Ridgewood School
| Established | 20 October 1968 |
|---|---|
| Type | Academy |
| Headteacher | Mrs Maggie Dunn |
| Location |
Barnsley Road Scawsby Doncaster South Yorkshire DN5 7UB England Coordinates: 53°32′19″N 1°10′57″W / 53.538688°N 1.182446°W |
| Local authority | Doncaster |
| DfE URN | 137603 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 91 teachers, 6 part-time teachers |
| Students | 1,410 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 11–19 |
| Colours | Black, Blue |
| Website | Ridgewood School |
Ridgewood School (The Academy @ Ridgewood Trust) is an academy in Scawsby, Doncaster, in England. The school gained academy status in October 2011, and was previously a specialist Engineering College.
Ridgewood School accepts pupils from the surrounding areas of Sprotbrough, Sprotbrough village (or Upper Sprotbrough) with Copley Junior School and Richmond Hill Primary School, Cusworth with Saltersgate Infants and Junior School, Barnburgh and Marr with Barnburgh Primary, and Scawsby with Rosedale Primary all leading on to Ridgewood. Pupils from Upper Sprotbrough who previously attended Outwood (formerly Adwick Secondary School), are now in the catchment area of Ridgewood. Ridgewood Academy performs average in Doncaster's league tables for GCSE and other results, often around the middle of league table schools.
Lessons: Ridgewood School teaches lessons in Geography, Music, History, French, Spanish, Art, ICT, Science, Maths, RE, Technology, Food Tech, English, and Drama. The various blocks within which lessons are taught are named for famous creators, inventors or scientists. The creators are as follows: MacAdam, Curie, Newton, Paxton, Telford, Da Vinci, Brunel, Arkwright, Hargreaves and Faraday, the latter of which is predominantly for Post 16 students.
Buses: Travel to the school is provided via the school buses, the 540, which collects students from Sprotbrough village, the 541, which collects students from Lower Sprotbrough, and the 542, which collects students from Barnburgh. A free late bus is also provided in the afternoons, which leaves at 16:30.
Detentions: At Ridgewood School, 'consequences' are issued for breaking rules. These are labelled C1, C2, C3 and C4. If a C3 is issued, the student must attend a 30 minute detention, and if a C4 is issued, the student must attend an hour-long detention. Usually, before a C3 is issued, two verbal warnings are issued - a 'C1' and 'C2'. If a student receives a 'C4' during lesson, they are sent to an 'on-call' room. On-the-spot C4s are issued if a student swears, refuses to start a task, speaks to a member of staff inappropriately, and fails to do as they have been asked to the first time. Pupils are given a 'right to appeal' wherein a pupil can, at break the following day, request a review of the 'consequence', with successful appeals leading to the C3 or C4 being removed.
The school also caters for 6th formers with courses including engineering. It competes in sporting and non-sporting events including fishing, track and field running, cross country, football and netball.
Ridgewood School neighbours the New Stone Hill School, a specialist school which was formerly the Anchorage School, and before that, a teacher training college. It has an open playing field towards the back of the site alongside Ridgewood's open P.E. fields, which are both surrounded by open fields used for agriculture. To one side of the playing field is an abandoned railway line which runs through Scawsby and Sprotbrough.
In the school's most recent Ofsted report (October 2015), the lower school was labelled 'Good' and the 6th form labelled 'Outstanding'.[1]
References
External links
Pastoral Care and Student Views
Ridgewood School was taken over by headteacher Maggie Dunn after Chris Hoyle resigned due to retirement. Chris Hoyle didn't always offer the highest level of support for the schools' students, however, with the lead of the new management, surprisingly results and pressure have risen but student's well-being have been significantly reduced. The new management are doing an excellent job at providing good quality Teaching and Learning, but the format in which it has been delivered in is making vulnerable students feel too pressured. Due to this, lots of students have decided to leave the school, including key members of staff that offered an excellent quality of pastoral care have left. Due to this, students left at Ridgewood School feel unsupported and neglected. This is due to the school classing students who are not being taught properly by teachers such a Science Teacher, to get coasting due to not meeting target grade, yet we are getting the blame for this inadequate teaching? Altus assemblies involve watching students who have show off qualities in them at the front of the room whilst students trying harder do not get recognized due to a failing system! Ridgewood School now has a lack of pastoral care, and new systems and procedures implemented have a negative effect on students who are failing to achieve, again due to in some areas inadequate teaching standards. Maggie Dunn is all bothered about examination results, but she shouldn't expect this to last if she keeps the current level of pastoral care running and implementing systems that make lower students feel inadequate; and again this is often due to inadequate teaching. This immense effort to bring grades up and modify league tables to the advantage of the school has to have a catch, and unfortunately it is at the students expense.
Improvements to the School
The school has faced a significant revamp and general improvements in late 2015/early 2016. These include an attractive logo design, which are more appealing, and a much improved but well designed website. This allows parents/cares to get in contact with the school easier, and to view what is happening in the school more quickly and efficiently. This was stated in the Ofsted report that the website was an area in which required improvement, and Ridgewood School have done a very good job with meeting these targets.