At Ridge Hill we offer a welcoming, supportive environment and our mission statement of 'Aiming for the best and giving our best' sums up our philosophy. We believe that children learn better when they are excited and engaged. When there is joy in what they are doing they learn to love learning. Literacy and numeracy are the backbone of our pupils’ success in learning and we promote high standards of behaviour by teaching positive behaviour to all our children. We build on our strengths to serve the needs of our children using the skills of everyone in the school and provide activities outside school hours to help give children pleasure in learning. We build a partnership with parents by giving good information and work closely with support services. This will be an exciting year for us as a Children's Centre will be built on our school site and we look forward to the opportunities this will offer our local area. Christina MacEachran, Headteacher

Ridge Hill is a group 3 (large) primary school, with approximately 390 children altogether. OFSTED said, “The school is very orderly, calm, purposeful and a friendly community.”

The Nursery caters for 60 children who are aged between 3 and 4. They attend on a part time basis, 30 in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. There is a separate prospectus for the Nursery.

The KS1 Department (5-7 year olds) is organised into one class of reception children with a teacher and two Nursery Nurses and three classes of mixed year 1 and 2 children.

KS2 Department (7-11 year olds) is organised into three classes of mixed year 3 and 4 children and three classes of year 5 and 6 children.

What we teach is governed by the National Curriculum. This requires us to devote our time to the teaching of ten subjects. The main emphasis is on the core subjects which are Mathematics, English, Science and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).

The other subjects are History, Geography, Art, Music, Physical Education, Design and Technology and R.E. For each of these subjects the National Curriculum sets standards for what children should know and ought to be able to do at certain ages. From September 1998, the National Literacy Strategy has been in place. Also, from September 1999 the National Numeracy Strategy was introduced. We also use PHSE- including Citizenship (Personal, Health and Social Education, with Circle-time to develop self-esteem, co-operation and positive relationships

At the present time, a comprehensive system of secondary education exists in Tameside. As far as possible, parents are given freedom of choice in selecting a secondary school for their child. Each year, the Authority provides the parents of year 6 (4 th year) Junior children with a helpful booklet called ‘Moving On’, to help them choose. If you are not offered a place at the school you have chosen for your child, you have the right of appeal to a special committee.