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About us

Our School

Number of pupils on roll: 231 Standard Number: 60

Riders Junior School opened in September 1955. Laid out on two floors, the school features nine separate classrooms, each with the facilities to deliver a varied curriculum. In recent years, the building has benefited from a complete and extensive internal and external renovation. A major re-design of the front entrance courtyard area was carried out in 2008, and improvements to our reception area has made our school more welcoming whilst improving security still further.  Our playground areas were comprehensively upgraded during the summer of 2009.

In November 2010 we had a very successful Ofsted inspection which found us to be a good school with a number of outstanding features.  They found that we take excellent pastoral care of our children and that “...pupils make good progress in their learning.” The strength in our school lies in our partnerships with parents and other stakeholders. We were therefore delighted that Ofsted noted that “Riders is a school that really cares” as a comment typical of many parents and carers.

The school is for children aged 7-11 years old and is organized into four pairs of classes, one for each year group. All year groups have shared areas outside the classrooms, where children can work independently.  All classes have internet-linked electronic whiteboards.

The teachers from each year group work closely as a team. There is at least one extra full-time member of staff in every class. On top of this, all year groups have extra staff members.

We have a large hall, which has been completely re-floored to sports-hall standards and is fully equipped for physical education. It serves as a dining hall at lunch times, and a meeting place for our school assemblies, discos and dance shows. School productions are performed in the hall using our mobile staging system and lighting facilities.  

Our  well-stocked library has a wide-ranging reading scheme and is constantly being improved and expanded to meet the needs of  the children. We train the children to use the books sensibly and with care.

In addition to the classrooms, hall and library areas, we have a re-furnished music and drama studio, large tutorial rooms, a community room and extra computer banks. We also have a fully networked, state of the art computer suite.  All these areas are housed under one roof.

Our extensive school grounds are bordered with mature oak trees and include an environmental area, complete with pond, a Maths Garden, a marked running track and several games pitches.  Set around our wooden gazebo and planters we have playgrounds surrounded by dry stone walling and grassy banks.  A quiet area, complete with a wooden pergola has been built to the north of the hall.

Visits form an important part of our curriculum. To help these visits happen, we have an almost new 17 seater, top-of-the-range, silver Transit minibus.