Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School

Infobox UK school
name = Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School


size =
latitude = 54.0393
longitude = -2.8018
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motto =
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established = 1864
approx =
closed =
c_approx =
type = voluntary aided comprehensive
religion = Church of England
president =
head_label =
head = Mrs. Liz Nicholls
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r_head =
deputy_head_label =
deputy head =
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chair =
founder = Julia Ripley
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specialist = Languages
specialist_pl =
street = Ashton Road
city = Lancaster
county = Lancashire
country = England flagicon|England
postcode = LA1 4RS
LEA = Lancashire
ofsted = 119796
staff =
enrollment = 1530
gender = Mixed
lower_age = 11
upper_age = 18
houses = Blackburn, Chester, Durham, York
colours =
publication =
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website = http://www.ripley.lancsngfl.ac.uk/
website_name = www.ripley.lancsngfl.ac.uk

Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School is a mixed Church of England High School in the city of Lancaster in the north-west of England.The school has around 1530 pupils between 11 and 18 years old.

History

The school started life as Ripley Hospital, founded by Julia, wife of Thomas Ripley, a merchant who traded out of Lancaster and Liverpool. Thomas Ripley was born in Lancaster in 1790, and had been an apprentice to a grocer and linen draper. Since his mercantile career began later than 1807, there is no evidence to link Thomas Ripley with the slave trade. Indeed, much of his wealth stems from the fact that he was one of the first English merchants to embark on trade with China, and much of his subsequent trade was with the East Indies. As a devout Christian, he was keen to establish a Charity Hospital, modelled on the Liverpool Blue Coat School. Having no children, on his death in 1852, he left a considerable sum of money in trust to establish the Ripley Hospital, to cater for fatherless children, especially those whose fathers had been lost at sea.

On the 3rd November 1864, it was designated to educate an equal number of boys and girls – 300 in total – providing they lived within either convert|15|mi|km of Lancaster Priory or convert|7|mi|km of Liverpool Cathedral.

The main school building, originally costing £30,000, included a first-class gym, woodwork and metalwork rooms, a domestic school for girls, and heated swimming-pool, four courts for playing fives and enough full-sized football pitches to allow 150 boys to play at the same time. A farm of some 40 acres kept the school supplied with home produced meat, milk and poultry, and a vast kitchen garden gave a constant supply of fresh vegetables. This school was well in advance of its time.

The work of the Hospital continued until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, when the building was requisitioned by the army. The pupils then moved out to Capernwray Hall. They expected to return at the end of the War, but the government requisitioned Ripley for another three years for use as an emergency Teachers' Training College. By then, it was realised that the need for an endowed orphanage was much reduced. State pensions allowed more one-parent families to stay together, and the fashion had moved away from institutional units.

After the trainee teachers left, the building became a National School, then a boys' secondary modern school until 1966 when Ripley Boys' and St. Thomas Girls' Schools amalgamated to become Ripley St. Thomas Church of England School.

In September, 1996, Ripley was designated a Language College. Whilst not changing in any way its status as a Voluntary Aided Church School, this does enable the school to develop its language facilities and so become a 'Centre of Excellence' for modern languages, including French, German, Spanish and Japanese. [cite web
title = History
publisher = Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School
url = http://www.ripley.lancsngfl.ac.uk/history.html]

The school today

Today, 1700 boys and girls are educated at the school, many of whom continue to the age of 18 years and go on to complete university degree courses. The current headteacher is Mrs Liz Nicholls, succeeding Mr J. Lailey.

Recent additions include two new science laboratories, an English/Language block, History/Geography Studies block, new sports hall with full size basketball courts and a fitness suite, and up-graded foreign languages and technology facilities, but no refurbishment to the much needed music block. The school site is spacious and contains some exceptional features, including good sports facilities, the school farm, plant centre, walled garden and fine mature trees.The school is trying to raise enough money to build a new sixth form centre, expected to be ready in January 2009.

Ripley is a very popular school with a long tradition of high academic and sporting achievement. It is often featured in the national press as one of the best State Schools in the country.Fact|date=October 2008 Its results in external tests and examinations at Key Stage 3, GCSE and Advanced Level, and its value-added performance, places the school within the top 10% of secondary schools nationally.Fact|date=October 2008In January 2008, an Ofsted report rated the school overall as "Outstanding", the highest of 4 achievable Ofsted grades.ofsted|119796|Ripley St Thomas Church of England High School, Office for Standards in Education.]

Uniform

The school's uniform for years 7–11 consists of black/charcoal trousers, white shirt, black shoes, a diagonly striped tie and a navy bluy bazer with badge for boys. Girls have to wear, a white blouse, a diagonly striped tie, black trousers which have to bought from the schools official supplier – Trutex, black shoes and a navy blue blazer with badge. Sixth formers have a more varied choose as they can wear "smart clothes". Boys have to wear smart trousers, smart shirt and a tie. Girls have a more varied choice.

There has been some complaint about girls having to wear the special "Trutex trousers". A couple of parents have written into newspapers explaining their annoyance and many girls at the school dislike wearing the trousers because they do not come in the right sizes. Often they are extremely baggy and large around the legs. [cite news
title = Lancaster school uniform is Rip-off says mum
work = The Citizen | location = Lancaster & Morecambe | date = 2008-10-01
url = http://www.thelancasterandmorecambecitizen.co.uk/news/3714326.Lancaster_school_uniform_is_Rip_off_says_mum/
accessdate = 2008-10-04]

References