Head’s End of Term Letter July 2008

Dear Parents,

year on year, there are more exciting initiatives and learning opportunities to discover. The only drawback is it makes all of us, including the pupils, really tired!

As always, I outline the core targets for the next couple of years. It goes without saying that we aim to improve even further pupils’ results and the quality of learning and teaching in the school. And you may notice one new target, the last one:

• To provide more choices of learning styles for students in years 9-11 linked to personal pathways
• Build up a sense of community in the school
• Develop further the learning environment to make it fit for purpose
• Strengthen the understanding of parents, pupils and the community about our specialist status

Innovation

Year 9 pupils have just won the Wave Power Challenge held at Lancaster University. We beat three other excellent schools to win the Innovation Award and the overall 2008 winner, which brought together technology and science in this project. I should also ask you to note that our pupils were competing against Year 10 pupils! Well done to them! Innovation is certainly a “buzz word” in education at the moment, but it means “doing things differently”. Indeed, there are so many examples of doing things differently at Ribblesdale that I can not list them all here. If you browse through the latest edition of RibWord (enclosed) then you can see what I mean. It is very important that we need to respond to a changing world and ensure that real life experiences form part of the curriculum rather than merely tagging on such experiences at the end.

I am writing to you the morning after our summer show “Razzle Dazzle”. What a superb evening! The event was held in a professional setting this year at The Grand, Clitheroe and the venue was full. The quality of the performing arts at this school continues to get better with every event. The real life setting only embellishes the quality of what was achieved. We have resourceful, confident, talented young people and staff: we are very lucky. Well done to everyone involved.

The learning environment

Work is almost complete to transform an underused and unloved area of the school to a state of the art Learning Resource Centre/Library (LRC). It is situated adjacent to a coffee shop (the name of which is being determined by the school council) which will be available to Years 9-11 as a complementary venue to the dining room. More importantly, in due course, it will be available after school, as will the LRC which will be open and staffed until 6pm two evenings each week from the end of September. A student services office will bring together a range of support services for young people and they will get more information about this when they return to school.

Donation book shop

To celebrate the opening of our new LRC we are offering parents and friends of the school an opportunity to sponsor a library book. The scheme involves buying a library book for the new LRC. We shall place a sticker on the inside cover of the book purchased recording the name of the sponsor. The process is entirely electronic and you should follow these simple steps:

• Log on to the school’s website and select the “donation bookshop” link (or the direct address is www.ribblesdale.org/bookshop)
• Browse from the several hundred books available
• Select one or more books and follow the on-screen instructions
• Print off the form and return it to school with the cheque attached. An acknowledgement will be provided. Cheques should be returned to the student services office (the old R19 art room)

I very much hope you and your family will contribute to the scheme. Our aim is to provide a library stock of 12,000 books by next year. We currently have approximately 8,000 books in stock.

Summer examination results

You will have read in the media that Key Stage Three (Y9) SATs results have been contracted out by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to ETS Europe. We have been advised that the SATs results will be made available to us much later than the published date; when they are available we shall send them to parents by post. It is interesting that as the most tested young people ever, they still have to suffer the consequences of an outrageously bureaucratic system to find out what we, as teachers, already know!

For pupils following early entry/accelerated programmes, results will be posted home in August.

Year 7

We always evaluate what we do and try hard to make things better – even if they are good already. Earlier this year when we spoke to some Year 7 pupils, they told us it would be nice if they could have a designated social/play area somewhere on the site. Having considered this, from September, the playground in front of E Block and B Block will be designated a Year 7 playgound only. This means that only Year 7 may use this space at lunchtime (1.05pm-1.45pm and an hour earlier on Friday) and breaktime. Prefects will assist in supervision. I will be interested to know the views of our new students when the scheme has been running for a few months and evaluate it again after Christmas.

Uniform

I am delighted with the standards of uniform the pupils achieved this term. After a very high profile reminder in April, everyone worked hard to make sure standards improved. Parents have been very supportive. When phone calls have been made to ask for your cooperation as parents, this has been done willingly and is appreciated. The outcome is that our pupils take pride in their appearance.

We do continue to have some difficulties with footwear. A small number of pupils do not have appropriate shoes for school. To help parents make an informed choice about types of footwear appropriate for school, please find enclosed some pictures that will help. May I also remind pupils that v-neck jumpers with the school badge should be worn. Enclosed is the uniform/suppliers list.

Staffing

Miss Rogers is leaving the school after three years; also leaving are a number of staff who have been working to cover long term absence or maternity leave: Mr Fletcher; Ms Aslam; Mr Ashcroft; Miss Hickman and Mr White. We are grateful for all their help in moving this school forward and they should be well satisfied with their contribution.

School opens for the autumn term as follows:

• Wednesday 3 September at 8.45am for Year 7 and Year 11 (school closes at 2.10pm – buses arranged)
• Thursday 4 September at 8.45am for Years 8, 9 and 10, closing as usual at 3.10pm
• For pupils following Period 7 courses, they begin on Monday 8 September at 3.15pm

Thank you to parents and pupils for all your hard work in supporting Ribblesdale this year. On behalf of all the staff at Ribblesdale, may I wish you a happy and restful summer break.

Yours sincerely

S A Smith

Headteacher