The Durham Federation - Year 11 Student Phoebe Bradley Wins The Prestigious Lord Glenamara Memorial Prize

Phoebe Bradley Year 11 at Fyndoune Community College was recognised on Tuesday 29th January as an outstanding young person by winning runner up prize in the inaugural Lord Glenamara Memorial. Phoebe was recognised for her academic excellence and strong commitment to making a contribution to her local community.

The awards are in memory of Lord Glenamara who was a Head Teacher in Blyth before becoming an MP; he later served as Education Secretary under Harold Wilson. At the time of his death in May 2012, the 99-year-old was the longest serving member of the House of Lords.

Phoebe, her mum and Mrs Robbins were invited to attend the prize-giving ceremony on Tuesday, 29 January at Imperial College, London where Phoebe received her award from the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt. Hon Michael Gove MP. Also present were Mr Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, Lord Glenamara’s son Michael Short and several former Secretaries of State for Education.

Phoebe is on target to achieve highly at the end of Year 11 and even in Year 9 achieved an A* in English! She has just finished serving as Head Girl and Student Governor and has excelled in everything she has done. She went on a World Challenge to Morocco last year and is now planning her future. She has a place at The Durham Federation Studio Sixth Form to study a raft of A Levels; her dream is to become a famous writer.

‘Phoebe is a fabulous young lady who truly deserves this award. We had a wonderful day in London and both Phoebe’s Mum and I were extremely proud.’ (Sam Robbins)

Students from this school will be making the news for real on 21 March 2013 as they take part in BBC News School Report. We aim to publish the news by 1600 GMT on the News Day, so please save this page as a favourite and return to it later.

You can find more information about creating the web page at the following link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolreport/16222940

We are currently applying for Teaching Schools Status because we believe that this will help us to maintain and share our outstanding teaching and learning. We already work in partnership with a large range of schools both primary and secondary, as well as local universities and we are keen to develop our partnerships, to learn from each other, for the benefit of young people in County Durham.

If you would like to find out more please click here.

Students at these two OfSTED Outstanding colleges have done themselves proud by putting in record breaking performances in their summer exams. Excited students were thrilled in August as the colleges downloaded the GCSE results, and they were able to see in black and white just how amazingly well they had done and how much they had achieved.

One student told us on results day 'My family will be so proud of me, all the work has paid off for me today, I'm so happy!'. Another said through tears of joy, 'I'm so relieved and so pleased, I can do whatever I want in the future now'. Many of the students are taking up places in the Federation's new sixth form and their amazing grades means their places are secure.

We interviewed Mrs Lakey, Chief Executive and she said 'not only are the overall pass rates fantastic, but the progress that the students have made whilst they have been with us is incredible. We are particularly pleased with the very high preportion of A and A* grades in mathematics'.

These fantastic results confirm what OfSTED said about the two colleges last year - they are Outstanding places to learn.

We have opened our doors to our new Sixth Formers in September 2012. The students are learning in a purpose built studio which is completely fit for engaging learning in the 21st century. Our students and staff are so excited about the opening of our new sixth form.

 "The students are so pleased that we can now stay for another two years within The Durham Federation because we know that we will get the very best education with our teachers. They know us and they always make sure that we achieve the highest exam results possible"

Pheoby Bradley, Head Girl

"The new Sixth Form facilities are amazing. It is a fantastic opportunity for students to continue to learn in our Outstanding colleges"

Anne Lakey, Chief Executive

Both DCBC and FCC have now been judged as OUTSTANDING by OfSTED, DCBC in February 2011 and FCC in December 2011. This is fantastic for students, parents/carers and staff - well done everyone!

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