Artificial pitches
The college’s rubber crumb artificial pitch – specifically designed to accommodate both football and rugby – was the first third-generation pitch to be developed in the county and is sanctioned by the Football Association for tournament match play. This means less fixtures have to be cancelled and the quality of the natural grass surfaces can be more easily maintained.
The 93 x 97-metre pitch can be set out as two 7-a-side or four 5-a-side pitches, is home to the Intersoccer small-sided football leagues, several football clubs and is used for the FA’s coaching and various college academic programmes.
A floodlit, full-size sand artificial pitch for hockey and football has been added, which can be divided into thirds and is used for training and matches by several teams from both sports.
Our floodlit, water-based hockey pitch at Pitsford offers a carpet surface that utilises water cannons to wet the playing area prior to play in order to reduce ball friction and enhance speed. The pitch is used by a number of local and regional teams, as well as the England Hockey team for training and development.
Classrooms
All classrooms at the college are fitted out with modern and specialist equipment related to the area of study. They are also regularly upgraded to ensure they remain state of the art and provide inspirational places to learn and grow your knowledge.
Cricket Facilities
A range of indoor cricket nets were developed in 2011 to support the Cricket Academy players, who also undertake coaching work at the Northamptonshire County Cricket ground under the instruction of the club’s professional coaching team.
Fitness Suite
Our fully air conditioned fitness suite and studio contains 17 stations with cardio and resistance machines, free weights and a stretching area. It is also home to DanceScene, a dance school offering lessons in a variety of disciplines and the venue for our regular spinning classes.
Trained fitness instructors and personal trainers are on hand to help you achieve your goals, while full-time sports students and those living in halls of residence are offered membership as part of their course or residency. Membership is offered at competitive rates to other students and staff at the college.
Golf Facilities
To support the establishment of our Golf Academy a multi-bay driving range was built in 2010, which allows players to develop their skills and work closely with PGA professionals.
A state-of-the-art golf simulator has been developed at the John Ashby Sports Hall, which offers players access to over 50 of the world’s best courses, while close links with a number of local golf courses and golf professionals means students can regularly develop their game on the real thing.
Hard Courts
The college has six floodlit all-weather courts, which can be set up for tennis, netball and football.
The courts are used by a number of local clubs for training and matches and by community organisations, while the tennis courts are available during the summer on a pay-as-you-play basis to members, staff, students and the public.
IT Facilities
Significant investment has been made in I.T. facilities over recent years, teaching is enhanced with IT in the majority of classrooms and a number of I.T. Suites operate throughout the different campuses utilising a mixture of PC’s, Laptops and Netbooks. A cutting edge Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) system means that Students at all sites receive a consistent IT experience.
Fast WiFi networks cover the majority of the campus, and students are enabled to bring their own devices for use during informal study periods.
We run Microsoft Windows and Office 2010 with a range of specialist software to support each curriculum area. Each student is provided with a College email address and a home area to store their files alongside this 24/7 access from home is available to the College’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) where lesson notes, interactive study aids, and videos support and reinforce teaching from both the classroom and practical sessions.
John Ashby Sports Centre
Opened in 2000, this multi-purpose sports hall is used extensively for teaching purposes and is also available to hire commercially out of college hours. Clients that use the facility include Northampton Town FC, Kettering Town FC, Northampton Saints Rugby Club, Northampton Fencing Club and a number of other sports teams.
Sports catered for include badminton, basketball, volleyball, archery, fencing and karate, with all the associated equipment needed, while the hall is also used to host conferences and the annual college awards ceremony.
Learning Resource Centres
The college has learning resource centres at the main Moulton site, and the East Northants vocational skills academy. The Moulton LRC provides access for 240 people, including a designated IT area for our higher education students.
Each learning resource centre offers a range of services such as libraries, careers advice, learning support and study spaces, as well as access to resources including books, journals, newspapers, trade literature, online resources and DVDs.
Each centre also has a computer suite that provides access to network drives, the internet and Moodle, as well as hardware such as printers, copiers and scanners. Specialist software includes AutoCAD and packages for horse management, farm management, garden design, accounting, statistics and mind mapping.
For anyone requiring additional support, the learning resource centres at Moulton and at the vocational skills academies offer learning support, where needs can be discussed and arrangements put in place.
Outdoors Adventure
Outdoor Adventure courses at Moulton take advantage of both on site facilities and local venues to privide high quality practical experiences for students studying outdoor adventure courses. The college has a climbing wall, mountain bikes and canoeing and kayaking equipment housed at the Nene WWC with access to the River Nene and the artificial whitewater course. Local facilities such as Pitsford Reservoir and The Snozone at Milton Keynes are used for sailing and skiing respectively.
Pitsford Sports Centre
Opened in 2007, this indoor sports arena with both indoor and outdoor changing areas provides a comprehensive range of facilities.
The centre is home to a climbing wall, the 40 x 20-metre playing area has a specialist free weights facility used by the college academies and various professional clubs, while futsal, netball and fencing are well established activities. In fact, the centre has been used by the England futsal and hockey squads as a training base and is home to the Great Britain Para Fencing team, who host many of their training camps on site.
The Sports Centre is open seven days a week throughout the year and used by both students and a number of local sports clubs and associations.
Sports Pitches
The Holcot site includes two full-size football pitches, one rugby pitch and three training areas, all of which are used by our students at the football and rugby academies.
They are also used by Northampton Town FC as training facilities and are home to Moulton Fields FC, a community club with 15 teams in all age groups.
The pitches at our Pitsford site were opened in 2007/08, include two football pitches and one floodlit rugby pitch, and are used by our academies and Northampton Town FC’s Centre of Excellence and youth squads.
Swimming Pool
Opened in 2012 as part of the unique Chris Moody Sports Injury and Rehabilitation Centre, our 25-metre pool has a moveable floor and is used for teaching purposes with our 750 full-time sports students.
It is also used recreationally by other students and staff, and available for use by the community, including local schools, clubs and other organisations.