It is our pleasure to welcome you to the City of London Academy Highgate Hill (COLAHH). The school opened as a mixed, all-ability, non-denominational academy in September 2017, inheriting four cohorts (years 8 to 11) from what was previously, Mount Carmel Catholic Girls College.
We aim to provide a world-class education for our students - making them ‘fully-baked individuals. Hence we provide a broad and balanced curriculum tailored to the needs of our students. This includes the opportunity for students to achieve the ‘English Baccalaureate’ (Ebacc). The academy’s sixth form will open in a state-of-the-art building in September 2022.
At the City of London Academy Highgate Hill, we believe that all students can thrive in their academic lives and become active contributors to their local, national, and global communities if the right environment is provided. Therefore, we strive to provide a calm and purposeful learning environment underpinned by high expectations across the academy. Students are expected to work hard and show tenacity and commitment towards their studies. We provide opportunities through high-quality teaching and support structures offered by our sponsor: the City of London Corporation, to promote academic, creative, sporting, linguistic and personal achievement: this is ‘the City experience’.
As part of our aim to develop student's creative abilities, all students are provided with a free musical instrument: Cello, Flute, Viola, or Violin when they join us in year 7. Students receive free music tuition for the first three years with us. This is sponsored by The Music in Secondary School Trust. Our new Orchestra group has already performed in the Barbican and Goldsmith College.
Our overarching vision is to found an academy that will exemplify ‘Outstanding’ secondary practice, evidenced by excellent attainment and progress for all pupils. From the outset, we will want to ensure that the academy is underpinned by shared values and ambitions so that this new member of our educational family can be graded as ‘Outstanding’ within three years.
Each of our existing secondary academies provides learning experiences that reflect the characteristics for which the City is known around the world:
- High expectations, aspirations, excellence, and a belief that all can succeed
- Contributing creativity, innovation, and enterprise alongside tradition and heritage
- Developing people who are confident, resilient, compassionate, and democratic
Our overarching ethos for the City of London Academy Highgate Hill will be:
- To develop the potential and character of all students in all global spheres academic, social, cultural, and spiritual
- To nurture students who are creative, curious, and compassionate into adults who can make a positive and significant contribution to our world
- To recognize the importance of fostering understanding and respect for other cultures and faiths
- To promote the importance of developing positive relationships with others, resolving conflict through reconciliation and forgiveness
- To promote equal opportunities for all
The city of London believes that every student is entitled to high-quality academic, creative, sporting, linguistic, and personal development opportunities.
Like all City Academies, the new school will draw on the City of London’s unique and exceptional range and quality of resources.
Education both influences and reflects the values of our society and the kind of society we want to be. It is therefore important to recognize a set of common aims, values, and purposes that underpin the school curriculum and the work of schools.
Learning at COLAHH is an exciting process of explanation, discovery, and achievement. We encourage and guide our students to take responsibility for their work, to become independent learners who ask questions, solve problems and communicate their ideas with confidence and clarity.
Our lessons are interactive and practical with an emphasis on teamwork, participation, and enjoyment at every opportunity. We offer a wide and varied curriculum at each Key Stage, backed up by superb facilities throughout the college including our purpose-built design and technology center. All students will follow a two-year program and begin GCSEs in all subjects in year 9. All students will follow the national curriculum unless the academy (in consultation with students and parents) feels they would benefit from not doing so.
In line with our sister academy, we aim to raise standards and aspirations through leading by example. In our other Hackney school, The City Academy, Hackney 90% of students reach national standards and above in English and maths at Key Stage 3, the progress we are expecting of our students will be well above the national average.
All students will study GCSEs in English, maths, and science, and there will be a wide selection of options across the remaining subjects. The vast majority of students will follow the English Baccalaureate in Key Stage 4. Our GCSE options subjects will include many of those taught throughout Key Stage 3 such as art, music, and technology as well as additional choices including computing, economics, and vocational subjects.
In time, the academy will grow to include a vibrant academic Sixth Form. Our Sixth Form will aim to develop young learners into independent, studious, and professional young adults, by insisting on the same core values that characterize the work of the academy as a whole.
