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RVHS Parent Bulletin Aspiration
Respect Endeavour
Week ending: Friday 29th June 2018 “Our vision is to be the school of choice for our local community, developing successful young people with high aspirations, who show respect for all and endeavour to become the very best that they can be.”
Message from the Head of School It has been a very hot and sticky week in school. We have relaxed the school’s expectation around uniform during the extreme temperatures and allowed students to leave their blazers at home. However, we do expect students to be back in full uniform from Monday. If the temperatures continue to be high we will adopt a sensible approach and students will be able to remove blazers at break times and during lessons. Please ensure that your child has plenty of water with them and that they apply sun cream as needed. Water is always available from the canteen and there is a water fountain over at the sports facilities. On Wednesday, we said goodbye to the Year 11 students at their Leavers Assembly and then later in the evening when they all enjoyed the Prom. It was a fabulous evening, held at Woolston Manor. The girls looked beautiful in their dresses and the boys so mature and handsome. It is not a final farewell as many were back today for 6th Form Induction. It is the Year 13 Prom next week, but this will be a final farewell to a wonderful group of students as they embark on the next stage of their life journey either to University or onto higher level apprenticeships. On Thursday, the school hosted a Business Breakfast. It was an amazing opportunity for our sixth form students to network with a whole range of different employers. Last year 5 students secured Higher Level Apprenticeships as a direct result of this Business Breakfast. There were five alumni present working with the employers. The employers were very impressed with the confidence and aspiration of our students.
The success of our careers guidance and support is testament to the hard work of Mrs. Mason, who always goes above and beyond for our students.
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It was a real pleasure to welcome many of our Year 11 students back for the Sixth Form Induction day. It was exciting to see so many of our top performing students keen to join us again in September, ready for the A Level challenge. We are now offering Further Maths at A Level and have also added some BTECs into our curriculum offer. We introduced our students to Miss Wheaton, who is joining the school in September as our new Director of Sixth Form. She is currently a very experienced Head of Year 12/13 at The Coopers Company and Coburn in Upminster and an outstanding History teacher. Our students learnt about life in the 6th Form and the opportunities available to them for further enrichment and challenge. This includes access to personalised careers advice, UCAS guidance, DofE, trips abroad and leadership roles. Our students have all had their first House assemblies this week and are now looking forward to the first big House event which will the Sports Day on the 18th July. Students will compete and support their allocated House. On Wednesday, students from across the year groups also participated in the District Sports competition, we had lots of successes, including the following students claiming first place in their events: Louis Choules, Charlotte Gadeke, Year 8 Girls Relay Team, Tom Callagher, Alfie Binet and Ella Margetts. What a fantastic result, well done to all of the students who took part, full details of the event are further on in the bulletin.
Our Year 10s have visited Stratford for their GCSE Geography Field Trip. They appear to have all really enjoyed it and should now have their work ready for write up. Their behaviour was impeccable and they were all a real credit to the school.
Over the last few weeks of term there are a whole host of trips and activities. Year 10 have their Careers Week to look forward to and the Year 7 residential trip leaves on Monday. We have this year introduced reward trips to Thorpe Park for the top 40 students in each year group. The places have been offered to those students with the highest number of ‘Progress Points’ - we also factored attendance and punctuality into the decision. Many thanks to those parents who have supported the school in ensuring that their child goes straight home at the end of the school day. There has been a marked improvement in the number of issues relating to our students in the local vicinity. This is for the benefit of everybody in our community, for the good name of the school and your child’s safety. Please enjoy the rest of the bulletin. Mrs. S Jenner Head of School
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Wednesday 27th June saw the annual West Essex and Harlow District Sports event at Melbourne Athletics Stadium in Chelmsford. The PE Department took one of its largest squads to the event with over 100 students from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 participating in a range of athletic track and field events across the day. District sports works by entering 2 students into each track event and 1 student in each field event. Students receive points for finishing in the top 8 for sprint events and top 10-12 in long distance and field events which go towards an overall team total for each year group. The field events, long distance events, 300m and the relay are all straight finals using a time trialing system and a large number of our students finished in the top 3 of these events.
The sprint events 200m and the 100m have challenging heats in the morning and then finals in the afternoon and what was really pleasing from our school’s point of view was the number of students who made the finals for these events with in some cases both students entered making the finals. As a department point of view, what really shone through at District Sports was the attitude, teamwork and togetherness shown by students in each year group and overall as a team. If field and track events weren’t filled then students volunteered to fill them to score points for their year which was great to see the student wanting to do well for themselves, their year group but also for the school. Due to this fantastic level of individual effort and teamwork numerous students finished the day with medals for their events which lead to the year 7 and 8 teams finishing 3rd overall from the 11 schools competing on the day and the year 9 and 10 teams finishing just outside the top 3.
