Rye College is celebrating after Ofsted inspectors found the school to be ‘good’ in all areas.
The academy had previously been rated ‘inadequate’ before joining the Aquinas Trust in November 2018.
When Ofsted visited in January, they found “great strides forward” had been made with “all staff wanting the very best for their pupils”. Described as “one big happy family” by one particular student, inspectors felt the school was safe with a “happy, friendly atmosphere throughout”.
The report goes on to praise the high expectations of learning and conduct whilst making specific mention of the extensive staff teamwork that has brought about this remarkable transformation.
Headteacher, Dom Downes, said: “This is fantastic news for our students and the wider community. I am delighted our ambitious curriculum, strong relationships, and commitment to well-being have been acknowledged. Not only have inspectors recognised how hard students work to uphold our school values but also how much they appreciate the many improvements in recent years.”
Kathy Griffiths, Chief Executive of Aquinas, said: “This is a well-deserved outcome for Rye College. Despite the obvious challenges of the last few years, the school’s remarkable transformational journey has been rightly recognised. Everyone here has a relentless drive to fulfill the school’s mission of ‘creating bright futures for all’ and I am confident the school will go from strength to strength.”
The full report is available to view on the school’s website: www.ryecollege.co.uk.
Image Credits: Amy Biddle .
This is wonderful news for Rye College and for the town as a whole. The administration, students and teachers are to be commended for working so hard, particularly during the last three challenging years. I only wish the national government would have the decency to pay teachers more and to respect them (and their unions) for all the hard work teachers do. The level of disrespect by some current and previous cabinet ministers is shocking.
Agree with Paul Camic’s sentiments.
I’d add, a local school really is the heart of any community and the seed bed for its future growth and cohesion. Both my kids went to Rye Primary, during the era of the wonderful Mrs Howard, and it’s great to know that the staff and pupils are getting Rye College back on track. All credit to them. Having a good local school has such a huge impact even beyond the obvious primary benefit of education. It means less comes out of people’s budgets on costly bus fares and petrol, and less hours a day are spent behind the wheel doing extended school runs, which rob people of productive hours, clog the roads and cause needless stress. Having Rye as centre of gravity twice a day for many parents will also mean errands are run and provisions are bought here, not in Tenterden, for instance. It all helps to feed into the life and well-being of our community. Great news, and lovely to see a proud Mrs Starky beaming in the background!!
My daughter thought it was a good school when she attended. And it was apparent to me when on the Advisory Council (school governor) that the school and its staff go above and beyond. Its just great to have this confirmed by Ofsted. Its clear to me that this is the result of diligence and hard work by management and teachers over the years and they are to be congratulated for this achievement. I will be buying the teachers I know a drink when I next see them. Top marks all round.
I concur with the above comments and am delighted the school is doing better. But while accepting that educational results are not the be-all and end-all, I’d point out that it’s important for the school’s academic results to improve now we’ve emerged from the pandemic. The full Ofsted report indicates Rye College needs to improve in certain aspects and also indicates an ongoing problem with pupil attendance levels that one hopes can be resolved. I’d also recommend that Rye News contributors should take care not to reproduce press releases almost word for word, as has happened with this story — which is lifted from the Rye College website. Remember that if one regurgitates the media release, it counts as PR, not journalism. I mean this as constructive criticism and hope all Rye News contributors take this on board.
To Ben ????
Whoever you are points are taken. But it would be polite to leave your full name on any comment, as others do, and I am disappointed the Rye News comments moderator failed to ask you for more details.
The contributor in respect of this story, actually works for Rye College, so yes, I agree, to an extent, this is a PR report, not hard-nosed journalism. But this is a free newspaper, maintained by volunteers, many of whom have no professional training in journalism. The paper has always relied upon voluntary contributions to a large extent, and when a ‘good news’ story is contributed, I see no reason why we should dig around for criticism to denigrate the piece. If it is felt further investigation is necessary, then that belongs in a different story that looks at the greater picture of education across Rother.
If, however, readers of Rye News would prefer to start paying a purchase price to read our content, then we would quite possibly find the funds to pay for the professional training of contributors at recognised bodies such as the NCTJ. But I’m not convinced the majority of readers of this ‘community’ newspaper would relish that idea.
It has never failed to disappoint me that so many people among our readership are only too happy to jump on board and criticise almost each and every positive story Rye News publishes. There may well be aspects that Rye College can improve upon, but thank God they don’t have regular incidents of stabbings and students rioting in the classrooms like another school, teachers, and parents not so far from this parish have to suffer.
Chris LAWSON
Editor
Rye News
Hear, hear, Chris!
This is a good news story that the whole community ought to take delight in, and there’s no good reason not to celebrate it. It’s a victory for the kids, the parents and the teaching staff and we ought to value it.
We ought also to value the voluntary contribution of all those who make Rye News what it is. It’s our ‘Parish Notice Board’ and, personally, I’d be lost without it. Unlike a traditional notice board, it’s read globally and puts us and our business community on the map. Thanks to Chris and the team. Keep up the sterling work and ‘DLTBGYD’!!