Parent Bulletin Week ending 7th September 2018 by Roding Valley High School

RVHS Parent Bulletin Aspiration

Respect

Endeavour

Week ending: Friday 7th September 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 We would like to welcome everyone back to Roding Valley High School and, in particular, extend a very warm welcome to those students, parents, carers and families who are new to our school community. The summer break has been a very busy time on the school site with significant building and development of our facilities for an improved provision for all our students. Our new build is almost ready for occupation but is running th about 2 weeks behind schedule and we should be using this building by Monday 17 September. The delay is completely beyond the control of the school however we are looking forward to using the facilities in this £4.5m building very soon. We have also invested in expanding our canteen and this large increase in space has allowed us to bring in additional entry points and service points. This has already massively reduced the queues and has removed the congestion in the corridor that was caused when we only had 1 point of entry. We have also completely refurbished and remodelled the boy’s toilets in the old block as well as a complete refurbishment of IT5. The project to replace all the old radiators in the old block is now complete and every single corridor has been repainted. We would like to thank Mrs Salmons (Business Manager), Mr Hearn (Premises Manager) and the whole premises team for their hard work this break. We were very pleased with the improvements in our GCSE and A Level results this year and are delighted that so many of our students achieved excellent grades. We are also starting 2018 with the largest cohort of Sixth Form students we have had, further reflecting our growing success at GCSE level. It can be very difficult for parents to interpret examination results, particularly with the new grading system for GCSEs and the introduction of more challenging GCSEs and A Level examinations. The Department for Education has also changed the way in which it judges school performance as the original ‘league’ tables did not take context into account. At GCSE, schools are now measured on both the progress of students (based on the Key Stage 2 SATS scores achieved by these students and then compared to their GCSE results) and the attainment of students compared with results nationally (attainment being the results achieved by the students, regardless of their starting points following their SATS).

Schools are then given a ‘Progress 8’ score and then measured against the national averages in subject areas. Schools are not given their Progress 8 score until later in the year, however our 2017 Progress 8 score was above the national average. In terms of attainment at GCSE this year, we are pleased with the outcomes achieved by our students. The percentage of students achieving a Grade 4 (the new ‘pass’ mark) or above in English and Maths has increased by 4.5% from last year. We are also pleased that attainment in the following subject areas was above the national average for all schools in England: English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Combined Science, Art and Design, Computer Science, French, Geography, Media Studies, Music and Statistics. This is particularly pleasing as last year’s Year 11 cohort started Year 7 with average SAT scores that were significantly below the national average, meaning attainment at GCSE that is above the national average is a very positive achievement. We were also pleased with the number of students achieving Grade 9 in a number of subject areas. At A Level, we were delighted that our results showed an improvement from last year with 42% of all grades being achieved at A*-B, an impressive 9% increase on the previous year. We have significantly improved our value added score by over 30% which clearly demonstrates the high levels of progress now being made by students in the Sixth Form and we again achieved an excellent 97% pass rate overall. The projected data for our New Year 11 students is very strong and we are anticipating excellent outcomes for this cohort next year. Thank you to all parents who have sent their child back to school in full uniform and with a full set of equipment. The new House tie looks fantastic and the students really look smart. The new ties are available to buy at Forest Casuals, please do contact the school directly if you are experiencing any issues surrounding the purchase of the new tie. We are aware that, over the summer holiday, there has been concern at the number of children and young people in the Epping Forest area who have been the victims of crime. Whilst we have staff on duty at the end of the day at Loughton Station, the bus stops and Sainsbury’s, we would encourage all students who walk or use public transport to get to and from school to travel in groups of 2 or more, wherever possible. Whilst it is very rare for our students to be the victims of crime on the way to and from school, it is important that we highlight this issue to help keep everyone safe. We always work with the local police where it is appropriate and will always share any concerns we have with parents. Keeping safe in the community has been highlighted in all of our welcome back student assemblies and forms a significant part of our Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) programme. We also balance this with our work with agencies such as ‘Prison Me No Way’ and the Reality Roadshow (both are presentations that deliver on the consequences of crime). We have just launched our revised ‘Building Character and Culture’ programme across the entire school which works with students of differing ages across three strands: 

PixLEdge: LORIC- Activities are centred around building the skills of Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative and Communication.

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Health and Wellbeing Resources to support us to build resilience and promote mental wellbeing and positive lifestyle choices amongst our students

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Orate: Focus on communication skills, Roding Valley High School has experienced great success with debating and recognises the need to promote increased focus on speaking and listening skills.

The students have had an excellent and very positive first few days of term. It has been a pleasure to welcome such lovely children into our Year 7 and such aspirational young adults into our Sixth Form. I would like to thank the parents for supporting the Non-Uniform Day which we held on the last day of the summer term. We raised a total of £1240.07; £600 of this amount has been donated to a teenage cancer charity. We look forward to the year ahead. Kind regards Mrs Jenner Head of School

Mr Paul Banks Executive Headteacher Follow us on: @rodingvalleyHS, @rodingvalleyPE RODING VALLEY DRAMA@rodingdrama

Date

Event

Tuesday 11th September th

Thursday 13 September th

Whole School Photographs Silver D of E Expedition

Tuesday 18 September

Rodingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Got Talent

Wednesday 19th September

Year 9 and 10 Stemnette Panel

Thursday 20th September

Year 10 (6pm to 7pm) and Year 11 (7pm to 8pm) Information Evening

Friday 21 September

Whole School Study Skills Day

Monday 24th September

Year 12 and 13 ATL begins

Wednesday 26 September

Year 8 HPV Immunisations

Thursday 27th September

Silver D of E Expedition

Friday 28 September

Year 7 PTA Disco

Friday 28th September

McMillan Coffee Morning

Monday 1 October

Year 8 Assessments begin

Monday 1st October

Year 7 Road Safety Event

Thursday 4 October

Year 8 (6pm to 7pm) and Year 9 (6pm to 7pm) Transition Evening

Saturday 6th October

Open Morning

We will be inviting prospective parents to visit our school on our Open Morning on Saturday 6th October 2018. The School will be open from 9am to 12pm. The Executive Headteacher, Mr Paul Banks and the Head of School Mrs Sharon Jenner will be speaking to parents at regular intervals throughout our Open Morning. We will also be running our extremely popular Open Morning Tours from Tuesday 9th October until Thursday 11th October, so that parents have the opportunity to experience our school on a normal working day. No appointments will be necessary and parents should arrive at the school Reception at 9:15am for the tours to start.

