Welcome to the Post 16 Online Prospectus for the new Post 16 Centre at Ridgewood School.  Post 16 education at Ridgewood aspires, and intends, to build on the tremendous development and success the school has experienced at the Secondary level (11-16) over the last few years. 

Ridgewood has Specialisms in Engineering & Related Technologies and in Applied Learning, and was granted High Performing Specialist Status (HPSS) in 2008 on the basis of our sustained achievements. The new development has come as a consequence of all this, and we have been tasked and challenged to continue that process of development and achievement, both to “finish what we’ve started” at 11-16, and to explore the new frontiers of progression and development that open up at Post 16. With your help, engagement, talents and hard work, we intend to do just that!

This is clearly a very exciting time for Ridgewood School.  Our brand new, purpose built, Post 16 Centre will open to deliver Post 16 courses in September 2011.  The building development will cost in excess of £5 million and will house facilities of the highest quality to enable and support teaching and learning in and beyond our Specialisms. We will offer a broad range of courses both within our specialism areas and across the wider curriculum.  Our ethos will reflect the main school vision: Focused on the individual and the personal; Caring and committed to providing the highest standards of provision and support to engender success in all areas of life and work; Determined and resolute in supporting (and challenging!) everyone involved to be the best they can be, in all the different ways that can be expressed. The success of each individual will produce and sustain the success of all involved, and give it variety and diversity. We intend to always aspire to, and strive for, just that – why settle for anything else?

Our brand new, purpose built Post 16 Centre will provide cutting edge facilities and education to students studying at Ridgewood.

We are a Specialist centre for Engineering, Related Technologies and Applied Learning as well as being a High Performing Specialist School.

We consistently achieve high levels of GCSE results and Applied and Vocational outcomes at Level 2 .We have every confidence in this providing the basis for similar success at Post 16.

Our 2009 Ofsted report was very successful and said that “the outstanding curriculum is innovative and outward looking and makes an important contribution to students’ good achievement and personal development”.

We already teach AS and A2 Level courses to Key Stage 4 students and to Post 16 students from elsewhere in the area.  Many staff have successful, recent experience at Post 16 teaching.

We have earned an excellent reputation in the local area and well beyond it, including at National level, and we already have many successful links with other providers in the area.  Ofsted said that “the curriculum is greatly enriched by constructive links with outside colleges and businesses and through numerous trips and visits”

The fact that Post 16 education at Ridgewood is new provides an exciting opportunity for the first cohorts of students to shape the ethos and development of the Post 16 provision.  This may include establishing committees, traditions and the very day to day running of the Post 16 Centre at Ridgewood.

Facilities

·         Brand new, purpose built Post 16 Centre costing in excess of £5 million that will be a separate entity from the main school, yet part of its overall success.

·         Extensive cutting edge ICT equipment throughout the building

·         State of the art STEM facilities

·         A multipurpose auditorium for, amongst many other uses, Drama, Expressive Arts and presentations 

·         Private, and  open plan non-private, study areas for individual and group learning

·         Post 16 social spaces

·         Touch screen technology for student use

·         A fully resourced, forward thinking Library and Resource Centre

·         Interactive teaching and  learning technology in every learning area

At Ridgewood we are rightly very proud of the support we give to students.  Ofsted recently described our care, guidance and support as outstanding and said that they “underpin Ridgewood’s inclusive nature”.  This level of support will continue at Post 16, shaped appropriately for the age range it covers.

We will have staff who will be focused on the development, both academically, personally, and socially, of students at Post 16.  These members of staff will give individual support with progression processes such as the UCAS University entry process, and securing further training and employment.

Students will have access to the facilities that have been specially designed to promote independent learning, and individual development crucial to success in later life whilst still being underpinned by a strong supportive ethos.

Students will have every opportunity to become actively involved in the development of Post 16 education at Ridgewood which will, in turn, help with their development as lifelong learners.  Student Council members will be actively involved in all areas of school life not just at Post 16 and students will be encouraged to participate in committees and other mechanisms that will support the running of the Post 16 Centre.

All students are catered for equally well at Ridgewood and the latest Ofsted report in 2009 said that “the provision for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, gifted and talented, vulnerable students and students at risk of underachieving is exemplary”. This ethos will be a fundamental feature of post 16 provision.

Our sustained success at GCSE, and at Vocational Level 2, is something we are rightly proud of at Ridgewood.  We have been awarded High Performing Specialist School status because of this continued success, and it is this approach, attitude and outcome that will be the hallmark of Post 16 provision here. Whilst , of course, at this stage we have no “past record” at Post 16, what we do have is that sustained reputation for successful implantation across a very wide field of provision, and a continuing tradition of facilitating, supporting, achieving  and celebrating success in a wide number of forms and areas from the academic (e.g qualifications), through the sporting (e.g Cups and  Leagues in football and Rugby, Athletics, Skiing, Martial Arts and a wide range of individual representative honours from the Regional to the National, and International) , musical (e.g Concerts , Tours and individual performances) and artistic (e.g Awards, Competitions and Exhibitions) , to the individual and personal (e.g DoE, ascent of Everest foothills, personal expeditions). That will continue , and expand, in Ridgewood Post 16 – through, and with , you!!!