Principal

The Farnley Academy, an Ofsted Outstanding (2023) secondary school, is part of The GORSE Academies Trust, a not-for-profit charity whose driving energy is centred on creating exceptional schools within the Leeds city region. The Trust has established a reputation for setting standards of excellence and achieving rates of improvements which have received national attention, not least of all those of The Farnley Academy! Chief Executive Officer, Sir John Townsley, is a National Leader of Education and gives considerable support to an increasing number of primary and secondary schools across the North.

Our mission is a simple yet powerful one; to create a school which is free from cynicism and unwilling to put limits on what young people can achieve. Indeed, we want to empower our young people with the means to bring about positive change in their own lives through the choices they make and to take responsibility for the future. It is to this end that teachers and other professionals work tirelessly for the benefit of our young people. This hard work has a profoundly positive effect not only on our students' motivation, enjoyment, and engagement in learning but on their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development.

The Farnley Academy serves the community of Farnley and surrounding areas and is located in the west of Leeds. In 2023, our students achieved a remarkable 77% grade 4+ and 56% grade 5+ in both English and Mathematics, firmly cementing our academy as the highest performing secondary school in the area by a significant margin. In addition to this this, the Progress 8 score achieved by the academy is consistently high, most recently achieving a score of +0.72, placing the academy in the ‘Well Above Average’ category and not only in the Top 5% of all schools in the UK, but most notably, the Top 1% of schools with a similar demographic to Farnley.

Teaching and learning are at the heart of our work. Lessons at The Farnley Academy are highly personalised. Teachers are very aware of what students of different abilities must do to achieve as well as they possibly can and use their assessment data with great precision to tailor tasks to different abilities. Students are very clear what they must do to be 'even better', because this is always stated to them by teachers.

Visitors to our academy always comment on how welcoming and friendly our school is. This comes from our pride in what we have achieved together and our eagerness to share this with others.