The UCL Academy is a high-achieving, non-selective secondary school established in 2012 by University College London (UCL), one of the world’s leading universities, with a mission to support students of all ability levels to higher levels of attainment and enthusiasm for further study. In 2017, our very first cohort of students (the original year group from 2012) sat their GCSEs. On average, 40% of our Sixth Form students go on to study at Russell Group universities. Our sponsorship by UCL enables our students to take advantage of the facilities and expertise of one of the world’s leading universities, whether through support of our curriculum development and learning ethos, or our programme of master-classes, seminars and summer schools given by UCL staff. Our staff can access UCL resources, and our students benefit from UCL student mentors and tutors. As a young school, we have been able to develop our curriculum and learning philosophy to incorporate better understanding of achieving education of the whole person. Working with our sponsor UCL, we have developed our Connected Curriculum, based on the premise that students learn best when they can make meaning and sense from their learning. To do this our students are required to connect their learning and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding at fixed points on the ‘learning cycle’.