Please do have a look at the wonderful work activities pupils have been experiencing most recently in and out of school:  Newsletters | Ryvers School

Welcome to Ryvers School

We hope that our website gives you a flavour of Ryvers School as well as the information that you are looking for. 

Our school is often described as diverse, open and welcoming.  Visitors frequently comment upon the warmth of the environment and the professionalism of our staff as well as the excellent manners and behaviour that our children display.  Our parents are very pleased with our commitment to work in partnership with them.  They value our teachers and our determination to be a centre of excellence for teaching and learning.  We are proud to be a school that is learning centred; we truly believe in learning for life, for everyone.

Pete Rowe

Executive Headteacher

Ryvers' School Vision

Children come to Ryvers to be happy and successful. At Ryvers we are dedicated to developing confident, self-assured, positive young people who love to learn, to contribute and to achieve.

The staff at Ryvers are ambitious for our pupils and we hold high aspirations for their futures. Every child deserves to be successful and we recognise that all children have talents and abilities to celebrate, and a part of our role is to help them discover and develop these.  We are committed to developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding that allow our children to enjoy learning, achieve success and to feel content and fulfilled.

At Ryvers we do not just provide a broad and balanced learning experience for our children, we also provide one with depth, challenging them to become curious and independent learners who are inspired by our rich and varied curriculum.

We encourage a strong community spirit, where we show respect and consideration for each other; understanding and celebrating differences and upholding kind and well-mannered behaviour.

At Ryvers our children become self-confident learners with a love of learning that will stay with them for life.

Ryvers' School Values 

Ryvers provides a Values-based Curriculum. This means that we promote and teach a set of values to our pupils that will ensure they develop the skills to be good citizens in the future. We support our curriculum with a set of principles that are embedded into teaching and learning in order to develop improved social and emotional skills that will positively affect behaviour.

Teaching children Values improves pupils’ self-esteem, improves their behaviour and raises standards of learning even higher.

“Why do we behave the way we do? What is it that drives us to give to charity or to help children to develop as happy, stable people? It is our values that determine our thinking and our behaviour. They are the principles, standards or life stances that act as guides to our behaviour. They are our beliefs about what is worthwhile, the ideals for which we strive. They are the standards by which particular beliefs and actions are judged to be good or desirable. They help us make decisions and evaluate the actions of others.”  (Dr Neil Hawkes – www.neilhawkes.com)

Each half-term we lead special Values Assemblies, teachers also explore the ‘Values of the Term’ in PSHE lessons. Wherever possible the values of the term are taught in other areas of the curriculum. Most importantly, adults in the school ensure that we are role-models for each of the values.

There are 12 values that we consider to be universal:

Happiness

Respect

Resilience 

Independence 

Friendship 

Self-belief

Determination

Empathy

Co-operation 

Responsibility 

Unity/Diversity

Courage

The Ryvers School Curriculum (from Autumn 2021)

Ryvers School presently has an ambitious and progressive curriculum model which carefully covers all aspects of the Early Years and Key Stage 1 and 2 National Curriculum. There are many positives within it, not least its strong emphasis on English and maths. We also champion all the other subjects making sure pupils have a full and exciting academic, physical, social and creative experience each and every day.

Our approach is to build the knowledge and skills necessary to support our youngsters as they move through and onto the next phases of their educational journey.

You will find each subject’s content exemplified on our website: Curriculum | Ryvers School You will see that we have a strong focus on building up pupils’ knowledge – the ‘know what’ and the ‘know how’ to make their education successful.

We regularly re-visit our curriculum offer and to ask some fundamental questions not just about the ‘what’ which we cover but more deeply about the ‘why’ and the ‘how’.

Ryvers School is very proud to be a renowned and respected part of the Langley local community and the wider Slough partnership of educational establishments which all have both the duty and the joy of creating a new generation of successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens.

Langley is a wonderfully diverse and vibrant area with an exciting and integrated multi-cultural ethos which is reflected in our school both in its formal curriculum but also in the huge range of additional activities and opportunities (these include our highly successful Breakfast and After School Clubs) available throughout the week. Ryvers is first and foremost a learning environment and this is apparent from the moment one steps into the school and sees the displays in the Reception area, through to the classrooms themselves and in our grounds and outdoor education areas.

Our curriculum aims are simple. We look to develop every individual child in our care to be happy, safe and academically prepared for the exciting challenges ahead of them. We want them to be:

• Successful learners,
• Confident individuals and
• Responsible citizens.

We believe that all pupils need to have a strong knowledge base in the core subjects of English, maths and science which will allow them to develop the foundational skills necessary to have a positive and successful life as they progress to their next stages of education. Our broad and balanced curriculum covers many other important subject areas and most importantly also promotes positive learning attitudes such as independence, resilience, curiosity, kindness and community.

Our curriculum plans cover the knowledge expected to be taught in each year group and also emphasise a teaching approach of big picture learning, high challenge and a deliberate focus on out of the classroom, local community, national and international perspectives supported by trips and visits and visitors into school.

We are always very keen to use the wonderful resource of our parent body to enhance the learning of our youngsters and so regularly invite them in to help and join in with lessons and assemblies.

From discussions with our families we discovered that everybody felt we should use our curriculum to explore and celebrate our pupils ‘place’ in the world so we rightly emphasise the rich diversity of Ryvers School, of the community of Slough and the wonderful variety our whole world offers. One example of this is how our pupils travel through the world as they move through our year groups: https://www.ryversschool.com/whole-school-theme-curriculum-offer/

Another area we felt needed extra development was in building up our children’s resilience – their ‘bounce-back-ability’ not just to cope but to flourish in a changing and sometimes challenging world. This will be taught through our PSHE programme where we use a scheme called Jigsaw and will often be reinforced in our assemblies and through our behaviour, rewards and pastoral support.

Our curriculum journey will be a continuous one – we will never ‘finish’ and have the perfect model. As we all know, the covid pandemic has changed both our perspectives and also the needs of our children and families but there are also many other influences which we should rightly respond to as and when they occur. We are really excited by our present model, we believe it to be ambitious, progressive and challenging. Please do contact us to tell us what you think and suggest any improvements too.