Newfield Secondary School


Newfield Secondary School is a coeducational secondary school with academy status for 11-16-year-old children, situated in the south of the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, specifically in the Norton Lees area. It is co-located with Talbot Specialist School with which it has some collaborative arrangements. There are approximately just over 1000 students at the school. The current headteacher is Mrs E Anderson, who was originally appointed the post as co-headteacher with Mr D Webster, who later went on to be headteacher at Mercia School. in October 2015. In 2013 the school was sponsored to become an academy as part of its ongoing partnership with King Ecgbert School in Sheffield, with Lesley Bowes assuming the role of executive headteacher.

Physical aspects of the school

The school has its own private drive from Lees Hall Road which leads on to a shared grounds with Talbot Specialist School and the Sheffield South City Learning Centre. The school is contained in a single building, attached on one side to the Talbot building. To the right of the main building are the sports facilities, including a large field, astroturf and tennis courts.

New build

The school's rebuild, begun in summer 2007 and completed in January 2009, brought new facilities so that the school, including a recording room, a gym with seats for spectators and astroturf football pitches. A new purpose-built specialist school, The Talbot specialist school, was also constructed as part of the rebuild; it is located on the lower field.

Academic performance

The percentage of students achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE level was 55% in 2011; 99% passed five or more GCSEs at any grade, and 100% of all pupils achieved at least one qualification.
When specifically including English and maths GCSEs, the percentage of students achieving five or more GCSEs at A*–C grade was 35% in 2011. This compares with 49.4% for all secondary schools in the Sheffield local authority area, and 58.9% for England as a whole.

Pupil demographics

Newfield is a broadly average sized secondary school. The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is in line with the national average. The proportion of students identified as having special educational needs and/or disabilities is above average, although the proportion with a statement of special educational needs is below the national average. The large majority of students are of White British heritage. The proportion of students from minority ethnic heritages is below average, and the proportion that speaks English as an additional language is well below average.
Overall pupil absence was reported as 8.9% in 2011, compared to a national average of 6.5%. Unauthorised absence was 5.7%.

Notable former pupils

In 2008 an Ofsted inspection report graded Newfield overall as Grade 4, resulting in special measures status being applied. Over the following two years, progress was made culminating in the special measures status being removed and the school being judged to be Grade 3 in the 2010 inspection. In the most recent inspection, conducted in May 2017, the school received an inspection rating of 'good'.