Ridgeway School - A brief Overview            

Ridgeway is a purpose built day school for pupils with physical disabilities.  It was opened in January 1974 and is a single storey building, situated on an educational campus in Kempston, three miles west of Bedford . The Child Development Centre and Hastingsbury Upper School and Community College also share this site.

Ridgeway is the only all-age school in the County for pupils with a physical disability (there is a Primary School in Luton ) and so draws pupils from a very wide area covering both north and south Bedfordshire. The school roll in September 2005 was approximately 69 pupils, spanning an age range from 3 to 19 years.

Whilst the pupils’ principal needs originate from this physical disability, all have related learning difficulties. Therefore, the pupils’ levels of achievement cover a very wide range, demanding a similarly wide and flexible response in the school’s organisational and curriculum arrangements.

The school is currently organised into two departments: 

• The Primary Department covering Early Years, KS1, KS2.
• The Secondary Department covering KS3, KS4 and Post 16.

The resources of the school reflect the nature of its provision.  There are specialist rooms for paramedical services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, music therapy, audiology and nursing.  There is also a hydrotherapy pool. These stand alongside the resources normally associated with a small county school including technology bases associated with Design & Technology and Food Technology.  The department also has a mathematics and music room, a science room and a separate post 16 facility. To ensure that these resources are used most effectively the school employs a multidisciplinary approach to working with Teachers,  Nursery Nurses, School Nurse and Therapy staff fully integrated into the learning programmes of the students, whether in their own or in shared bases.

The school offers a wide range of non-academic activities, particularly associated with leisure activities and adventure education.  Pupils are offered residential opportunities numerous outdoor pursuits and sporting fixtures with other schools.

Finally this brief outline offers a snapshot of the school as it is now.  We are constantly adapting to demands from within and through local and national educational initiatives. For example, we have welcomed the initiatives borne out of the National Curriculum and the Numeracy an Literacy hours because of the legal entitlement it engenders for all pupils, making no distinction about pupils with physical disabilities. Therefore, this school is a vibrant educational establishment, which is continuously monitoring and modifying its practice in order to more effectively meet the needs of those it serves.