We educate by setting the daily example of our own adherence to the School's values (commitment, justice, solidarity, honesty, respect, perseverance, responsibility and integrity) and to a programme that specifies the axes on which the personal and social development of our students is based: Awareness of Oneself, Responsibility for Oneself, Awareness of Others, Capacity for Reflection, Capacity to Deal with Change, Attitude of a "Life Long Learner", Capacity to Communicate, Sense of Moral Justice and Sense of Social Responsibility.

Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)*
An International programme that develops essential educational skills including recall of knowledge, oral skills, problem solving, initiative, team work and investigative skills. It is recognized as the equivalent to the last two years of compulsory education in Great Britain.

IBO Diploma Programme*
A challenging and stimulating curriculum that is widely recognized by the world's leading universities. It develops in students the ability to learn how to learn, a strong sense of their own identity and culture, and the ability to communicate with and understand people from other countries and cultures.
*Compulsory programmes for all NORTHLANDS students.

Northlands has a team of professional educational psychologists who assist the students in their academic, social and personal development.

We believe the practice of physical and sports activities to be an essential part of our students' education. Sports are introduced at an early stage with the objective of developing a sporting attitude in students, instilling fair play, respect, effort and commitment. We take part in national and international interschool events that promote team spirit and healthy competition, as a way of encouraging and celebrating the skills in each sport.

Through the development of critical thought and constructivist teaching, the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Department has the following objective: to form individuals who use technology as a tool to increase their creativity in the development of new tasks, a pragmatic approach to carry out their projects and improve their productivity, so that they can integrate into the society to which they belong. The use of ICT resources provides highly enriching, dynamic and updated tools to support teaching and learning, while it prepares young people to work in a globalised world which poses great demands where technology is concerned.

Northlands pioneered the incorporation of Design as a subject in its curriculum.

Nowadays, culture, science and technology interact all the time and build common spaces. Our children should be capable of integrating into these spaces with a critical and analytic approach, while generating new languages and forms, developing creativity and challenging the old models with the constant creation of new ideas that contribute to the general well-being.

The students from Year 7 to Year 12 are trained in the use of break-through programmes and they themselves propose goals and challenges to improve the final production of their graphic, multimedia and industrial design projects.

Instruments at secondary level
At this stage, in which the study of each instrument has been consolidated, the students are given teaching oriented to public performance. Instrumental education continues to be compulsory during Years 7 and 8 and becomes optional as from Year 9. As from Year 10, only those students who have chosen to sit for IGCSE Music examinations continue to receive instrumental instruction.

Drama is taught as a human enriching experience that involves physical, emotional and intellectual work as well as a good command of the English Language. The objectives of Drama teaching are:

• Teaching students how to create “reality” on stage using imagination
• Making students aware of the importance of impressions/expressions in the context of a theatrical game.
• Initiate students into the discipline of the performing arts from different theatre practices and traditions.
• Train the students to be aware of their physical and emotional life as tools to give life to their characters on stage.
• Practice the use of the English language.

The teaching method used is very eclectic in terms of using many different approaches (Stanislavsky, Strasberg, Clown, etc) but always trying to create living theatre.

The Department's aim is to promote the student's initiative and original approach. This means that students are free to develop their own ideas on any given subject or technique, with a close follow-up by the teacher, who will back up the development of the skills required to handle the chosen media.
Creativity is at the heart of the arts. It allows for innovations, research, analysis and transference. Learning through the arts has a positive influence on self- esteem and creative development, which needs to carry over to all aspects of learning. Valuing imagination and celebrating original thinking promotes initiative and a lifelong love of learning.
Students develop confidence while they acquire the ability to draw, recognise the use of drawing as a means that enables them to communicate information, to express ideas and to analyse things they have seen. They develop concentration, self-reliance and the confidence to take risks when creating their own work and the ability to choose appropriate materials and techniques for particular purposes.
Students as from Year 9 start work in accordance with the requirements of the international examinations, developing their projects in sketchbooks in the same format as is required by the IGCSE and IB programmes. We hold the principle that learning about works of art from a variety of cultures, past and present, is a way of enriching creativity and knowledge.

Upon entering Primary, each student is assigned to a House to which he or she will belong throughout his or her entire school life. Houses are inherited (children of Old Northlanders keep the House of their family member) or assigned by even distribution of the number of members. Students from the different levels at School interact within each House, a fact that allows them a growing range of friends as well as the possibility to develop and take on leadership roles.

Interhouse competitions include general knowledge, departmental events, community service, sports and drama, all of which, in addition to academic performance, add points for each House. Points are added at the end of the year and the House with the most points wins and has its name engraved on a shield.