As  Elvis Presley once said, “It’s now or never” for our Year 11 students.  There are only four weeks to go before the first GCSE examination.  Staff and students are currently working really hard to prepare for these important examinations.  There will continue to be revision classes throughout the term and there are lots of great tips for revision in the Year 11 section of the website – make sure you have a look!  I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers and support staff for their magnificent commitment to ensuring that all year 11 students have had the opportunity to do their very best – the rest, Year 11, is up to you!!

Although we are sad to be nearing the end of the road with Year 11 it is exciting to think of what they might achieve in their lives, the future is not written but what you do today will shape tomorrow!   We are also looking forward to welcoming a new Year 7 group into school in September.  The vast majority of these students already know us very well through all the after school clubs, sports events and transition activities and I am sure that they will settle quickly and start to write the next chapter of the Farringdon story.

Our immediate future will involve the conversion to Academy status.  This has been a big decision for our community and will help us to secure the future of our school.  We will have the freedom to allocate funding where it most needed for the benefit of Farringdon students.  We hope to convert to Academy status by September.

You may have noticed some improvements to the outside of the building with our new windows and coloured render.  The school has had an ongoing windows replacement programme for the last two years and we have replaced 90% of our windows resulting in a smarter and warmer school.  We plan to continue to improve the environment for our staff & students by refurbishing other areas of the school over the next few months.

I have always said that a school is made of its people and not the building and this is certainly true at Farringdon.  We had 16 winners at the Sunderland Young Achievers awards evening in March.  Lauren Scrafton and Connor Peverley scooped individual awards whilst our media students won the group award for their sensitive and thought-provoking work on domestic violence.  Also successful were three of our fabulous artists who have exhibited their work in Washington and Alex Sawyer-Copus from our Autism Provision who was highly commended in the sports awards.  Our Autism Provision itself won a prestigious national award for Innovative Education provision at the National Autism Awards in March – absolutely fantastic!  Well done to all of you!

Please try and support our Gambia events.  We have raised over £12000 so far which is testimony to the dedication of our staff and our partners at the Box Youth Project.  We still have a long way to go so try to sponsor some of our students or attend our Alan Hull gig in May (details below).   Gambia is not the only country being visited by Farringdon students with trips to USA, France and Germany in the pipeline and our footballers have just returned from Holland.
Please explore our website and contact the school if you have any questions, we are always delighted to help.

H. Kemp
Headteacher