Achievement standards

Students’ length of stay and academic needs vary enormously but the school works hard to re-engage them with learning.

Students are not always well enough to sit the full range of GCSEs, and so the school is careful to set realistic and personally tailored targets; our students are guided to study a range of subjects and are entered for appropriate examinations.

We  offer a range of GCSE subjects and Functional Skills qualifications in English and Maths. We also offer the AQA Unit Award scheme to engage students and recognise their achievements in areas of their interest.

All students are taught in small groups which are organised based on their own learning outcomes. We assess all students for English and Maths using Access Reading Test (ART) and Access Maths Test (AMT) when they arrive at the school and this supports our discussions with students when setting personalised targets.

At Northgate we have a high student to staff ratio and small class sizes mean that work is personalised to each student. We regularly review our timetable to reflect the needs of the current cohort and individual learners. Students receive regular feedback on their progress and we have two academic progress evenings per year.