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Year 7 • 100% attendance pupils (for the previous week)
• One student from each Form Group
• Queue jump for a week (break and lunch!!)
Queue Jumpers this week were:
Alexander Montague-Patel
Elan Wainer
Hope Henry
Sonny Scaffardi
Frankie Tucker
Freddie Edwards
Emma-Louise Kutner
Tora McLaughlin
Harry Wells
7T 7S 7S
Year 7 Residential Trip to Boughton Woods This is a reminder that the coach for the Year 7 residential will leave from the Brook Road entrance at 7:30am. Please arrive promptly, so that we can leave on time. We will be back at approximately 6:30pm -7pm on Wednesday.
Miss F Williams Year 7 YPL
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In Years 7 to 9, pupils ‘Drop Everything and Read’ for 20 minutes in every school day. Strong literacy is key to success in all subject areas and reading each day promotes this. Reading regularly improves spelling, punctuation and grammar, all of which are assessed in a number of subject areas on the new 9-1 specifications. We also want to encourage a love of reading for pleasure and have asked our Year 7s to write book reviews to share with you what they are reading during DEAR Time. This week we feature 3 reviews from 7T. Enjoy!
Dear DEAR Time, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank This book is about a teenager’s real diary. So, it’s really sad because they have to hide from Nazis, because if the Nazis found them they will put them in camps. And its guaranteed that they will be not able to find foods or new clothes. And most of the people are dying in there because they all get sick… I will give this book a five out of 4 because it’s a real diary and it’s really exciting. Written by Lorin Aktas 7T
Dear DEAR Time, Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens This book is very interesting and gripping. It is based at a school and is a murder mystery. The book is about 5 girls who are detectives and solve murders. I would recommend this book for ages 8-18 and for those who like detective stories. It is the fourth book in the series and is a very detailed book. Jolly Foul Play is about a murder performed on bonfire night, however only the prefects and detectives know that it was a murder. The rest of the school believe it was an accident. It is up to Daisy, Hazel, Beanie, Kitty and Lavinia (the main five) to find the murderer and prove that the death was not an accident. Rating 5/5. Written by Lauren Harper 7T
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Dear DEAR Time, Alex Rider: Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz I rate this book 4.5 stars because it is an action-packed adventure. In this book Alex is asked by the Cia to go and relax on an island in Cuba. He and two other people break into the Russian General’s house to find a nuclear bomb. Alex gets taken from General Sarov and be made his son, Sarov has a herd of nuclear submarines and is planning to make the world a better place. I like this book because it’s got a lot of suspense and he has lots of cool gadgets. Written by Sam Labbett 7T
Dear DEAR Time, The Famous Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton Here is what the book is about: The Famous Five are excited to fill George’s boat with food and blankets and spend the week on Kirrin Island, swimming and exploring but when they discover a mysterious trunk has been smuggled onto the island and they realise an even bigger adventure lies ahead. I would give this book a 4½ out of 5 because it takes some time to get into the adventure, but I am really enjoying it. Written by Hannah Taylor 7T
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Year 8 8S 8X 8S
• 100% attendance pupils (for the previous week)
• One student from each Form Group
• Queue jump for a week (break and lunch!!)
Lenny Hunt
Ruo Xi He
Megan Driver
Talia Salahi
Teddy Crossman Cox
Amir Suleman
Diya Wahiwala
Scarlett Downie
Queue Jumpers this week were:
Devontai Williamson
Year 8 Residential Trip to Skern Lodge The Year 8 Skern Lodge residential is taking place on the 9th to 13th July. We will be heading to Devon to participate in a fun packed activity week. Students will be given the opportunity to zip-line, abseil, kayak, raft and surf. https://www.skernlodge.co.uk/ My hope is that this will encourage students to take risks in a safe environment and to challenge themselves. Students will also be able to develop their communication skills and will benefit from the team building exercises that they can participate in.
Mr F Ryan Year 8 YPL
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Year 9
9S 9R 9Q
Emilie Buckley
• 100% attendance pupils (for the previous week)
• One student from each Form Group
• Queue jump for a week (break and lunch!!)
Queue Jumpers this week were:
Raydon Luba
Jenny Lycett
George Fairhead
Cameron Powell
Lukrecija Cizkaite
Tia Kent
Olympia Barnett
Kian Falshaw Miss H Reed Year 9 YPL
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Essex Tennis Runners Up On Tuesday 26th June, the Year 9/10 Tennis Team took part in their Tennis Final against New Hall School in Chelmsford after finishing top of their group in the LTA Tennis competition and beating Belfairs Academy in the semi-final. Roding Valley went off with a flying start after the first three matches being up 2-1. The following three matches of singles and doubles resulted in both teams winning three matches in total. This resulted in a championship tie break of doubles being played where Arin Ozerin paired up with Nikolay Raychev. The tie break was very competitive all the way through where Roding Valley had a match point. Unfortunately the nerves got the better of them resulting in New Hall winning the tie break 14-12. I am hugely proud of the boy’s achievement this year and am now looking forward to taking them into the senior competition next year!
