Roundhay School

History

Roundhay School was established in 1903 as an all-boys grammar school. During World Wars I and II many of the Roundhay pupils above the age of 16 served with the Yorkshire Regiment.

In 1972, along with many other grammar schools in the country, Roundhay Grammar School for Boys on Old Park Road and Roundhay High School for Girls on Jackson Avenue merged to form a mixed comprehensive secondary school under the Circular 10/70 introduced by Margaret Thatcher. Roundhay, like all other high schools in the city, changed from an 11–18 to a 13–18 school with the creation of the tier of Middle Schools – which were themselves abolished later when Roundhay became an 11–18 school again.

During 2002–04 much of the old school was demolished and rebuilt under a £14 million Private Finance Initiative. The frontage of the building was left largely untouched, though the central section was replaced in favour of an upper-floor staff room that looks over the fields at the front of the school. However, the Sixth Form block located by the Gledhow Lane entrance was not part of the renovations, and remains the same building.

In September 2013, the Roundhay School Primary Campus was unveiled, which changed the school from being an 11–18 secondary school into a 4–18 all-through school. It started taking admissions in 2012 for the start of the 2013 academic year, and will continue to take a year group on at a time until the school will have all primary year groups filled. The primary campus is located on Elmete Lane, just off Wetherby Road.

Extracurricular activities

Roundhay School runs various extracurricular activities for pupils during the lunch period and after school. Sport, an important part of extracurricular life at Roundhay, is facilitated through playing fields and indoor sports halls. Chief sports are football, rugby union, netball, cricket and hockey – many pupils continue to play for hockey teams after leaving school. School pupils also play in tennis, athletics or swimming competitions. There is also trampolining class and a climbing wall.

All pupils can take lessons in the playing of musical instruments, while the school's resident bands compete in a yearly 'Battle of the Bands' competition.

There is a yearly school drama production which includes pupils of any age. The 2006 production was Sister Act. This year a week of multicultural activities replaced the school production, Multicultural Week, led by the music department, involved a wider range of staff and pupils than the usual drama production.

Roundhay School runs trips abroad on annual and 2 year cycles. These include art trips to New York City, Germany, and Barcelona, and also yearly language trips to Spain, Germany and France. The school also runs a skiing trip to Canada, and, in 2010, to Austria. History trips take place every year to Skipton Castle, the Imperial War Museum and World War I battlefields. There was an art trip to China in April 2009. In 2012, the Sixth Form Geography department travelled to Iceland, taking in thermal springs and volcanoes. In 2014, the department also travelled to Morocco.

Ofsted

Roundhay School receives consistent highly rated Ofsted reports, and external examination results are above the national average. In 2007, the school received the best A level results of all the state schools in the city of Leeds, and the second best in the district. The best performing schools in Leeds are in the north of the city, close to the outer ring road. At GCSE, the school performs less well, being eighth in the LEA.