Rickmansworth School
Catchment Area, Reviews and Key Information

Secondary
Post 16
PUPILS
1511
AGES
11 - 18
GENDER
Mixed
TYPE
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SCHOOL GUIDE RATING
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Can I Get My Child Into This School?

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This pupil heat map shows where pupils currently attending the school live.
The concentration of pupils shows likelihood of admission based on distance criteria

Source: All attending pupils National School Census Data, ONS
0300 123 4043

This School Guide heat map has been plotted using official pupil data taken from the last School Census collected by the Department for Education. It is a visualisation of where pupils lived at the time of the annual School Census.

Our heat maps use groups of postcodes, not individual postcodes, and have naturally soft edges. All pupils are included in the mapping (i.e. children with siblings already at the school, high priority pupils and selective and/or religious admissions) but we may have removed statistical ‘outliers’ with more remote postcodes that do not reflect majority admissions.

For some schools, the heat map may be a useful indicator of the catchment area but our heat maps are not the same as catchment area maps. Catchment area maps, published by the school or local authority, are based on geographical admissions criteria and show actual cut-off distances and pre-defined catchment areas for a single admission year.

This information is provided as a guide only. The criteria in which schools use to allocate places in the event that they are oversubscribed can and do vary between schools and over time. These criteria can include distance from the school and sometimes specific catchment areas but can also include, amongst others, priority for siblings, children of a particular faith or specific feeder schools. Living in an area where children have previously attended a school does not guarantee admission to the school in future years. Always check with the school’s own admission authority for the current admission arrangements.

3 steps to help parents gather catchment information for a school:

  1. Look at our school catchment area guide for more information on heat maps. They give a useful indicator of the general areas that admit pupils to the school. This visualisation is based on all attending pupils present at the time of the annual School Census.
  2. Use the link to the Local Authority Contact (above) to find catchment area information based on a single admission year. This is very important if you are considering applying to a school.
  3. On each school page, use the link to visit the school website and find information on individual school admissions criteria. Geographical criteria are only applied after pupils have been admitted on higher priority criteria such as Looked After Children, SEN, siblings, etc.

How Does The School Perform?

Outstanding
NATIONAL AVG. 2.09
Ofsted Inspection
(19/09/2023)
Full Report - All Reports
91%
NATIONAL AVG. 38%
5+ GCSEs grade 9-4 (standard pass or above) including English and maths



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Progress Compared With All Other Schools

UNLOCK Well Below Average (About 15% of schools in England) Below Average (About 18% of schools in England) Average (About 35% of schools in England) Above Average (About 16% of schools in England) Well Above Average (About 16% of schools in England)

School Results Over Time

2019 2022 2023 2020 Covid-19 2021 Covid-19 UNLOCK

% of pupils who achieved 5+ GCSEs grade 9-4
2019 2022 2023 2020 Covid-19 2021 Covid-19 UNLOCK

% of pupils who achieved GCSE grade 5 or above in both English and maths
2019 2022 2023 2020 Covid-19 2021 Covid-19 UNLOCK

% of pupils who achieved 3 A levels at AAB or higher
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Scots Hill
Rickmansworth
WD3 3AQ
01923773296

