Dr Lara Akinnawonu (class of 2017) joined a group of our Year 9 Lymington Fields students today via Teams students to share her experiences of working in medicine. During the session, she gave students an insight into a “day in the life of a doctor”, explaining that the role is varied, fast-paced, and filled with constant learning. She also spoke about the key skills that make a good doctor, highlighting the importance of strong communication, empathy, and a commitment to continually developing knowledge and understanding. Thank you to Dr Lara for taking the time to inspire our students and give them a valuable glimpse into a career in healthcare.

We were proud to welcome back former student Jack Cooper to speak with our Year 9 cohort about his journey into the construction industry via Teams. After leaving Sixth Form in 2025, Jack secured a degree apprenticeship with The Hill Group, where he now works as a Technical Coordinator. He shared valuable insight into the apprenticeship route, highlighting how subject choices, extracurricular involvement, and developing transferable skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication and resilience helped prepare him for the workplace. Students were particularly interested in hearing about his day-to-day role — from reviewing plans and liaising with teams to solving on-site challenges — as well as how he balances university study alongside hands-on industry experience as part of his degree apprenticeship. Jack also spoke about the impact of our partnerships with organisations such as Construction Youth Trust, which provide mentoring and support for students pursuing careers in construction. His journey is a fantastic example of the diverse and rewarding pathways available after school. We are incredibly grateful to Jack for returning to inspire the next generation — and we look forward to seeing many more students follow in his footsteps.

This half term, the Robert Clack Senior Debate Squad had the opportunity to visit the local primary school, Grafton, to participate in a Q&A session and deliver a showcase debate. The motion considered whether primary or secondary school provides a better environment for children’s development. The teams were mixed, allowing the older students to mentor the younger pupils.  Well done to all Grafton and Robert Clack students who took part. We look forward to visiting again in the future.

On Thursday 13 th February we held the final presentations of our Sixth Form Entrepreneur Academy — Dragon’s Den style — and our students absolutely delivered. The brief: Create a product or service for 16–21 year olds that could be used by college or university students. It could be an invention or an innovation, tailored to a specific audience, with full cost research and a clear business case. The results? Innovative ideas. Professional presentations. Exceptional teamwork. 🏆 Winners: Imperium – an inventive mobile banking app designed specifically for the student market. A genuinely original concept, clearly aligned to the needs of their target audience. 🥈 Runners-up: Magniglasses – a smart glasses concept with a more affordable, accessible design. A brilliant example of innovation with commercial awareness. Every team impressed our judges with: • The quality of their ideas • Confident, professional pitching • Strong market research and costings • Clear marketing strategies It was fantastic to see many teams applying insights from our guest speakers — and even incorporating Out of Home advertising into their marketing plans following their visit to Bauer Media Group . A huge thank you to our volunteers and judges who generously gave up their time to support and challenge our students. The future of entrepreneurship is in very safe hands.

It’s always fantastic to see our students thinking ambitiously about their futures. Recently, Year 12 student MP shared her aspiration to become a Social Worker and asked whether Mrs Monk could connect her with a former student working in the field. Mrs Monk immediately reached out to Nanah Kamara who was more than happy to help. Nanah left Robert Clack in 2019 and, after completing her undergraduate degree, is now a fully qualified Social Worker. A meeting was set up via Teams on Wednesday 11th February, and MP came exceptionally well prepared — asking thoughtful, probing questions about relevant work experience, degree structure, and the training involved in qualifying as a Social Worker. A huge thank you to Nanah for giving up her time to support the next generation and for being such a positive role model for our students. Moments like this truly show the power of our alumni network.

On January the 28th, 340 of our most able Mathematicians took part in the UKMT Intermediate challenge. The challenge is a national competition where our students get to compete with the best Mathematicians in the country. The challenge has students utilise their mathematical reasoning and fluency in using the basic mathematical techniques learned from school to solve unique and interesting questions and challenges on the paper. The problems on the Intermediate Mathematical Challenge promote critical thinking skills, often making pupils apply their knowledge in unfamiliar ways in order to solve a problem. Our results have just come in and we had 82 Bronze awards, 36 Silver awards and an amazing 9 Gold awards. To put this into context, only 11% of entrants achieve the Gold awards nationally. A special mention to Abisman Rajakumar for achieving the highest in the school and David Karpovych for the highest in Year 9. They, along with 5 others, will have the opportunity to go into the follow-on Kangaroo round for the elite Mathematicians in the country.  Mr Rahman, Ms Hibbit & Ms Tahir

This season George in year 11 has been the starting Goalkeeper in the county under 16 schools football team.  The Essex team are enjoying a particularly successful season, they are currently awaiting their national cup quarter final away in Devon which is due to take place this month. Georges involvement is no surprise to the PE department, he is an outstanding all round sports man who is not only our goalkeeper, but also a key part of the Athletics, Cricket and Rugby team. Well done George and good luck in the next round.

On a wet and windy afternoon on the 5 th February the Year 11 Rugby team travelled to the Essex/Cambridgeshire border to play Joyce Frankland Academy in the Essex Cup ¼ final. On a pitch that was heavy in places and swamp like in others this was always going to be a game for the purists and running Rugby a tough ask. However, after a period of early pressure from Joyce Frankland and a vocal local crowd from the adjacent astro turf the Robert Clack boys certainly knew they were in for a battle. This plus some strong carries and tackles from their strong centre acted as a wake-up call to our boys. They started to take a hold of the game and some strong forward play combined with slick back play which was testament to the boys considering the conditions led to us scoring 3 quick tries and taking the sting out of the home team. Being up 20-5 at halftime the boys started the second half quite slowly and this led to the home team getting their tails up again and scoring a penalty try to make the game closer that is should be. Robert Clack then scored again to take the game out of sight and secure the place in the semi final where local rivals Campion await which will be an incredibly tough test but one that we will give 100% to. The boys involved in this game were excellent ambassadors for the school and conducted themselves with respect throughout which at times was put to the test so testament to them and the way the Robert Clack values show through in this group.

This term in Year 4, the children have been very busy learning all about the Anglo-Saxons. In reading lessons, they have thoroughly enjoyed following the adventures of the main character, Oslaf, in our class text Winter of the Wolves.  In History, the children have been learning about Anglo-Saxon conquests and how England was once divided into seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. They have also learnt about the achievements of the Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great and how Christianity first spread in England during this time. Our Science and Design and Technology learning have been closely linked, with children exploring electrical circuits and how electricity works. As part of this, they designed and made their own electrical circuits using simple circuits. In RE, the children have been learning about Hinduism and how Hindus worship. To deepen their understanding, they visited the London Sri Murugan Temple in Ilford, where they were able to see a wide range of Hindu statues and artefacts. The children learned about different deities and the reasons why Hindus pray to them. This valuable experience gave the children a deeper insight into their learning about Hinduism.