Roding Valley High School Newsletter Jan 2015

Newsletter

Roding Valley High School

January 2015

Happy New Year It seems that the Autumn term flew by so fast and I can’t quite believe it is the New Year already. I thoroughly enjoyed my first term at Roding Valley and I was so impressed with the attitudes of the students and the hard work of the staff. I made a real effort to get into classrooms and tour the school as much as possible and I was delighted to see such a positive atmosphere throughout the school and it is clear that students are making pleasing progress and enjoying their learning.

It was certainly an exceptionally busy first term of the academic year. What with our annual Open Evening, Parent Information Evenings, Parent Forums and a whole host of Extra-Curricular events for the students, we hardly had time to catch our breath.

To my mind though this is part of the experience of working in a highly regarded comprehensive school. This should be a busy place with lots going on and lots of opportunities for students.

We are also working hard to get plans in place for the new Sixth Form. I know that students and staff are very excited about this opportunity and the Sixth Form Open Evening in December provided a chance for students and their parents to speak to staff about the courses on offer and the potential University choices and careers that these might lead to. I am looking forward to seeing the Sixth Form take shape as it will be a real positive for the school as a whole.

Happy New Year to you all.

Key Stage 3 Awards Evening - Thursday 25th September 2014

Well done girls!

Ellouise Lemmon & Jake Forecast

Community Shield

Matthew Tinker – with one of his many awards from the evening

On Thursday 25th September we held our annual Key Stage 3 Awards Evening. This evening is an opportunity to celebrate the achievement, progress and effort of nominated students up to the end of Key Stage 3 (end of Year 9).

Students were awarded for their attainment, excellent attendance and punctuality and also nominated by their Subject Tutors for commitment and effort in their subjects, Form Tutors for their contribution to their tutor group and by their peers for being a general all round good person. Ellouise

Lemon and Jake Forecast were nominated by Miss Cordwell, for our ‘Community Award’, for their excellent work as our Anti-Bullying Mentors, both Ellouise and Jake are fully committed to their roles of helping other students.

Many certificates were given out, along with trophies and plaques. These awards are not given to every student, they have to be nominated, which makes the evening very special.

All of the students should be very proud of themselves, not only for their awards but also for making the evening a great success with their support and enthusiasm.

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

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Year 8 Theatre Visit This term the English Department took 56 Year 8 students to see the theatre production of ‘Private Peaceful’ in Covent Garden.

The students acted as exemplary Roding Valley ambassadors as they mastered the tube en masse. Fortunately, the rain held out as we walked from Holborn to Covent Garden. A heart-rending performance had students fixated for 90 minutes, as characters fought, loved and died; set during the First World War, this production enabled students to make links across the curriculum and see a piece of literature brought to life.

As I reflect on this successful English department trip, Year 7s prepare for their theatrical Roald Dahl experience of Matilda with Miss Draper. Trips like these not only serve to reinforce valuable learning in the classroom, but importantly remind us what an asset Roding Valley students are to the community at large.

Ms Middleton

Year 7 Disco Year 7 pupils thoroughly enjoyed a disco with a Pizza delivery this term and here is what they had to say.

‘I really enjoyed the disco. It was good music and there were lots of my friends who went’.

Sadie Woodland ‘I enjoyed the disco because everyone was dancing and having fun’ Olivia Lewis ‘The best thing about the disco was the music.

The music was loud and the songs were really good and they were the latest. The lights were really good too and the refreshments. The hall was decorated really well’.

Sophie Curtis

Year 11 Concert On 14th November, Year 11 performed a concert to their peers and parents; it was a showcase of all the hard work we had put in since the start of our GCSE and BTEC courses in Year 10.

The evening saw a variety of performances; singers, classical instruments and guitareach piece was excellent and it was lovely to see the individual talents of all the Music students. The concert was a huge success and it was noticeable how students had improved since their last performance in Year 10.

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter January 2015

Jess Smullen said; “It was a fantastic evening; enjoyed by the performers and audience alike.”

Callum Drinkwater said, “It was a brilliant concert with some great performances.”

Thank you to all who took part.

By Olivia Tinker 11S

Roding Valley High School Science Club

Centre of mass investigations

The science club continues to thrive following its conception in September 2013. The club is still well attended and seeks to enhance pupils interest in Science.

Following initial demonstrations, the pupils are encouraged to develop their practical skills which gives them confidence in their ability.

Latest projects are listed below as bullet points.

