Watch principal's elation as Sunderland school officially most improved in country after massive Progress 8 jump

Farringdon Community Academy achieved a Progress 8 score of -0.04, meaning pupils of the same previously assessed ability are now achieving in line with their national peers.

This compares to a score of -1.17 the previous year, meaning pupils were on average achieving over one grade less in their GCSEs compared to pupils of the same assessed ability nationally.

An increase of 1.13, pupils are on average now getting over a grade higher in their subjects compared to 2023, the greatest increase out of the 3,299 national state secondary schools who on Friday (December 6) received their Progress 8 scores.

Last year’s Progress 8 score meant the Farringdon was one of the city’s poorest performing schools for pupil performance, where as this year it is one of the best.

The city’s Progress 8 score was -0.31. With a score of -0.04, Farringdon is now in the top 6 performing schools in the city, comfortably above the Local Authority average.

Principal Jordan Bedford said: “It’s amazing to be the most improved school in the country and I’m elated for the staff and the children.

“Educational outcomes can limit your life chances and with these results, our pupils can now go and pursue the courses and careers they want and not have to be resitting certain subjects in college.”

Mr Bedford said the school had managed to bring about the upturn in performance thanks to their “talented teachers”, incentive programme to bring about a change in attainment culture, and a curriculum tailored to meet pupils’ needs.

Mr Bedford also said the school had followed and implemented the model of the Northern Education Trust to which they now belong.

He said: “We put the children at the centre of every decision we made and created a bespoke curriculum to meet their needs.

“We created a positive reward culture where the children want to achieve. This included prom tickets being paid for as a reward for hard-work, and ordering Dominoes pizzas for children attending support sessions.

“We have created a culture of celebrating success and pupils now want to improve and do well.

“We’ve also got a really talented group of staff who intervened with pupils at an individual level.”

The school has faced a challenging decade after being judged by Ofsted as requiring improvement in 2014. However, after moving into their new £21m school building and on the back of their best ever GCSE performance, Mr Bedford now wants to consolidate on being the most improved school in the country.

He said: “I’ve always believed as a school we could make that jump, but the greatest challenge was convincing parents, the Local Authority and all those with a vested interest.

“These results show it’s not just empty words, but promises we can keep. The results will help to raise aspirations of the other pupils and help to create a culture in which we achieve year on year.”

On the prospect of the school’s next Ofsted visit, Mr Bedford added: “I’m excited for Ofsted to come in and see the improvements we have made.

“I know there’s no longer overall judgments, but with this set of results I will certainly be pushing for outstanding for each aspect of the report card.”

To calculate Progress 8, each school is given a statistically calculated positive or negative value which is used to assess the progress made by pupils of the same assessed starting point when they sat their Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in Year 6 and the results then achieved in their GCSEs in Year 11.

A score of one means that pupils with the same SATs results are achieving, on average, one grade more than their national peers in their GCSEs, while a score of minus one, means on average they are attaining one grade less.

It was introduced in 2016 as a fairer way to assess a school’s academic performance, rather than simply looking at raw grades and outcomes.

All Sunderland schools, national schools and local authorities received their Progress 8 scores last week.