Ryde Academy is an

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

status secondary school, including

sixth form In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...

, located in

Ryde Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight. The built-up area had a population of 23,999 according to the 2011 Census and an estimate of 24,847 in 2019. Its growth as a seaside resort came af ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

, England.

History

Education on the school site began with Ryde High School which was a 13–18 school built and opened in 1964 to accommodate the expanding population of

, the largest town on the

. The school was successful in achieving a Specialist Languages Status and a Media and Arts Specialism. In 2008 the Isle of Wight education authority decided to abolish the tripartite education system (of

First school Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types as they progress through the education system. Terminology In a three-tier local educ ...

s, Middle Schools and High Schools) and instead adopt the two stage,

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

and Secondary school model used by the majority of authorities in England. According to the new two stage model Ryde High School would be extended from the 712 pupils of 13–18 age range, and it would become an Academy for 1200 pupils aged 11–18. Academy chains were invited to bid for the contract to run the new Ryde Academy 11–18 school. The contract was won by

Academies Enterprise Trust The Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) is a multi-academy trust in England. It is a non-profit, educational charitable trust, which sponsors schools with academy status. History Formally established in 2008 by the Greensward Charitable Trust (est ...

which took over Ryde Academy (and also two other schools on the Isle of Wight: Sandown Bay Academy and

Weston Academy Weston Academy was an Isle of Wight primary school run by the Academies Enterprise Trust academy chain. It closed in 2015. History Previously called Weston Community Primary School, the school was located in Totland Bay in the far West of the Isl ...

) in 2012. In 2014, Ryde Academy was successful in acquiring the site of a local primary school which was closing, and this became the new Haylands Sixth Form Centre. The last headteacher of Ryde High School was Linda McGowan. The first Principal of Ryde Academy was Rob Hoddle who resigned in 2013. He was replaced by the Vice Principal, Debbie Price, who became acting Principal in Nov 2013 until a new principal could be appointed. Dr Rory Fox was appointed as Executive Principal to provide external support to Mrs Price. Eric Jackson took over leadership of the Academy in January 2015, and Joy Ballard was appointed as Principal for September 2015.

Academic achievements

In 2007 Ryde High School was commended by the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

(called DfES at the time) for its achievements with disadvantaged pupils. In 2010, before Ryde High School became Ryde Academy, it was judged by OFSTED to be providing a "Satisfactory" quality of education. In its first inspection as an

(AET) school, OFSTED judged that standards were "inadequate". GCSE results since 2004 have improved as follows: In the summer of 2014 Ryde Academy reported its biggest ever improvement in results, with a 200% improvement in the proportion of pupils gaining A/A* grades In the Summer of 2015, when AET asked Eric Jackson (from AET's "troubled" Sandown Bay Academy) to lead Ryde Academy, the GCSE results plummeted to 36% (compared to

Carisbrooke College Carisbrooke College is a foundation trust-supported secondary school in Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, formerly ''Carisbrooke High School''. Sixth form students are based at the Island Innovation sixth form Campus, in Newport, a shared sixth f ...

53% and Priory School 54%). A level results have gone from 3% of pupils gaining A/A* results in 2010, to 50% of pupils gaining A/A* in 2016. In terms of its OFSTED grades, the academy has improved steadily from "inadequate" in 2013 to "requires improvement" in 2014, to "good" in Nov 2016. The leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Jonathan Bacon, said: "This is great news...I have no doubt that the school will continue to build upon this achievement..." Principal, Joy Ballard, said: "I'm fed up reading about what a bad deal the island's education system seems to be giving to its kids."

Extra curricular and community achievements

* Rock Challenge: the academy competes each year and in 2013 won the Southern Premier competition. In 2015 Ryde Academy came second in the national finals. *

Young Enterprise Young Enterprise is a national charity who specialise in Enterprise Education and Financial Education. Young Enterprise works directly with young people, teachers, volunteers and influencers to build a successful and sustainable future for all y ...

Challenge. The Ryde High School team won the 2010 Isle of Wight finals. *

National Citizen Service The National Citizen Service (NCS) is a voluntary personal and social development programmer for 15–17 year olds in England and Northern Ireland, funded largely by money from the UK Government. It was formally announced in 2010 by Prime Minister ...

events, including in 2016 a residential event at Marwell Zoo, followed by a second week at PGL Little Canada. as well as hosting tea parties for local residential care homes at the Sixth Form Centre. *International links: in February 2011, Ryde High were the first school in the country to send students to Bangladesh on a trip. The students went as part of the Connecting Classrooms project and visited five schools around the country. *Financial Management: Prior to joining the

Ryde High School was suffering from a significant deficit in the region of £1m. but by 2015 the academy had managed to reverse that situation, into a surplus of more than £1m.

Controversies

In 2014 there was a crackdown on school uniform which led to an estimated 250 to 300 pupils being removed from lessons and sent home or placed in isolation, due to uniform infringements. which included issues with skirt length, shoes and socks, and trousers. Some pupils were sent home and some were placed in Isolation and the incident received widespread coverage from ''BBC South Today'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'', ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' and the '' Loose Women'' television show. As a result of the Academy's action's some parents removed their children from the school and

said that they fully supported Ryde Academy. In 2014 a controversy erupted when teaching unions at Ryde academy were challenged for defending poorly performing teachers who were accused of letting down the education of the children within the academy. Matters came to a head in Feb 2015 when under-performing union members were due to be dismissed, but Ian Comfort, the CEO of

intervened to prevent that from taking place. In Jan 2015 OFSTED criticized the

for failing to provide enough support to Ryde Academy in order to help the academy to improve standards at a faster rate. When academic standards at neighboring Sandown Bay Academy collapsed and

were unable to improve the school, they announced in 2017 a plan to close Sandown Bay Academy and the transfer of all the pupils to Ryde Academy. The principal and governors of Ryde announced that they had not even been consulted about the plan and that they had discovered it from AET's press statements. There were widespread protests across the Isle of Wight about the poor performance of AET and the way that AET were behaving with the Island's schools, leading to a demand that AET should be removed from managing all schools on the Isle of Wight, including Ryde Academy.

Notable former pupils and staff

Kelly Sotherton Kelly Jade Sotherton (born 13 November 1976) is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, a ...

– English heptathlete *

Razzle (musician) Nicholas Charles Dingley (2 December 1960 – 8 December 1984), better known by his stage name Razzle, was the English drummer of Finnish glam rock band Hanoi Rocks from 1982 until his death. Early years Born in Royal Leamington Spa, Engla ...

- drummer of

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

glam rock Glam rock is a style of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and was performed by musicians who wore outrageous costumes, makeup, and hairstyles, particularly platform shoes and glitter. Glam artists drew on diver ...

band

Hanoi Rocks Hanoi Rocks was a Finnish rock band formed in 1979. They were the first Finnish band to chart in the UK and they were also popular in Japan. The band broke up in June 1985 after drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley died in a drunk driving accide ...

External links

References

{{authority control Academies on the Isle of Wight Secondary schools on the Isle of Wight Academies Enterprise Trust Ryde 2011 establishments in England