What's in a name?

Well, the first blog of a new academic year and with this new start I am pleased to announce some rebranding of the school and important additions to our website.

When I first became Headteacher of the school I took the line that if “Rodborough Technology College” was our name then we should use it and use it properly. Over the last five years it has become clear that many people who do not know us misunderstand the name. As a “College”, they expect us to have older students and often “Technology” gets changed to “Technical”, especially by those who remember schools of the past with that name. For those who do know us, we have always been, and I suspect always will be, “Rodborough”. So we have changed our name to “Rodborough” and when we use it in places where people don’t know us we have a “strap line” of “A Specialist Technology School” to help them understand who we are. So increasingly now you will see this change seep through all the things we do. Our new signs at the front of the school already show the change.

Have you logged onto our website recently? If you haven’t, then I encourage you to do so. There have been radical changes to the front end and two major additions. If you log on you will see the screen split into three sections (under our old name of course…… it will take a while!). The “Eco” part of the site is dedicated to Martin Davies – our former Head of Technology who, sadly, died in the summer. This part of the site was inspired by him. If you go into it, there is an attractive, interactive graphic which, if you click onto various parts, takes you into the work the school is doing on the Government’s eight sustainability themes: Traffic and Travel, Energy and Water, Local Wellbeing, The Global Dimension, Purchasing and Waste, School Building and Grounds, Inclusion and Participation, and Food and Drink. Plus our own weather station information. There is a lot we have achieved already and plans for much more work in the months and years ahead.

The other section on the website is labelled “Travel”, which is an important part of our “Safer Routes to School” work. Part of the site is aimed at encouraging pupils to cycle to school with information, guidance and practical tips. The other part is an interactive forum for pupils to discuss cycling and link to other cycle users. We currently have about 60 regular cyclists to school and, at a peak in the summer, this rose to 100. It is so popular that we are looking for new cycle shed facilities.

This year, each department is looking at their Departmental space on the website with a view to getting more homework tasks, more materials, presentations and revision materials on the site. If it doesn’t work for you, please let us know through info@rodborough.surrey.sch.uk so that we can take your views on board.