Alongside the trips to China last academic year, our school was delighted to once again welcome students from The New Oriental School in China as part of our exciting Summer exchange programme. Pupils from across the Robert Clack sites took part in a wide range of engaging activities with their Chinese buddies. These included app design, creating fusion maps and cities, baking traditional rock cakes, and participating in a variety of sporting activities such as basketball, badminton, and rounders. Our pupils thoroughly enjoyed the experience and embraced the opportunity to learn about a different culture while making new friends. Some of our pupils said: "It was really interesting learning about Chinese culture and working together on the activities. I made friends I'll never forget." "My favourite part was baking rock cakes and playing sports together. It was so much fun!" "I loved getting to know the students from China. Even though we speak different languages, we found lots of ways to communicate and work as a team." "Now I am looking forward to the China trip in October even more." A huge well done to all of our pupils for their outstanding behaviour throughout the programme. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the staff who helped make the visit such a memorable success. The exchange provided a fantastic opportunity for cultural learning, new friendships, and unforgettable experiences that our pupils will cherish for years to come. 

We are delighted to celebrate the achievements of the students who took part in the Geographical Association's Geography Model Making Competition. The competition showcased an outstanding level of creativity, geographical knowledge, and dedication, and we are incredibly proud of all who participated. Whilst we eagerly await the results of our submissions to the Geographical Association, we are keen to take this opportunity to recognise and celebrate the hard work, commitment, and enthusiasm shown by these students. Their achievements are a testament to the passion for Geography that continues to thrive within our school community. A special congratulations goes to our winning students: Green Lane Winner: Michael A (Year 7) Michael said: "My model is a depiction of the threat of climate change on animal habitats, where melting glaciers in mountains can result in flooding of rivers and the destruction of animal habitats." 

Students at the Gosfield and Green Lane sites have enjoyed taking part in our Year 7 & 8 Food Club, where they created a variety of delicious sweet and savoury dishes while developing their practical cooking skills.  Throughout the sessions, they learnt a range of food preparation techniques, practised safe kitchen skills, and gained confidence in following recipes independently. The club provided a fantastic opportunity for students to be creative, work together, and explore new flavours and ingredients. It was wonderful to see their confidence grow as they proudly prepared and presented their dishes. Food Club has been a great way for students to develop valuable life skills while having fun and celebrating their achievements in the kitchen.

This summer, debaters from Years 9 and 10 across our three sites had the opportunity to attend the annual Global Classrooms Model United Nations (MUN) conference—a much-anticipated highlight in our debating calendar each year. The two-day event took place at Mulberry School, which hosts the largest MUN programme for state secondary and international schools in the UK. At these professional conferences, students take on the role of ambassadors in simulations of UN committees. This year's theme focused on Human Conflict and Women. The event promoted cooperation, leadership, public speaking, and global citizenship in a warm and supportive environment. We were proud to represent Jordan and Ethiopia this summer. Special mention goes to David, Sophie, and Zahra for bringing home awards. A huge well done to everyone who took part. Their professionalism, teamwork, and thoughtful engagement throughout the event—especially in the heat—were exemplary. As always, they represented our school with pride. We look forward to the Winter one

Year 3 have had a busy final term. They have been learning all about 3D shapes, specifically their properties, and even had the chance to build some using marshmallows and spaghetti. This required patience, teamwork, and a good understanding of vertices, edges, and faces. We celebrated bees on our school's 'Bee Day', consolidating our topic of plants, outlining bees' very important job as pollinators. On the Friday before Father's day, lots of Dads joined us for some class reading, taking small groups and reading a book of their choice. Thanks to all those who helped. In the spirit of the World Cup, football shirt day saw lots of different teams and nationalities on display. In year 3, that was also the day that we learnt about our skeletons and organs. We even drew around some of our classmates to show where our major bones and organs are. Sports day was a huge success, with the children enjoying a mixture of athletic activities before the all-important races. Thankfully, the weather held out for a great afternoon of healthy competition. Our class book this term has been Fantastic Mr Fox, which has been a particular favourite by many, and we have produced lots of excellent pieces of writing to support this. To celebrate all of our achievements this year, we took a trip to Hainault country park for a day of fun and relaxation. With a mixture of games, ice lollies and visiting the farm, farm was had by all, and it was a great way to finish off the year.

