We are an exciting and vibrant school in the heart of Islington. The New North Community School opened in 2007 after the amalgamation of two primary schools – Charles Lamb and Ecclesbourne Primary School. When the schools merged we moved into a wonderful new building and later in 2011 became an academy. We boast fantastic, state-of-the-art facilities including a purpose-built dance studio, sports and drama halls, equipped with professional sound and lighting, and very soon a fantastic ‘jamming space’ to support the practice of our young musicians.
This year we will be developing our outdoor learning environment so that children are better able to continue their learning in a space that encourages exploration, discovery, and physical development in a natural, green space.
Our school is a stimulating place to learn, with an enthusiastic, committed, and caring team of professionals. Our core purpose is to provide the very best educational opportunities for every child. Every member of our school team embraces the huge responsibility of preparing your child for a world we can only imagine so that they can contribute to the world around them as successful, enquiring, and confident individuals.
We want our children to be high achievers to have a thirst for learning and motivation to explore the world around them, but also to be fantastic citizens and kind, thoughtful, giving members of our local community. Because of this, we have developed our Values curriculum which actively teaches children about the core values we live by at NNA.
At New North, we are ambitious for every child and expect our Academy to be child-centered and an exemplary place of learning.
Our vision is to: "Create a safe and caring community with children, who love learning, at its heart and where staff and parents work together to ensure that each child is given the best possible opportunities to achieve success both within and beyond the Academy".
Our aims are:
- For every child to achieve exceptional outcomes by the time they are 11
- For every child to become a resilient young person who is determined, self-disciplined, and confident
- For our Academy to embrace and develop an ethos that drives up standards in all aspects but does this through traditional and creative approaches, whilst retaining a sense of curiosity, enjoyment, and fun
Our core values are:
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Fairness
We work hard to provide children with memorable and meaningful opportunities for learning, through a curriculum that engages and challenges high expectations and academic rigor is at its heart. We follow the National Curriculum and use this to provide a framework to the plans we make for teaching and learning.
We believe every child must master the basics of Maths and English as a vital foundation for developing knowledge and skills in other areas of the curriculum and their ultimate long-term success.
We provide an inclusive curriculum to ensure the best possible progress for all our pupils whatever their needs or abilities. These can be delivered in a range of contexts to ensure their best impact on attainment and progress. Our priority is that intervention is bespoke to individuals and has a significant impact.
Pupils in Foundation Stages 1 and 2 (Nursery and Reception) are taught following the Department for Education’s early year's foundation stage guidance. Topics are chosen to reflect pupil’s interests and needs.
Children in our Early Years learn through a balance of structured and playful opportunities for learning, which cover the seven areas of learning.
The prime areas consist of the following:
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development
- Communication and language
- Physical development
At New North Academy we place great value in the enriching experiences children can gain beyond the classroom. This year sees the start of an exciting new program of activities to enrich learning experiences for children, families together, and parents on their own.
Phonics is the system of learning to read by using sounds. At The New North Academy, the Read, Write Inc. program is used to teach phonics. From Foundation Stage 2 (Reception), pupils are introduced to the first 30 sounds and taught to blend these sounds into words. Later in the Foundation Stage 2 year and into Year, 1 more sound is introduced and pupils read from books at their level daily. This continues throughout KS1 and into KS2 with daily phonic lessons and guided reading activities.
We recognize the impact of reading good quality literature to pupils and also how access to high-quality texts can support their learning and developing vocabulary. We have made a heavy investment in new books this year and are also in the process of planning to redevelop our library area. Each class has a book area with attractive books that appeal to all abilities within that class and our library has books that children can take home.
