At Ferndown Upper School, our culture creates our Ferndown Family, which encourages and creates a support network for our whole community. The House structure, through tutor groups, further embodies the Ferndown Family by ensuring that students have a familiarity and additional belonging – to their House and their School. Houses are a great way to introduce competitions; provide structure; give students a chance to speak out; discuss British values and many more. The Heads of House will implement many challenges and tasks along with discussion points for the students that allow our students to form a stronger bond in their tutor group, House and subsequently as part of our Ferndown Family. The Tutors and Heads of House also provide another route for the students to access support along with many other support opportunities in the Ferndown Family.
Greg Ashton was a student at Ferndown Upper school who went on to study physics at University, completing a PhD in gravitational waves, tiny ripples in the fabric of spacetime created when black holes collided. When he began his PhD, these gravitational waves had not yet been directly observed but in September 2015, the LIGO detectors made the first detection, and he was co-author of the paper. This was a watershed moment for astronomy and won the founders of LIGO the Nobel prize in 2017. He is now Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he divides his time leading the LIGO collaboration’s working group that finds black hole collisions and teaching.
Ms. L. Gillett
Ashton Head of House
Sam Cheetham was an outstanding student with a passion for speed and motor racing. Sam had a rare heart condition and sadly lost his battle with this in 2013. Sam never let his heart condition stop him from doing anything he wanted and he never gave up, when striving to achieve his goals.
Mrs. F. Moyano
Cheetham Head of House
Charlotte Read was a student at Ferndown Upper School. She was diagnosed with cancer at just 13. She faced chemotherapy, neurosurgery, and the amputation of her right lower leg with unflinching courage.
Flying a plane, swimming with dolphins, and passing A-Level, GNVQ, and GCSE exams were among Charlotte’s many achievements.
She never stopped trying to be her best.
Her family and numerous doctors were full of praise for her. They said “She was so determined that the illness was not going to ruin her life. She went through all her treatment with a smile on her face. She was so strong,”
Mr. D. Hammett
Read Head of House
Lieutenant John “JT” Thornton, Royal Marines, died fighting for his country in Afghanistan in 2008.
John was such a positive role model at FUS, both in terms of his work ethic and his keenness to take part in all aspects of school life.
He was the inspiration for the John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation, which gives out bursaries to our students so that they can ‘realise their dreams’.