Building electric motors

n Constructing simple electric motors nV an de Graaf experiments nM agnetic field studies including their effect on an electron beam

investigations Van de Graaf

nU ltra violet light experiments n Computer searches using ‘Chrome Books’

Investigating the atmosphere

nA tmosphere experiments eg strength tests with ‘Magdeburg Hemispheres’ nK ite making nS tudying vegetable and organic pH indicators nM aking indoor fireworks/Flame tests nM edical monitoring

nets ction by mag Electron defle

nP hysics based illusions Looking ahead to the future, it is hoped to involve the pupils in constructing simple steam engines, loudspeakers, pin-hole cameras, electronic circuits (etc) and dismantling a motor engine.

Bill McNally Senior Science Technician

stigations Chemical inve

Rocket test

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Loughton Town Council Christmas Card Competition 2014 Congratulations to Mr. Tisdale’s year 7 art class who all entered this year’s Christmas card competition for Loughton Town Council.

We’re very pleased that Patricia Stow (7V) has been selected by the Town Mayor as the overall winner for the Secondary category and Lottie Clemens (7V) has been chosen as the runner up. Considering that there were over 200 entries from students between 11 and 16 this is a tremendous achievement for the girls.

The reward for this success? All of the entries will be displayed in Loughton Library and Debden library between 1st December and 6th January, Lottie has also received a commendation certificate and Patricia will receive a £25 prize at a presentation in the council chamber. In addition her winning design will be used as the official Christmas card for 2014.

Well done to all entries and in particular our winners!

A la mode Pupils in Year 8 have recently been studying the topic of clothes, so to take their learning to a new level, some pupils were given the opportunity to use the French that they had learnt in the classroom in a real-life situation, by holding a fashion show.

Pupils were given the task of describing each other’s clothes and giving their opinions on what their friends were wearing. Then they had to strut their stuff on the catwalk with a French commentary. Much fun was had by all! Pupils really threw themselves into the task. Well done to all those involved.

Le petit déjeuner délicieux!

Our Year 8 pupils have recently sampled a traditional French breakfast- completely different to the greasy fry-ups that we English enjoy!

On the menu were croissants, pain au chocolat, baguettes and brioche.

Pupils enjoyed the opportunity to try something different and even pupils who were reluctant to try French food gave it a go. It was also a good opportunity to put the French that they had learnt in lessons to good use as pupils had to order their breakfast in French. They were really lucky to be

Patricia Stow

Lottie Clemens

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter January 2015

able to taste the food fresh out of the oven, thanks to our French catering manager, instead of having to make do with the shop bought version. Pupils really gave it the thumbs up.

Callum - It was délicieux!

Mia - A good start to the morning Leah - J’adore le petit déjeuner français Jermaine - j’ai adoré le pain au chocolat Alex - I want to do it again Luke - Thirds please!

Many thanks to the Friends of Roding Valley for funding this event.

Roll of Honour

September 2014: Harry Mifsud 8V

October 2014: Ellouise Lemon 10V

November 2014: Chloe Julians 7U

Harry has helped for the last 12 months with a junior karate club. He helps out for an hour each session twice a week teaching younger children their kicks and moves.

Nominated for being someone who is always extremely helpful in class and of a good nature. Ellouise is also a very good friend and a good member of the anti-bullying Mentors team. She keeps on working to the best of her ability despite what is going on in her life outside of school.

Nominated for being extremely kind and willing to go beyond the call of duty to help others. Chloe is supporting another student who cannot speak English in most of her lessons. Chloe took this responsibility upon herself and has had a great impact so far.

Advice for all Roding Valley’s Career advice has been recognised in an online report.

An extract is below.

For the full article go to: http://www.teachsecondary.com/ zipfiles/Options_for_learners_who_ dont_want_to_go_to_university.pdf Donna Mason, careers development manager at Roding Valley High School in Loughton, works hard to give pupils appropriate advice and guidance. All the careers staff follow the Recognition of Quality Award (ROQA). Roding Valley High School is part of a consortium in Essex, made up of six schools and Epping Forest College. Each year they have a joint careers fair open to all students in the area. The day provides information about college and university courses, apprenticeships and job opportunities with local and national employers – “Everything from the National Institute of Carpentry to barristers.”

Business Awards

Donna Mason works tirelessly as our careers advisor to ensure all our pupils have information and access to a vast range of businesses.

Ms Mason’s employer nomination this year at the Marriott Hotel Business awards won a commendation award for his contribution to the local community and providing an apprenticeship for our students! He was absolutely delighted as are we. This is a great achievement as there were 120 people there and many nominations! Congratulations!

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Master Chef Another hugely successful cooking competition was held on 23 October 2014 in the Food Technology Department. We had a very good turn out from Years 8 to 10. The judges were definitely in for a hard time in calling this one. On offer for their taste buds were Turkish soup, a giant Sausage Roll, Pasta dishes, Turkish Meatballs, Chicken Kiev, mini homemade Meat pies and homemade Burgers & Wedges!!

