A School For Life

In 2025, NULS built further on all of its previous achievements by being awarded the coveted title of ‘Best UK Independent School’ – a tremendous honour and source of immense pride. As we now look ambitiously ahead, the principles and values that have served our school so well throughout its 423 year history, will remain fundamental to fulfilling our vision for our school and our pupils, in the future, as we relentlessly aim ever higher. Nunquam Non Nova Summa Sequendo!

To achieve this we will be a forward thinking, and highly progressive educator with a dual strand academic strategy that aims for exceptional academic performance through inspiring teaching and learning. We will:

• Target excellence in educational outcomes for each and every pupil;
• Support and listen to our pupils so together we are able to build their
  learning power and their personal confidence;
• Foster a high performance and aspirational culture amongst staff and pupils;
• Ensure we recruit and retain the highest quality teachers and support their
  development and evolve partnerships both locally and beyond, to add further to the expertise in our provision;
• Ensure we have the highest competency in whole school management;
• Develop our curriculum with breadth, creativity and innovation to meet each
  and every pupil’s needs;
• Recognise the value of fostering curiosity and independence in pupils’
  learning and how learning beyond the curriculum often enhances pupils’ learning
  achievements within it;
• To harness the strengths of the most advanced technology and resourcing
  for the benefit of pupils’ learning, and of equipping pupils to capitalise upon this.

To achieve this we will employ a universal, whole school Pastoral Strategy – ‘We Thrive’.

‘We Thrive’ aims to value pupils’ emotional and physical well-being as paramount and essential to their success in all other aspects of their life and education at NULS. We will:

• Focus on delivering excellence in our pastoral care through ensuring
  we benefit from highly skilled pastoral leadership;
• Sustain and further enhance the unique spirit and ethos evident amongst
  our community at NULS and embodied by our core values of respect,
  aspiration, endeavour and kindness;
• Adopt a progressive, proactive and broad based approach when viewing
  pupils’ well-being, embedding initiatives to foster pupils’ attributes and
  character and their unique qualities in areas such as resilience and
  leadership, so they are equipped for the demands of the modern world;
• Integrate positive psychology approaches in school to help ensure
  pupils are well and reaching their all-round potential;
• Foster strong bonds with our parents, appreciating that by working together
  we can deliver ever higher standards of pastoral care and personal
  development for our pupils;
• Adopt a ‘One School’ philosophy and approach, to provide the benefits of
  consistency for our pupils, aiming to provide a seamless pastoral path that
  cares for each and every pupil as they grow.

Recognising the importance of the holistic aspects of NULS’ education to its pupils, and how embedded this is in our school’s traditions, we will commit to constantly invest in achieving an all-round education that meets the very highest of standards observable in the UK. We will:

• Focus on delivering not only the very best all-round education in
  Staffordshire across all domains of our provision, but reaching standards that
  match the best viewed nationally;
• Aim to deliver an exceptionally rich and diverse co-curricular provision
  across all areas of school life, across the far-ranging spectrum from Sport to Music,
  from Performing Arts to Creative disciplines, and beyond;
• Curate a highly resourced and expertly delivered co-curricular programme
  that values participation and high performance;
• Value how co-curricular extension can also be cerebral in orientation,
  embracing an intellectual component, to provide personal extension
  and fulfilment;
• Constantly enhance and innovate in our co-curricular facilities to provide
  pupils with an exceptional platform to explore their own unique
  blend of interests and talents;
• Appreciate the impact that co-curricular opportunity can have on personal
  development, pupils’ joy and our broader pupil culture and value of nurturing their strong engagement.

To achieve this we will cherish and commit to the altruistic spirit that was apparent at the founding of our school in 1602, as we recognise this outlook generates significant benefit for all. We will:

• Be an outward facing school, proud of our roots in Newcastle,
  Staffordshire and the wider region;
• Forge close partnerships in teaching, learning and co-curricular
  terms with educational institutions across the county, for the
  benefit of all;
• Build mutually beneficial ties with the commercial and corporate
  sectors within our region;
• Further enhance our commitment to charity and giving back to our
  region, echoing our founding principles and values;
• Utilise the enormous potential our campus, facilities and personnel’s
  expertise for the benefit of our local community and its institutions.

