What makes a Catholic school distinctive - click, to find out!
Blessed Hugh judged an 'Outstanding Catholic school' (March 2025) - click to find out how
A Welcome from the Headmaster
At the time of his trial in 1539, Blessed Hugh, the last Benedictine Abbot of Reading Abbey, gave witness to the importance of ‘true teaching’. True teaching in faith, character, and intellectual formation continue to go hand in hand in our school. What we seek to help develop, in partnership with families, are flourishing young people. Our teaching aims to instil character, as well as convey knowledge, as we are preparing children for a lifetime, not merely for examinations.
Blessed Hugh Faringdon Catholic School is an oversubscribed, high-performing, co-educational school of 1050 students located in West Reading. The school, which includes a thriving Sixth Form, has recently been judged as an outstanding Catholic school by the Catholic school inspectorate and was graded as “Good” once again by Ofsted in 2023 (click below to read the full report).
This year, 2025, we retained our strong progress in English and mathematics, offering our students options at age 16 and leading to this year's year 12 (Sixth Form) being the largest in many years. Post-16, too, saw the highest number of students yet heading off to the top 'Russel Group' universities, as well as to medicine and dentistry schools. Apprenticeships, too, were a feature of this set of results.
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