What a choice...

All the students worked extremely hard and their efforts did not go unnoticed. We had 2 winners this year MIYA ATHERTON 9T and RHYS GREENAWAY 8X. The 2 runners up were ABIGAIL WARD 8U and MAX COLLINGS 8Q. Well done to everyone who took part. A massive Thank You to our 2 dedicated helpers Antoni Nowak and Matthew Tinker, and a very big thank you to our 3 judges Miss Preston, Miss Dyer and Mrs Cain. We would also like to thank parents/carers for their continued support.

Christmas Lunch!

On the 11th December the school enjoyed a fabulous Christmas lunch.

With tinsel, crackers and all the trimmings there was a fantastic atmosphere. Staff wore their Christmas jumpers for the occasion and raised money for Save the Children at the same time. Thank you to our catering staff who peeled potatoes for hours to ensure a genuine, home cooked Christmas dinner!

The winners

The runn ers-up

The entrants

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter January 2015

Challenge and Enrichment day in the English Department On 24th October Roding Valley hosted a Murder Mystery Event as a reward for thirty six Year 7 students who had shown real enthusiasm for English during their first half term at secondary school.

The event was organised by a group of Year 11 students who had taken part in the Carnegie Shadowing Project during Year 9. The project involved the group meeting regularly to read and discuss the books nominated for the prestigious Carnegie Award. We also set up a blog to post our reviews and share feedback with other schools. The project culminated in a trip to a charity Murder Mystery event in London, the trip was very enjoyable - we used problem solving, negotiating and presenting skills to discover who the ‘murderer’ was. The event inspired us to run our very own Murder Mystery workshop in Roding Valley during the October of Year 10 in 2013. The event was such a success that we decided to organise it again this year.

Five students from the original Carnegie Project met regularly during the Autumn term to plan the event; we auditioned Year 11 drama students to play the ‘suspects’ and we made props, costumes and

decorations for the day. On the morning of the event, we arrived at school early and transformed the assembly hall into a sinister hotel with black drapes, Halloween decorations, ‘blood’, ‘rat poison’ and broken dolls- a hidden tape recorder of eerie sounds added to the spooky atmosphere.

The Year 7 students watched snippets of performance from the drama students and used the range of props, clues and resources concealed around the hall to solve ‘The Mystery of the Pink Lace Diamond’. Two groups were successful in unravelling the mystery and bringing the killer to justice.

For the second year the event was a resounding success and enjoyed by all who took part. Thank you to all those who gave up their time to assist in organising and running the day.

Olivia Tinker 11S

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Epping Forest Youth Council On Tuesday the 14th of October, the Epping Forest Youth Council held a Youth Conference with the purpose of engaging young people in local politics. It was timed to coincide with Local Democracy Week. 8 pupils from Roding Valley took part in the day, along with over 80 other young people from local schools and the 21 Youth Councillors from around the district. The Epping Forest Youth Conference gave a voice and an opportunity for young people to question people who hold power in our community, this included the Leader of Epping Forest District Council and the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner.

The day was split into two parts, in the morning each person went to three different workshops where they would put forward a question to an afternoon Question-Time panel. The themes of the workshops included Alcohol, Bullying, Stress, Drugs, Volunteering and Skills and Jobs. During the Question-Time panel, the Epping Forest Youth Councillors asked the panel the questions. After the Question-Time panel, each person was given an evaluation slip; they were asked to circle what they thought was the most relevant issue affecting young people in the Epping Forest district. Bullying was the main issue highlighted, so we as an Epping Forest Youth Council decided to form an anti-bullying project.

The Youth Council’s anti-bullying project was launched during anti-bullying week in schools around the district. Each Year 9 pupil was given a USB wristband with the words ‘#URNOTALONE’ printed on with the main aim of raising the awareness of bullying and preventing it from happening. All students were emailed out a help-sheet that had website links on to highlight organisations that tackle

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter January 2015

bullying. This information is available on www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/bullying Matthew Tinker and Doncho Atanassov Jodie Simm, Joseph Pollard, Grace Cain, Neve Bowden, Logan Simmonds, Yasu George, Sam Copeman, Louise Gilbert, Doncho Atanassov, Matthew Tinker

Young Essex Assembly Over the past few weeks, all pupils were given the chance to vote in the Young Essex Assembly elections. I have been campaigning to become a member of the YEA for the Epping Forest district to give everyone in our school a voice in the county. I would like to thank everyone that has voted in this election and on Monday 15th of December, we will be finding out who has been elected into the Young Essex Assembly.

Prestigious Debating Competition

Roding Valley High School recently hosted the prestigious Epping Forest Schools Parliamentary Debating Competition.