We aim to prepare all of our students to excel in life in an ever-changing, modern world. We will:

• Further enhance and evolve our ‘NULS Futures’ provision, to provide A-class
  leading Careers provision that enables our pupils to fulfil their goals regarding
  university, apprenticeships and employment, whether this be at home or abroad;
• Be a progressive, modern educator preparing young people for the
  varied pathways in life beyond school;
• Embed personal development programmes for Higher Education and
  the world of work;
• Adopt a bespoke attitude and innovative approach to nurturing
  university and vocational preparation that is responsive to the constant change in the university
  sector and world of work;
• Pursue a Futures provision, that has a long-term perspective that enables
  pupils to explore pathways fully and highly competitively;
• Foster a rich super-curricular and societies framework in school to allow
  students to exercise their interests and passions, and so enable their
  Futures exploration;
• Capitalise upon the unique potential of our extensive school network of
  employers and alumni to provide our pupils with exceptional Futures
  opportunities and preparation.

Develop an irresistible school offer and a provision for our pupils that enables it to enjoy an enviable and regionally leading reputation. We will:

• Ensure we communicate our school’s potential benefits to all families
  and pupils across our region, so that NULS’ opportunities are conveyed to all;
• Build a communication system for families in school that enables
  an ever stronger partnership and community to be forged, for the
  benefit of our pupils;
• Build an extensive network of, and for, our alumni to enable them to retain
  close contact with their school and with one another;
• Value the key role our alumni has played in enabling our school to
  be what it is today, and how important they are to our future;
• Foster close ties and mutually beneficial links with the region’s
  leading institutions, and organisations across all sectors, and
  which enrich the opportunities accessible to our pupils.

To achieve this we will continue to facilitate ongoing and sustainable investment in the NULS campus and estate, as we seek to ensure our pupils enjoy the advantage of the leading facilities and opportunities available within the region. We will:

• Seek to ensure NULS has a suitably robust financial position to facilitate
  its strategic facilities and campus goals;
• Constantly develop the school estate with a focus on absolute quality and
  a forward thinking, innovate approach;
• Ensure all facilities are developed for the balanced global benefit
  of our Nursery, Prep, Senior and Sixth Form, and tie facilities and campus development
  to our academic and wider strategic goals;
• Recognise the critical role investment in our support teams, less
  front-facing activities and resourcing has in ensuring our school’s
  provision remains exceptional;
• Keep abreast of the most advanced and leading-edge developments in
  resourcing and facilities, to ensure NULS’ activities and environment best
  ensures our pupils’ success;
• Value the importance of our heritage and the historic value of our campus,
  and the role this will play in our education and schooling in the future;
• Pursue a socially responsible sustainability strategy, as we feel
  this is in accordance with our values, is appropriate as an educator of future
  generations and, importantly, what our pupils want.

To achieve this we will aim to future-proof NULS through the prudent and wise strategic development of our school. This development will aim to not only evolve our own independent activities, but also our partnership with our key current stakeholders and alumni through the enhancement of our commercial activities, and those that justify our charitable status. We will:

• Enhance our development operations with the corporate sector, charitable
  trusts, alumni and beyond for our school’s and pupils’ benefit;
• Develop our bursary activities in line with our charitable status and values;
• Connect our alumni ever more closely with our school and seek to harness
  their energy and insight for the benefit of our pupils;
• Explore corporate links, for opportunities that add to our financial
  robustness and enable our educational provision to be further enhanced;
• Prudently develop our commercial operations for the benefit of our
  educational provision whilst also ensuring prudence approach towards
  finance management;
• Focus on delivering universally outstanding standards in all areas of
  school life, via highly efficient systems and practice;
• Generate alternative income streams to further invest in the School
  and its pupils;
• Ensure prudent and sustainable scholarship and bursary spend, as we
  seek to stay true to our altruistic values.