For pupils

Vertical tutoring is a system of organising students into tutor groups placing their academic and pastoral care at the heart of the Academy.

Students are in tutor groups of no more than 20 and each group has a mixture of students from each year group.

This allows the form tutor to get to know every student well, allows us to mentor them and monitor their academic progress and personal development. It promotes equal opportunities, greater parent partnership, enhanced student voice and student leadership, and encourages good citizenship.

The students and staff are divided into two communities. The communities are called Safa and Marwa. Each community has two houses; the houses in Safa are Ibrahim and Ismail, the houses in Marwa are Yaqoob and Yusuf. Within each house there are nine personal tutor groups.

The names were chosen by students. Safa and Marwa are two small mountains located in the Masjid al Haram in Makkah, Saudi Arabia between which Muslims travel back and forth seven times during the ritual pilgrimages of Hajj and Umrah.