School History - 1997

January 13th
“You are aware that Ridgemede is to be inspected from 3rd to 6th of February…” (newsletter).

“Ridgemede Junior School provides a good education for its pupils. It is a well managed school. It has an excellent ethos and is very strongly supported by its parents.” (OFSTED report, February).

February 7th
“Ridgemede School has come out of the OFSTED inspection very well. The staff and pupils have come through the four gruelling days with great credit. You also played an important part in this success.” (newsletter).

March 19th
“By now many of you will have heard that Mr Allington will be retiring at Easter… The children and in particular his class will miss him enormously and we thank him for his contribution to Ridgemede School during to the course of the last eight years and wish him a very enjoyable retirement.” (newsletter)

May 23rd
“… it is time to consider a more permanent base for [an] extra class and this will be done by extending the building into the courtyard. The development has been planned as to enable us to also enlarge the school library, something which has long been overdue. We are hopeful that the project will begin before the end of this term.” (newsletter).
“Many of your will be interested to hear that we have a website on the internet…”

July 10th
“The summer holiday will be a very busy time for building work at school. The kitchen is to be refurbished, while the School Secretaries’ office and mine will be swapped over and the new school office enlarged.
“However, the largest project as I indicated in a previous newsletter will be the development of the courtyard, with the building of a new classroom and the extension to the existing school library.” (newsletter).

October 13th
“A few weeks later than anticipated, we now have our new classroom and an enlarged library. Both have been well worth the delay.” (newletter).

November 14th
“Thank you for the incredible support you have given us with our recent sponsored swim [raising money for new library books]. To date “2,228 has been raised with more money still to be paid in. This far exceeds anything we were anticipating. It represents a tremendous effort on the part of the children and yourselves.” (newsletter).

December
‘Come To The Stable’ performed.
Mrs Lawes retires as School Crossing Patrol after 31 years service.

Ridgemede Staff, 1997

David Porter (Headteacher)
Gen Marsh (Deputy Head)
Ann Tromans
Jacqui Clift
Dave Allington (until April)
Gill Cooper
Gill Blundell
Jan Brook
Janet Young
Sam Machin
Diana Rudge
Sarah Handcock
Sue Palmer (April – July)
Tania Brown (from September)

Eva Boston
Shelia Rickman
Julie Blake
Jackie Tredré
Leslie McLay
Debbie Barclay
Jeannette Mars
Karen Anderson
Coralie Franklin
Debbie Simpson
Susan Carnaby (until July)
Nina Hunter

Liz Channon (Administration officer)
June Harding (Assistant administration officer)
Derek Parrington (caretaker)
Sheila Scovell (cleaner)
Molly Gomer (cleaner)

School History - 1997

January 13th
“You are aware that Ridgemede is to be inspected from 3rd to 6th of February…” (newsletter).

“Ridgemede Junior School provides a good education for its pupils. It is a well managed school. It has an excellent ethos and is very strongly supported by its parents.” (OFSTED report, February).

February 7th
“Ridgemede School has come out of the OFSTED inspection very well. The staff and pupils have come through the four gruelling days with great credit. You also played an important part in this success.” (newsletter).

March 19th
“By now many of you will have heard that Mr Allington will be retiring at Easter… The children and in particular his class will miss him enormously and we thank him for his contribution to Ridgemede School during to the course of the last eight years and wish him a very enjoyable retirement.” (newsletter)

May 23rd
“… it is time to consider a more permanent base for [an] extra class and this will be done by extending the building into the courtyard. The development has been planned as to enable us to also enlarge the school library, something which has long been overdue. We are hopeful that the project will begin before the end of this term.” (newsletter).
“Many of your will be interested to hear that we have a website on the internet…”

July 10th
“The summer holiday will be a very busy time for building work at school. The kitchen is to be refurbished, while the School Secretaries’ office and mine will be swapped over and the new school office enlarged.
“However, the largest project as I indicated in a previous newsletter will be the development of the courtyard, with the building of a new classroom and the extension to the existing school library.” (newsletter).

October 13th
“A few weeks later than anticipated, we now have our new classroom and an enlarged library. Both have been well worth the delay.” (newletter).

November 14th
“Thank you for the incredible support you have given us with our recent sponsored swim [raising money for new library books]. To date “2,228 has been raised with more money still to be paid in. This far exceeds anything we were anticipating. It represents a tremendous effort on the part of the children and yourselves.” (newsletter).

December
‘Come To The Stable’ performed.
Mrs Lawes retires as School Crossing Patrol after 31 years service.

Ridgemede Staff, 1997

David Porter (Headteacher)
Gen Marsh (Deputy Head)
Ann Tromans
Jacqui Clift
Dave Allington (until April)
Gill Cooper
Gill Blundell
Jan Brook
Janet Young
Sam Machin
Diana Rudge
Sarah Handcock
Sue Palmer (April – July)
Tania Brown (from September)

Eva Boston
Shelia Rickman
Julie Blake
Jackie Tredré
Leslie McLay
Debbie Barclay
Jeannette Mars
Karen Anderson
Coralie Franklin
Debbie Simpson
Susan Carnaby (until July)
Nina Hunter

Liz Channon (Administration officer)
June Harding (Assistant administration officer)
Derek Parrington (caretaker)
Sheila Scovell (cleaner)
Molly Gomer (cleaner)