Does Harrogate need another secondary school?Harrogate school has most improved attendance in North YorkshireUpdate: More local schools announce closures as freeze continuesHarrogate to celebrate Polish Heritage Day this weekend

Harrogate is set to celebrate the annual Polish Heritage Day at Harrogate High School.

The event, which will take place on Sunday, will begin at 12pm and is open to people from all backgrounds. It is the second event celebrating Polish Heritage Day hosted at the school.

The day aims to promote integration and raise funds for the Polish Saturday School, which meets every two weeks at the high school.

It will see stalls and activities showcasing Polish life and will begin with a football game followed by Polish food, folk dance and music.

There will also be family entertainment with four bouncy castles, face painting, a raffle and a tombola.

Aleksandra Timberlake, a teacher at the Polish school, said there are an estimated 2,000 people of Polish descent in the Harrogate area and four Polish shops.

She said:

“This year we are going even bigger. I’m sure everyone will find something interesting to do. I can assure you that it will be a good day out for the whole family.

“We would love to see everyone, not just Poles living in Harrogate.

“The school is going from strength to strength. We have got lots of new pupils and we are hoping for lots more next school year. We organise extra activities and days out.”

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Young flautist and actor win top prizes at Harrogate Competitive Festival

Flautist Alannah Saphir was crowned Young Musician of the Festival and actor Isabella Withy won the Speech & Drama Championship at the final concert of this year’s Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama.

Alannah, a sixth former at St. Aidan’s, performed the last two movements of Carl Reinecke’s challenging sonata Undine, the same work that won her the woodwind section final two weeks before.

Alannah, who is about to take her A levels, has been playing the flute since the age of six. She already holds a performance diploma and is also a talented pianist. She currently studies both instruments with her mum Nichola, herself a professional musician and Royal College of Music alumnus. Nichola said:

“We are so delighted and proud of this achievement. It has come just at the right time for her.”

Alannah hopes to study at one of the London conservatoires next year and will be preparing for auditions after leaving school.

Isabella, who attends Ripon Grammar School, reached the finals of the competition after coming first in the Shakespeare category with a solo piece from Twelfth Night. She also performed a duo from the play Bird with her fellow student Amber Stevenson-Mian. 

The 18 year old has ambitions for a career in theatre and television, and is hoping to pursue an acting degree next year. She has already secured offers from the prestigious Guildford School of Acting and the Chichester Conservatoire. 

Isabella entered the festival with a group of students from the Upstage Academy in Ripon, which she joined when she was nine. Her win marked the fourth year running that Upstage have won the festival’s overall speech and drama trophy. The academy’s founder, Amelia Urukalo, said: 

“Issy has been entering the festival since primary school and this is her last year before she leaves us, so for her to win is incredible.”  

The Harrogate Competitive Festival has been a mainstay of the town’s artistic life since 1936 when it was established as an educational trust by the then Harrogate Town Council.

This year’s festival, which attracted more than 1,000 entries, was held over three weekends at Harrogate High School this month.

Nowadays, it is run by a large team of volunteers and a committee that works all year round.

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Parent fined for truant child at Harrogate school

A parent has been ordered to pay £260 for their child being truant at a Harrogate school.

The 31-year-old mother pleaded guilty to the teenager failing to attend Harrogate High School regularly for a six-month period this year.

The Education Act 1996 states a parent is guilty of an offence if their child regularly fails to attend the school at which they are registered.

The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the child, was fined £80.

She was also ordered to pay £150 costs and a £32 surcharge to fund victim services.

The case was heard at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Friday, November 10.

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Harrogate’s Luke Richardson wins England’s Strongest Man

Harrogate strongman Luke Richardson won England’s Strongest Man yesterday to end his two-year injury nightmare.

Luke, 26, took the sport by storm when he won Europe’s Strongest Man at Allerton Castle near Knaresborough in 2020 and then finished ninth in the World’s Strongest Man in his first full season.

But at the 2021 World’s Strongest Man he suffered the first of what was to be a series of serious injuries to his biceps, knee and back that sidelined him and forced him to re-evaluate his approach.

