Our House System

The House system at North Cambridge Academy is the main mechanism for pastoral care it is the back bone of our success and of the success of other partnership schools within the Trust it creates a strong team and community identity linking in with the curriculum teams. It reflects and delivers the commitment to ‘know, value and support every student to achieve.’

The Academy is divided into three Houses of approximately 238 students in each.

The Houses provide support and guidance within an environment where the needs of each child are known by his or her Tutor, SSA and Senior Tutor and their individual progress is monitored closely. Importantly, the House is the focus of the relationship between the school and families, with siblings always in the same House.

The House Office is the focal point for the House with the Student Support Assistant (SSA) available at all times during the school day to support the needs of students and parents within that House family.

House Teams

There are three Houses (Ali, Hawking and Mandela) and all members of staff are a member of one of these Houses. Each House has a Senior Tutor who manages and supports the Tutoring team.

Form Groups

Pupils entering the Academy all enter one of the House’s Form Groups in each House, with approximately 25 students in each; these tutor groups are vertical, with a cross-section of students from years 7 – 11. The tutor’s role is to support and guide students, along with their parents, to achieve their best academically and develop as individuals. Each House tutorial team is led by a Senior Tutor who is:

• Responsible for the quality of guidance and support provided by tutors within the House
• Accountable for promoting the personal, academic and wider achievement of students within the House.

Student leadership:

At North Cambridge Academy we believe that students should be given a wide range of opportunities to develop and practise leadership skills in preparation for life beyond school.  Many Student Leadership activities will focus on – developing Independence, Resilience, Achievement, Challenge and Engagement both within and beyond the curriculum. Most Student leadership roles will be aligned to their House Team as well as whole school responsibility.

Aims of our Student Leadership programme:

• To empower students to work in partnership with staff towards shared goals.
• To enable creativity to flourish as the school community benefits from the wealth of experiences, ideas, skills and sense of fun that students bring.
• To provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills through a variety of inspiring, challenging and valued projects which impact positively on the whole school community.
• To prepare students for Higher Education and for achieving personal and professional excellence in life after formal education.