Teams from 5 local schools hotly debated the motion ‘this house supports the giving of the vote to 16 and 17 year olds’.

The large audience was impressed by the level of preparation, delivery and intervention from all the teams.

Our team of Olivia Tinker and Hannah Smith were arguing against the motion

and made an outstanding contribution to the success of the evening.

Roding Valley High School has won this event three times in the last four years but on this occasion after a long deliberation Davenant School were declared winners by the judges with Olivia and Hannah very close runners up.

Annie Graduates I am pleased to announce that Annie Chuba, one of the students whose education we sponsor through the Beyond Roding Valley project with Beyond Ourselves has successfully sat her Grade 7 exams and will be graduating from Greater Joy School.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped contribute toward our child sponsorship programme through non uniform days or other fundraising activities. Annie will be going to a government funded secondary school in the next academic year. The education of girls in sub saharan Africa has never been more important and it is great to know that Roding Valley has been able to support that.

I would also like to introduce Bethsheba Chilando who will replace Annie in our sponsorship programme. I am sure both of these girls will have brighter futures thanks to your continued support.

Prison. Me? No way!

On 20th November, Year 10 took part in an enrichment day.

‘Prison. Me? No Way!’ This saw visitors from all areas of the Prison service working with our pupils to raise awareness of what life in prison is really like. This included meeting with current prisoners, trying on riot gear, seeing inside a prison van and engaging in some powerful talks and testimonies from our visitors. Year 10 were mature and responded in a very positive way to the day.

Mr Cocker

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Year 7 Humanities Day Tuesday was the Humanities Drop Down Day and our focus was Zambia.

Roding Valley has very special links with a school called Greater Joy through a charity called Beyond Ourselves. Students from Roding have previously visited and we would like to continue this in the future.

Our day was designed around learning about Zambian culture, education and background with a specific focus on fundraising. Students enjoyed the Zoolab visitors - scorpions, snakes and rats to name but a few. They filmed short promo clips, decided upon and created resources for a fundraising event of their own, learnt about the history and

geography of Zambia and even had an opportunity to look at a variety of genuine resources from the homes of Zambian families.

We were delighted with the enthusiasm and offers to be part of a working party and intend to make contact with interested students in the near future.

Thank you very much to teaching staff and support staff for all their efforts in ensuring our day ran smoothly.

Tara Preston – Head of Humanities

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Roding Valley High School Newsletter January 2015

Human Rights Speaker Humanities had the great pleasure of welcoming a Human Rights Speaker - Elham Saudi who is a lawyer.

Elham speaks at the UN and has a special interest in Libya. She has also been on BBC Radio.

Elham triggered some interesting debate and asked some very difficult questions to 50 Year 10 students, many of whom are interested in Law, Humanitarian Aid or Politics as a career.

Roding Valley High School attend Inaugural Hertford Youth Conference On Thursday 13th November a group of ten students from Roding Valley High School attended the first Hertford Youth Conference hosted by St Joseph’s in the Park Prep School.

The aim of the conference was for young people to share ideas about ways that they can get involved in charity projects both locally and nationally.

Hannah Smith and Emma Kurton in Year 11 led a presentation on Roding Valley’s connection with Greater Joy School in Zambia through our work with Beyond Ourselves. The age range at the conferences spanned from Year 5 all the way through to sixth form students with guest speakers from Hertford Council and Beyond Ourselves. I am pleased to say that the group from Roding Valley not only gave an excellent presentation but were able to discuss ideas with delegates from all the attending schools.

On a personal note the Youth Conference showed me that there is no age limit to making a difference in our world. Whether that be locally or internationally, young people can be a powerful force for change. I look forward to taking another group from Roding Valley next year.

Mr Cocker

Back row from left to right: Hannah Smith (11V), Charlotte Burke (7Q), Sophie Lewis (7Q), Maddison Holden-Ettridge (7U), Ellie Blundy (7U), Joshua Worral (7W), Emma Kurton (11V) Front row from left to right: Yasmin Mushtaq (7S), Florence New (7V), Saskia Cushings (7U)

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The Gift of Christmas This year, our Year 7 pupils again supported the Samaritan’s purse appeal.

Pupils wrapped and created 120 shoe boxes for boys and girls and filled them with gifts that any child would be thrilled to receive. These have now been taken to the depot and will be distributed to children all over the world who would otherwise not be receiving a Christmas gift this year. I am incredibly proud of the Year 7 efforts in a short space of time.

Their generosity and care with their shoe boxes are a reminder to us all of the true heart of Christmas. They presented their shoe boxes in a Christmas service in which Ian King, Restore Community Church, spoke of the importance of giving to others in this festive season and remembering what happened at the first Christmas back in Bethlehem.

Well done Year 7.

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