Luke takes the England’s Strongest Man title. Pic: Giants Live

Talking about his career in a video with Giants Live, the company that runs the tour that qualifies strongmen for the World’s Strongest Man, he said:

“The last three years for me have easily been the toughest time I have had to go through in my life

“I went from having no injuries to having four in the last two years.”

Luke Richardson reflecting on the last two years. Pic: Giants Live

Luke went to Starbeck Community Primary School and Harrogate High School, said he had learned to live in the present and enjoy his success rather than constantly strive to be one of the greatest strongmen of all time.

He said he “felt no joy in winning those things which is ultimate failure because I was constantly looking at the next thing”.

His new mindset doesn’t appear to have hampered him as he proved at Doncaster yesterday by defeating Kane Francis and Paddy Haynes for the title of England’s Strongest Man, which qualifies him for Britain’s Strongest Man.

Luke trains at Absolute Fitness in Boroughbridge, which is owned by Giants Live owner and former top strongman Darren Sadler.

Doing the log lift at Absolute Fitness in Boroughbridge. Pic: Giants Live

Harrogate’s ‘inner-city school’ is improving, says headteacher

When Harrogate High School held its autumn open evening on Thursday, there will have been some parents present who needed to be won over. 

After 10 years of being rated ‘satisfactory’ by Ofsted, and then another 10 years rated ‘good’, the school was downgraded earlier this year to ‘requires improvement’ – the third-best out of four ratings.

But speaking to the Stray Ferret ahead of the open evening, headteacher Sukhraj Gill said the thorny subject of the school’s Ofsted report was not one he was going to duck. He said: 

“It’s the first thing I talk about on parents’ evenings – it’s not an elephant in the room for me. On paper, we’re ‘requires improvement’, but we are improving.” 

Mr Gill arrived at Harrogate High in January 2022 and had been in post little over a year when the Ofsted inspectors came the following spring.

A graduate of the University of Warwick, he completed his teaching qualifications at the University of Cambridge and taught maths for over 20 years in West Yorkshire, including a decade at Bradford Academy (then rated ‘good’), where he was vice principal. 

Photo of the headteacher of Harrogate High School, Sukhraj Gill, standing in front of the school.

He said: 

“Before I started this job, people said to me ‘Harrogate High? That’s the worst school in Harrogate’. I heard all those descriptions of the school before I even set foot through the door.

“That just tells me that these students need good-quality education, and good-quality people who value them and can help them grow and move on to their next destinations. 

“I’m not saying I’m anybody special, but I think I can bring a bit of experience and strategy.” 

He came to Harrogate High at a time when the school – like many around the country – was still reeling from the covid pandemic. The school had lost its sixth form, and a lot of students – even those from secure, well-off backgrounds – were displaying the traits of social disadvantage: disorganisation, lack of focus, and persistent absenteeism.

Mr Gill, who is the school’s third headteacher since the last Ofsted inspection in 2017, said: 

“At that time, we [already] had some turbulence among the teachers and leadership here. We own that – we’re not going to hide from that. But we’re part of the Northern Star Academies Trust, and they were all over that, hiring a school improvement officer and replacing the senior leaders here. I was the last piece, as the headteacher.” 

But the changes didn’t stop at new staff. The Ofsted report highlighted several areas where the school, which has around 750 students, needed to improve, and Mr Gill is introducing best practice strategies to effect the necessary changes. 

One criticism of the school was that the implementation of the curriculum in some subjects was not as effective as in others, so he has developed a teacher toolkit, which lays out the different phases that every lesson must feature. 

Ofsted also pointed out that some staff didn’t not use the school behaviour policy consistently, so Mr Gill has created scripts for teachers to use in the most common situations. 

Another observation was that the personal development curriculum was not planned to the same level as subject curriculum planning, so the school identified its core values under the acronym CARES – courage, aspiration, respect, equality and self-control – which permeate school life. 

The watchword is consistency – in expectations, behaviour, lesson structure and planning. Mr Gill said: 

“This is an evidence-based approach, and it’s effective for all students, even high attainers. If you have consistency in learning, language, the way teachers teach, it helps students make an impact quicker.” 

