Headteacher’s Welcome to The Radclyffe School (T)

Mr Cregg – Headteacher’s Welcome to The Radclyffe School

Please choose your language.
[GTranslate]

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the virtual element of our Open Evening. My name is John Cregg and I’m extremely proud to be the Headteacher of The Radclyffe School.

I am delighted to confirm that, unlike last year, we are able to hold a live, face-to-face event this year and it is my great pleasure to invite you and your family to visit our school and experience in person the wonderful quality of education we offer.

However, we completely understand that not all parents and carers are able to attend and many of you may not yet feel comfortable attending a large event in person. We also know that all families will wish to be as well informed as possible before making a decision regarding their child’s secondary education.

We hope, therefore that through the virtual experiences and online resources on our new and improved website you will be able to gain a full appreciation of our ethos, values, standards and successes – and be fully confident The Radclyffe School is the right school for your child and the next five years of their learning journey – even if you do not attend our Open Evening on the 29^th of September.

The Radclyffe School is an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ secondary school which provides a first-class, comprehensive education in a twenty-first century learning environment.

Our ethos is summarised by the school’s motto of ‘Working Together for Excellence’: we will always put our young people at the very centre of everything we do and as a staff team we work tirelessly to support, guide and lead our students to improve their knowledge and understanding across the curriculum. We also ensure that we encourage our students to support one another, develop friendships and to grow to become good and responsible citizens.

Our core values are based around the 5 Respects which guide all of our actions and daily behaviours: to speak and behave respectfully, to respect the school environment, respect one’s own learning and the learning of others. We insist upon extremely high standards of conduct and appearance – with a clear uniform policy to support this.

We have amazing facilities in every subject area and I encourage you to take a close look at all the faculty information and see this for yourself. All of our students are taught in a first-class learning environment across their entire timetable which gives them every opportunity to flourish and succeed.

We are very proud of the recent improvements that have been made to our curriculum and we provide an exceptional, personalised learning experience in all year groups. We have broadened and deepened the Key Stage 3 curriculum, which now covers Years 7 to 9 and provides an excellent foundation for GCSE study in Years 10 and 11. We also have a huge range of extra-curricular opportunities in all subject areas.

Our aim is to allow each child to fulfil their own potential and we understand that all young people have their own unique and individual set of skills and talents. All subjects are equally valued at the school and we are able to provide wonderful opportunities for students to excel in all areas. As well as enabling exceptional success in core subjects, science, humanities, technologies and languages, we have achieved Platinum School status in Sports and the Performing Arts. Just to take one example from many, we have created a partnership with the Music in Secondary Schools Trust which means that every single child joining us in Year 7 will be provided with their own musical instrument which they keep for three years and can use to practise at school and at home.

We are a fully inclusive school and welcome students of all abilities and from all backgrounds and faiths. We have a unique pastoral and welfare system based around our Personal Learning Guides, Year Managers, Learning Mentors and associated staff. Students who need additional support receive this from our excellent learning support team who are extremely experienced and provide a personal, bespoke package for each child in their care.

We are clearly focused on the safety of all our school community and have many systems and measures in place to keep everyone safe at all times. To support this we have a dedicated and experienced team of senior staff with responsibility for safeguarding who do an amazing job on a daily basis to look after our young people and protect them from harm.

The Radclyffe School prides itself on our positive culture, based around celebrating success and rewarding achievement in all contexts. There are countless opportunities for our students to demonstrate their own outstanding talents and for this to be recognised in school – whether by receiving a positive log from a member of staff or by receiving the prestigious accolade of a Headteacher’s award and having their name recorded permanently in our Book of Excellence. We also strongly promote and develop personal leadership skills and provide many opportunities for this, with the pinnacle being our Head Girl and Boy who represent the school as well as their fellow students.

We understand that the transition from primary to secondary school can be a daunting one and we do all that we can to ease and support that process. We have three members of staff – Ms Jones, Ms Parkes and Ms Bennett – who have a dedicated transition role and ensure that we gather all of the relevant information from primary schools about each child so we can plan for them to have a successful start to Year 7. Not only will this transition team oversee the entry of Year 7s each September, they will retain pastoral responsibility for them until the end of their first academic year to ensure that any issues that arise during that time will be addressed by a dedicated team of people who have detailed knowledge of them.

To conclude, I thank you for taking an interest in our school and for visiting our Virtual Open Evening. I very much encourage you to take a close look at all of the resources available so you can make an informed decision about your child’s secondary education. I also hope you are able to join us on the 29^th of September We always consider it a privilege when a family entrusts their child to us for five years and we very much hope that you will make the decision that The Radclyffe School is the right choice for you and your child.