Ryde School R

WELLCOME

Headmaster's Welcome


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Ryde School is a safe, supportive but most especially a beautiful place in which to work and grow and I am sure that is why so many of our parents are former pupils themselves.  I am delighted and honoured to have the opportunity of leading this excellent School, full of warmth and opportunity and ambition for both Island children and our boarding community.


As the leading independent day and boarding school on the Isle of Wight we welcome not only a diverse community from across the Island; children aged 3 to 18, from West Wight to Ventnor but many pupils who travel the short distance across the Solent to us from Portsmouth and surrounding areas and a growing number of international students and UK boarders from Scotland through to France, Russia and beyond.  With a full range of skills, needs and talents all our pupils come together in our ambitious, vibrant and supportive community.

Whilst justifiably proud of our academic results, both for those who go on each year to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge (10% of our 2014 leavers are there now) or those who, with great effort and determination from teacher and pupil, secure GCSE results way above their national predictions, we are committed to educating the whole child. Our sport, music and drama all flourish, we have very active Duke of Edinburgh's Award and CCF groups and our new award-winning Bembridge building hosts innovative and creative art and design technology departments.

Our independence allows us to offer a curriculum that works for each individual child and I believe the diversity of our students, including those who join us daily from the Portsmouth area and from overseas in our boarding house at Bembridge, is one of our strengths. But we also have a responsibility to raise the sights of our pupils, to use this magnificent and secure setting as a safe place from which to take risks and face the growing challenges of a competitive world that cannot be ignored. We are an Island school but with a global vision and the ambition that our pupils will learn here the resilience, values and skills that will sustain them wherever they find themselves in the future.

Mark Waldron

Headmaster 





School History



Ryde School with Upper Chine was founded by in 1921 by William and Constance McIsaac as Ryde Grammar School to provide a Christian education for boys. Ryde became the independent school of choice for wealthy Island tradesmen and professional classes wanting their boys to be well educated without the need to send them away to boarding school on the mainland.


In 1972, Keith Symons, Headmaster, admitted girls to the Sixth Form for the first time and in 1994 the school merged with the well-known girls boarding school Upper Chine Girls’. The increased numbers meant the School Houses were increased from three to four to the current Seaford, Trinity, Hanover and Chine. Ryde School with Upper Chine then took over Bembridge School in 1996. Both Upper Chine and Bembridge brought with them pupils from around the world and the mainland as well as local pupils. The combined schools encompass nearly 300 years of history between them.

Ryde School with Upper Chine has boarding houses on the old Bembridge School site (117 acres on the coast in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) with the School situated in Ryde (17 acres overlooking the Solent). With additional sports facilities at Smallbrook in Ryde the school has grown geographically to support the now 750+ pupils who are educated at Ryde.

The school ethos is founded in our motto ‘UT PROSIM’ (that I may be useful/ that I may be of service), introduced to the school at the first assembly in 1921. The mottos of our other two schools are not lost however, ‘TODAY’ Bembridge Schools’ motto is seen in our focus on personal development and mindfulness and the motto for Upper Chine Girls’ School ‘Semper Fidelis’ meaning ‘always faithful’ is seen in our school aim of developing high moral standards and integrity.

Ryde School was originally located in Hanover House in Ryde with boarders housed in Trinity House, Ryde from 1922. In 1923 boarding expanded again and Seaford Lodge became the second boarding house of the school.

Westmont, the historic Grade II listed building at the heart of Ryde School with Upper Chine was built for a Dr James Lind in 1819 and became the main site for the school in 1928. Many more buildings were bought around Westmont as the school continued to expand with Hollymount, Hermitage, Highclere and Oxford Lodge being bought to house new school rooms along the side of the school grounds in West Street (now mainly housing Junior School). 

The Bembridge Building, the award-winning art and design centre that reflects Westmont through its glass panels, combines contemporary architecture with eco-friendly sustainability. 

The latest addition to the school is the new Sixth Form boarding house, Spinnaker House, in Lind Street, Ryde, purchased in 2015.