Clubs and Competitions

The school offers a wide range of activities outside the classroom which are carried out during lunchtimes or after school. All these pursuits help us to develop and broaden the child’s character and round off his or her education.

Inter-House Competitions

On admission students are allocated to one of four houses:

BORROW (Yellow)	19th Century British novelist who was born near Dereham.
COWPER (Green)	Famous British poet of the 18th Century who lived for a time in Dereham.
NELSON (Red)	Britain’s most illustrious Admiral, born and educated in Norfolk.
WALPOLE (Blue)	Britain’s first Prime Minister, a Norfolk landowner.

Inter-house competitions are held throughout the year in all sporting activities including Basketball, Hockey, Football, Netball, Swimming, Athletics, Tennis, Cricket and Rounders.

Silver Artsmark

The school holds the Silver Artsmark for the continuing high standards within the arts, both curricular and extra curricular.

Music

The Music Department has a thriving extra curricular programme led by a team of enthusiastic and specialist musicians. Every child who plays an instrument or has tuition in or outside the school is able to attend one of the many ensembles.

The Northgate High School Concert Band meet twice a week, during and after school and perform at many community events including the Royal Norfolk Show. Musicians from our feeder schools are invited to join our ensembles during our Junior schools' visits and any Ensembles Days running throughout the year.

Other weekly activities are String Group, Flute Ensemble, Jazz Band, Brass Group, Singing Club and Samba Band. Guitarists and drummers use the facilities to rehearse and compete in 'Battle of the Bands' competitions. Pupils are encouraged to audition for other cross curricular events that occur throughout the year including the school musical production and variety shows.

Other Clubs

The school has a large number of thriving clubs. We always welcome interest in these from parents as well as pupils. In addition to the numerous sports and music clubs, recent activities include:

•	Art Club and competitions
•	Board Games Club
•	Careers Library
•	Christian Union
•	Dance Club
•	Drama Club
•	Environment Club
•	Mathematics Challenge
•	Reading Club
•	School Drama Productions
•	Trampolining
•	Computer Graphics Club
•	Writers' Circle

Curriculum Enrichment Days

In July we hold our enrichment days which provide an extension to the curriculum. Departments work together on an exciting range of cross curricular themes.

Curriculum Activities

Throughout the year we offer a range of activities linked directly to the curriculum such as Year 7 Environment Day, working with visiting designers, artists and authors, Lower School RE and Geography visits, Art Gallery and Theatre visits.

Sporting Activities

SPORTSMARK Gold Award
In 2006 we were re-awarded the Sportsmark Gold Award by Sport England and the Department of National Heritage. This recognises the high quality of curricular and extra curricular sporting provision at Northgate, based on nationally recognised criteria. Having been awarded Sportsmark Awards in 1997, 2000 and the Gold Award in 2003, this award is a testimony to the continued high achievement and provision for pupils.

We are also a FA Charter Standard School.

Curriculum
We provide full coverage of the National Curriculum. In Years 10 and 11 GCSE full and short courses are available along with Sports Leadership courses.

Extra-Curricular Programme
We offer very good provision in sporting extra curricular activities with our pupils taking part in a wide range of school fixtures, competitions and tournaments. This year we hope to hold clubs for Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Cricket (Girls & Boys), Football (Girls & Boys), Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey (Girls & Boys), Netball, Rounders, Rugby, Trampolining and Tennis. Inter-House competitions in nine sports also provide many opportunities for pupils. We hold traditional Sports Days and Swimming Galas.

Community Involvement

We use:
•	Dereham Swimming Pool & Fitness Centre extensively
•	Dereham Golf Club for Year 10 Golf lessons through the Golf Foundation
•	Dereham Hockey Club
Clubs that use our facilities and with whom we have strong links:
•	Dereham Runners Club
•	Dereham Wanderers Football Club
•	Dereham Town Football Club

We have a School Sport Co-ordinator who works part of the week at Northgate in the PE department and for the rest of the time with some of our feeder schools. This job covers many aspects of school sport, promoting more involvement and offering greater opportunities for pupils in sport.

A new Floodlit Artificial Turf Pitch and suite of changing rooms is now fully operational following a substantial grant from the Football Foundation. This enables us to strengthen our community links with Dereham Wanderers and Dereham Town Football Clubs, develop links with other football clubs and host several Primary tournaments.

We have also seen the construction of three new tennis courts to further enhance our sports provision.

The 2006-07 sports season was another successful one with success for individuals and school teams:

•	In Football the Boys U16 team were runners up in the Area Cup Final and the U12 team won the South Norfolk League.
•	Our U13 Girls, U13 Boys and U15 Boys teams were Area Team Winners for Cross Country and the U15 and U17 Mixed Athletics teams were also Area Winners.
•	In Cricket the Boys U13, U14 and U15 Teams were all Runners Up in the Norwich League Play Off Finals.
•	A number of pupils represented Norfolk. Seven boys at Cricket; four pupils at Athletics and a number of participants in other sports.
•	The sporting highlight in 2007 was the success of Chris Baker and Danielle Nimmock at the English Schools Athletic Championships in July. Chris won the Intermediate High Jump and Danielle the Senior Girls 3000 metres. Two individual winners from the same school is a rare achievement at these National Championships.

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