Rishworth School, West Yorkshire

[katy14]

Has anyone got children at Rishworth School near Halifax in West Yorkshire? I'd be interested in hearing any feedback on the school, particularly from Y7 onwards to help us make our mind up on where yo send our daughter. Any feedback on the teaching, facilities, pastoral care, food, or anything else would be appreciated. What are they good at? Where could things be improved? Thanks in advance.

Are you in the catchment area?

Yes

Hello OP
Sorry to hijack but I’ve just discovered your thread whilst googling Rishworth School. My daughter is in y4 in state primary and we are thinking about secondaries. The ones near where we live have bad reputations and she is quite quiet, artistic and recently diagnosed with dyslexia. I really want to make the right choice for her as she doesn’t enjoy school so far at all. Rishworth is on my radar so I’m wondering if you found out anything more about it?

There is an open day coming up in March that we will attend, might be useful if you are still thinking of it too?

If anyone else has any feedback that would be great! 🙏🙏

Hi,
Yes one at the Prep (Heathfield) and one at Rishworth.

They both genuinely love it at school (well as much as any teenager can).

The food was not so good up until the arrival of a new chef last year - but now it’s great, lots of choice and everything made fresh.

Pastorally - small class sizes mean the tutors really do seem to know the children in their form and are all over it with any issues. There’s a special place called the hub, that DD has been to when she was having a bad day (typical temperamental teenager).

Some bits of the school are slightly sought into, but the teachers are brilliant! Anyone who can keep my daughter paying attention and actually learning in a Maths lesson deserves a medal!

Definitely go to the Open Day and meet the staff and kids. We went to loads when we were looking and it was eye-opening.

Thank you so much @MotherHudd its great to hear from a Rishworth parent, I really appreciate it. Sounds like you are happy with the school. Small and nurturing is what we are after because DD is quite quiet and sensitive. So good pastoral care and a strong SEN dept that can work with the dyslexia and not make her feel like she’s stupid because of it are priorities for us.

I am looking forward to going to the open day and getting a feel for the place. Am hoping to warm to the Head, is he well liked by parents?

Mr Baker is lovely! Wise and warm. Sensible with a twinkle in his eye. Genuinely cares about the kids. He’s always available to talk to at drop off and pick up - which is great, I hate a Head who hides in his office.

I agree. My daughter’s current Head came in after we had joined the school and she’s such a cold fish, I am not impressed at all. Your guy sounds just what you’d want for a Head. Very promising!! Thanks again for the info 😁

Hi,
I have one at Rishworth and one just left. In no particular order my thoughts would be: Location wise it's very pretty, in a countryside valley and school buses are available that cover a massive area (though that can mean friends are a bit spread out when trying to meet up at a weekend). The change of head seems to have had a positive effect with improvements in many areas from the school website, general communication (we get a nice weekly email newsletter), after school clubs (lots to choose from) and his relationship with the students seems great (my son fist bumps him!) and the food has improved, drinks and fruit are available at break which is a bonus. I would say have a look at a few schools and try and work out what is best for your child, for example if they like sport they do have grass rugby and football pitches (they have to walk across a few fields to it but it's very picturesque!) but there is no astro turf style pitch so for example the girl's have to do hockey training indoors and then have matches outdoors at another local school. They do have a gym, swimming pool and tennis courts. If there is a subject you definitely want then just check they do it as schools vary slightly with some subjects, eg my daughter wanted to do textiles but it wasn't offered (DT is offered and Art) so ended up doing Food Tec which she loved and is also available at sixth form. Students with needs such as dyslexia can attend specific sessions at the Hub and Learning Support is offered at GCSE (in place of one GSCE subject which has been a godsend for my son to catch up on homework and receive extra support in English). The school has 3 form classes in each year with up to 20 children in each form so it's relatively small without being too tiny, it does have a seperate prep school but there is big intake of new students at Year 7 so it doesn't matter if you don't know anybody before you start. Actual lessons can have much less children in each class depending on the subject etc. The school positively promotes scholarship and bursary applications (unlike some others that we saw). There are common rooms for various year groups which is a good idea, though they can get busy when it's raining. There are some big school trips offered such as Borneo and America for skiing, however only a relatively small number of students go so you don't feel overly pressured to go as they won't be the 'only one' not going. Like any school we've had teenage drama but like anywhere this depends on friendship groups and individual teenagers, for major stuff the school will remove the student from the school quite quickly which is actually reassuring. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Good luck with your school search.

@Glueandglitter many thanks for all this info!!! The dyslexia support sounds very good. We were meant to go to an open day last weekend but cancelled due to all the snow. My daughter isn’t sporty at all but very creative and loves art. So we will arrange a visit and continue to ponder it!

@AndCallMeNancy hi I’ve stumbled across this thread whist researching Rishworth school.
I am curious did you attend the open event, and what did you think?