Ridgewood School

Teachers are okay for the most part, core subject teachers are for the most part extremely poor in quality, lesson management and behavioural management. A good few of them are rather young and not far out of training so it’s part of the learning curve, I guess. Besides from that most of the teachers are really good as long as you respect them. Humanities teachers (History, Geography, Religious Studies) are probably the best of the lot and make all in all, the experience outside of core subjects teachers wise good. Course wise the Year 9 students moving into Year 10 were forced into dropping 1 of their 4 GCSE subjects and forced to take a triple science course if you are in the top 3 of 5 sets which in simple terms is hell, having gone through Year 10 in Triple Science and pleading to get out of it from day 1 I can recommend against it, however the decision is not yours to take or drop Triple Science and that is made evidently clear by the heads of department. Again, Humanities courses for GCSE tend to be the most engaging, and entertaining for students, as someone that takes History I can say it is by far the most interesting subject and you may even go as far to enjoy the course, especially as the teachers you can tell are extremely passionate for the subject and even do extra research to give you information you don’t need to complete GCSE’s just to be nice. For Performing Arts, BTEC and Computing courses all are relatively meh, not good not bad and the teachers are alright as well, some aren’t the best but it’s life. The school canteen is basic at best but it keeps you fed, the food tastes like it’s gangrene off the streets so I would recommend a packed lunch if you have the time to make one, however an average meal will cost you about £2-£2.50. Teachers most certainly have favourite students but racism, inequality and discrimination for the most part is non-existent among teachers and students, so if you are of ethnic minority you’ll be more than okay in the school from people I know that are classed as that. After school activities are available when not interrupted by Covid and there is a very wide variety so if you are into that there should be more than enough options, same with revision which is mainly focused on Year 11. To sum up on the rest. -Bullying issues will not be sorted. -Covid-19 Management was poor at best -You will face little development during your time -The school is formulated from gossip, nothing you do or say is safe -The sports department is very good -The school is currently underachieving and for students that don’t have high target grades will be put into sets that will be extremely disruptive and will not allow even the hardest workers from developing.

-Favourite students so when it comes to bullying and sexual harassment they’ll only listen to one side of the story -One teacher is perverted to say the least -No heating and/or air con in some buildings -Only 3 choice GCSEs, however triple science is compulsory for everyone and we have to take ungraded GCSEs -Didn’t even try to provide decent education during lockdown -School uniform costs something over £100 -Random people keep managing to get into the back people. Very easily. -Strict about drawing on your hand (not a rule against it) but allow people to have skirts rolled up past the bottom of their blazer, get terrible and obvious fake tans with tacky false lashes, and all sorts of other stuff (which there are rules against) -one teacher makes you write with a broken hand/hand with broken fingers There’s more stuff but I can’t be bothered tbh

COVID 19 We have to wear masks outside. Nobody knows what’s happening The hand sanitizer is always empty If we stand with people outside school we have to put masks on. Some years get told where to sit at lunch and break so they can’t sit with their friends. In general The bfl team (basically the people who control detentions) walk down to the shops near the school thinking they have to much power and telling you what to do and how to act outside school.they abuse their power. Some of the teachers are nice if your lucky. The pe teachers are very temperamental and will ask you why you need the toilet which I find ridiculous. Children try to escape by climbing the electric gate and run out crying. They don’t have the correct food for allergies and won’t let you purchase what you want even if you know you can eat it.

Decent school.