Staff and students at Lift Ryde are celebrating after receiving a prestigious Alps Gold Award, placing the school’s sixth form in the top 25% of providers nationwide for A-Level progress.
The award, given by Alps (Advanced Level Performance System), recognises value-added progress – the improvement made from a student’s predicted grades at the start of their course to the final grades achieved in their exams.
This year’s A-Level results were the strongest in the school’s history, with students achieving a record number of A* grades and more going on to attend Russell Group universities than ever before.
The award follows a 3-year trend of rising A-Level success at the school, which has now been formally recognised as one of the best performing sixth form colleges in the country.
Newly-appointed Principal, Will Doyle, has said:
“I’m hugely proud of the colleagues and students of Lift Ryde. What a journey our wonderful 6th Form has been on!
“It is fantastic that our outstanding outcomes are now being acknowledged by Alps putting us in the top 25% in the country. This award is a testament to our core mission: to provide an excellent education for every child, in every classroom, every day.
“Our 2025 A-Level cohort represented all of our school values incredibly well. Their exceptional results not only show that they ‘aim high’, but also the ‘courage’ they all had to keep working hard, even in the face of adversity.”
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Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning and Sixth Form, Joelle Dorman, added:
“As an inclusive 6th Form we strive to provide an excellent education for every student in every lesson, and I am delighted that the hard work of our 6th Form teachers and students has been nationally recognised.
“We are just beginning the application process for new students to join us in September 2026, and hope to see Year 11 Island students at our open evening on 19th November where we can tell them about our award winning courses.”
Lift Ryde Sixth Form Campus will host an Open Evening on Wednesday (19th November), welcoming prospective students and families from across the Isle of Wight to explore the post-16 opportunities on offer.
For those that don’t know what a lift is, someone had the bright idea of re naming Ryde high school as “Lift Ryde”. At what cost I wonder?
It’s a school not a piece of equipment, the “lift” is in Shanklin, or perhaps it’s been re named an academy or Secondary school!
Suggest you google Liftschools.org