Selecting the right school for your child’s secondary education is an important decision and it’s only natural that choosing an established school may feel like the ‘safer’ option. 

Higham Lane North Academy is indeed a new school but, beyond its shiny new façade and state-of-the-art facilities, it has the huge advantage of being modelled on the long-established ‘Outstanding’ Higham Lane School and run by the Central England Academy Trust with a proven record and commitment to constantly raising standards across its family of schools.

HLNA’s Headteacher will be Mrs Kirstie Robinson, currently Deputy Headteacher at Higham Lane School and responsible for the curriculum and delivering progress and attainment. With achievements including securing the school’s highest-ever progress scores for the past two years placing HLS within the top 6% of all state-funded schools in the country, her lead areas of teaching and learning being rated ‘Outstanding' by Ofsted in 2019, spearheading the successful bid in 2021 for the school to secure World Class status and being part of the initial team that delivered the successful application for Higham Lane North Academy, HLNA couldn’t be in a safer pair of hands for ensuring the effective implementation of our partner school’s highly successful model.

In addition to the same proven, broad and balanced knowledge curriculum and extended school day with a wide choice of enrichment activities that are offered at Higham Lane School, thanks to our cutting-edge facilities, HLNA pupils will also access an innovative education that will encompass digital media, computing, engineering, drama, music and art, with ample opportunity for sports recreation and education. 

We have already received an enormous amount of interest from prospective teaching and support staff who are keen to join Mrs Robinson’s team and benefit from her many years of experience in developing the knowledge curriculum and the teaching and learning strategy for all teachers, in all classrooms at Higham Lane School, recognised by Ofsted as 'Outstanding' and leading to the incredible progress of the children. They are as excited as we are to have this golden opportunity to establish an exceptional new school for our community and we are sure that we will be spoilt for choice once recruitment starts in January. There will be many opportunities for families to meet the teaching team ahead of September.  

Being the founding cohort of just 150 pupils at a new school also brings many unique opportunities: as we will be recruiting senior staff from the outset to build the strongest team, pupils will benefit from the highest levels of teaching experience and support from day one; being part of this small community will ensure the highest levels of participation in sports teams and extra-curricular opportunities beyond the classroom and will help children to settle in and make friends exceptionally quickly; our Year 7s will always be at the top of the school and as such have earlier leadership opportunities and, of course, will also be the first to use all the brand-new facilities and equipment! 

As we are located just a mile or so from our partner school, our first Year 7s will have the additional benefit of being alongside older HLS pupils in our annual drama production, sports training sessions and a wealth of school trips, so they will have the best of both worlds!