Church of England

Malcolm Arnold Academy is a Church of England school, and forms part of the Diocese of Peterborough https://www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk

At MAA, our distinctive Christian vision ensures all children and adults flourish because:

• we lead through service; being connected and committed to our educational mission
• we are educating for life in all its fullness (John 10.10)
• we are educating to do good, seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34.14)
• we include, invite and inspire those of all faiths and none by living our values and serving the common good, together.

School Chaplaincy 

As a Church of England Academy, we have a Chaplaincy Team, consisting of Rev Alison Wagner (School Chaplain), Fiona Hailes (Chaplaincy Co-ordinator) and Angie Kennedy (ordained Curate) who are available for staff and students. The role of the team is to help students and staff explore and make our Christian values come alive both in their lives and our academy, and in the community. The Chaplaincy Team are important adult role models for both students and staff. They play the lead role in preparing and leading worship for the school community, running clubs for students and leading spiritual reflection in school.  The Team leads a weekly Holy Communion for staff and students and regular meetings with the Faith and Culture student ambassadors. 

Collective Worship

Collective Worship takes place in a variety of contexts: 

•     Daily Form Tutor Time, including DRET Reads and reflection time. 

•     Weekly Form Group Collective Worship: This is led by the School Chaplaincy Team or the Principal. 

•     Monday Form Tutor Time: This is led by the Form Tutor and the School Chaplaincy Team or Principal. 

•     Weekly House Assembly:  This is led by the Head of Christian Distinctiveness or a Senior Leader.  It features a member of the School Chaplaincy Team who will lead the House in a call and response and the School Prayer. 

•     Whole School Collective Worship: This takes place at the start of each half term and at Key Events in the Christian Calendar. 

Form time worship is planned to ensure that the time is used to develop students’ spirituality and wellbeing. 

As a Church of England Academy, we dedicate time to prayer and reflection, giving students the space to contemplate or offer to God their gratitude and worries. This is led and modelled by the Principal and Senior Leadership Team, the Head of Christian Distinctiveness, the School Chaplaincy Team and Form Tutors.  Our School Prayer is as follows: 

• MAA Collective Worship Policy download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineMAA Collective Worship Policy

Father God, as we look upwards, we praise you that we are a community of many nations, wonderfully made in your image. 

As we look inwards at the example of Jesus, strengthen us to live life in all its fullness. When we fall short forgive us and help us to forgive others. 

As we look outwards fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we may do good, seek peace and pursue it.  

May we grow together in faith, hope and love and be thankful. 

Amen. 

A Culture of Justice and Responsibility 

• Justice and Responsibility are central features in our academy. They are an important and explicit part of our Christian distinctiveness and a fundamental part of the offer to families who choose to send their child to a Church of England school. All Church of England Schools share the vision to be ‘Deeply Christian, serving the common good.’ 

  In our academy, justice and responsibility means to speak up, act and give to improve our world. Our PSHE curriculum aims to educate young people about courageous advocacy, leads to the practical taking of action, challenging of injustice and becoming informed changemakers locally, regionally, nationally and globally.   We have an annual Green Day, which encourages students to take a stand about environmental issues, climate change and sustainability.  Our PSHE drop down days highlight different social and moral issues for students to debate and Our Faith and Culture Ambassadors and School Council discuss and encourage students to take part in charity work and to raise awareness of global issues, e.g. Black History month, Remembrance and our annual Culture Day. 

Spirituality 

• Spirituality permeates through the life of the academy in lessons, through worship and in moments of collective gatherings. We unlock opportunities for those in our academy community to think about spirituality, to explore the meaning of faith, to examine and question the world we live and philosophical ideas, and to examine the meaning behind having a personal faith.  We define Spirituality as “the essence of being human; "It is individual to each one of us. It is a sense of connection to something bigger than us, often involving faith in God or a search for meaning in life. It can be a connection to nature or involve thinking deeply about something.  At Malcolm Arnold Academy, spirituality is about developing the whole person.” ​  

MAA Compass 

Our MAA Compass shows our values and points students in the right direction.  We encourage students develop spiritually by doing good and being good, being committed to growth and being of value in the community. 