T his Summer 2 term has been filled with creativity, exploration, and memorable experiences for our Reception children. Throughout the term, the children have enjoyed taking part in a variety of exciting art and craft projects, developing their creativity and fine motor skills. They created colourful caterpillars, beautiful butterflies, and many other imaginative pieces inspired by our learning, all of which have brightened our classroom displays. One of the highlights of the term was our visit to Colchester Zoo. The children had a fantastic day exploring the zoo and observing a wide range of animals from around the world. They were fascinated by the different habitats, animal behaviours, and interesting facts they learned throughout the visit. It was wonderful to see their curiosity and enthusiasm as they discussed what they had seen and asked thoughtful questions. Throughout the term, the children have continued to make excellent progress across all areas of learning. We are incredibly proud of how much they have grown in confidence, independence, and resilience, and it has been a joy to watch them flourish during their Reception year.  As the children prepare for their next exciting adventure into Year 1, we would like to thank all of our families for their continued support throughout the year. We wish every child the very best for the future and know they will continue to thrive in the next stage of their learning journey.

What a fantastic final term we’ve had in Year 4! It has been a wonderful way to end the school year, with so many exciting events and memorable experiences. I was incredibly proud of the children’s fantastic achievements in this year’s Multiplication Tables Check. The children have worked exceptionally hard throughout the year to develop their times table knowledge, and their dedication and perseverance have truly paid off. The results were outstanding, reflecting the effort the children have put into practising both at school and at home. One of the highlights of this term was our Year 3 and 4 Sports Day! The children showed great enthusiasm, determination, and excellent teamwork. We were so proud of the way they encouraged each other and gave every event their very best effort. This term, the children have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in cricket coaching sessions with Essex Cricket. They have learnt and developed a range of new skills including batting, bowling, fielding and teamwork, whilst growing in confidence and enjoying the game. It has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm and confidence grow throughout the sessions and we are incredibly grateful to Essex Cricket for providing such a fun and engaging experience. We also enjoyed out Dads’ Reading Afternoon. It was lovely to welcome some of our dads into the classroom to share some of the children’s favourite books with them. We also had a wonderful opportunity to visit the Gosfield Road site to the secondary school’s art exhibition which features the theme of ‘Under the Sea’. The children were very impressed by the creativity and imagination behind each piece. It was a fantastic experience and a great opportunity to celebrate art within our wider school community. To celebrate a successful year, we finished with a fantastic trip to the bowling alley. The children had a brilliant time enjoying some friendly competition, cheering each other on and celebrating all they have achieved throughout the year. As we come to the end of Year 4, I would like to thank you for your continued support throughout the year. It has been a pleasure teaching such a kind, hardworking and enthusiastic group of children. I would like to wish everyone a happy, safe and relaxing summer holiday and I look forward to seeing you all again in September!

On Friday 10th July students took part in the Amazon Think Big Programme, where they designed and built a LEGO robot and competed in a race against other teams. The challenge required students to think carefully about their robot's design to ensure it was both robust and fast enough to perform successfully. Throughout the programme, students developed a range of important skills, including: Problem-solving Creativity and innovation Collaboration Teamwork Communication Critical thinking The programme was delivered across three separate sessions for different year groups: KS2 – Year 4 KS3 – Years 7–9 KS4 – Year 10 The activities provided an engaging introduction to STEM learning, encouraging students to work together, test ideas, refine their designs, and develop confidence in engineering and technology-based challenges. We would like to extend our thanks to Alex and the team and also ex pupil Bradley Stokes (class of 2017). Bradley facilitated the sessions between the School and Amazon as he now works for them on their technical team.

This summer term, our fantastic Year 8 students visited London’s Natural History Museum as a well-deserved reward for their exceptional hard work in Religious Education (RE). Despite a blistering heatwave, our students did an amazing job. They showed incredible resilience, staying engaged, polite, and deeply curious all day. The museum’s exhibits brought several complex RE topics to life. In the biodiversity galleries, students connected displays to our debates on animal rights and environmental sustainability. Human biology exhibits sparked conversations around medical ethics, while the famous earthquake simulator linked directly to our study of "natural evil" and the philosophical problem of evil.  Staff and members of the public actively commended the group for their exemplary behavior. Huge congratulations to Year 8—you represented our school brilliantly and earned every bit of this reward!