Amble's secondary opened on 23 September in a £35.5m building with 567 pupils on roll. The James Calvert Spence name has gone, and so has the middle school.
Pupils walked into a new secondary school in Amble on Wednesday 23 September. It is called Coquet Community School, and until that morning it was James Calvert Spence College.
The building cost £35.5m and sits on the college’s existing Acklington Road site. Kier built it in 18 months, from a groundbreaking ceremony on 19 March 2025, to a design by Ryder Architecture. The council says it is net zero carbon in operation (Northumberland County Council).
It is the largest single piece of a £47m programme across the Coquet Partnership of schools, and the moment that programme finishes. The three-tier system that Amble ran for decades has gone with it.
What the new school contains
The council lists the following in the new building (Northumberland County Council):
- classrooms, science facilities and workshops
- a dance studio, music rooms and a library
- a dining area and sixth form provision
- artificial and natural grass pitches, MUGAs and a sports hall
The sports facilities are to be available to the community as well as to pupils. The council has not published booking arrangements or charges for community use.
Audrey Kingham, Executive Director for Children’s Services at the council, said: “We’re delighted to have delivered yet another new school in the county. It’s a fantastic facility and we know the pupils and staff are going to thrive there.”
James Andriot, the headteacher, said staff were “blown away by the superb new building” and that the new facilities “will transform education for the secondary age children in this community”.
The school is half full, and that is by design
The Department for Education’s school register now records the school under its new name. It is a community school, mixed, with a sixth form, and its age range is 11 to 19. Capacity is 1,049. There are 567 pupils on roll, and 171 of them, 33.8%, are eligible for free school meals (Get Information About Schools, URN 122363).
A new school at 54% of its recorded capacity looks like an error. It is not. The capacity figure belongs to a school that used to take four extra year groups.
Until 2024, James Calvert Spence College was a 9 to 18 school spread across two Amble sites. Northumberland County Council’s Cabinet decided on 17 November 2022 to break that up. Its decision, taken under the Education and Inspections Act 2006 after a four-week statutory consultation that closed on 20 October 2022, was to (Cabinet report, 17 November 2022):
- extend Amble First School from 4 to 9 to 4 to 11, and move it to part of the South Avenue site
- extend Amble Links First School from 2 to 9 to 2 to 11, and expand its building
- extend Broomhill First School and Red Row First School from 3 to 9 to 3 to 11, and expand both buildings
- extend Grange View Church of England Voluntary Controlled First School from 3 to 9 to 3 to 11
- reduce James Calvert Spence College from 9 to 18 to an 11 to 18 secondary school
The first four changes took effect on 1 September 2024. The change to the college took effect on 1 September 2025. All of them were made conditional on planning permission being granted by 31 August 2024 for the building works.
Nine representations were received during the statutory consultation. Seven came from governing bodies of schools in the Coquet Partnership, one from the governing body of Barndale House School and one from the Newcastle Diocesan Education Board. None came from a parent.
Where the rest of the £47m went
The old South Avenue building, which was the middle school until it closed on 31 May 2016 (Get Information About Schools, URN 122349), was refurbished rather than demolished. It now holds two schools.
King Edwin Primary School is the former Amble First School, renamed and relocated. The register gives its address as South Avenue, its age range as 2 to 11, its capacity as 210 and its roll as 161, with 41 pupils, 25.5%, eligible for free school meals. Its headteacher is Lizzie Jackson (Get Information About Schools, URN 122174).
Sharing the site is Barndale-by-the-Sea, a satellite of Barndale House School in Alnwick. The council’s statutory proposal, published on 22 September 2022, set out the terms plainly: the planned number of places at Barndale House School would rise from 60 to 110, the extra 50 coming from the Amble satellite, for pupils whose primary need is autistic spectrum disorder, social, emotional and mental health, speech, language and communication needs, or moderate learning difficulties (Northumberland County Council statutory proposal).
That is the part of the programme most easily missed. Fifty specialist places in Amble mean fifty children who no longer travel to Alnwick or further for school.
What it means for you
If your child is at the school, the address has not changed: Acklington Road, Amble, NE65 0NG. The telephone number, 01665 710636, has not changed either. The school’s own website was still carrying the James Calvert Spence College name on 24 September, so expect letters and logins to catch up over the next few weeks.
If you have a child due to start secondary school, Amble now runs on a straightforward primary-to-secondary pattern. Children move at 11, from one of the five partnership primaries, rather than at 9 into a middle-school year.
If you want to use the sports facilities, the pitches, MUGAs and sports hall are meant to be available to the community. Nothing has been published yet about how to book them. The school’s enquiries address is enquiries@ccsamble.co.uk.
If you are driving to Amble this week, check our Northumberland roadworks and travel page first. The A1 is restricted to 40mph around the clock on both sides of Morpeth into December.
Sources
- Northumberland County Council: Doors open on a new era of education in Amble, 23 September 2026, for the opening date, the £47m programme, the 18-month build, Kier, the net zero carbon design, the facilities list and the quotations.
- Northumberland County Council: Milestone reached as contractor confirmed for Amble school, 11 March 2025, for the £35.5m figure for the secondary school itself, Ryder Architecture as designer, and the split of the wider programme.
- Northumberland County Council: Groundbreaking takes place for new Amble school, 19 March 2025, for the start of construction.
- Northumberland County Council Cabinet, 17 November 2022: Outcomes of statutory consultation on proposals for the Coquet Partnership, for the decision, the age range changes and their dates, the planning condition, and the nine representations and who sent them.
- Northumberland County Council: statutory proposals for Barndale House School, published 22 September 2022, for the rise from 60 to 110 planned places, the 50-place satellite at South Avenue and the types of need it serves.
- Get Information About Schools: Coquet Community School, URN 122363 for the new name, the 11 to 19 age range, capacity 1,049, 567 pupils, 171 free school meal pupils at 33.8%, the headteacher and the contact details.
- Get Information About Schools: King Edwin Primary School, URN 122174 for the South Avenue address, the 2 to 11 age range, capacity 210, 161 pupils and 25.5% free school meals.
- Get Information About Schools: James Calvert Spence College, South Avenue, URN 122349 for the middle school site closing on 31 May 2016 as the result of an amalgamation.
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