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Nidderdale High
School was opened on its present greenfield site
in 1980, though the school was founded in 1875. It
caters for both girls and boys, aged 11-16. The
school is fully comprehensive in intake and there
are currently just over 450 students on roll. We
are a small school where the emphasis can be on providing
opportunities for each individual student, reflected
in our school mission statement “Achievement
for All”.
We were awarded Specialist
Status for Science and the Visual Arts in 2004. We
strive for excellence and aim to help all our students
achieve their full potential. The school is a
happy, vibrant place where students work hard in their
academic studies and are involved in a wide range of
sporting, creative, practical and social activities. We
wish to develop in our students the ability to be creative,
innovative and to work with independence and initiative
so that they can prosper in the rapidly changing world
they face.
The catchment area is
enormous, one of the biggest in England, at about 200
square miles, but we take from an area about twice
the size of that. The school occupies a large
open-grassland site on the slopes of the hills about
half-a-mile from the small town of Pateley Bridge. There
are glorious views of the Dale on all sides. The
River Nidd flows through the Dale, with three reservoirs
up-dale; Gouthwaite, a major bird sanctuary, and two
very remote and wild reservoirs, Scar and Angram at
the head of the Dale. The school is at the very
centre of the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty, which lies adjacent to the Yorkshire Dales
National Park. There are many sites of major
interest and importance in the school’s immediate
area. Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Park
is a World Heritage Site; Brimham Rocks (a National
Trust area of strange geological formations); How Stean
Gorge, Stump Cross Caverns and many other places are
all of great scenic beauty and offer many educational
opportunities. |
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We are about 20-25
minutes by car away from Harrogate, Ripon or Skipton.
Roads are good, and the school has not been completely
closed once through snow in the last decade. Leeds
and Bradford are about forty minutes or less away;
York is just under an hour; the North York Moors National
Park, the Yorkshire Coast, Northumberland and the Lake
District are all within two hours’ journey. |
Our students come from a variety
of backgrounds, but increasingly the majority of families
in school are not from the farming community but are professional
people commuting into Harrogate, Leeds and beyond. This
gives an excellent mix to the school. Many of our students
come from small Primary Schools; we have more than twenty
Primary feeder schools although only five are directly in
our catchment area. Post-16, about 80% of our Year
11 students stay on in education, with the majority attending
sixth forms in Harrogate.
The school had a pleasing
Ofsted Inspection in November 2004, where it was recognised
as a ‘good and improving school’. It was
mentioned in Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools
Report for its “Excellent Improvement” in 1999
and was awarded a School Achievement Award in 2000 as the
fourth most improved school in England, based on GCSE results
1997 - 2000. The full Ofsted report is available on
the school website. 'In 2007 59% of our students achieved
5 or more grades C or above.
Results in Key Stage 3 National Curriculum Tests and Teacher
Assessment are also above National Averages. All students
are set individual targets in all subjects and progress is
compared with previous performance and closely monitored.
There are presently 39 teachers,
equivalent to 32.63 F.T.E.’s. Staff normally
teach twenty two out of twenty five 1 hour periods and take
a register twice a day. Subject Leaders teach twenty
periods a week. The School Leadership Team currently
comprises the Headteacher, the Deputy Headteacher (Jerry
Harvey), the Assistant Headteacher (Kath Jordan). There
are staff briefings twice a week for 15 minutes before morning
school commences on Monday and Friday and meetings involving
staff are held after school on Tuesdays.
Class sizes are usually small. Many
classrooms are built for only 26 students maximum, hence
this is the maximum size class in school. However,
the average class size is around 20 with 16 or less being
the usual number in Technology. There are four forms and/or
classes (six classes in Technology) in each Year Group. Classes
are setted in most subjects progressively from partway through
Year 7.
Facilities in the school are
excellent and we have a rolling programme to up-date them
which is linked into the School Improvement Plan. Every
classroom, bar the one with a furnace, has an interactive
whiteboard, at least one computer (networked), television
and video, and is carpeted except in practical areas. The
furniture has been replaced throughout most of the school
over the last four years. Corridors too are all carpeted
and the school is very well maintained and decorated. There
are currently two computer networks reaching every part of
the school. The ratio of computers to students is about
1:4. Three rooms have a class-set of computers in them
and there are smaller networked IT rooms in some departments.
The School has recently invested in interactive whiteboards
which are installed in one third of the classrooms. All students
are computer-literate, and log-on anywhere in the school
with their own password. Our Business and Training Centre
opened in September 2000 and provides IT facilities for school
and community use.
In addition to the computer
rooms, specialist rooms include: a Library/Resource Centre;
three excellent laboratories; a Technology suite comprising
a Food Room, two Workshops with three small additional rooms;
an Art Suite including a kiln and a huge Sports Hall and
two squash courts. The Main Hall acts as a dining room
too, with our kitchens just beyond, and the Stage can be
converted into a Drama Studio. Our new extension houses
the Humanities rooms, a Music classroom with practice rooms,
a Textiles room and a Maths room. Outside, there is
a grass pitch, an all-weather pitch and a multi-use games
area for soccer and tennis, together with considerable land. The
school has an excellent reputation for Outdoor Education.
Many students do a week’s Outdoor Education in Year
8, mostly at Bewerley Park Centre, and then various skills
are further developed through short courses and after school
clubs – particularly wind surfing and sailing. We
also offer the opportunity for all Year 9 students to visit
a centre in France for a week’s Language Experience
and GCSE History students can visit the Great War battlefields
of France and Belgium. There
is a private nursery on site which offers flexible childcare
packages for school staff and the Nidderdale Pool & Leisure
Centre which opened in 2005. The school also has an
on-site wind turbine which promotes the use of renewable
energy sources.
Nidderdale High School and
Community College is a non-smoking School.
David Read
Headteacher
September 2007
OUR
SIZE
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We are a small rural
comprehensive school of 460 pupils
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Despite rumours that
class size doesn't matter, it does
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Teachers here can really
get to know the children and encourage them
to achieve their full potential
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OUR
STAFF
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Staff here really want
the best for their students and they achieve
it
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Ofsted said "The
quality of teaching is good". A judgement
wholeheartedly supported by the Local Education
Authority
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Our staff are very committed
and offer a wide range of extra curricular
classes and activities
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OUR
STUDENTS
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Our students have a
respect for their environment. We have no vandalism
or graffiti - our children are well behaved
and show concern for others. For example, in
2005 our students raised over £2,000 for
Children in Need
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In November 2004 Ofsted
reported "Student's behaviour and their
attitudes to school are very good, " and "attendance
and punctuality are good"
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FACILITIES
Our facilities match
those of any large school
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All rooms have at least
one computer and are connected to one of the
school's two networks. In addition we have
three dedicated computer suites
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Each room has its own
television and video
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Where appropriate there
are textbooks in all subjects
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We have a large sports
hall, squash courts, tennis courts, all weather
pitch and playing fields. An indoor swimming
pool and fitness centre will be opened in 2005
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A new Information Technology
and Business Centre has been built on site
and opened in October 2000 by HRH The Prince
of Wales at a cost of £350,000
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A new classroom block
of four teaching rooms, a specialist music
room, music practice rooms, a specialist textile
room and offices was opened in 2004.
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New Art
rooms opened in 2006
New 'state
of the art' Science Laboratories opened in September
2005
- A recently
constructed wind turbine provides environmentally
friendly electricity to the school
David Read
Headteacher
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