Ranking Full Stop
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I have been writing for the Friday Bulletin for 15 months now and recently uploaded a large number of those short articles onto the new school website. I hadn’t expected any themes to emerge, other than the obvious references to different aspects of school life. However, a theme does emerge when…
Love hasn't got the world in motion
I got home from school on Tuesday and chose to post a number of things online. Ongoing issues regarding Brexit provoked my first tweet. I had watched an interview on the news with a member of the Cabinet, who was criticising John Bercow’s actions on a third meaningful vote. I found the MPs…
Engage the World, Change the World and the Prevalence of Twits
“Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.”
There is a whole industry dedicated to training and ‘developing’ newly appointed Headteachers. There are also a range of educational issues that you are compelled to have some form of opinion on, even if you feel…
Everything Changes and Nothing Changes
Jimmy Sime took the above photograph at the Harrow V. Eton annual cricket match in 1937. If you have seen it before, it was probably being used as form of symbolic short hand for Britain’s long standing issues regarding social class. I have read articles that use the image on subjects relating to…
Is it ethical to laugh at another man’s mule?
I’ve learned a lot from Clint Eastwood. For example, how hard it is to keep track of the bullets that you may have fired when in a comparatively stressful situation. Never to laugh at someone’s mule. Why Harry Callaghan is known as ‘Dirty Harry.’ If I want to play the game, then I need to know the…
Merry Christmas & Yippee Ki Yay.
Clarence the Angel: “Remember George, no man is a failure who has friends.”
‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ is a film that everyone should watch at least once and, if you haven’t had the opportunity, it is being shown over Christmas at both the Gala in Durham and the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle…
8 For 43
Above are a series of images of sportsmen (note the lack of women*) who loomed large in my early years and made the most of their ability. Alex Higgins winning the UK Snooker Championship and asking for ‘his baby.’ Daley Thompson winning his first Olympic gold medal in Moscow. John Lowe holding…
Fáilte chuig an teachtaireacht Dé hAoine!
Fáilte chuig an teachtaireacht Dé hAoine!
We’ve been fortunate that for most of November the weather has been breacaimsir, but when walking into school this week my clothes have been aimliú on a daily basis. If on the off chance you hail from the West Coast of Ireland or Scotland you might…
What do the following numbers have to do with the Great War, County Durham and Durham Johnston?
888,246? 10.58 a.m.? 20%? 7.69%? 1 out of 466? 37 and 2 out of 3?
The above question has been central to our remembrance assemblies this week. The scale of the Great War can often be slightly overwhelming for students. The scale is difficult to grasp and the above numbers have helped to…
The Death of Marat
At half-term I was approached by a former student. We discussed what he was doing now and the time that had passed since he left Durham Johnston; he was a student between 2007 and 2014. As the conversation drew to a close, he said: “By the way Sir, I do still remember. He was in the bath because…
“Nothing is here for tears, nothing but fair and well, and what may quiet us in death so noble.” Milton
On Friday 9th November 2018 we will commemorate those who lost their lives in the conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries by observing one minute of silence at 11.00 a.m. The last post will be sounded in the Atrium at 11.00 a.m. and reveille will signal that the minute has passed at 11.01 a.m.…
Curriculum Versus Progress and Should We Be Happy With 95%?
We have had an excellent start to the new school year. We have welcomed Year 7 students from 37 different primary schools and Year 12 students from 18 different secondary schools. The majority of our Year 11 students have also made the step up to A level study at the school. They have settled in…