Welcome to Richard Hale School

My name is Ian Hawkins and it is my privilege to be Headteacher at this school.

Our aims for every student are that they will:

• Respect Others – so students show respect to the whole community and become young people of character who want to and will contribute to society.
• Aim High – so all students achieve their potential
• Show Commitment – by engaging in the opportunities available to not only develop their own interests and skills, but also to enrich the life of the school.

These aims are built on the long standing traditions of the school, first established by Richard Hale himself in 1617 and have become part of the core purpose of this school in the last 400 years. The school has a proud history of achieving these aims and we look to continue to build on these in the future.

Our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the students, it promotes academic study through the CORE subjects of Maths and English. Students study individual sciences, history and geography and the majority study a language at GCSE. This forms the basis of the students learning, but we believe in promoting the arts, music, drama and art alongside the opportunity to study Design Technology and Engineering. We offer a three year GCSE which is widely supported by our community and gives more time for the boys to develop their understanding and skills at GCSE. Our curriculum was recognised by Ofsted as being, “well planned,” and that teachers had a, “strong understanding of their subjects,” which enable students to progress while stimulating their engagement with in their learning. Our 6^th form continues to grow with over 300 students studying a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications which provide the foundations for students to achieve places at Universities, Higher Level Apprenticeships and Employment.

However, at Richard Hale, education is about providing a wide range of experience. Our extra-curricular programme is an important part of our ethos. Our sports teams are very successful and we offer a full Saturday morning programme of competition across the year. Our music department play a number of concerts through the year. We have bands and a choir that have graced St Paul’s and Ghent Cathedral. Drama productions, philosophy club, chess, Duke of Edinburgh, maths challenge, I could go on, but our dedication to extra-curricular is evident in that every student is expected to be involved with and take part in the wider school life. An added dimension to this is the strong house system in which all students participate in order to be crowned Cock House Cup champions.

The school motto is, “Learning with Virtue.” Being a Richard Hale student means that you are respectful and show a high level of responsibility, we expect this from all the students. Ofsted wrote that a, “sense of pride runs throughout the school, in how pupils support each other in classes and during break and lunchtimes.” The school is a supportive community which offers, “high quality care,” and we want to work with every student to ensure that their school experience is the very best it can be.

Our Ofsted Report from December 2019 is available to view on the website and this gives you an overview of the school as well as highlighting some areas of the school we are working on developing to improve. The School Development Plan is also available under the school priorities.

If you want to find out more about the school or are interested in joining our community, then please contact us. We look forward to hearing from you.