Facilities at Northampton Academy
The sports hall: A state of the art, modern sports hall with wooden sprung floor. There is a full size basketball court with 6 additional rings around the outside of the hall. The hall allows for a wide range of activities to take place both during curricular time, extra curricular time and outside bookings. These include, badminton, sports hall athletics, martial arts, basketball, indoor football, trampolining, netball, fitness circuits, cricket, gymnastics, table tennis and volleyball.
The dance studio: The school is lucky enough to have a specially designated dance studio with a wooden floor and a wall of mirrors. The dance studio has an interactive whiteboard, desktop computer and links for laptops. It also has 15 top of the range dance mats that link to a large screen. The dance mats club is an extremely popular activity with pupils across the age ranges and is an invaluable tool for developing co-ordination skills whilst working out and having fun!
Gym: The school has a gym equipped with top of the range cardiovascular and resistance training machines. The resistance machines offer users the facility to conduct strength and power tests as well as being able to ensure exercises are being performed to maximise training benefits. The gym’s rowing machines are linked together electronically to allow races between pupils that are shown on one of the two plasma screen televisions on the wall. The gym is used by pupils during curriculum time for health related exercise and when not being used during the curriculum it is available for staff use.
The Rubber Crumb: A facility that the Academy is extremely fortunate to possess. This is a synthetic grass surface predominantly used for football, although it lends itself to rugby and many other sports normally played on grass surfaces. Due to the synthetic nature of the surface it makes it an all weather, all year round pitch and therefore highly practical. The rubber crumb is used during timetable P.E. lessons as well as being available to hire. It is used by local youth football sides as well as amateur adult clubs and occasionally even by the Northampton Saints.
Grid Squares: A full size football pitch size grass area divided into large grid squares, ideal for football/rugby training as well as providing an area for rounders, softball and ultimate Frisbee during the Summer months, this is a highly versatile facility utilised thoroughly by the P.E. department.
Top Field: This is a large open plan grassed area that holds a football and rugby pitch during the Winter months, whilst also providing an area for the mountain biking course. During the Summer it is converted into an athletics facility with a running track and room for many field events.
Woods/open ground: The woods and open ground to the rear of the school offer a variety of terrains and make use of the Academy’s natural obstacles and environment by providing an interesting orienteering area. There are 6 courses that have been designed and set by professionals that grade from easy to difficult, providing challenges across all year groups.
Low Ropes Course: A unique ropes course set in the wooded area of the grounds that provides a series of team building challenges that test pupils’ confidence and problem solving capabilities in a safe and controlled way. The Academy is unique within the town in being able to offer this facility onsite and the benefits to the pupils in terms of being offered a broad curriculum of activities is exceptional.
