Education Business

Roding Valley high school dates back to the 1900s when it was an all girls’ school. Proposals to change the school into a mixed comprehensive were met with some reluctance and prejudice in the area but Roding Valley eventually got off the ground in 1989 and has since enjoyed a steadily increasing success rate. As tribute to its past, the school retains a fascinating mix of old and new, both in its interiors and in its values.

Why did you become a specialised performing arts school and what advantages does this have on learning?

We chose to apply for performing arts status to give the school an extra lease of life with an enhanced identity and focus. We have an exceptionally strong performing arts staff team, and the nature of our children is confident, articulate and lively. More crucially, it enables us to fulfil our ‘Achievement for All’ philosophy by extending our range of experiences and providing further opportunities to raise pupil self esteem.
    
Performing arts is also an excellent medium to educate about different cultures and ethnicities. Racism is about ignorance, and because we live in a predominately white area, there is the potential for racism to be an issue. So we use every opportunity to showcase different cultures in a positive light, such as in our black history art project or African drumming sessions.

One of the aims of the Every Child Matters agenda is for every child to enjoy and achieve. How do you ensure that your pupils are happy and supported in school?

Across the country, an increasing number of children are coming to schools from dysfunctional families and schools often have to pick up the pieces. You can’t get a child to achieve good results if they are desperately unhappy. So we have a strong and enhanced pastoral system in school including five year-heads, a Head of Lower and Upper School, a Relateen counsellor, a whole-school mentor, and even some of our year 11s have been trained as mentors.
    
We also have a Learning Support Unit, which was originally created to work with children at the risk of exclusion but has now been expanded to cover other programmes, such as Smart Thinking, bullying and bereavement. The raising of self-esteem is at the heart of everything we do.

How important a role does ICT have on the learning experience and do you use any innovative ICT?

ICT is crucial for learning because it is the heartbeat of the world we now live in. Smart boards and interactive boards are one example of how ICT can transform teaching and learning. It is great for bringing lessons alive and is especially useful for engaging kinaesthetic learners because of the interactive potential.

What are your views on learning outside the classroom?

The more activities and experiences you expose children to, the more chance you have of each child finding something that inspires them. As well as taking our children to galleries, museums and the theatre, we also do the Duke of Edinburgh award, have trips to France and go skiing in the US. We’ve also connected with Japan; our pupils have visited the Japanese Embassy and we have regular Japanese visitors come to the school and work with our students.

Do health and safety issues put you off?

The safety of our students and staff is paramount – especially as we do so many off-site activities. Although the paperwork can be very time consuming, it has not deterred our staff from running so many and varied activities – although I cannot deny that there are understandable concerns from staff that they could be the subject of legal action if anything were to go wrong, despite their best efforts and precautions. This is especially hard as teachers often use their own unpaid time for trips.

How do you ensure the security of your pupils and staff?

We’re right in the middle of a built up area so you have to find the balance between creating a school that is safe and secure without feeling like a prison. We think we have achieved that balance. We have around 150 adults working in the school so you could argue that anyone could walk in without being recognised. Therefore, all of our staff have security badges and visitors have to be buzzed in from the
main entrance.

With the increased pressure to tackle obesity in school children, how does Roding Valley promote healthy eating and lifestyle to its pupils?

Diet is part of a lifetime habit so you can’t change it by just doing one thing; it’s got to become an ethos in the school. We’ve achieved this by talking openly about the benefits of healthy eating in assemblies and also in citizenship, PSHE, science and food technology lessons, as well as re-launching our canteen delivery in 2007. We have achieved Healthy Schools status and we have received the Heartbeat Award for our kitchen for five consecutive years.

What are the challenges when it comes to staffing the school?

A school really succeeds on the quality of its teaching so recruiting and retaining good staff is crucial. We are just on the border of London and teachers in inner and outer London have higher salaries. So you could teach two miles down the road and be earning more. Also, as the cost of living has shot up but teaching salaries haven’t, I am now finding it harder this year to recruit younger staff, especially as those who have just qualified tend to have big student loans to pay off. Luckily our staff are happy and tend to stay.

For more information
www.roding-sec.essex.sch.uk