15 February 2019
Dates for your Diary – Spring Term 2019
- Spring Half Term week, Monday 18 to Friday 22 February 2019 (term ends on Friday 15 February and resumes on Monday 25 February)
- Year 9 Options Information Evening for parents/carers and pupils, Monday 4 March 3.30 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
- Year 10 Parents’ Consultation Evening, Monday 11 March 3.30 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
- Year 9 Parents’ Consultation Evening, Monday 25 March 3.30 p.m. – 6.00 p.m.
- Spring Half Term week, Monday 18 to Friday 22 February 2019 (term ends on Friday 15 February and resumes on Monday 25 February)
- Easter holidays – Monday 8 April to Monday 22 April 2019 (terms ends on Friday 5th April and resumes on Tuesday 23 April – 2 weeks and 1 day)
Year 7 Chinese New Year Celebrations
To read the full article please click here.
Drama Notice
KS3 Drama Performance - Greek Tales
Congratulations to all performers and technicians for an enthusiastic and organised showcase last night. Many thanks to family and friends for your great support.
Technical Theatre Club resumes straight after half term on Tuesday 26th February.
Drama Club resumes on Thursday 28 February. Both clubs are open for new members.
Ms Ayrey, Subject Leader of Drama.
European Parliament Visit
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Music Notices
North East Festival of Youth Choirs
Chamber Choir performed in Durham Cathedral last Saturday evening along with other youth choirs from across the North East. They sang ‘The Tailor and the Mouse’ a rather fun setting of an English folk song by Grayston Ives, and American composer Eric Whitacre’s haunting and evocative ‘Seal Lullaby’. They also joined in a massed performance (over 430 singers) of the opening movement of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’.
Dates for next half term
Chamber Choir Evensong
Monday 25th February, Durham Cathedral at 17.15. Chamber Choir
Tickets not required. Please aim to be seated by 17.05.
North East Big Band Festival
Saturday 3rd March – Timing 11.00 – 15.00 – Big Band (AKA Johnston Stompers!) More specific timings will be available nearer the time.
School Spring Concerts
Thursday 21st March, James Hall at 18.30 and 19.30 – all school ensembles and selected soloists to perform.
First Half (6.30pm) to include Wind Band, Junior Orchestra, Junior Choir and selected soloists.
Second Half (7.30pm) to include the Johnston Stompers, Senior Choir, Senior Orchestra, Chamber Choir and selected soloists.
Tickets for each part of this concert may be purchased from the Music Department. To ensure that as many parents, relatives and friends as possible can attend this event, we would encourage you to purchase tickets only for the half in which your child is performing. There will be some pupils who are performing in both halves, in which case audience members will need to purchase tickets for both parts of the concert. Please note that pupils who have siblings in the other half will be able to attend that half of the concert without a ticket.
We shall ask everyone who does not have a ticket for the second half to vacate the hall at the end of the first half and then, those with tickets for the second half will be admitted in time for the second half to start at about 7.30pm. Tickets will be £3 (or £2 concessions) for each half and please note that these will not be for sale on the door. Payment by cash or cheque, payable to ‘Durham Johnston School’. These will be on sale from Monday 25th February.
Friday 22nd March, James Hall. A performance of Andrew Carter’s Benedicite. James Hall at 19.00. Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Chamber Choir.
No tickets required.
Exciting Opportunity for Singers
Apply for Samling Academy 2019
Do you want to develop your classical singing? Samling Academy provides coaching and tuition in singing, languages, acting and stagecraft, movement and dance for young singers in the North East aged 14 and over, as well as fantastic performance opportunities. This year's participants have learnt 17th century dance skills to put on a fully-costumed baroque opera, have sung in Durham Cathedral with the Durham Singers, and have performed in an opera gala in Hall One of Sage Gateshead with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Sir Thomas Allen and other opera stars. If you think this could be you, speak to me or your singing teacher, and fill in our online application form: http://www.samling.org.uk/enjoy-singing-audition-samling-academy-2019/
Mr Holmes, Subject Leader for Music
PE Department News
On Tuesday we hosted the Bishop Auckland Schools Year 8 basketball tournament. We had an A and B boys team and a girls team entered. It was an outstanding afternoon as all three of our teams beat all the other schools. The final was an excellent game between our A team and our girls which the boys just won by 2 points.
The final positions were as follows:
1st – Durham Johnston A
2nd – Durham Johnston Girls
3rd – Durham Johnston B
4th - Bishop Barrington
5th – Parkside
6th – Ferryhill
Also on Tuesday our Year 10 rugby team travelled to Blaydon RFU to take on St Thomas More in a friendly in preparation for the up-coming County finals. We were missing a few key players due to injury and illness and despite a battling performance we lost by 2 tries.
On Wednesday our VIth form basketball team were playing a local derby against Durham School. We proved too strong for them winning 83 – 50 in a game that was played in an excellent spirit throughout. This was excellent preparation for our English Schools “last 16” game after half-term.
Our Year 10 basketball team were also in action on Wednesday as they travelled to Hartlepool VIth form College for a tournament. Despite playing some good basketball against some very strong Year 11 teams we failed to reach the semi-finals finishing 4th in our group.Finally, on Wednesday our U15 girls Futsal team were at Parkside taking part in the County finals. We completely dominated them going on to become County Champions with a 15 – 4 victory. We now move on to the regional round where we will be hoping to reach the National finals.
On Thursday afternoon our U16 girls rugby league team travelled to Whitburn to take part in the Northern Schools tournament. After an excellent afternoon of rugby in lovely weather we finished in 3rd place after losing a close final game to the hosts. The winners had travelled from Manchester and are current National Champions. Also on Thursday afternoon we had two teams competing in the Year 8 Area netball tournament at Louisa Centre, Stanley. A high standard of netball was maintained throughout the event with our A team only losing one game to finish runners-up and our B team finishing in 6th place
Our U15 girls cricket team were at Framwellgate taking part in the Area indoor finals. We started with comfortable 30 run victory over the hosts. Our final game against St Leonard’s was much closer, however an excellent batting display saw us reach the target with one over to spare and win the competition. They now go forward to the County finals in March. To complete a very busy Thursday our Year 11 football team made to journey to St John’s to compete in the Bishop Auckland Schools central venue league. We started with a draw then a win meaning we needed to win our final match against Ferryhill to win the competition. This was another close match which ended 1 – 1 meaning we finished runners-up.
Today our boys’ cross-country teams have been at Emmanuel College competing in the Tyneside Championships. The standard at this event is always high and today was no exception. However in glorious conditions we produced some excellent performances to finish with the following results:
Year 7 & 8 – 1st place and Tyneside Champions (with our B team 4th
Year 9 & 10 – 1st place and Tyneside Champions (with our B team 3rd)
VIth form – 1st place and Tyneside Champions
Congratulations to Charlie Phillips and Ben Horsfield who won their races to become Tyneside Champion. This is only the second time in the history of this event that a school has won all 3 races in the same year – the last time being Durham Johnston last year!
Finally good luck tonight to our Year 7 girls basketball team who are at Greenfield School for a friendly match.
Mr Hopper, Subject Leader for PE