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Beyond the classroom, there is a wide range of extracurricular activities, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards have been reintroduced, there’s a farm twinning project with Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there are even plans to create an urban farm at the school at some point over the next three years. 

For the more academically minded, Mr Gill says the curriculum was built “from the top down” rather than from the bottom up, and is delivered with high expectations. 

The overall mission is to be a school for the community which supports every child regardless of background, says Mr Gill: 

“My experience of working in inner cities is good for Harrogate High School, because this is effectively an inner-city comprehensive school – even though Harrogate is a town. This is a true comprehensive school. We’ve got affluence and high attainers, and we’ve also got some real disadvantage, and that’s not always appreciated by the wider community.” 

The data reinforces the point. Harrogate High School has the highest percentage of children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) of all the mainstream schools in North Yorkshire. Nearly 30% of children receive free school meals, compared with 15% across the county and around 24% nationally. Mr Gill said: 

“We’ve got children here who are looked-after children, we’ve got children who are young carers for parents who are drug abusers, we’ve got children who we feed breakfast to, because they can’t get it at home. But we’re an inclusive school. We won’t let any child down.” 

Whether Mr Gill is successful in his mission could be measured in various ways, but he says his mindset has never been based around his personal success – it’s always about the students. He said: 

“When you make a difference to students who need the difference made, that brings the greatest sense of fulfilment. 

“I’m a very spiritual person – I do a lot of meditation – and I’ve always thought we’re chosen to be here, at this point in time.” 

The other obvious measure of success will be the next Ofsted inspection – whenever that may come – but that doesn’t seem to faze him. He said: 

“We’ve put strategies into place and we’re now starting to see a culture shift. If Ofsted came in a year’s time, I believe we’d have a completely different report. 

“But we don’t work just to an Ofsted inspection – it only reflects a point in time. We work for the students. We serve our community. That’s who we’re here for.”

Harrogate school to create city farm

Leaders at Harrogate High School aim to create an urban farm in the school’s grounds, it has been revealed. 

Harrogate High is part of the Northern Star Academies Trust, which also includes Skipton Girls’ High School and seven primaries, including New Park, Hookstone Chase, Willow Tree and Starbeck. 

Jenn Plews, chief executive of Northern Star, told the Stray Ferret the trust was “really ambitious” for the school’s Ainsty Road site. 

She said: 

“We have an ambition to open a city farm here, probably within the next three years.

“As part of our environmental and sustainability priority, all of our schools are really focused on the farm-to-fork agenda, the walk-to school agenda, and also bringing nature in, so a lot of our schools have got a lot of plants and nature brought in from outside. 

“We’ve had a farm-twinning project with AONB Nidderdale [Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty] over the last year, and last year we had over 1,000 children going out to farms as part of their education, which has been incredible.” 

What form the farm would take, and what it would include, have yet to be decided. Ms Plews said: 

“We’d have to work out what animals we’d have, to start with. We’ve already got goats and chickens at New Park, and ducks, and we’ve got two apiaries in the trust that produce honey.  

“What this school needs is a really great partner, because we can’t do it on our own.” 

She said the ideal partner would be a care farm. Care farms use farm-related activities for therapeutic purposes and provide healthcare, social care and specialist educational services. 

She added: 

“A farm would also allow us to give our students opportunities in animal care and husbandry qualifications.” 

Harrogate High headteacher Sukhraj Gill added: 

“If children are having mental health needs and wellbeing needs, the farm would be a different environment that they can get involved in. All the research shows that extracurricular things like that will help.” 

Mr Gill gave the Stray Ferret a wider-ranging interview, which will be published over the weekend.

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Only one Harrogate district secondary school rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted

The publication of Boroughbridge High School’s Ofsted report this week means all local state schools have now had recent assessments.

The government schools’ inspector’s stricter regime means the ratings for local schools have been mixed since the pandemic.

Only one is rated ‘outstanding’ but four are graded as ‘good’.

Three others received ‘requires improvement’ assessments, which is the third highest score. None are rated ‘inadequate’ – the lowest of the four options.

