Welcome to Ark Isaac Newton Academy

I am delighted to introduce you to Isaac Newton Academy, a brand new, purpose-built, all-through school for students aged 4-18 in Ilford. Our prospectus should give you a flavour of this exciting educational opportunity for your child. I would also encourage you to browse our website and/or to arrange to visit us to find out more.

Isaac Newton Academy Secondary is a non-denominational, non-selective school, welcoming pupils from all backgrounds from the local community. The school opened with just 180 Year 7 students in September 2012. The secondary school has grown year on year and we now have 1200 11–18 year olds (including 250 students in the Sixth Form). In September 2014, Isaac Newton Academy opened a three-form entry primary school in purpose-built accommodation right next to the secondary academy. There are 90 children in each year group and, like the secondary school, it has grown one year group at a time. As of September 2020, we now have children in Reception through to Year 6.

Our staff work tirelessly to ensure that each and every student is supported and stretched to reach their full potential. We are guided by our vision to ‘equip every student with the knowledge, learning power and character necessary for success at university and beyond’. Commitment to our vision has already delivered a series of great successes, highlighted in October 2018 when Ofsted judged the academy to be 'outstanding in all areas'.

We are also proud to be part of Ark - a leading education charity and one of the country’s top-performing academy operators, with a shared mission to transform lives through education.

Before joining Isaac Newton Academy in September 2020, I spent more than a decade as a senior leader, a large portion of this within an all-through school. There is something incredibly special about working in an all-through school, which makes me committed to delivering the highest quality education to all the students at Isaac Newton Academy, building on the successes the school has already achieved.

As Principal, my vision is to ensure that the students and families we serve continue to receive excellent levels of pastoral care and academic support, whilst pushing new boundaries in pursuit of the ambitions I have for the academy and community. These ambitions will be fulfilled by each person in our community committing to our BRIDGES values, displaying a growth mindset and believing that our aspirational vision can achieved by all. Ultimately, I want to help lead a legacy of pioneers who will positively change the world around them.

I very much look forward to meeting you and to working with you and your children to continue building this truly great school.

At Isaac Newton Academy our aim is to equip every student with the knowledge, learning power and character necessary for success at university and beyond.

We:

• set clear, ambitious goals, and rigorously monitor our progress in achieving them 
• offer a curriculum emphasising core academic subjects, while providing the facilities and specialist staff to meet and stimulate a wider range of interests 
• employ an approach to teaching that instils knowledge, understanding, and a desire to learn 
• ensure that all students, teachers, staff and parents commit fully to making Isaac Newton Academy a vibrant learning community.

‘Great teachers believe in the growth of the intellect and talent, and they are fascinated with the process of learning.’ Carol Dweck. 

At Isaac Newton Academy we believe that all students have the potential to achieve outstanding educational outcomes. 

We know that the brain is like a muscle, in that its intelligence grows with exercise. Scientists are learning that people have more capacity for life-long learning and brain development than they ever thought. Although individuals have a unique genetic endowment and start with different temperaments and aptitudes, we know that experience, training and effort are critically important. It is not always those who start out the smartest who end up the smartest. 

This has implications for how we teach and communicate with students.

‘The purposes of education include more than achievement. Among the most important is the development of citizens with challenging minds and dispositions who become active, competent and thoughtfully critical in our complex world.  Schooling should have a major impact on the enhancement of character.’ John Hattie, Visible Learning for Teachers

At INA, the BRIDGES framework has been designed to summarise the main character traits and learning dispositions that we believe are fundamental to being an effective learner and to success and fulfilment in life. 

The BRIDGES framework is a set of fifty two learning dispositions, habits of mind and character traits that we are explicitly developing in our students, built around the acronym BRIDGES:

Bravery

Resourcefulness

Integrity

Discovery

Grit

Emotional Intelligence

Self Discipline

BRIDGES underpins our ethos, curriculum and policies at the Academy.  At INA we have developed a culture in classrooms (and the Academy as a whole) that systematically cultivates habits, learning dispositions, attitudes and characteristics enables our students to grow into well rounded individuals and resilient learners.

‘The Academy’s unique ‘BRIDGES’ programme enables the students to learn, explore and develop the qualities and skills to become very well-rounded individuals, exceptionally well equipped for the future world of work.   It develops students’ knowledge, skills and qualities to support them in becoming effective learners, well prepared for the future.’ Ofsted, 2014.

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