All Saints Academy (formerly The Northfields Technology College) is a

co-ed Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

secondary school located in

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. All Saints educates 11- to 16-year-olds, as well as mainly from the town of Dunstable and some surrounding villages. In addition, the school offers

further education Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

for 16- to 18-year-olds through its

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

department.

History

The school was launched under the direction of Frank Underwood on 14 January 1936, with 336 students. It was then known as Northfields Senior Elementary School. As a consequence of the

Education Act 1944 The Education Act 1944 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 31) made major changes in the provision and governance of secondary schools in England and Wales. It is also known as the Butler Act after the President of the Board of Education, R. A. Butler. Histori ...

, Northfields then became a

secondary modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...

. Following the 1967

Plowden Report The Plowden Report is the unofficial name for the 1967 report of the Central Advisory Council For Education (England) into primary education in England. The report, entitled ''Children and their Primary Schools'', reviewed primary education in ...

, Bedfordshire LEA decided to implement the

three-tier education Three-tier education refers to those structures of schooling, which exist in some parts of England, where pupils are taught in three distinct school types as they progress through the education system. Terminology In a three-tier local educa ...

system of lower, middle and upper schools in the county. By the end of the 1970s, Northfields was redesignated as a comprehensive

upper school Upper schools in the UK are usually schools within secondary education. Outside England, the term normally refers to a section of a larger school. England The three-tier model Upper schools are a type of secondary school found in a minority ...

. The school was among the first to operate a farm on site, with children looking after the animals, under Mr Jones (Science teacher) advice. There was a barn for caged chickens, calves & food stock. In outside pens were pigs, cows & chickens, eggs were collected & either hatched in an incubator in the technicians room or sold, the pigs & cows went through a full life cycle before entering the food chain. A part of the farm was given over to crops and farming methods. The farm lost importance in the early-1970s when part of the land was taken for the new sports hall & Mr Jones left, as a result the farm lost its viability. Head Master at the time was Mr David Fone, Deputy Head Mrs Baines. In the early 1980s under David Fone, the school took part in an experiment to promote the use of computers in schools and as a result received special funding which paid for BBC Model B computers in almost every classroom and every subject. The computers were linked by an early form of network. Some homework was done on computer and saved on network directories. There was also an attempt to fully computerise the school records. As a result of this David Fone received an OBE in 1989. The school went through a period of decline, and was put into

special measures Special measures is a status applied by regulators of public services in Britain to providers who fall short of acceptable standards. In education (England and Wales) Ofsted, the schools inspection agency for England and some British Overseas Ter ...

in the early 2000s. However the school improved, and was renamed The Northfields Technology College after the school gained specialist status as a

technology college In the United Kingdom, a Technology College is a specialist school that specialises in design and technology, mathematics and science. Beginning in 1994, they were the first specialist schools that were not CTC colleges. In 2008, there were 598 ...

. The Northfields Technology College closed on 31 August 2009. It reopened the next day as the new All Saints

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. The school now specialises in Science and Business, and relocated to a new multi-million pound purpose-built school on the same site in 2012. All Saints is sponsored by the St Albans Diocese of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and the

University of Bedfordshire The University of Bedfordshire is a Public university, public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The university has roots in further and higher education from 1882: it gained university status in 19 ...

Manshead CE Academy Manshead CE Academy is a mixed Church of England secondary academy and sixth form located on the outskirts of both Caddington and Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. The academy (surrounded by countryside and hills) is a member of the Diocese ...

in Dunstable is also sponsored by the Church of England, and objections were made at the time about possible religious influences on education in Dunstable as a whole ( Queensbury Academy is the only secondary school not be linked to the Church in Dunstable). In 2014 the school started to admit pupils from the age of 11, becoming a secondary school. In 2015 the academy received an Inadequate

Ofsted The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted's role is to make sure that organisations providing education, training ...

rating and has been placed in

. The principal, Tom Waterworth resigned and Mrs Furber has taken over management of the school. More recently, in 2023, the school received another inadequate rating from Ofsted. In 2024, Ofsted recognised substantial progress in all areas, however the quality of education still 'requires improvement'.https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50263686

Notable former pupils

Faye Tozer Faye Louise Tozer Smith (born 14 November 1975) is an English singer and actress, best known as a member of the pop group Steps. Career Music Steps are a pop group that have had a series of charted singles between 1997 and 2020. Their name ...

, a theatre actress and singer who first gained fame as a member of the pop group Steps

References

External links

All Saints Academy homepage
{{authority control Secondary schools in Central Bedfordshire District Educational institutions established in 1936 1936 establishments in England Church of England secondary schools in the Diocese of St Albans Academies in Central Bedfordshire District