On Tuesday, we held our Fresherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fayre for our Year 7 Students, where they were given the opportunity to sign up too our many Out of lesson Enrichment Activities and After School Clubs; activities included Chess, Film, Drama, Sports, Debate, Reading, Science, Catering, Languages, Music, Art and lots more...

Morning Drop Off Please can Parent /Carers remember that students must be delivered to school in a safe and secure manner, students must be dropped off in Brook Road and you must not stop or pause your vehicles on the yellow Zig Zag lines at the front of the school on Alderton Hill, so your child can hop out. Remember your child’s safety is our priority.

We would like to ask Parents to remind our students that all Mobile Phones should be switched off at all times throughout the school day. If they are seen or heard by a member of school staff they will be confiscated.

Clubs and Enrichment. Full details of our Clubs and Enrichment Programme is attached to this week’s Parent Bulletin

Attention all Year 7 Parents Please be aware that all ‘Show My Homework’ PIN Codes will be issued to parents next week.

School Lockers KS3 students will receive a letter next week regarding the allocation of the school lockers.

The schools main form of communication with parents is by email. If you are not receiving emails from the school, you can: 

Check your Spam and move the last school email to your Inbox. Future emails should then make their way into your Inbox. If this is not done your service provider may stop you receiving email from us completely.

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Phone the school to re-subscribe if you have unsubscribed to our emails in the past.

 Provide us with an alternative email address We hope to send more information through the MyEd App once the subscription rates increase. Follow us on: @rodingvalleyHS, @rodingvalleyPE RODING VALLEY DRAMA@rodingdrama

This summer we asked our students and staff to send in photographâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of themselves reading over the summer holidays. These are some of the pictures we received.

Miss Bingham got caught reading Lonely PlanetAustralia in the Blue Mountains Hamilton Joseph James reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole as he queues to see the musical Hamilton

Megan got caught reading The Stranger in My Home' by Adele Parks sitting on a cannon at Southwold in Suffolk.

Florence managed to get caught reading 'Throne of Glass' by SJ Maas in front of the leaning tower of Pisa.

Here's Nathan who managed to get caught reading 'Northern Lights' by Philip Pullman upside-down!

Mrs Cain + one, reading 'This is Going to Hurt' by Adam Kay in the beautiful town of Cochem in Germany. Miss Bleakley reading 'Surprise Me' by Sophie Kinsella Sophie Kinsella in the Millennium Park in Chicago.

Mrs Jenner in Dubrovnik, Croatia where she got caught reading 'The Missing Girl' by Jenny Quintana

Mrs Martin reading at Hampton Court .Palace

Miss Bates taking an opportunity to get caught reading 'The Surface Breaks' at Great Western Beach in Newquay,

At RVHS, we offer lessons in Piano, Drums, Guitar and singing. If you are interested; please email the below contacts and full details will be sent to you:

Piano: To book piano lessons or find out more please contact rosswall@gmail.com

Singing: Private singing lessons are now available. Please contact Alex Larke for more details at alex@thevocaltutor.com

Drumming: The following lessons are available: One to One, Two to One and Small Group lessons. Contact: marksevel@hotmail.com

Guitar: To book lessons or find out more, please contact Rachel Espeute on racheleds@hotmail.co.uk if you are interested.

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

What is 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 link to 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 link to a very useful guide on how Progress works and how you can use it to help your child's learning.

This is a valuable resource that will assist parents in supporting their childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s progression. Please use the following link to the log in: Follow us on: @rodingvalleyHS, @rodingvalleyPE RODING VALLEY DRAMA@rodingdrama

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.

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 studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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 Follow us on:you get set up. problems and we will help @rodingvalleyHS, @rodingvalleyPE RODING VALLEY DRAMA@rodingdrama

Student Absence If your child is unable to attend School for any reason please report their absence by phoning the school number by 9.30am at the latest, you must also ring in each day of your child’s absence. 0208-508-1173 On their return to School please ensure your child brings with them a. letter or medical evidence if requested explaining the reason for the absence for our records.

Medical Appointments Please make sure you make any medical or dental appointments outside of school time. If this is not possible then please try to ensure that your child attends before and/or after their appointment.

Holidays in Term Time It is not school policy to authorise any holidays during term time except in exceptional circumstances. A ‘Leave of Absence’ form must be completed (these are available at Student Reception) should you require leave for your child, a letter detailing your exceptional circumstances should accompany it. Please be aware if the absence is not authorised and the holiday is taken, the case may be referred to the Education Welfare Service who may issue a Penalty Notice for £120 (or £60 if paid within 21 days) to each parent for each child taken out of school. For full details regarding attendance please see our Attendance Policy which can be found on our website or contact Mrs Jeanette Low, our Attendance and Welfare Manager on the school number.

Guidance for Common Ailments Please see on the following page guidance from the NHS of common childhood illnesses; this advises what type of illness requires time off from school and what does not. Should you require further guidance please contact the school on 0208-508-1173