Here’s how each one fared in its latest inspection.

Boroughbridge High School – requires improvement

This week Boroughbridge High School was rated ‘requires improvement’ in a report published by Ofsted.

The school was previously rated ‘good’.

The inspectors noted:

“Not all teachers have high enough expectations of pupils’ behaviour and do not routinely challenge low-level disruption in classrooms.

“Although many pupils feel safe in school, some do not. Some pupils in lower year groups say they are worried or concerned about the behaviour and conduct of some older pupils.”

The report added school behaviour is “not always calm and orderly”.

Despite this, the school, which is now part of a federation with King James’s School in Knaresborough, was assessed as ‘good’ for its quality of education and personal development.

Harrogate High School – requires improvement

Harrogate High School was also downgraded to a ‘requires improvement’ rating from ‘good’ when it was assessed in June this year.

The school, which is part of the Northern Star Academies Trust, has seen a decline in the quality of education and older pupils in particular do not achieve well in exams, according to an inspector.

The report said some students with bad attitudes were “not challenged quickly enough” and some truant pupils were “disrespectful to staff and cause disruption.”

It added:

“Teachers do not consistently check if pupils know or understand what has been taught. As a result, misconceptions are not always identified and addressed.”

The inspector did note, however, the new school leaders understood the problems and the actions “have secured improvements in the quality of education.”

Headteacher Sukhraj Gill responded to the report:

“This is an exciting time for Harrogate High School. Inspectors have recognised the improvements we have already made and confirmed that we are on the right track to make Harrogate High a great school. We have achieved a great deal at Harrogate High School – with a lot more to do.

“We will continue our relentless drive to make Harrogate High the best school it can be for all the young people that we educate.”

Ripon Grammar School – good

 After 11 years of holding an ‘outstanding’ status, Ripon Grammar School was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in April.

The personal development and sixth form provision remained ‘outstanding’, according to the report, but “a very small minority of staff do not speak to pupils in an appropriately encouraging manner” – which was a contributing factor to the downgrade.

It added the behaviour policy “is not always consistently applied” and “behaviour is weaker in a small minority of classrooms, particularly where a substitute teaching is leading the lesson.”

Despite this, the inspector said:

“Across the school, and particularly in the sixth form, teachers challenge pupils and students to stretch themselves academically and to take risks in their learning.

“Pupils benefit from the broad range of provision offered by clubs and societies, for example, in science, the arts, humanities and sport. Pupils are eager to seize the extensive opportunities presented to them.”

Pupils and students “achieve very highly in the GCSE and A Level examinations”, it also noted.

A letter to parents signed by headteacher Jonathan Webb and chair of governors Elizabeth Jarvis, said:

“Overall, we are pleased with the headline conclusions that RGS is a school which offers students a culture of high expectations, an ambitious curriculum, high academic achievement, strong teaching, outstanding opportunities for personal development and strong community-based relations, as well as effective and secure safeguarding.

King James’s School – good

King James’s School in Knaresborough retained its ‘good’ rating following an inspection of a good school report by Ofsted.

The report, which was published in March, said the school had a “caring environment where pupils learn well” with a “strong focus on ensuring that everyone feels welcome.”

The inspector added the “vast majority of pupils are keen and engage confidently in their learning” and bullying is “rare”.

Despite the praise, the report also said King James’s provides “insufficient opportunities for pupils to engage meaningfully with the world of work” and “pupils who struggle with reading do not receive effect interventions routinely”.

Schools graded ‘good’ are usually visited once every four years to confirm its status – a process known as an ungraded inspection.

Saint John Fisher Catholic Academy – good

Harrogate’s Saint John Fisher Catholic Academy was also rated ‘good’ following a report published in February.

It was the first inspection since it was converted into an academy in 2021.

All areas received a ‘good’ status, and the inspectors praised the “rich set of extra-curricular opportunities”.

The report said:

“[Pupils] leave well-equipped for their next step in education, employment or training.”

However, the inspectors did add “a small but significant minority of parents do not feel that communication between school and home is effective.”

