Given that many of the new pupils may be coming from recent housing developments and may not yet have friends or peers in their local area, Higham Lane North Academy (HLNA) will place a special emphasis on pastoral care. Every student will be valued as an individual and their happiness, self-esteem and personal development are of the utmost importance.

In particular, HLNA will focus on building positive relationships between persons of various beliefs and none, as well as people with and without protected characteristics. For example, our pastoral programme will encourage the celebration of diversity by guest speakers in assemblies from a range of religious and non-religious groups. 

The school will foster excellent student attitudes and behaviour in its students. Successful relationships between students and each member of staff they work with will form the basis of the school’s effective pastoral care. A student’s relationship with their Form Tutor will be key and that member of staff will get to know the student particularly well. The Form Tutor will be the first person a student will turn to for help and advice and, in most cases, the first point of contact for parents/carers.

Form Tutors will monitor the overall wellbeing of the students in their forms, including their attendance and punctuality, behaviour and rewards. They will liaise with the Progress Leader who will take overall responsibility for their year group. The 20-minute tutor period at the start of each school day will include a programme of activities including English, maths, and science exercises, a weekly quiz and a year group current event-themed assembly once a week.

The highly successful Warm Strict approach to behaviour established at the HLS will be implemented at HLNA. Our explicit teaching of ‘excellence’ through our five core values of Respect, Tolerance, Integrity, Humility, and Compassion will serve to reaffirm what excellent behaviour is for students. These values will encourage students to think carefully about the decisions they make, supporting the prevention of incidents. 

Through clear and consistent routines and expectations by all staff both within lessons and throughout all aspects of the school’s work, a calm, positive, and orderly environment will be established across the school. Staff will communicate with students in a pleasant, encouraging tone whilst demonstrating excellent manners and emphasising the positive. Students will appreciate that staff know them well as an individual and are concerned about their wellbeing.

Pupils will appreciate that their effort, achievement, and positive behaviour will be recognised and valued with the comprehensive reward system at HLNA, which will carry over the successful model at the HLS.

An enhanced transition programme will ensure pupils make a successful move from primary to secondary school and on to their post-16 option of choice. The Year 7 induction process will include visits to primary schools and a one-to-one session with the form tutor attended by parents/carers and students, covering the ethos, expectations, systems, and procedures of the school. In addition to our two-day welcome and orientation programme, we will provide further opportunities for pupils to get to know each other and staff before they start. From September, there will be close monitoring of our new students, regular communication between tutors and parents, and ongoing contact with feeder primary schools to ensure that all our students receive the best possible support to enable them to thrive in their secondary education.