“As a school of character, we put our pillars of virtue at the heart of everything we do. For us, developing ‘good character’ in our community is as important as exam results, and arguably given the last eighteen months and pandemic, more important. We are highly reflective at the school as leaders and have a continuous improvement mindset so the Kitemark Plus visit allowed us to get expert, external input as to how we can improve even further. The Quality Mark Plus accreditation does not mark the ‘end’ of our pathway, but merely another benchmark as we move towards our vision of being ‘An Academy of character and excellence’. As part of United Learning, we belong to a group of schools that firmly believe in Education with Character. We are very proud to be the first in the group to achieve the Quality Mark Plus and are looking forward to working with schools across the group to help support them in their journey to achieve their accreditation.”

“The leadership provided by the Principal, Senior Leadership Team, expert governors and other key members of staff is dedicated to the evolution of character education in the widest possible sense. There are very clear short, medium and longer term plans for evolving character provision so that it has a direct impact on student well-being, academic achievement and future life chances. There is real clarity regarding actions required to deliver a first rate provision and this is effectively reinforced with excellent quality assurance systems and careful and thoughtful analysis of objective and subjective data which is readily available throughout the school. There is little doubt that the Northampton Academy can be considered one of the most successful schools in the country in terms of its character development programme and its direct impact on standards”