New head shares his vision to take Sunderland school to new heights as one of best in country for progress

Venerable Bede Church of England Academy‘s new headteacher Jordan Bedford has said he wants to see the school as “one of the best in the country for Progress 8” - the main benchmark on which schools are judged - after taking up his new position on Monday (June 22).

Within the next two years, Mr Bedford also wants to see the school “meeting at least the expected standards” in any Ofsted judgements.

When the school was inspected in January 2025, Venerable Bede’s report card deemed the school to be inadequate for quality of education and requiring improvement for behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

Following it’s Ofsted latest Ofsted inspection, which was published last month (May), the school was deemed to being improving in all areas, but has not yet undergone a full inspection to be moved to ‘meeting the expected standards’ - something which Mr Bedford wants to address under his leadership.

Speaking to the Echo about his new role, Mr Bedford said: “I’m delighted to be joining Northern Lights Learning Trust as headteacher at Venerable Bede. I’m impressed with the Trust’s vision and really keen to continue working to improve outcomes for children here in Sunderland.

“I can see the massive amount of work which has already been put in by the school leadership team and and the staff at the school. The school is already on a journey of improvement and my job is to build on this to create a safe and caring environment where children’s outcomes are good.”

Key to success for Mr Bedford is to continue to work on the relationships and engagement with local families.

He added: “We need to build trust with parents, and this comes from doing our part of the deal and providing a high class education for their children with excellent outcomes. In turn, we ask they support us by ensuring their children are in school, in uniform, and ready to learn.

“As they see this improvement happening, they’re massively important in this journey. To build these relationships we will be hosting a number of events such as a graduation ceremony for students as well as support sessions for parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) , and a range of enrichment activities for their children.

“I want to ensure their children get high quality teaching and learning and the education they deserve.”

In December 2025, the school was placed in the top 20 most improved schools in the country for GCSE English and maths results.

It’s an upward trajectory Mr Bedford wants to see continue.

He said: “I will relentlessly endeavour to deliver an education for your child which is as good as anywhere in the country. I want children from this postcode and living in this part of Sunderland to be one of the best in the country for Progress 8.”

Before joining Venerable Bede, Mr Bedford was head teacher at Farringdon Community Academy. In 2024, under Mr Bedford’s headship, Farringdon was named as the most improved in the country for pupils’ Progress 8 scores.

He added: “Whilst Venerable Bede is probably further along its journey than Farringdon, when I took over, I see the schools as being on a very similar pathway and if people can place trust in my record there, I’m very ambitious about doing it again.”

Mr Bedford will spend his first week meeting staff and students before looking to “introduce a number of changes so they are already embedded for September”.

He said: “I’m really excited by this opportunity and over the next four weeks I will be out and about in school as a visible presence. I’ve only met a small group of the staff so far, but they are amazing people and creating that togetherness will be a key part of our journey.”

Mr Bedford was appointed by Northern Lights Learning Trust’s executive director Nikki Gibb.

Mrs Gibb said: “The Trust is delighted to appoint someone of the calibre of Jordan and we were keen to get him into the school before the end of the academic year to ensure staff and students hit the ground running in September.”

On the issue of Ofsted, Mr Beford added: “We teach for the benefit of the children, not for Ofsted, but if we continue to improve as we have done then the bi-product will be a school which is at least meeting the expected standards, if not higher.”

Both Mr Bedford and Mrs Gibb thanked interim headteacher Lisa Turnbull for helping put the school on its journey of improvement. Ms Turnbull will now return to her central role as the Trust’s school improvement leader.