Sponsor’s Introduction

The Farnley Academy is the first academy to be sponsored by The Morley Academy, an outstanding converter academy, which is overseen by MHS Education. Both academies have worked in close partnership with one another since September 2009 when substantial support was provided by The Morley Academy to the predecessor school, Farnley Park Maths and Computing College. Significant attention was paid to the quality of leadership, teaching and learning, attendance and behaviour. Morley provided strong leadership and identified the need for significant improvements in senior and middle leadership, some curriculum faculties, learning outcomes and attainment, particularly in the core subjects of English, Maths and Science. The Morley Academy partnership also provided expertise in the successful management and delivery of a £23 million BSF programme.

The results of that partnership have been extremely positive with the predecessor school emerging from a Notice to Improve (April 2010) to a very pleasing Satisfactory with many Good features report (June 2011). This is a positive endorsement of the steps taken by The Morley Academy in its support of the predecessor school and a substantial indicator of the direction of travel expected under MHST model as the new Farnley Academy opens.

The Farnley Academy’s aims and objectives are built upon its dramatic rates of recent improvement. We believe that all young people, regardless of ability, prosper in excellent schools. Such schools refuse to place limitations on any student’s performance and, as a consequence, students become increasingly ambitious and self-propelled as learners. At the heart of our aims as an academy is a recognition that exceptional schools are built upon key foundations: excellent leadership; high standards of professional effectiveness; a relentless focus on improvement; very high standards of behaviour; a constant focus on teaching, learning and innovation; risk taking and succession planning.