Our Core Values, Culture and Ethos

KLA sits at the heart of its community with its full support, numbers are growing consistently; the academy has been oversubscribed for the past two years and this year sees it as the most oversubscribed secondary school in Norfolk 

KLA is a friendly school, staff and students have strong relationships and the ethos of care runs through everything that we do from termly Personal Development meetings to wide and varied enrichment opportunities, charity events and leadership opportunities for all.  

There is a clear and embedded safeguarding ethos at KLA; staff and students know how, when and where to seek advice and support for any concerns they may have about themselves or somebody else.  

Alongside curriculum and enrichment opportunities KLA embraces community fund raising; together our students, parents and staff have raised more than £9000 for Macmillan and have welcomes more than 100 local elderly residents in for a celebratory Christmas lunch, cooked and provided by KLA staff and students.  

Student voice is valued at KLA, our Student Commission team work alongside curriculum and pastoral teams to ensure that the attitudes and feelings of the student body are considered in everything we do. In addition to the formal Student Commission student voice is gathered regularly as part of policy writing and overall academy development. 

At KLA, we do not believe that exclusion is an appropriate sanction for any but the most serious offences that compromise Health and Safety of staff and pupils or the smooth running of our school.  Our ethos is built on enabling pupils to become responsible adults, including appreciating that actions have consequences.  In embodying this ethos, we don’t see it as helpful if pupils can anticipate a day off as an unhelpful ‘reward’ for unacceptable behaviour – we believe that in almost all circumstances the right place for children is in school. 

In the four years since the current leadership team arrived at the school, exclusions at KLA have fallen from 10 times the national rate to around one third of the national rate, and no pupil has been permanently excluded since 2019, and one of the aims of our Academy Development Plan in the near future is to aim to become a ‘zero-exclusion’ school.