Ripon Grammar School has been rated ‘good’ in its first Ofsted inspection for 11 years.
Government inspectors widely praised the 919-pupil school, and assessed its personal development and sixth form provision as ‘outstanding’.
But its overall ‘good’ grade is a notch down on the ‘outstanding’ it received in 2012.
Inspectors visited on January 25 and 26 and again on March 3. Their report has been sent to the school and is expected to be uploaded on the Ofsted website next week.
The report said leaders are ambitious for pupils and students “achieve very highly in their GCSE and A level examinations”. It added:
“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.”
The report added the majority of pupils are happy and behave very well and staff deal with rare examples of bullying effectively.
Areas of improvement
It said support for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities has been strengthened recently but “teaching and wider strategies used to support pupils with SEND vary across the school”.
Two other areas requiring improvement were highlighted.
The report said “a very small minority of staff do not speak to pupils in an appropriately encouraging manner” and recommends “leaders should continue to ensure that all staff are crystal clear about the responsibility on them to always speak appropriately to all pupils”.
It also said behaviour policy “is not always consistently applied” and “behaviour is weaker in a small minority of classrooms, particularly where a substitute teacher is leading the lesson”.
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‘We are committed to continuous improvement’
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.
“The report identifies some areas for improvement – ensuring all students, whatever their abilities, talents and skills, are nurtured and supported to do their very best. This includes high quality SEN support, positive encouragement and behaviour expectations which are consistent and high.
“The governors and leadership team are committed to continuous improvement and development, adapting to demands and challenges of modern life.”
Ex-Ripon Grammar pupil discovers oldest map of stars
A former pupil of Ripon Grammar School has discovered the oldest known map of the stars hidden in an ancient manuscript.
Dr Peter Williams, who left the school in 1989, is a leading biblical historian at the University of Cambridge.
He made the discovery while researching a Bible manuscript belonging to the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. Dr Williams said:
The ancient parchment, which came from a monastery in Egypt, is a palimpsest – a manuscript with text which had been rubbed out and new writing placed on top. Dr Williams explained:
“In the early Middle Ages when papyrus had become scarce and the invention of paper in the west was still centuries away, there was a huge shortage of writing material.
“Consequently, if you found an old manuscript in a script or language you didn’t use you would probably rub it out to put new writing on top.
“Now modern imaging techniques are enabling us to read faint text that was rubbed out over a millennium ago, sometimes even if all the ink has been removed.”
The text underneath turned out to come from around the sixth century AD, with the text on top from the ninth.
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Dr Williams had set his teams of summer interns at the Tyndale House research institute he leads the task of trying to decipher just what had been rubbed out 10 years ago and one student, Jamie Klair, discovered some of it was about astronomy.
But it was during last year’s covid lockdown, as Dr Williams was studying a page which his teams of scholars hadn’t managed to crack, that he realised he was seeing star co-ordinates, which turned out to be of the constellation Corona Borealis.
He discovered it was a fragment from the 2,100-year-old catalogue of the stars by the Greek astronomer and founder of trigonometry Hipparchus, a much noted chart of celestial bodies which was thought to be lost to the ages.
They are the earliest star coordinates preserved in any manuscript. The resulting paper co-authored by Dr Williams and published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, said:
“Hipparchus’s lost Star Catalogue is famous in the history of science as the earliest known attempt to record accurate co-ordinates of many celestial objects observable with the naked eye,”
“This new evidence is the most authoritative to date and allows major progress in the reconstruction of Hipparchus’s Star Catalogue.”
The fragment has enlightened our understanding of ancient astronomy, which appears to have been a remarkably accurate discipline, with Hipparchus’s measurements correct to within one degree of the stars’ actual positions. Some 300 years later, the Greek mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy wrote his Almagest, the oldest star catalogue known to historians before this discovery.
Dr Peter Williams during his Ripon Grammar days
Dr Williams studied Greek, Latin and music at A-level at Ripon, where he was deputy head boy.
He went on to read classics and Hebrew at Cambridge, and now combines his love of old languages with research on the Bible.
Having studied for an MPhil and PhD at Cambridge, apart from a brief residency as senior lecturer in theology at the University of Aberdeen, Dr Williams has remained at the University of Cambridge, where he is an affiliated lecturer in the faculty of divinity, since leaving Ripon.
Hot Seat: ‘We are a proud school, independent-minded’As an opening bowler for Ouseburn Cricket Club, Jonathan Webb has sent down a fair few short pitched deliveries over the years.
But as headteacher of Ripon Grammar School, he must sometimes feel he spends his entire professional life dodging bouncers.
Ripon Grammar is one of 163 UK grammar schools, and Yorkshire’s only state only state boarding school.
Founded in 1555, it is a unique and successful institution but even it is feeling the winds of change.
Covid, mental health, energy bills, pastoral care, academisation, Ofsted — all these issues weigh on leaders’ minds, never mind teaching.
Mr Webb says the last academic year, which ended on Friday, was “less disrupted” by covid than the previous one but the ongoing aftermath is, in some ways, even more damaging. He says:
“Academically our students did relatively well during covid although some did struggle. Where things have been more challenging is the socialising and, dare I say it, the civilising aspect of school.
“By not having that daily interaction with their peers they have got out of that rhythm.”
Many young people were struggling with the corrosive impact of social media and mobile phones even before covid increased their sense of isolation. Mr Webb says:
“A lot of things young people have to deal with, we never had to deal with. Even mobile phones have changed the way students interact with each other and they extend the school day.
“Mental health is a huge issue. But children are much more willing to talk about it. When I was at school the phrase ‘mental health’ wasn’t even coined.”
With students at Ripon Grammar School.
Are schools being asked to fill gaps caused by under-funded services?