Arin Ozerin
Lewis Scarfe
Nick Norman
Nikolay Raychev
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Year 10 10U 10W 10R
• 100% attendance pupils (for the previous week)
• One student from each Form Group
Kai Finn
Rishin Patel
Dilan Osman
Hayley Valdiny
Florence New
Charliey Burke
Suzanna Cavadino
Matthew Freedman
• Queue jump for a week (break and lunch!!)
Queue Jumpers this week were:
Simay Ahmet
Mr T Price Year 10 YPL
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On Wednesday our Year 11 Students celebrated the end of their exams with their Prom. It was fantastic evening and a lot of fun was had by all.
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RVHS Sixth Form
Tuesday 3rd July: Year 13 Leavers Assembly 10:00am and then the Senior Prom at the Prince Regent Hotel, Chigwell, IG8 8AE from 7:00pm.
Thursday 16th August, A Level Results Day. .
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At RVHS, we use Show My Homework; an account has been created for you to keep up to date with your child’s homework progress from home.
What is ‘Show My Homework’? Show my Homework is a simple online solution for students and parents to view homework details and upcoming deadlines. Mobile apps and notifications ensure you always know what homework your child has and when it’s due.
How to Log In? Go to www.showmyhomework.co.uk/pin What are PINs? PINs are unique codes that ‘Show My Homework’ has assigned to each parent that allow us to confirm their identity on initial login. After logging in for the first time users will be asked to provide more memorable login details for future use. PINs are then only be used as a backup in case you forget these logins.
Or you can download the app. Enter your PIN details that you have been given in the letter provided by your school. Click ‘Log in’ Create a memorable password and enter your email address then click ‘Update you details’.
Students do not need a pin to be able to access their homework. They can gain access to their Show My Homework account though their Gmail account.
You are now able to access your account and view all the homework that has been set for your child. If yourself or your child experience any difficulties with using ‘Show my Homework’ or you no longer have your pin, please contact Mrs. Hodges: jhodges@rodingvalley.net
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Whatis DODDLE? Doddle provides students with access to thousands of engaging, formative resources and guides students through the curriculum. Doddle Progress automatically tracks student attainment in key curriculum skills. Parents can see student attainment and progress through our easy-to-use Doddle Parent feature. Skills within Doddle are rated as red, amber or green. These ratings give a clear indication of how much progress a child has made and highlight the weaker areas to be targeted with revision.
Each student has a personal Doddle account where they can access their homework to-do lists and families can view the work their child has been assigned. These accounts enable parents to view their child's results and encourage them to better their scores by using Doddle's revision resources.
Find out how to create a Doddle Parent account and then link that account to your child with this short video:
We have also included a linkto a very useful guide on how to view your child's due and submitted homework:
Find out how our school uses Doddle Progress by watching our short video to find out how Progress works.
We have also included a linkto a very useful guide on how Progress works and how you can use it to help your child's learning.
Find out how to view and track your child's homework with this short video. .
We have also included a link to a very useful guide on Troubleshooting.
This is a valuable resource that will assist parents in supporting their child’s progression. Please use the following link to the log in:
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School Communications: We have been communicating by email for over a year now in a bid to get information to you quicker and more cost effectively. We found, however, our previous parental communication system did not give the functionality that people expect from smart phone apps today. So the school has invested in a new communication system call RS Connect Ed and with this comes a shiny new App. MyEd is the free parent app that gives you a multitude of communication and information features to stay in touch with what is going on at school. The app gives you direct access to your child's attendance, timetable, absence records, achievements, behaviour and much, much more. You will also see that we update and change the information in the app as the school year moves along. Click here to see a short video about the app We are able to send you messages directly to the MyEd app relating to important information about your child's education and to remind you of events that are taking place at school. We can also embed links to regularly used systems, for example ParentPay & Doddle so you can keep everything in one place. You will receive a notification if we send you a message and there is no charge for the messages you send to us. The App can be downloaded by anyone and they will have access to information also available on our website Only parents will be able to access their own student’s information as long as we have the email address and mobile number you are using to access the App. Everyone will be able to see image to the left. But only parents of students in the school will be able to access this when clicking on the My Students tab.The MyEd app is available for both Apple iOS and Android devices and can be found using the links below: Step 1 - Go to your App Store Step 2 - Search for My Ed Step 3 - Download the Free app Apple iOS App Google Android App Once you have installed and opened MyEd, search for Roding Valley High School and follow the simple instructions to identify yourself. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you are having any problems and we will help you get set up.
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