Ravensbourne School, Bromley

The Ravensbourne School

Motto	"Dum Cresco Spero" '(As I grow, I hope)
Established	1911
Type	Academy
Headteacher	Mr Paul Murphy
Location	Hayes Lane (B265) Bromley Greater London BR2 9EH England Coordinates: 51°23′38″N 0°01′15″E / 51.39402°N 0.02073°E / 51.39402; 0.02073
DfE number	305/5413
DfE URN	136540 Tables
Ofsted	Reports Pre-academy reports
Students	1433
Gender	Mixed-sex education
Ages	11–18
Former name	Bromley Grammar School
Website	Ravensbourne School

The Ravensbourne School is a secondary academy school in the London Borough of Bromley. It stands on a 22-acre (89,000 m²) site in Hayes Lane, to the south of Bromley, and in the parish of Bromley St Mark. It is named after the River Ravensbourne, which runs nearby.

History

The Ravensbourne School Entrance

Grammar school

The school was opened in 1911 as the Bromley County Grammar Schools for Boys and Girls, on two sites: Hayes Lane (boys) and Nightingale Lane (girls).^[1] The Hayes Lane site was officially opened on 18 October 1911. They were later renamed Bromley Grammar Schools. The buildings in Hayes Lane were considerably extended in 1933, using the original architect and keeping to the original neo-Georgian design. The new buildings comprised the Great Hall (connected to the original building by an open cloister) the science block, and the dining hall and gymnasium on either side of the hall. The new buildings were officially opened on 30 November 1934. Many of the School's early buildings are recognised as being of historic interest and are Grade II listed.^[2]

The schools were controlled by Kent Education Committee until 1965. The girls' school had around 700 girls in the mid-1960s.

Comprehensive

In the late 1960s, following the then government's drive to phase out selective education, the Bromley Grammar Schools were merged with the nearby Raglan Road secondary modern school, to form the new Ravensbourne Schools, still on the two separate sites for boys and girls. The girls' school became comprehensive by degrees; the intake of 11-year-olds in September 1974 was the first non-selective one.

Closure of boys only school

In 1988 the Education Authority decided that the two separate single sex schools should close and a new co-educational comprehensive school be opened at Hayes Lane. A programme of building works was embarked upon in order to make the school suitable for its new co-educational role.

Fraud

In 1995 governors failed to properly check the CV of the school bursar who claimed to be a qualified accountant. In 2005 "massive deficits" in the schools' accounts were discovered and the bursar was found to have stolen money from the school using blank cheques signed by the headteacher.^[3]

New sixth form building

In 2003, with over subscription in Years 7 to 11 and an expanding sixth form called the Post 16 centre, yet more building work was undertaken. A new dedicated sixth form block was created, the drama studios expanded and the War Memorial Library refurbished in the original style. A new Lower School Library was installed in what was, in 1911, the dining hall for the original 79 boys.

New Farm

In early 2012 the school opened a farm with a small selection of animals including pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, and a variety of reptiles.

In February 2015, the Reptile House was renovated and transformed into a rainforest-themed room with new species such as axolotls, tortoises and royal pythons.

Admissions controversy

In October 2009 the school was found to have "significant faults" with its appeals procedures when a government ombudsman found that members of its admissions panel were not properly trained and the clerks recording of the appeal was "inadequate."^[4]

Academy

On 1 April 2011, Ravensbourne School transferred to academy status. This allowed the school to manage its own finances. The staffing budget was increased- this pushed up the headline figure for average teacher salary. A large proportion of this expenditure is on additional management positions and the school recently created an extra two additional Deputy Head positions. The school remained bottom in the borough for students achieving five good GCSEs in 2012.

In March 2011 the school featured in a BBC article entitled 'Gaming' the school league tables?' in a list of 200 schools with the greatest dependence on equivalent qualifications and whose performance most dramatically dropped when these were removed from their results.^[5]

In 2011 the school was joint bottom of the borough in the measurement for students achieving five A*-C GCSEs with less than half (44%) achieving the necessary measurement. Results for the English Baccalaureate also fell to 7%. With vocational qualifications included it achieved 57%.^[6]

In 2012 the school revealed that only 28% of students achieved 3 A levels at A*-E. There was little improvement in GCSE or EBacc which stood at 60% and 8% respectively.^[7]

Ofsted Inspections

Ofsted made a report in October 2014.^[8] The school received an 'outstanding' from Ofsted in 2006-2007. This was downgraded to 'good' in 2009-2010. The inspector at that time commented in a letter to the students, "We judged the school to be good. You achieve average standards in your GCSEs, though mathematics and English standards are not as high as in many other subjects.".^[9] In January 2013 Ofsted's interim assessment statement extended the second grade 'good.^[10]

The school's best results came from internally assessed vocational qualifications but it struggled to produce the same high standards in more academic examined subjects. OFSTED commented, "Students make the best progress in many applied A level subjects. Leaders recognise that progress is not as rapid in some A-level subjects and are taking action to improve this."^[11]

Notable former pupils

Bromley Grammar School for Boys

Rt Rev Michael Baughen, Bishop of Chester from 1982–96
Sir Edward Britton CBE, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers from 1970-5
Prof John Cole, Professor of Human and Regional Geography at the University of Nottingham from 1975–94
Charles Sandbank, electronics engineer who was influential in the development at the BBC of NICAM sound compression and also in 1976 with STL for the first fibre-optic transmission
Ken Wood, inventor who produced the Kenwood Chef and formed Kenwood Limited (now owned since 2001 by the Italian company DeLonghi)
Michael York, actor

Ravensbourne School for Boys

Billy Idol, rock musician
Trevor Goddard, actor
Martin Uden, Ambassador to South Korea since 2008