School Description

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have shown a relentless determination to change the culture within the school. Leaders at all levels, governors, and the vast majority of staff have supported you well. You have had some notable success in your pursuit of excellence across all areas. You have galvanised staff so that each pupil is given every opportunity to achieve their best. The highly impressive monitoring systems help you to identify quickly pupils who are falling behind, provide appropriate support, and measure the impact of your actions closely. As a result, improvements in teaching and learning have led to outcomes rising sharply for many pupils since the last inspection. The school is now securely good. Elements of the sixth form, which were judged to be outstanding at the previous inspection, remain so. Your school has a distinctive ethos and positive climate. Visitors receive a warm welcome and can see the strong relationships that exist between staff and pupils, based on cooperation and respect. You have skilfully combined the demand for high standards with a purposeful, but friendly atmosphere. This prepares pupils well for when they leave the school. Pupils confirmed this to be the case, and as one said, ‘There is a nice balance where you are integrated into the real world slowly, but still have the teachers to fall back on.’ The school has benefited from your clear and calm leadership. There is now far greater stability and vision. Leaders are candid and objective; they have a perceptive and accurate view of the school’s strengths and know the areas that require further development. You have built on what the school does well, and are continually looking at ways to improve. The professional development that staff receive is a case in point. Staff value the excellent support that leaders provide for them because you carefully tailor training to meet their individual needs. This has led to highly effective teaching and learning, as seen by the proportion of staff receiving external teaching awards, and the improved outcomes in many subjects. As a headteacher, you have modelled your high expectations for everyone to follow. Importantly, the school is not complacent; leaders and staff are always looking for ways to give pupils greater experiences so that you can raise their aspirations still further. Governors are equally ambitious and want the best outcomes for every child. They have acted upon the findings of their review of governance. They now have suitable mechanisms in place to give you the autonomy you need to drive improvement while monitoring the school’s continued effectiveness. Alongside senior leaders, they have helped to guide the school through some turbulent times. The vast majority of teaching observed during the inspection was lively, stimulating and productive. Where practice was most effective, teachers’ high expectations and good subject knowledge ensured that questioning was used to checks pupils’ understanding and push them to think harder. Teachers plan work carefully, using a wide range of high-quality resources and activities, including practical work and group work, to support learning. The classrooms are lively learning environments where pupils display positive attitudes to learning; they sustain their concentration, support each other, listen carefully and work hard. For example, pupils in a Year 7 history lesson articulately shared their ‘killer facts’ as to why Henry VIII had made the break from Rome. Assessment in some subjects is a real strength because teachers explain to pupils very clearly what they have done well and how they can do even better. The effective sixth-form leader has maintained the very high standards reported upon at the previous inspection. Inspectors saw teaching that was characterised by high-level discussion work, carefully planned learning, strong relationships, and a suitable blend of group activities and independent learning. Teachers’ high aspirations of what students can achieve, alongside effective support, help students to adjust to the increased expectations at key stage 5 extremely well. As a result, the progress these students make has been in the top 25%, often the top 10%, of sixth forms nationally. Students are proud of their sixth form and take responsibility for their own learning. They enjoy the additional freedoms and responsibilities they have earned and respond positively to the trust placed in them. They told inspectors that staff teach them well, provide help outside of lessons, and guide and support them with their applications for further education, employment or training. Throughout the inspection, pupils demonstrated consistently good behaviour. They move from lesson to lesson quickly and quietly. At breaktime, they queue patiently, act sensibly, play table tennis and treat each other with respect and kindness. Both inspectors commented on how enjoyable it was wandering around at breaktime and talking to pupils. Pupils willingly engaged inspectors in conversation; they were respectful, considerate and courteous and model the ‘6 Ricky Rs’. Staff on duty are ‘light touch’ and model high expectations in their interactions with pupils. One student who joined the sixth form from another school said, ‘I was made to feel very welcome because all the teachers and other students are so friendly and approachable.’ Safeguarding is effective. Pupils at Rickmansworth School feel safe, are safe and know how to stay safe. They explained how the school uses ‘L Cubed’ to provide them with useful information and strategies to stay safe in a variety of settings, including road safety, different types of abuse and when online. One pupil summed up the school’s atmosphere nicely when he said, ‘It feels like home. You feel safe.’ The overwhelming majority of parents agree that their children are safe. Pupils said that bullying is extremely rare, and on the few occasions it does occur, staff deal with it swiftly and effectively. Staff receive high-quality training and know what to do if they have concerns about the safety of any pupil in their care. Leaders and governors ensure that safeguarding practice is compliant. The school regularly uses a ‘mystery person’ to check that staff remain ever vigilant and challenge unfamiliar people they see within school. Safeguarding and the well-being of pupils is clearly a key priority for the school. Inspection findings The inspection was steered by four key lines of enquiry to check whether the school remains good. The first issue was whether disadvantaged pupils and pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities make good progress, given that published performance data from previous years indicates some underachievement. Leaders rightly have made this one of their raising achievement priorities and taken swift action to address it. Staff in most departments have a clear understanding of the barriers to learning disadvantaged pupils face. Pupils receive additional support so that they can access similar opportunities to other pupils. Work in pupils’ books shows they are making better progress, and the rigorous monitoring processes confirm this to be the case across most subjects and year groups. The progress made by disadvantaged pupils in 2016 was below that made by other pupils nationally. Leaders’ sharply focused interventions have led to rapid improvements in the progress these pupils made in 2017 across most subject areas. However, while disadvantaged pupils are catching up, their progress still lags behind other pupils in some subjects, notably mathematics. Pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities did not all make the progress of which they were capable in 2016. Teachers now use the information provided by the special educational needs coordinator to plan learning to meet pupils’ needs more effectively. In 2017, this group of pupils made better progress from their starting points than all pupils nationally. However, as leaders acknowledged, the small cohorts and ever-changing needs of these pupils mean that continued close monitoring is essential.

Rickmansworth School Parent Reviews



unlock % Parents Recommend This School
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>71, "agree"=>24, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>2, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>74, "agree"=>22, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>69, "agree"=>25, "disagree"=>4, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
My Child Has Not Been Bullied Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"my_child_has_not_been_bullied"=>72, "strongly_agree"=>10, "agree"=>4, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>8} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>59, "agree"=>34, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
I Have Not Raised Any Concerns Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"i_have_not_raised_any_concerns"=>34, "strongly_agree"=>41, "agree"=>15, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>3, "dont_know"=>2} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>45, "agree"=>33, "disagree"=>9, "strongly_disagree"=>9, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 33 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>68, "agree"=>27, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>65, "agree"=>30, "disagree"=>3, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>59, "agree"=>36, "disagree"=>2, "strongly_disagree"=>1, "dont_know"=>1} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>77, "agree"=>21, "disagree"=>2, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>81, "agree"=>18, "disagree"=>1, "strongly_disagree"=>0, "dont_know"=>0} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know {"strongly_agree"=>68, "agree"=>22, "disagree"=>5, "strongly_disagree"=>2, "dont_know"=>3} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023
Yes No {"yes"=>94, "no"=>6} UNLOCK Figures based on 288 responses up to 15-11-2023

Responses taken from Ofsted Parent View

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