Learning Across Levels
A secondary school shaped by its landscape, Callerton Academy rises across a series of shifting levels, using a challenging site to create a distinctive learning environment where community and responsible design come together.
Overview
Callerton Academy is a new 1,200-place secondary school for Gosforth Academies Trust, delivered with the Department for Education and Morgan Sindall on the former Simonside Primary site in Westerhope. Positioned between established neighbourhoods and the open edge of Westerhope Golf Course, the school occupies a tightly constrained plot defined by a nine-metre fall across four plateaus. The design responds directly to this topography, creating a stepped building that settles into the landscape while maximising the site's natural character. The result is a net-zero-carbon-in-operation school with a strong presence on Bedeburn Road, organised around an activity core that brings together dining, drama, and assembly to support both school life and wider community use.
- Year 2025
- Location Newcastle Upon Tyne
- Client Department for Education
- Project Sectors Education
Design Approach
The project began with a DfE control option that established baseline adjacencies and site organisation. Through detailed testing, SPACE developed this into a more resilient proposal, refining massing, circulation, daylighting, safeguarding and spatial relationships while responding to the steep site gradient and existing underground services. The result is a compact, three-storey superblock that maximises site area and playing fields, places specialist spaces where they work hardest, and steps down towards the residential boundary to reduce visual impact. Internal flow centres on a triple-height dining and performance space, anchored between teaching wings and opening onto external terraces. A dedicated community entrance allows sports facilities to operate independently, strengthening the school’s civic role. Sustainability is embedded from the outset, with a bio-solar green roof strategy supporting biodiversity, insulation, and renewable energy generation, enabling the building to meet the DfE’s net-zero-in-operation requirements.
Result
Callerton Academy now serves Westerhope as a future-focused, low-energy secondary school designed for both learning and community life. Delivered to the S21 DFE Framework, the building reflects the strength of collaboration between SPACE, Morgan Sindall, TGA, WSP, One Environments, DPP and OFR. The design provides a calm, intuitive environment that supports well-being, academic ambition and extracurricular activity. Beyond the school day, it serves as a major community asset, with accessible sports facilities and a welcoming presence on Bedeburn Road.
“There’s no better moment than seeing students make a new building their own. Callerton is a real testament to what a committed team can achieve together.”
Paul Broadfoot
Director at SPACE Architects
People
The school feels intuitive and supportive from day oneCallerton Academy is the outcome of a collective team effort. The design process drew on extensive stakeholder engagement, responding to Trust priorities, safeguarding requirements, site constraints and aspirations for genuine community integration. The project team worked closely with statutory authorities and neighbouring schools, coordinating construction logistics and access arrangements across the shared Bedeburn Road frontage. The school’s interior is shaped around flexible teaching spaces, a central activity core and well-lit circulation routes, reflecting SPACE’s established design principles.
The building's end users, students, staff, and the wider community, have remained at the forefront of every decision. The design team prioritised creating spaces that respond to how young people learn, move, and socialise, ensuring the school feels intuitive and supportive from day one. This collaborative approach has resulted in a building designed not just for today's cohort but as a lasting educational and community resource that will benefit generations for decades to come.
Planet
A constellation of passive and active environmental measuresThe project achieves net-zero carbon in operation through a combination of passive measures, natural ventilation, and a robust thermal envelope. Bio-solar green roofs integrate habitat, weather protection, and on-site renewable generation into a single system. Retained hedgerows support local biodiversity, particularly the sparrow populations identified in the ecological surveys. The building’s massing responds to solar orientation and reduces the risk of overheating, while the stepped form minimises ground disturbance across the sloping 5.4-hectare site. SPACE’s digital carbon assessment processes supported early design decisions, aligning the building with DfE carbon performance requirements and contributing to long-term operational efficiency.
Place
Settling sensitively into the graduated levels of the siteSet within a residential neighbourhood, the school is carefully composed to respect its northern boundary, reducing perceived overlooking and settling sensitively into the graduated levels of the site. The southern and western edges open towards expansive green views across Westerhope Golf Course, giving students a strong visual connection to the landscape. Entrances are clear and safe, balancing primary school traffic with the new secondary movement patterns along Bedeburn Road. A dedicated community entrance enables evening and weekend access to sports facilities without compromising safety. The outdoor environment includes courts, playing fields and social terraces shaped by the natural slope, creating a campus grounded in its place and closely linked to the community it serves.
Credits
- Design Team Apex Acoustics, DPP, OFR Consultants, One Environments, SPACE, TGA, WSP
- End User Gosforth Academies Trust
- Contractor Morgan Sindall
- Technical Advisor Mace
- Photography Andrew Hepinstall
