Dear Families,
Welcome back to Roding!
I hope you all had a wonderful summer and managed to enjoy some special time together as a family. There is always something lovely about the start of a new school year – seeing familiar faces returning through the gates, hearing the school come back to life and welcoming so many new children and families into our community.
For those joining us for the first time, a particularly warm welcome to the Roding family. We have welcomed lots of new families across the school this September, especially in our Nursery and Reception classes, and I hope you are already beginning to feel at home with us.
For those who might be unsure, I am Ms Nwankiti, and I have the enormous privilege of being the Headteacher of Roding Primary School. I always like to use my first newsletter of the year to share a little bit about myself with our new families. This is now my 8th year at Roding. I originally joined the school as Deputy Headteacher before going on to become Headteacher, and it is fair to say that Roding has become a very special place to me.
Over those eight years, I have watched children arrive at our school as little three- and four-year-olds and eventually leave us as confident young people ready to begin secondary school. I have watched families grow, welcomed younger siblings through our doors and had the privilege of getting to know so many of you along the way. Being Headteacher is something I never take for granted. I care deeply about this school, the community we serve and, above all, the children who come through our doors each day. I want Roding to be a school our children love coming to, our families are proud to be part of and where every child is given the opportunity to thrive.
It has certainly been a busy first few weeks – so busy, in fact, that this newsletter is arriving a day later than planned! If the first few weeks are anything to go by, I think we are in for another action-packed year!
Before looking ahead, I want to take a moment to celebrate some of the successes from last academic year. We ended the year with some incredibly strong attainment results, including our highest-ever Phonics Screening Check result, with 98% of children achieving the expected standard. We also achieved our highest-ever Multiplication Tables Check results, with 63% of children scoring a perfect 25/25, significantly above the national figure. At the end of Key Stage 2, 40% of pupils achieved Greater Depth in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling, while 81% achieved at least the Expected Standard in Maths. There were many other positive outcomes across the school, and we look forward to sharing these with you.
Most importantly, our children have returned brilliantly. It has been wonderful to have our classrooms, corridors and playgrounds full again. They have settled quickly into their new classes and routines, and we are already seeing some fantastic learning taking place.
Our year began with training for every member of staff – teachers, support staff, midday staff, administrative staff and leaders. This was important because every adult at Roding has a part to play in the experience our children receive. Together, we reflected on our journey as a school: our strengths, what we have achieved and, importantly, where we want to go next.
At Roding, we have the highest expectations of ALL children, regardless of their starting points or any barriers they may face. We believe that every child can grow, succeed and achieve. During the years your child is with us, we will work alongside you to identify and remove barriers, provide the right support and challenge, and help them reach their full potential. This belief sits at the heart of our school motto: Free to Achieve.
As part of our staff training, we also spent time thinking about what high standards look like every day – not occasionally and not only in some classrooms. From those discussions came The Roding Way: Our Seven Commitments.
These seven commitments set out what we, as a school, are promising our children and families. They reflect the standards we expect from ourselves and our determination to provide every child with a consistently high-quality experience. You will find our Seven Commitments below, and we will continue to talk about these throughout the year.
We know, however, that we cannot achieve our ambitions for our children alone. The relationship between home and school is incredibly important. We want to work in partnership with you, celebrating successes together but also having open and constructive conversations when things are difficult. When children see the adults around them working together and sharing high expectations, it sends a powerful message about how much we all believe in them.
Finally, for our new families, a reminder that our main communication platform is Arbor. Please ensure you are regularly checking Arbor for messages and updates from school. I would also encourage all families to take a look at our Events Calendar, which sets out the key events taking place throughout the academic year. There is already lots to look forward to!
Thank you for such a positive start to the year. Whether this is your first September with us or one of many, thank you for placing your trust in Roding and allowing us to be part of your child's journey.
I am incredibly excited about the year ahead and all that we will achieve together.
Welcome back, Roding – here's to a fantastic year ahead!
Warm regards,
Ms M Nwankiti
Headteacher
