Riddlesdown Collegiate

Mission:

Learners of today. Leaders of tomorrow

Our Collegiate

Welcome to Riddlesdown Collegiate – an outstanding school and a very special place in which young people learn and grow. We are a very large, successful and popular school with a rich and respected history and high aspirations for an even brighter and more exciting future. We have a talented and dedicated team of staff who are always looking to improve the quality of our work and ensure that everyone achieves all that they can. Here at Riddlesdown we deliver a broad and balanced curriculum and hold high expectations of traditional and exemplary standards of behaviour, effort and commitment to school life. Our attractive site high on the North Downs, surrounded by woodlands and fields, is a lively and invigorating place to learn. We place a strong emphasis on academic achievement and personal and social development. Students have the opportunity to learn in class, around the site, across the country and internationally through our wide and varied extracurricular programme and full diary of events throughout the year.

“Staff have very high expectations for pupils in all aspects of school life. They encourage pupils to take ownership of their learning. There is a thriving student leadership group and many highly successful student-led societies in the sixth form.” Ofsted.

Our approach allows everyone to develop new skills and means we can make sure goals are realised and ambitions achieved year after year. We are able to do this through blending traditional standards with modern teaching methods and learning facilities. We stress hard work in the Collegiate and at home and build strong partnerships with parents. We have a smart uniform and a disciplinary code that values responsibility for oneself and consideration for others. At all times students are encouraged to live up to our motto, “Learners of today. Leaders of tomorrow” and live by our VALUES.

“Teachers have expert subject knowledge and present information clearly. They check for pupils’ understanding systematically and address any misconceptions quickly. This helps pupils to produce work of extremely high quality.” Ofsted

Our Structure

Our “small schools” system means that we have divided our very large school into a collection of smaller schools, which we call Colleges, each of which has its own Headteacher and team of staff and accommodates about 400 students. Year 7 students join one of our Colleges – Aquila, Orion, Pegasus or Phoenix – where strong relationships and a clear identity foster outstanding learning. Post-16 students join College VI whilst the Creative and Performing Arts (CPA) College provides specialist teaching and facilities across the Collegiate in Art, Drama, Dance, Design Technology, Media Studies, Music, Photography and Sport; most of this provision is in our new £4 million building, The @RC, delivering excellence in the arts for our students and community.

In addition, the MacKay College provides specialist support to each College, delivering excellence in our inclusion work.

Our Values

Our ethos is to be a community in which all members value each other. We are all leaders of the Riddlesdown community, responsible for our learning and the Collegiate. We work together to maximise our own achievements and those of others. In applying for a training post at Riddlesdown Collegiate, applicants should consider how they would promote our values in their day-to-day work with students, colleagues and other stakeholders.

Our Students

The vast majority of our students join the Collegiate in Year 7 with above average attainment. Behaviour is outstanding at the Collegiate and our students consistently demonstrate their desire to learn and achieve. They enjoy coming to school (attendance is over 96%) and enjoy lessons where they can explore, investigate and feel challenged by their learning. They equally value the opportunities they have to learn outside of the classroom and we are proud of the extensive and varied extra-curricular programme that our students enjoy and benefit from. It is these additional, high quality learning experiences, together with a strong set of academic qualifications that we believe provides our students with the very best chances of success in their future lives.

“Leaders ensure that pupils have opportunities to contribute positively to society. Pupils are extremely hardworking, polite and proud of their school.” Ofsted

Professional Development

We invest greatly in the professional development of all our staff to ensure that the quality of our work remains consistently high at Riddlesdown Collegiate and continues to be at the forefront of pedagogical practice. Leadership development is key to our success; with over 70% of our post-holders having been promoted internally. Riddlesdown prides itself on offering a plethora of professional development opportunities to suit a variety of expertise and experience. The Collegiate offers and fully supports an MA-level qualification in Education, onsite at the Collegiate, in affiliation with St Mary’s University Twickenham. In addition to this, Riddlesdown is also a satellite-HUB for delivering the National Professional Qualification (NPQs) for the Institute of Education (UCL), where our Senior Leaders train and deliver the qualification at both a Middle Leadership level and Senior Leadership level. We are also extremely proud of being a HUB training school for the University of Roehampton, where we deliver and lead Initial Teacher Training days and we have been certified as a ‘Beacon training school’ by the University for our ITT provision. We are also a delivery-partner for the Early Career Framework – meaning applicants that choose to train with us can rest assured that they will be able to continue their Initial Teacher Training career across the first three years of this exciting journey. This ensures continuity of training; unyielding support afforded from all our Trust schools, as well as having a personal Mentor, Professional Coordinating Mentor and bespoke training opportunities at all levels – we insist upon the highest quality development for all of our colleagues.

“Leaders have developed an exceptional professional development programme. This provides bespoke training for staff.” Ofsted.