Top marks for city school

OUTSTANDING! That is the verdict of inspectors after they visited Redbridge Comm-unity School.

It is the first school in Southampton to receive the highest praise from Ofsted (The Office for Standards in education) in its new-style inspections.

Inspectors described the school as making a "great difference" to the development of every one of the 820 pupils on roll.

Top marks were given for the quality of education, students' personal development and the leadership and management of the school, which were all declared outstanding.

The school's success comes despite serving one of the city's more deprived catchment areas, with an above average number of pupils eligible for free school meals.

Most pupils also join the school with below average literacy skills and need extra support but make very good progress as teachers quickly and effectively deal with any problem learning areas.

"This sends out an encouraging message to all schools that success can be achieved irrespective of the circumstances in which schools operate," said head teacher Richard Schofield.

"As our aspirations have risen, more students have gone on to further and higher education. In some cases the youngsters are the first generation in their family to go on to university."

Redbridge is the first city secondary school to receive Ofsted's highest accolade in recent months, after both Cantell in Bassett and Bellemoor in Shirley were placed into special measures.

They now have more frequent inspections, after inspectors described the education on offer as unacceptable.

New head teachers Cassie Ellins at Bellemoor and Ruth Johnson at Cantell have already put in place a raft of measures to raise standards so that they can turn the performance of the two schools around.

As well as praising the good quality teaching at Redbridge, inspectors also singled out the outstanding care students were given and the school's warm and helpful environment.

Mr Schofield said: "Everything revolves around the quality of relationships and taking an interest in each and every student.

"Every student here has got a particular talent and interest and it is our job to identify those strengths and help them achieve their potential."

Part of the school's success comes from focusing on the child's overall development.

Mr Schofield added: "It's not just about making a difference to a pupil's academic progress but looking after their emotional health and helping them to grow in self-esteem and confidence.

"An emotionally healthy child is a child ready to learn."

Mr Schofield, who has been at the helm for seven years, said that an ethos of success was instrumental in achieving high standards.

He said: "If you operate in a climate of success, how can you possibly fail to want to achieve? Over the years the school has developed an ethos where success is cool. Pupils want to succeed."

The school's specialist sports status, which means extra government funding for sporting facilities, has also helped to improve standards in physical education and across the curriculum.

Mr Schofield said: "Sports college status has resulted in the development of a greater range of leadership opportunities for our children and we now have a large number of students working with pupils from our local primary schools."

Inspectors also praised pupils' "exemplary" behaviour and the "calm" and "relaxed" atmosphere at lunchtime.

Mr Schofield said: "At a time when the government is increasingly concerned about standards of behaviour in schools, it is particularly pleasing to note that behaviour is exemplary in Redbridge.

"There are clearly defined standards and pupils know where they stand."

A 'house system' of mixed-age tutor groups, introduced last September, has also proved successful in creating a more caring environment, where older students can take responsibility for younger pupils.

The new set-up is also a powerful way to combat incidents of bullying.

"Schools accept that in some moments of time there are likely to be incidents of bullying. It's appropriate to have standards in place to deal with bullying rather than to ignore it," added Mr Schofield.

Five new houses named after famous sportspeople (Radcliffe, Redgrave, MacArthur, Charlton and Bannister) have also helped to promote healthy competition among pupils to earn the highest number of house points for their work, with the reward of a trophy each term.

Chairman of governors Nick Thornton praised the school's "outstanding leadership".

Ian Sandbrook, executive director for education and leisure services at Southampt-on Local Education Authority, said: "Redbridge should be very proud of itself, as we are very proud of it.

"To be considered to be outstanding is extremely rare and very special. The pupils who attend the school are very lucky."