St John Fisher school

Rossett School – requires improvement

Rossett School in Harrogate still ‘requires improvement’ according to the inspectors for the second time in four years.

The report, which was released in January, said high staff turnover, disruptive pupils and extremely high absence rates in disadvantaged students were all among concerns highlighted.

It said:

“Most pupils who communicated with inspectors feel safe at school, but the conduct of the minority makes some pupils feel unsafe at times.

“Some pupils’ conduct out of lessons is variable, with overly boisterous behaviour. Some pupils ignore staff requests and instructions.

“Some staff do not apply the school’s behaviour policy consistently. A minority of pupils are regularly late to lessons, or have to be rounded up by leaders and escorted to class.”

However, the school, which is part of the Red Kite Alliance, was described as “warm, friendly and welcoming.”

The report added:

“Leaders, governors and staff are deeply committed to the pupils who attend the school. A strong determination to be inclusive and supportive permeates the school.”

The school was rated ‘good’ for quality of education, personal development and sixth-form provision and ‘requires improvement’ for behaviour and attitude, and leadership and management.

John Hesketh, chair of governors, said the school was “incredibly disappointed” by the report.

St. Aidan’s Church of England High School – good

St. Aidan’s School received a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted in July last year – just six months after being rated ‘inadequate’.

Prior to the ‘inadequate’ grading – the lowest of the four Ofsted grades – the Harrogate school was declared ‘outstanding’.

Usually, an ‘inadequate’ school has to wait up to three years before another full inspection, however after the first routine monitoring visit, inspectors felt the rating was “not a fair reflection of the school”.

As a result, the inspection was revised.

The most recent report found the school to be “a happy school with a positive and nurturing environment where pupils flourish”.

It added the sixth form was ‘outstanding’ and pupils “demonstrate a real love of learning”.

The report said:

“Teachers have strong subject knowledge. They bring their subject to life for pupils with the clarity of their explanations and richness of examples. Pupils are captivated in lessons and are keen to answer the questions that teachers ask.”

Chair of governors, Jo Wicks, said:

“We are truly delighted that we can end the year so positively and hope that we can build on the recent success when Ofsted next visit us to secure an outstanding judgement overall.”

Nidderdale High School – good

 Ofsted said “Nidderdale High School continues to be a good school” in a report published in March.

Like King James’s, it was only a short inspection due to its previous ‘good’ rating, but the inspectors praised the school for its ethos and “high ambitions”.

The report said:

“There is a full personal development programme in place for pupils. This has a clear focus on important issues such as careers education, personal safety and relationships, sex and health education.

“Morale among staff is high. They feel valued by members of the leadership team, who are mindful of their workload. All staff who responded to the staff survey said that they were proud to work at the school.”

It did also cite areas of improvement and said “where behaviour is not as strong in some lessons, learning activities are not as challenging as they could be”.

Headteacher Kath Jordan responded:

“We were delighted to see the importance of strong relationships highlighted through our emphasis on ready, respectful and safe.

“The new inspection framework places great emphasis on curriculum development and we were very pleased that the school’s ‘high ambitions’ were recognised and that our ability to provide a ‘wide curriculum offer’ is also noted.”

The school became part of the Red Kite Alliance in August.

Harrogate Grammar School – outstanding

Harrogate Grammar School is the only Ofsted rated ‘outstanding’ school in the district following a report published in March last year.

It retained the status from its last inspection 15 years prior.

Inspectors described the school, which also a member of the Red Kite Learning Trust, as “an extremely rewarding place to learn” with “an exceptional curriculum”. They added:

“Effective teaching and assessment enable pupils to learn well. This depth of knowledge is sustained from key stage 3 to the sixth form.

“Through sports, outdoor pursuits and performance opportunities, pupils develop their skills and self-confidence. Pupils are articulate and polite. They are keen to engage in discussion and debate. Teachers make sure that pupils’ views are heard.”

The report also said “the headteacher has built a very strong team of leaders at all levels.”

Headteacher Neil Renton responded to the report:

“It makes us very proud to see the exceptional commitment that we experience every day from our community, being recognised in this way.”

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