Our Facilities

We are incredibly proud of our newly furbished dining hall and the quality and range of food we serve to our pupils, staff and visitors. We have a dedicated team of catering staff who do a fabulous job cooking and serving delicious, healthy food to over 1,300 pupils each day.

The dining hall was designed following consultation with pupils, who helped choose the layout, colours and furniture, creating a vibrant and relaxed atmosphere.

For more information about our catering and school meals, click here.

Pupils and staff at Northfield School are celebrating the success the ICT department’s recent results by further developing the school building to include outstanding, state of the art ICT facilities throughout to encourage innovative learning.

There are 120 computers in the ICT department and 200 available across the school to support pupils,  available Monday to Friday during lunch and after school, to assist them with homework, coursework or research.

Northfield School and the ICT department have invested into both hardware and software to make sure all the computers have the latest versions of industry standard software including Adobe Creative Cloud (Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Flash) and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access) as well as hardware to support learning including microphones, headphones, digital cameras and adjustable monitors to support Visually Impaired students.

Northfield School and Sports College was designated a specialist Training School in 2008 by the Training and Development Agency (TDA) for Schools. This accolade followed on from a review by the TDA which stated that Northfield demonstrated an ‘exceptional commitment to initial teacher training’.

Since then, Northfield has worked in partnership with Stockton Local Authority and the universities of Durham and Sunderland to deliver outstanding training to student teachers. Many of these trainees have subsequently been recruited by Northfield as full-time members of staff and this has had a very positive impact on the overall quality of teaching and learning within school. This enrichment of the teaching body was recognised as highly significant during the recent Ofsted inspection when it was shown that 31 outstanding new teachers had been recruited from our pool of trainees during the last 3 years.

Other aspects of our Training School work include the following:

• Funding and management of nationally recognised qualifications for aspiring leaders within school both at senior and middle leadership levels.
• Bursary awards for teaching and support staff in recognition of completed school improvement projects.
• Providing collaborative training opportunities for colleagues in schools within the Stockton Authority.
• Running G.C.S.E. classes in Mathematics and Science for support staff within Stockton Authority.
• Delivering courses within school for the enhancement of teaching and learning expertise and leadership skills. 
• Contributing to the management and development of teacher training for Stockton Local Authority and the universities of Durham and Sunderland.
• Taking the role of hub school for a new national pilot in online teacher training (e-learn ITT).

Although the Government has withdrawn funding for the Training School specialism nationally from March 2012, it is Northfield’s intention to carry on this invaluable work as it has delivered such a positive impact on both the school and the wider community. New initiatives to provide alternative funding routes will be applied for as they become available.

Northfield School has a purpose built Library and Resource Centre which was officially opened by author Anne Fine in March 2008.  The Library aims to support and promote pupils independent reading and learning. The Centre is open for pupils five days a week; break time, lunchtime, before and after school, as well as being used for a wide range of lessons throughout the day.

Every pupil automatically becomes a member of the Library and Resource Centre when they join Northfield. We just ask that books borrowed are cared for and returned on time. 

To learn more about what's on offer in our Library and Resource Centre, click here.