Ryde Academy is an academy status secondary school, including sixth form, located in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, 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 Ryde, the largest town on the Isle of Wight. 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 schools, Middle Schools and High Schools) and instead adopt the two stage, Primary School 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 which took over Ryde Academy (and also two other schools on the Isle of Wight: Sandown Bay Academy and Weston Academy) 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 (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 Academies Enterprise Trust (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 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 Challenge. The Ryde High School team won the 2010 Isle of Wight finals. National Citizen Service 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 Academies Enterprise Trust 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.