Our values are rooted in our theological vision to educate students to live “life in all its fullness” (John 10:10) and to “do good, seek peace and pursue it (Psalm 34:14).  The Compass shows that Spirituality involves doing good and being good, being committed to growth and being of value in the community. 

Our Christian Vision and Ethos

Malcolm Arnold Academy is a school in the heart of Northampton with simple-to-state approach: insisting on impeccable behaviour, a knowledge-based curriculum, guided instructional teaching and meaningful music and sporting experiences.

As a Church of England Academy, we include, invite and inspire those of all faiths and none by living our values and serving the common good, together;

The Student Leadership Team at the Academy include Head Students, Deputy-Head Students and six ambassador groups: 

• Faith and Culture 
• Charity 
• Eco 
• Inclusion 
• Cultural Arts 
• Sports 

The Malcolm Arnold Academy Ambassadors Programme involves representing one of the six areas, with the responsibility of leading projects to promote and increase participation. 

Ambassadors will also have the responsibility of developing links with the local community such as local businesses, community groups and primary schools.  

The Student Leadership Team and Ambassador lead courageous advocacy across the academy, activities include the Green Day, Culture Day, Green Christmas Hamper campaign, working with the AOM to reduce energy bills and the Christmas card competition, and improving the school's biodiversity. 

we are educating for ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10.10)

we are educating to ‘do good, seek peace and pursue it’ (Psalm 34.14)

Our Values

Ambitious, broad and rich education

Valuing the professional integrity of people

Impeccable behaviour

Respected and valued; we belong

Valuing knowledge and wisdom

Curriculum

Our curriculum vision is rooted in our school vision.  

Malcolm Arnold is dedicated to broadening the horizons of all students, helping them to achieve at the highest level both academically and in their talents outside the classroom. Our knowledge rich curriculum enables all of our students to gain the most powerful knowledge, regardless of their background. We are ambitious for all of our students and want them to lean challenging content from a broad and balanced curriculum. Our curriculum allows our students to ‘do good, seek peace and pursue it’ and to ‘live life in all its fullness’.

Students leave us with the knowledge and skills to be well-educated, ambitious and socially responsible citizens who will continue to learn, have a successful career and contribute positively to the economic, cultural and social flourishing of their communities.

RE Curriculum

At KS3 all students follow a knowledge rich Trust wide curriculum and all students complete the short course GCSE during year 10 and 11.

A knowledge-rich Religious Education enables the RE curriculum to have a clear purpose, to be clear about what it is that students are learning and how this relates to the community of scholars which inform the ways of knowing in the subject.

RE at Malcolm Arnold Academy has an academically rigorous connection to the scholarly disciplines that are needed to study worldviews. In viewing RE as informed by the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy, History and Human Sciences students learn about religious and non-religious worldviews and in doing so they learn to think, analyse and discuss knowledge through the disciplinary lenses of Theology, History, Philosophy and the Human Sciences.

Students in RE not only learn what people think and believe but they learn to understand and analyse this conceptual knowledge through the disciplinary lenses. In turn they use these ways of knowing to reflect and develop on their own worldview.

Prayer Spaces

Prayer spaces enable our staff and students, of all faiths and none, to explore life’s questions, spirituality and faith in a safe environment.

Our Chapel is used as a place of reflection and is at the centre of our whole school services that we have on a termly basis. It is also the home of our Chapel Choir, led by Simon Toyne, where you will often hear the beautiful voices of the students out in to the Academy. We also have two new purpose-built prayer rooms where students can pray at lunch time.

Documents

Gallery

Church of England Documents

Policies

• MAA RE Policy September 2025
• Malcolm Arnold Academy SMSC Policy

Bible Group and Collective Worship leaders