It was an absolute pleasure to host our Year 6 transition evening last night for those children who will be joining us in September this year. The hall was absolutely packed and we look forward to welcoming everyone into the Roding Valley community. The Year 6 practice day is in two weeks’ time, Friday 27th June, and we look forward to welcoming all of the students who will be joining us in September for a day at Roding. I would just like to warn parents who drop their children off in Brook Road in the morning that the traffic in Brook Road can be exceptionally busy on this day. It may be worth considering finding an alternative place to drop your child on this day. We have received a couple of phone calls asking us to clarify the school’s uniform policy in warm weather. As we do in the winter, we always relax our rules on uniform when the weather starts to get really warm. At the moment we expect students to be in full uniform at all times, however on days like today (when the temperature was around 27°) we allow the students to not wear their blazers around the site and, for the boys, to loosen their ties etc. We did explore the possibility of a summer uniform a couple of years ago but we felt the cost was going to be very prohibitive. Congratulations to the 4 students who represented the school and the local district at The Essex Schools Athletic Championships last week in Chelmsford. To reach the standard that enables you to qualify, we were delighted that all 4 students made their respective finals-a significant achievement in itself. Special congratulations go to Max Wintle (7U) who came second in his final, running a personal best, and now anxiously waits to see whether he will be selected to represent the County. Congratulations again to the other students who made their finals: Greg Gilbert (11U) who ran a personal best in the heat to qualify for the final, Louise Gilbert (8R) and Nancy Callagher (9W). Congratulations also to every one of the GCSE Art and Photography students whose work was displayed in our annual exhibition last night. I say this every year, but the standard of work produced amazes me and everyone involved should be very proud. The examination season for our Year 11 students is almost over and I have to congratulate every single student for the way that they have approached these examinations. I know how hard everyone revised and prepared for these exams and I am really confident that this will be reflected in another outstanding set of GCSE results. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Draper (Examinations Officer) for her superb organisation throughout the exams. Finally, please remember that next Wednesday (18th June) is a non-uniform day and we will be raising money for the British Heart Foundation. I wish you all a good weekend. Paul Banks Headteacher
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