Atkinson House School is a community day special school for 40 boys aged 11 to 16, Year 7 to Year 11, who exhibit severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Atkinson House School opened in September 2000 and is the first new special school to be opened in Northumberland for many years. The school has been established on the site of a former independent EBD residential school. It is situated in the south-east of Northumberland in Seghill with very easy access to the A1 and A19. On two sides the school has residential housing and on one side there is a small industrial estate. The existing building was significantly refurbished, almost being gutted, with an extension to the building so that all the accommodation is under one roof.

Accommodation

The building is, predominantly, two storey with a pitched roof. The building and site underwent a £1.25 million refurbishment prior to opening in September 2000. Atkinson House has been specifically designed with the needs of SEBD pupils and the Work Related Curriculum in mind. There are six class bases with specialist teaching bases for science, technology, food technology, art and ICT. There is a library area and a recreation area. PE facilities for both key stages will be split between the grounds, on site, and local leisure or mainstream school provision.

There is a staffroom, offices for the head teacher, deputy head teacher, office manager, KS 4 Manager as well as an office and small work area for the Curriculum Manager. We also have a medical room and two 1:1 counselling rooms, one on the ground floor which is used for re-active work and one on the second floor that is used for planned, pro-active work. On the first floor there is also a meetings room. There is sufficient storage room throughout the building.