absolutely delighted to accept Roding Valley’s Quality Kite Award for Careers from the Chairman of Essex County Council, Councillor John Aldridge at County Hall in Chelmsford.

The principles and criteria we have to evidence to achieve the award demonstrates our whole school commitment to our students’ progression and shows how we are equipping them with the knowledge and skills to make a successful transition into employment, education or training. The achievement of the award also demonstrates we have a high quality careers education programme in place.

All members of staff have contributed in one way or another to the successful achievement of this award. This is the third time we have been awarded RoQA .

The award was presented by Councillor John Aldridge, Chairman of Essex County Council and Julia Yates, Careers Coach, University of East London.

Our careers education and guidance at Roding Valley aims to prepare all students for their adult and working life by contributing to the development of the fully rounded individual. We firmly believe that students should always be given the opportunity to develop their knowledge of themselves and be able to utilise the opportunities open to them.

Year 7 Humanities Drop Down Day On Friday 7th October we held our annual Year 7 Drop Down Day to support our work with Beyond Ourselves and Greater Joy School in Zambia.

The students took part in a range of activities aimed at understanding the importance of education for children around the world. Pictured are Year 12 media students helping to create promotional videos for our charity project called Beyond Roding Valley. Both Year 7 and 12 students worked really hard and produced some outstanding work.

If you would like to find out more about the Beyond Roding Valley Project or the work we do with Beyond Ourselves, our charity blog can be found here: http://beyondrodingvalley.blogspot.co.uk/

12

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Enriching the curriculum

Parliamentary Debate 18th November 2016 saw us enjoy a wonderful evening observing the Parliamentary Debate at RVHS. The standard of the protagonists was very high and there were a number of excellent performances.

Zoe Donnelly and Lorelei Booth spoke with confidence and distinction as well as humour and they dealt with the interventions from the other speakers exceptionally well.

Although we did not win the debate, it was great news that Zoe Donnelly was declared as Highly Commended for her performance, demonstrating that the proud history of debating at Roding Valley continues.

Thanks to all of the staff who supported the students on the night and for putting the work in behind the scenes. Thanks to Mrs Musker and Mr Punungwe for their work with the team and Mr Murray for his organisational skills. We would also like to thank Pat Henrye for the fantastic food which was commented on by everyone in attendance.

sixth form news

Apprentice winner Dr Leah visits Roding Valley Sixth Form Our Sixth Form guest speaker Dr Leah, a practising physician who won the 2013 series of the Apprentice, wanted me to let the Roding Valley Community know what a wonderful school we have and what delightful students we have in the Sixth Form.

Dr Leah stayed for an hour to answer questions about science, getting into medicine, A-levels and the importance of working hard in school.

13

Sixth Form News

Jessica Eddie Visits Roding Valley Sixth Form and Year 8 Assembly

21 Books to read before you’re 21

We were very fortunate to have Jessica Eddie visit our school and give a motivational talk to our Year 12 and Year 8 students. Jessica Eddie is a British rower, who won a silver medal in the women’s eight at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Jessica gave an excellent motivational talk focusing on the importance of building resilience and learning from failure. We wish her well for Tokyo 2020.

DEAR - Drop Everything And Read. Evidence suggests that there is a positive relationship between reading frequency, reading enjoyment and attainment (Clark 2011; Clark and Douglas 2011).

We are encouraging the Sixth Form to read often, read for pleasure, and to use any newly acquired words in their vocabulary. We would like parents to encourage this at home, and make the next present you buy a reading book!

14

Roding Valley High School Newsletter December 2016

Sixth Form News

Rhonda Daniels - freelance writer from The Guardian We invited guest speaker Rhonda Daniels (ex-student of Mr Harris) from the LSE to address Year 12 students about her personal experience of attending LSE as a University and her experiences as a freelance writer for The Guardian.

Brake Pledge Juliette Harvey and I came to the sixth form assembly to speak about the devastating impact road accidents have had on our lives and the importance of road safety. It was a difficult subject to talk about and the emotion overwhelmed us at times so we apologise if it was not the clearest of presentations. However we appreciated the supportive environment that you provided and hope that our talk will prompt reflection when driving and being passengers.

It is easy to take things for granted like the family and friends that love us and our health but it is important to remember that sometimes a careless decision can have irreversible consequences. Make the most of every moment and learn to drive with respect and care for yourself, your passengers and those who are waiting for you to come home. Brake provides support for families bereaved in tragic accidents and educates the community about road safety.

Sharon Famiglietti Parent Governor

Youth Parliament Matthew Tinker represented Epping Forest as part of the National Youth Parliament.

This involved travelling to Westminster to take part in a debate in the House of Commons presided over by the Speaker of the House, The Rt Hon John Bercow MP. Whilst most young people would find this sort of arena rather intimidating, Matthew stood up to give his maiden speech. Many of our staff had the pleasure of seeing a recording of his words of wisdom where he speaks with passion about the future of the NHS. It’s fair to say that he brought the house down as he spoke without notes, with humour and verve and received a huge round of applause at the end. Very well done to Matthew - clearly a career in politics beckons.

Matthew Tinker’s response: “It was absolutely incredible! Just sitting on the green benches was an amazing experience (they are so comfortable!!) but the Speaker chose me to finish off the NHS Debate so I got to speak!!!! Managed to speak about Ant and Dec and Bake Off but it was absolutely incredible. I was in the first debate on at about 30 minutes in on BBC iPlayer. There should be some professional pictures coming out soon but honestly it was the best day of my life”.

We are quite rightly proud of what we have achieved in a short space of time within Roding Valley Sixth Form.

There are so many events that take place within the Sixth Form we now have our own weekly news.

To receive copies of the Sixth Form News please email tflaherty@rodingvalley.net.

If you would like to discuss any Sixth Form matters or you would like to enrol for next year please contact me, at lsharris@rodingvalley.net.

Kind regards, Mr Harris MA (T&L) Head of Sixth Form / Acting Assistant Headteacher

15

PTA News

Roding Valley High School November Quiz Night Well done to the Trumpettes!

The PTA would like to express a massive thank you to all the friends, parents, teachers, staff and governors for their support at the November 2016 Quiz Night.

It was great to see old and new faces. Together we had a relaxed, fun quiz with a great chip supper. Keith’s quiz caters for a diverse range of interests and knowledge, be it James Bond, football,television or local landmarks.

We raised just over £500 which will pay for a much needed classroom projector which will be available for use by all.

3. B

The cube may be formed by placing C next to D to form a shape identical to A. This combination is then placed alongside A to form a shape identical to E. If shape E is now rotated through 180ᵒ about a suitable axis, it may be placed with the combination of shapes A, C and D to form a cube.

2. E Of the options given, only 27, which is three less than a multiple of 5, namely 30, and three more than a multiple of 6, namely 24, has both properties in the question.

Note that 7 divides 35, 49 and 7, so it divides 354970. So the remainder is 2..

1. B

Roding Valley Maths Challenge Solutions

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

16

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