Richmond upon Thames School

The Richmond upon Thames School (RTS), is a co-educational secondary academy, located in Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond, south-west London. It was established under the Department for Education's Free School policy in September 2017, and is part of a Richmond Education and Enterprise Campus (REEC) being created at the site of Richmond upon Thames College (RUTC).^[1]

RTS is governed by the Richmond upon Thames School Trust, a partnership between Achieving for Children, Harlequins Rugby Club, Haymarket Media Group, Richmond Council and Richmond upon Thames Collegege.^[2]

Although RTS is formally an 11-16 school, it offers 16+ qualifications in partnership with Richmond Upon Thames College, known as Sixth Form Plus, giving its teachers the opportunity to teach their subjects at A Level.^[3][4]

Like all English schools, RTS' population and performance data are published in the Department for Education's national tables.^[5]

RTS has six houses, named after notable historical figures:

• Shakespeare (represented by orange)
• Madiba (represented by green)
• Stoop (represented by light blue)
• Berners-Lee (represented by dark blue)
• Anderson (represented by red)
• Lovelace (represented by purple)

The most recent edition is Lovelace house, whose first students began in RTS in the year 2024-5

RTS has a range of facilities.

The Richmond upon Thames School is connected to Clarendon and Capella House schools (both SEN schools). The main Building has 3 floors that children have access to, and rooms including music rooms, science labs, and a drama studio.

The RTS sports building was completed in 2024 and includes 2 floors: The Ground floor, including an office, changing rooms, and dance studio; and the first floor, including a sports hall. These facilities are sometimes leased during after-school hours to sports and martial arts clubs as well as others.

Though owned by the Richmond upon Thames College (RUTC), RTS uses the grounds for educational activities, like physical education or physical extracurricular activities. The grounds include a grassroots pitch and a new 'astro-turf' pitch.

The Richmond upon Thames School gives every student an iPad. They are whitelisted, so only pre-accepted websites can be accessed. In 2024, the price of an iPad was £350 or £14/month.

At RTS there are around 30 iMacs in the main Music Room (R004). These have GarageBand installed for students to make music during break, after school or during a music lesson.

There are also around 60 PCs, spread across 2 rooms, used by students during computer science lessons.

Like the iPads, the PCs and iMacs are whitelisted.

The regular uniform consists of a blazer, shirt, tie, jumper and trousers/knee length shorts/kilt. In the summer term, the jumper is no longer compulsory; and in extreme heat, ties and blazers are no longer compulsory.

In RTS, there are two types of lessons concerning Physical Education: Games and PE. The uniform for each subject is similar, but with a different shirt.

For games lessons, RTS students wear a checkered shirt, with the colour grey, yellow, black and green, with a midlayer and shorts, tracksuits or skorts. PE uniform is essentially the same, but instead of a checkered top, it is a thin white polo.

RTS allows it’s students to participate in many roles and activities to help the school community.

The following list is in order of importance (highest to lowest)

• Head Student
• Head Teacher Ambassador
• Senior Prefect
• Prefect
• House Captain
• House Vice-Captain
• Student Council
• RTS Ambassador
• Equality Diversity Inclusion Ambassador
• Be Her Lead
• Sports Leaders
• Community Leaders

Community Leaders are students in KS3 who are appointed to aid staff. In year 7, they are litter pickers; in year 8, they help reception with errands; and in year 9, they serve children food during break time.

RTS ambassadors represent the school during tours, open evenings, and interviews.

Prefects ‘go on duty’ and watch over the campus.

The most prestigious role is Head Student. 2 are elected at the end of every year for the following year. They are the ‘chief ambassadors’ of the school and are always year 11. They are admired by the student body and head student council meetings.

List of Head Students:

• 2024-5: Harry North & Sofia Sfoglia Faty
• 2025-6: Jake Trevaskis & Albert S

• Head Students: Y11 (applied in the previous Y10 summer term)
• Head Teacher Ambassadors: Y11 (applied in the previous Y10 summer term)
• Prefects: KS4 (applied in the previous summer term
• Sports Leaders: KS4
• Be Her Lead: KS4 female students

List of Head Teachers:

• 2017-Present: Kelly Dooley

There are many ‘ranks’ of teachers in the Richmond upon Thames School.

The following list is in order of importance:

• Head Teacher
• Deputy Head Teacher
• Assistant Head Teacher
• Associate Assistant Head Teacher
• Head of Year
• Assistant Head of Year
• Curriculum Leader
• Subject Leader
• Form Tutor
• Cover Professional

In KS3, subjects are mandatory and cannot be chosen. Despite this, some subjects are not offered in KS3, only in KS4 for GCSE.

The following subjects are mandatory in KS3: (alphabetical order)

• Art
• Computer Science
• Design and Technology
• Drama
• English
• French
• Geography
• History
• Maths
• Music
• PE
• Games
• PRE (Religious Education)
• PSHE
• Science
• Spanish

Pupils are in core subject lessons 6 times a fortnight. The core subjects are English, Maths and Science.

Pupils are in Modern Foreign Language lessons 4 times a fortnight, humanities 3 times, PSHE once, and all other subjects twice.

In year 9, pupils choose their GCSE subjects.

The following list is of compulsory subjects;

• Maths
• English (Language & Literature)
• Science (Trilogy)
• Geography or History
• Games (no exam)
• PSHE (no exam)

The options are the same as the previous list (see KS3 subsection) with the exception of PE which is instead offered as a BTEC. To add to those options, the following subjects are available:

• Catering and Hospiatality