“It feels like that. There is a big pressure on schools now. Increasingly we can’t just be establishments of education in the old fashioned sense of the world. We have an increasing and growing responsibility in terms of mental health practical support and safeguarding as well.”
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Improving Ripon
Mr Webb was educated at Batley Grammar School and has a history degree from Cambridge. Friendly and approachable, he was deputy head at Durham School for five years before moving to Ripon in 2017.
When he joined, he talked about there always being room for improvement. What does he think has been achieved?
He cites pastoral support. The school now has a pastoral management team with five heads of year, a pastoral support officer, a student welfare officer and a counsellor comes into school three days a week.
Looking ahead, he says pastoral care will remain a priority but there’s plenty else to ponder over summer, such as updating the school’s “pretty antiquated” heating system at a time of soaring energy bills and preparing for a visit from Ofsted.
Ripon Grammar hasn’t had an Ofsted inspection since 2012 when it was rated ‘outstanding’ although its boarding school was assessed to be ‘good’ this year.
Mr Webb says:
“We’ve been ready or aware since January that an inspection is imminent.”
Becoming an academy
There’s also the looming prospect of being forced to join an academy, as part of government’s plans for all schools to go down this route by 2030.
For a school that has excelled in splendid isolation for 450 years, this isn’t an entirely welcome prospect. Heavily oversubscribed at 11+, in 2021, 72 per cent of pupils achieved 9-7 at GCSE and 60 per cent achieved A*/A at A level. At least 85 per cent of students stay on for the sixth form and the over 60 per cent go to Russell Group universities.
There doesn’t seem to be a great reason to change but Mr Webb acknowledges “academies are the direction of travel”, adding:
“We are a proud school, independent-minded. Inevitably joining a trust involves joining with other schools. However we have to accept it’s going to happen and embrace the benefits.”
Boarding fees
Ripon Grammar, which moved to its present 23-acre site in 1874, is free for day pupils. Boarding costs about £11,000 to £12,000 a year, which is about a third the price of independent alternatives.
Former pupils include fashion designer Bruce Oldfield, former Conservative Party leader William Hague MP, Guardian editor Katharine Viner, TV presenter Richard Hammond and Olympic gold medallist diver Jack Laugher.
Mr Webb says there is a renewed focus on high quality teaching and learning. He’s particularly keen on oracy or, as he puts it, “developing the way students speak in an erudite and informed manner”, adding:
“It’s a life skill that never leaves somebody.”
The school is also embedding new subjects such as GCSE PE and A-level politics into the curriculum.
Mr Webb, who lives with his wife Helen and two sons near Ripon, has now spent as long at Ripon as he did at Durham but intends to continue. He says:
“I love this school and I love the job. I live very locally and both of my boys are here. They are doing well and enjoying it so I don’t see any need to move on at this stage.”
Ripon A-Level student who battled tumour aims to become a doctor
A Ripon student diagnosed with an ovarian tumour during her A-Levels has achieved the grades she needed to go to university and pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.
Amy Goodwin, who studied at Ripon Grammar School, missed several weeks of school and underwent surgery. Today she was awarded an A*, two As and a B in maths, biology, chemistry and physics.
She said staff at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton had inspired her:
“I had such good doctors and nurses who looked after me well and put me at ease”.
Ms Goodwin had to wait nine weeks for confirmation her tumour was benign. Having made a good recovery, she is now looking forward to starting her course in medicine at the University of Sheffield in September.
She said her experience had given her new insight into her future career:
“It made me think about how doctors come across to patients and how they present information to them.
“I have always been interested in being a doctor, mainly because I want to be able to help people.”
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Meanwhile, fellow Ripon Grammar pupil Mena Scatchard will travel to the USA on a £250,000 sports scholarship after receiving an A* in geography and As in biology and chemistry.
Ms Scatchard is one of the fastest young middle-distance runners in the UK and will study liberal arts at the prestigious Ivy League university Princeton.
Middle distance runner Mena Scatchard, who is off to America.
A smart performance by Ripon Grammar School singer and trumpet player Eva Scullion, has won her a coveted place at the Junior Royal College of Music in Manchester.
Because of the coronavirus crisis, Eva, who is 15 and a year 10 student at the school, had her audition filmed on a smartphone by her mother Beki.
The lockdown and social distancing restrictions, meant that auditions in Manchester could not go ahead and Eva was asked to submit a video featuring her performing and talking about why she wants to study at the college.
She has achieved Grade 8 in voice and grade 6 in trumpet and said she finds music a way of expressing her emotions, especially when singing and added:
“I really enjoy exploring the different moods in songs and how you can be a completely different person than in real life.”
Ripon Grammar School director of music, Michael Barker, said he was proud that Eva and pointed out:
“She is an excellent all-round musician in theory, performance and composition and a stalwart member of our RGS music groups. She has a promising musical future.”
In Harrogate, Ellie Schaiper, a sixth former from Ashville College has won a coveted place at the National Youth Theatre.
The NYT has a long list of A-lister alumni that includes Dame Helen Mirren, Daniel Craig, Rosamund Pike, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Firth and Sir Ben Kingsley.
Ellie Schaiper said:
“Normally those accepted would take this course in London, however, once again due to the virus, this year’s intake course will be done via ‘Zoom’. After the summer intake course, I should have the opportunity to audition for productions within the company as well as their Rep Company, in addition to masterclasses and talks with industry professionals.”
Ashville Drama student Ellie Schaiper
Karl Boyd, Ashville College’s Head of Drama, said:
“I’m absolutely thrilled for Ellie. Being selected to join the National Youth Theatre is a wonderful achievement, and one that will hopefully open many doors for her as she explores a career in the world of acting.
“She worked incredibly hard for the audition and this, combined with her natural talent, has paid off.”