Is Ricards Lodge a good secondary?

Yep Wobbles - they are completely dis-interested and don't seem to care a jot. I'm unsure how they have gained any kind of positive reputation - although it seems if your DD is in one of the top sets it may be better.

I also had a conversation with one of the teachers who I had sent my daughters ed. psychologists report to (which we paid for ourselves) - and she said there was nothing included that she was particularly concern about - in complete contradiction to what the ed. psych had said...

Unfortunately all other schools are full. It is so disheartening.

We are fighting against being forced to send our daughter to Ricard’s. We have withdraw her from school pending a tribunal. It is precisely the lack of interest and engagement with families and their concerns that puts us off

Conscious that this is responding to a question posted a while ago - but I just had to respond and alert parents to this schools ineptitude.

We moved to Wimbledon in the summer and Ricards Lodge was the closest school for my DD to attend - plus it seemed to have great reviews.

Previous to living in Wimbledon we had lived in Surrey and Hampshire. While in Surrey my DD was decelerated at year 3 due to her severe dyslexia so she repeated year 3 (this was in Surrey). And to be honest was never an issue.

When we moved to Wimbledon, Merton council were happy for her to remain decelerated and go into year 8...however, the headteacher at Ricards Lodge insisted that my DD go into year 9 because of her age.

As a result, DD not only missed half of year 7 due to covid lockdown - Ricards Lodge then pushed her forward a year so she has essentially missed all of year 8 as well.

Before moving to Wimbledon my DD was in the top sets for English and science and really thriving. She is now in the bottom sets for everything. She is anxious. She says the children shout, are disruptive, are on their phones and have their hands up all the time. The head teacher has refused to meet with me, the office staff are not particularly helpful, the governors have not responded and yesterday the school left DD outside in the cold and rain for more than an hour as they said she should be self isolating. That had actually finished.

They do not care. And I would NOT recommend this school.

This is totally irrelevant to the OP as this was about 100 years ago but loads of girls from my school had a big fight with loads from RL back in the 80s over a boy. It made the papers, even back home in Ireland I was shamed! Can't even remember who the boy was, can't imagine he was anything special of the local talent was anything to go by!

They may have more polarised pupils than some schools? They've had a couple of less high achieving year groups? I would have thought that you would be wisest to challenge the SLT with your worries tintenherz.

Thanks for sharing your recent experiences.

We’re expecting to be offered a place at Ricards next month. I got a great feeling at the open day - the girls I spoke to were impressively articulate, polite and engaged.... but... I have a few nagging worries about the academics. Other local schools publish a full breakdown of exam results by subject so you can see what options are being chosen as well as the outcomes. And Ricards just... don’t. Surely they would have this information on the website in a flash if it looked impressive. And from what I gleaned at the open day their Maths results are quite a way below national average (so a long way below other Merton schools).

Anything you can say to reassure me? I really want to love it. We didn’t go for the grammars because the commute would have been so long, but I’m worried now that it wasn’t the right choice (a bit late now I realise!)

It was a horrible school a few years ago some of my friends went their.I went Burntwood and I wouldn't put a dog in there at all. I think it's easy to wear blinkers and only focus on one type of behaviour amongst a given cohort. Loud, mouthy girls exist, I'm sure, in all schools (even private ones!) and they will be the ones you'll remember from bus journeys, rather than the quiet and well-behaved ones who tend to merge into the background.

RL has a mixed intake (although becoming less so as the school's reputation goes from strength to strength), so you might expect there to be some rough girls. Don't tar them all with the same brush though! Lots are from SW19, including the roads around the school (heading into 'the Village'. I challenge anyone to find rough girls in those neighbourhoods!

Hi my daughter is in yr 8, she passed Grammer tests by alas no place, as on waiting lists, I attended this school myself and made great friends but teaching was dire back then! The current headteacher is from my batch and went to Ricards for a term before she moved away. My daughter had a few bumpy starts but she’s well settled in all top sets and loving it.
So many opportunities aside from the usual academic and lovely setting for the school with great connections for future experiences.
Her best friends are at Nonsuch and Wallington schools and they are struggling with amount of work and the competition. After this experience I will not be putting my other children through the Grammar routes as it’s so mentally stressful for them any gaps I will use tutors. Hope all is well with yours :)

@SanFris That makes perfect sense good luck x

I think with all girls school there's an element of bullying to some degree I live near Carshalton Girls now and that school is bad too if you see the way they speak to each other at the train station it would turn your hair grey! And they don't seem to give a shite either

It was bullying really bad and the busses they used to use from getting home was hard work also as they was causing trouble in and out of school, I don't live in the area now so I don't see any of it anymore but at the time around 3-5 years ago it was rough x

SanFris, so to confuse you. I have twin DDs one at Ricards and another at a different school.

It was their choice to go to separate schools.

It was a horrible school a few years ago some of my friends went their. I went Burntwood and I wouldn't put a dog in there at all.

OP - you may find it useful if you follow them on Twitter as this will show you what goes on at the school.

I know they had a bad reputation many years ago but it has definitely changed for the better (I can say that as a parent who has a daughter at another local outstanding girl's school!)

I had 2 daughters go through Ricards. The first was not very academic, struggled to be average in anything and also had dyslexia. At one time I thought she had no chance of passing any exams but she left with 5 GCSEs and 2 BTECs
The younger was more of an average ability and left with 7 GCSEs and 3 A levels, all above average grades
They both enjoyed their time there, joined school clubs, obtained DofE bronze award and made good friends.
So yes, I'd recommend the school.

kiert I reckon that must have been a good few years ago? Ricards Lodge rebranded about a decade ago (coinciding with the new uniform) and seems to be going from strength to strength since.

Friends with DDs there have only had very positive things to say about it.