We have had such an exciting year as BBC Young Reporters in the Media Studies Department! At the start of the year we wrote, developed and recorded our very own podcast about Children’s Mental Health Week. We learnt how to use the audio equipment and discovered what it takes to edit audio and images on Premiere Pro.
As part of this we got to practice our interview skills by interviewing our head of year Mr Van Gelder and other students in the Wellness Club.
Shortly after this we visited a media related industry careers event at the UCL Pearl located at the Eastbrook Studios in Dagenham. Industry professionals taught us all about all the different jobs available to us in the film industry and we even got to play around with some of the equipment!
We then moved on to take part in the BBC Young Reporters Competition where we had to design an idea for an article about what makes us special. We wrote about how significant our borough is and how special our school is as we will become one of the biggest schools in the UK.
Our favourite event of the year was the Industry Professional Talk the Media Department organised with London based post-production house The Assembly Rooms. Here we got to interview the guests, film and photograph the day and take part in the talks and demonstrations. We learnt how essential the editing process is and are now using these new-found skills to edit together our coverage of the event.
We have also taken part in an in-house competition to create our own stop motion cartoons which was great fun!
The skills and experiences we have learnt in BBC Young Reporters will help build our careers and confidence in the future. This club is great fun and if you would like to find out more come and find us in the Media Department.
Written by Kamilah, Afifa and Zaynah, Year 7
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.
The end of term for Year 3 was certainly a busy one. The children completed their Prehistoric Artwork unit by creating cave wall posters for a classroom display, as well as finishing their own textured cave walls to take home. In Science, the children also had the opportunity to investigate different rock types, soil types, and fossils, thinking about where they might be found and how long they may have been there. The children also enjoyed some Christmas celebrations, including a class party, a pick‑and‑mix station, and even a visit from Santa and his elf. Year 10 presented the Primary School with their own pantomime, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children. So far in 2026, the children have started their new Science topic of Forces and Magnets, completing experiments to see how friction can affect an object while spinning and how different surfaces create friction when sliding. The children were tasked with working scientifically, so they created a question to investigate, predicted the outcome, and then set up their investigation to gather their final results. They have also investigated which materials are magnetic and how magnets can attract and repel each other.
Year 9 Vision and Voices students took their second trip of the year to the National Gallery, where they developed their oracy skills by focusing on three key paintings. All students were highly engaged throughout the activities and were fantastic on the trip.
Year 11 student Nwayinnaya recently approached Mrs Monk to explore a potential career in Psychology. Former pupil Chiamaka Oleh, who is now working in the field, was keen to help and generously gave up her time to offer guidance. They met via Teams on Wednesday 4th February, where Nwayinnaya was highly proactive, asking thoughtful and probing questions throughout the conversation. A huge thank you to Chiamaka for sharing her experience and supporting Nwayinnaya on her career journey.
Gifton, Teddy and Mazeed from our successful year 10 boys Rugby team have all been selected to play for the professional Rugby side, Saracens in their performance development group. Trials took place over a number of months and had close to 1000 students involved in the process from the South East of England. The Robert Clack boys represented Saracen at their home ground, the StoneX stadium. The boys are part of the year 10 team that made the county final last year and are currently waiting to play the quarter final this year in the hope of making it to back to back Essex finals. The PE department and the whole school are extremely proud of the whole team, but these 3 in particular deserve special recognition for their achievements. Mr Goyette
We had a fantastic start to our ‘Fairy Tales’ topic with a creative Fairy Tale Workshop. Throughout the day children explored a range of fairy tale stories through drama and art. Children enjoyed exploring characters feelings and motivations to help them create some fantastic imaginative writing! In Geography, we have been learning to name geographical features in our local environment. In Computing, we have been learning about online safety and discovering how to program a Bee-Bot with a seqence of instructions. In Science, children enjoyed taking part in science experiments including naming and classifying the properties of different objects and taking part in a water experiment to check the strength of different types of paper. This half term, we had a visit from a Road Safety specialist, who helped our children to understand the importance of staying safe, when crossing a road. It was a very interesting and valuable workshop and children were very keen to take part in the activities provided. Our new topic is called ‘Global Explorers’ and we will be discussing what makes an explorer ‘great’. We will begin our topic by making binoculars, looking at a world map, making passports and completing physical training. Once we have completed our training we will be ready to explore the world! In maths we will be focussing on addition and subtraction skills as well as learning our number bonds to 20 and times table facts of 2 and 10. In science we will be exploring the topic of ‘materials’ and in PSHE we will be exploring our own dreams and goals. It is going to an amazing new half term! We look forward to seeing you soon!
Recently, students had the exciting opportunity to visit Bauer Media Out of Home Advertising , where they stepped into the heart of creativity and digital marketing. During the visit, students explored what makes a strong poster and an effective advert, gaining valuable insight into how successful advertising captures attention and communicates a message clearly. Through hands-on discussions and real-world examples, students learned how advertising campaigns are developed, from the initial creative concept to final delivery. The experience offered a behind-the-scenes look at the fast-paced world of digital and outdoor advertising, helping students connect classroom learning with industry practice and inspiring future career possibilities. This was made possible through a contact first established via our alumni association. A huge thank you to Jordan and the entire team for their continued support and for providing such brilliant, real-world opportunities. Experiences like these are invaluable in helping our students gain insight, confidence, and inspiration for their future careers. David in Year 12 commented: ‘A really interesting and hands on experience that highlighted just how much thought, creativity and strategy go into effective advertising. Thanks to Jordan and Holly at Bauer Media Out Of Home for such an engaging experience.’