# Blessed Hugh Faringdon Catholic School — Reading, United Kingdom

> School profile on SchoolBrowse, based on verified parent reviews.
> HTML version: https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/reading/blessed-hugh-faringdon-catholic-school-4104

## At a glance

- **Type:** Secondary
- **Parent rating:** 1.3/5 from 10 published reviews
- **Students:** 850
- **Founded:** 1965
- **Principal:** Paul McGowan

## Contact

- **Address:** Fawley Road, Southcote
- **Phone:** 1586263976
- **Website:** http://www.hughfaringdon.org/
- **SchoolBrowse profile:** https://schoolbrowse.com/gb/reading/blessed-hugh-faringdon-catholic-school-4104

## About

Blessed Hugh Faringdon Catholic School is a secondary school located in Southcote, Reading, United Kingdom. Established in 1965, the school has a strong Catholic ethos and is dedicated to providing a holistic education that nurtures both academic and personal development. The school emphasizes the importance of community, respect, and service, aligning with its mission to foster a supportive environment for all students. The curriculum at Blessed Hugh Faringdon is designed to meet the diverse needs of its students, offering a wide range of subjects and extracurricular activities. The school is known for its commitment to academic excellence, as well as its focus on moral and spiritual education. Facilities include modern classrooms, science labs, and sports amenities, which enhance the learning experience and promote student engagement. The school has built a positive reputation within the community for its inclusive approach and strong academic performance.

## Official rankings

- **Ofsted (Leadership and Management):** Good — Nov 2012
- **Ofsted (Overall Effectiveness):** Good — Nov 2012

## Recent parent reviews

- **1/5** — Disappointing!: As a former employee this is not a school I would ever send my own children too. Whilst some aspects of the school are positive - for example the catholic ethos (including the chapel and whole school masses), other aspects are disappointing. As an educator, attempting to teach classes where significant proportions of children do not want to learn, whilst the systems do little to promote positive behaviour is frustrating. Behaviour is a huge issue, and senior leadership seem powerless to move thi… *(Aug 2025)*
- **1/5** — This school is straight out of a horror movie: This school quite literally licks the arse cracks of the kids who lack complete common sense, whilst babying them as they disturb the well-being’s of other students. When you go and explain your problems to the useless brain dead team they call pastoral, all they do is turn a blind eye and go back to gossiping about everyone who’s ever stepped foot in the school. And DON’T get me started on the head teacher. All that man knows how to is eat, stamp books and hibernate in his office doing nothing … *(Jul 2025)*
- **1/5** — There’s no hate like Christian love.: An absolute joke of disciplinary system. Teachers babying those that are a menace to the whole school. Isolation? More like nursery. The assistant head teacher, who ironically is also meant to be a mental health lead, is probably the biggest bully amongst all the useless staff. School rules? They don’t exist when she’s there. She’s the overlord who makes the rules for her convenience when it suits her. Now, she doesn’t only inflict her hell on the pupils, other members of staff absolutely despis… *(Jul 2025)*
- **1/5** — LIVING HELL: THIS SCHOOL IS THE EMBODIMENT OF HELL. ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC AND WILL TRAUMATISE YOUR CHILD - DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN HERE ITS EVIL. *(Jun 2025)*
- **5/5** — Good school: I didn't get a chance to actually begin the school propally I think it was is a good school but it can improve a little bit with staff and children but in general good these reviews downs there they are not true *(Jun 2025)*
- **1/5** — Terrible enviroment for learning: Teachers would be constantly quitting, with incompetent replacements taking their place, the school does not accomodate for anyone with issues with anything of real substance or assistance, the headteacher is incompetent and obsessed with his own ego to the point of being an active detriment to the rest of the staff, entire student body and quality of the school. It is a must-avoid; incompetent administration, no consistency and subpar replacements create a terrible enviroment for students, and … *(Jun 2025)*
- **1/5** — Worst school: I was a former student here and I have never hated an experience as much as I have this school. No support when promised. Bullying not dealt with I even had to have police intervention due to threats of being attacked and school did nothing I was physically attacked within the school grounds and the attacker only got isolation. Another round of bullying a pastoral who no longer works there was trying to get me to apologise to them for bullying me. I ended up in hospital due to mental health deto… *(Apr 2025)*
- **1/5** — This is not a Catholic school nor religious school nor respectful: My child is in 7or in and ppl are vondtlay bullied because of stupidest reasons and all the teachers are rude to students and give out detentions for no reason some of the teachers can't even speak English teachers are rude for no reason like they ecpact our children to be nice to them but that are not nice to the children that go there and it is supposedly a Catholic school well that attitude of that students there don't show that if it was hi school uniform day which there isn't you would have… *(Mar 2025)*
- **1/5** — Absolutely not a religious school: Awful school ran by incompetent bullies. The biggest issue the school have is the deputy head/mental health lead, her job title is laughable (and qualifications questionable) considering she is the reason my daughter's mental health plummeted when she was asked to support her on a bullying situation. This happened over the children's phones and we had plenty of evidence but despite their "cyber bullying policy" we were told it was "out of their jurisdiction" because it happened outside of school… *(Mar 2025)*
- **2/5** — I don’t recommend: They are really bad at dealing with bullying *(Jan 2021)*

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