Ethos & Values

Every organisation needs clear values so that each person knows what their contribution to that organisation should reflect and what they are trying to achieve. Such a focus is particularly important in a school, where teachers, pupils, governors and parents must all understand the ethos of the organisation as they work together towards a common goal. Here at The North School we recognise that our values will only have real meaning if they reflect the views of every one of us. That’s why we worked hard to involve everyone in agreeing what those values should be.

Read about the process here.

The values are designed to give each member of the school community a clear focus as they help shape the future of The North. While priorities may change, our long-term values will not.

Our values are:

Respect:

Our students were clear during the consultation process that RESPECT should be one of our fundamental values. While we believe students should respect their teachers and their parents, we also recognise that teachers must treat pupils with respect and that young people should cultivate a healthy self respect. Respect at The North encompasses kindness and compassion as well as a willingness to understand and celebrate differences, both of opinion, belief and lifestyle.

Achievement:

Clearly a core purpose for any school, The North retains ACHIEVEMENT as one of its four values, something that is reflected in its stated aim of Putting Achievement First. While the school is proud of its students’ increasingly successful performances in GCSE and A level examinations, it takes a wider view of achievement. We celebrate the achievement of those who make good progress as well as of those who top the examination lists, and we are as proud of those who do well in vocational subjects, sport and the arts as we are of the increasing numbers of students who take up a university place. Our staff and governors have high aspirations and expectations for our students, we encourage them do their very best and we celebrate their achievements in their studies, their wider school life and beyond.

Resilience:

Staff, parents and students all highlighted the importance of RESILIENCE as one of the school’s values. We appreciate that school, and life in general, can throw up many challenges, and we believe resilience, or mental toughness, is important in meeting those challenges. From persevering with a difficult subject to training hard for sporting success or juggling home issues with school work, The North believes resilience is an important value and one on which the school’s ethos should be founded.

Community:

All contributors wanted to highlight COMMUNITY as another important element of school life. For The North, community covers not just the area in which we live and work but also the school community that supports us.

Those varying aspects of community promote service, loyalty, healthy completion, support for others and a commitment to inclusivity, all of which are vital to the life of The North School.

And so the foundation stones of our school are Respect, Achievement, Resilience and Community, chosen by those who study and work here and by parents and governors. The challenge facing all of us is to live by those values.