Northwood School

Northwood is consistently recognised as one of the top public boys’ schools in KwaZulu-Natal based on the matric results, a testament to academics remaining the primary focus of the school. The rich and varied academic programme offers a general formative education while at the same time emphasising the personal development of every learner in small classes.

All classrooms are equipped with either smart boards or data projectors, as well as being extensively covered by the school’s protected wifi network. There are a number of specialist classrooms including dedicated science labs, music room, art rooms and multi-purpose audio visual rooms. In Grades eight and nine, the average number in each class is twenty-seven in the accelerated classes and twenty-five in the mixed ability classes. In Grades ten to twelve, class size ranges between twenty and twenty-eight, depending on the subject and the subject sets. The school gym came about as a result of Northwood’s involvement with the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Northwood was the training venue for Greece, who, sadly, made an early exit from the competition.

Academics at Northwood is systematic and individualised, yet dynamic in its approach with a blended learning focus. This gives learners the opportunity to use Tablet devices within the classroom and make use of the many educational applications available to us. As a school, Information Technology integration is key, and we have therefore made extensive use of the D6 School Communicator not only as a notice board but as a tool for both learners and parents, supplying homework on a daily basis as well as extension work and past papers. Google classroom is extensively used within the school and gives learners access to fantastic online content and worksheets that can be supplemented by spot tests and quizzes. Google classroom also provides learners with the ability to ask peers and their teacher’s, questions regarding homework or tests, without having to be at school.

An in-depth Programme of Assessment (POA) is published each term stipulating the dates of all formal tasks and tests that are to be written that term. A unique system of setting individualised target marks for each learner in each subject allows us the opportunity for positive reinforcement at Northwood. If this target mark is reached in each Control Test, the learner has the privilege of leaving school at 13:30 on a Friday afternoon as opposed to having to attend a “reinforcement lesson” for an extra hour on a Friday. The extensive use of SMS messages allows parents to be able to remain close to their son’s academics, with messages sent to all learners achieving 80% or above for congratulations, as well as messages regarding learners that have not reached their target mark or for those that have failed to hand in an assessment.

Northwood traces its origins back to the founding of the co-educational Durban North High School on the site of the present Northlands Girls’ High in September 1949. It started with 12 staff members and 215 pupils under Headmaster, Mr George J. Armstrong. By 1951, numbers had grown so rapidly that it was decided to build a second high school in Durban North, and split the existing school into a boys’ school and a girls’ school.

On 30 September 1953, the boys marched out of the gates of the old campus to the present Northwood campus in Kensington Drive. Northlands Boys’ High School opened with 338 boys and 17 staff members, under Mr Percy Hardaker (1953 – 1962) and thereafter Mr Mc Farquar (1963 – 1774) It made rapid progress in both academics and sport, and numbers continued to grow, requiring the building of yet another boys’ school in the area.

Situated in the leafy suburb of Durban North, Northwood’s large campus boasts sweeping views of the Indian Ocean from many of its state-of-the-art classrooms and computer, science and technology laboratories. The school also takes pride in its world-class sporting facilities which include a flood-lit Hockey Astroturf, indoor cricket academy, heated aquatic facility, fully-equipped gymnasium, Sports Medicine Centre, as well as extensive rugby, cricket and soccer fields and tennis and basketball courts.