7 July 2023
Dear Parents and Carers,
I am writing with a very brief update. It has been excellent to have our new Year 6 students in school today, but it has been very noticeable that they are not experiencing the school on a ‘normal’ day, with older children being present in large numbers. I sincerely hope that the Education Secretary and Trade Unions can reach an agreement quickly, so that next year can be a more positive one for everyone. Having been a serving Headteacher through the pandemic and the current industrial action, my hope is that we can approach 2023-24 knowing that it will be uninterrupted as possible. I will share our end of year letter next week, which will outline our plans for 2023-24 and will offer a series of updates in relation to communication, staffing, opportunities, and expectations.
There were two events in school yesterday that made me immensely proud to be Headteacher at the school. Our youngest students took part in the annual Colour Run, an annual event to remember Gill Bittlestone, a much missed colleague who died in 2016. Year 7 and 8 had a great time but also worked together as part of our community, raising £1100 for charity. Well done to all those involved.
The Colour Run was followed by ‘Music for a Summer Evening,’ another established Durham Johnston tradition. Our talented students, many from Year 13, performed beautifully and it was good to acknowledge their commitment and progress. They are adults now but have contributed greatly to the cultural life of the school in their time with us. It was a lovely evening for their families and a day in which both our youngest and oldest students have demonstrated their commitment to the school and each other.
Have a good weekend.
Mr O’Sullivan
What is my child learning?
In the Learning section of our website you can find guidance on what every student at the school is studying. As well as an overview of our curriculum and principles behind it, you can find an overview of each subject area. You can also find a guide to the content being covered in every subject and how you can support your child for each half term here: Year 7 | Year 8 | Year 9 | Year 10 | Year 11 | Year 12 | Year 13
Public Speaking Competition
The English Department warmly invites you to the final of this year’s public speaking competition. Students in Years 7 and 8 work hard to produce persuasive speeches as part of their English lessons, and the early rounds take place in school time. The 2023 final is on Tuesday 11th July, starting at 4:00pm and expected to finish by 5:30pm, in James Hall. This year our guest judge is The Right Worshipful The Mayor of Durham.
Cambridge Chemistry Challenge for Lower Sixth
A number of our year 12 Chemistry students entered the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge for Lower Sixth run by Cambridge University earlier this term. We are very proud to announce that Joshua Robinson achieved a Gold certificate, Alex Tsinopoulos and Ava Warner achieved a Silver certificate and Avani Salphale, Bruce Zhang, Elise Lambert, Joshua Rowe, Oliver Cowey, Ruby Powton and Verity Ward all achieved Copper certificates.
Huge congratulations to all!
Chemistry Department
Year 7 Robotics Festival
Six of our Year 7s represented Durham Johnston on Monday in the CAD2CODE YEAR 7 Robotics Festival. This involved a series of challenges including robot building, robot/drone coding, and robot racing. The team (Josiah, Thomas, Riccardo, Elsie, Charlotte, and Scarlett) organised themselves well, and managed to attempt all 6 challenges.
The DJ team managed to finish 3rd overall (only a few points off the top spot!), but absolutely loved the day and would highly recommend the experience. We’ll certainly be looking to send another team of Year 7s next year.
Special thanks to Tanfield School and Michael Nelson for hosting the event.
Mr O’Connor
Lead Teacher for Computing
Future Business Magnates
Last week our Year 8 FBM team were invited to an awards dinner at Beamish Hall Hotel. This was in recognition of their hard work and collective endeavour throughout the year. The competition was an exciting opportunity for a range of students to show off their business brain by developing, marketing, prototyping, costing, and pitching a product of their design. The team won the award for the best "Marketing concept" and were each awarded a high-street shopping voucher and sweet treats for this. Throughout the project the students have impressed, not just because of their natural ability and talent but by the way they have listened to, encouraged and supported one another throughout! What an amazing group of young people! We had such a lovely afternoon and thank Business Durham and the FBM team for their support and hospitality.
Miss Forbes
Subject Leader for Business and Computing
Colour Run
Thursday saw the return of our annual Colour Run. The colour run takes place in memory of a much-loved colleague who sadly lost her battle with cancer in 2016. The colour run represents her fun loving and positive outlook.
We were delighted to see so many of our Year 7 & Year 8 students taking part (over 300 in total) and genuinely enjoying themselves. We also enjoyed pelting them with powdered paint, water and volleyballs, often ending up with more on us than them!
We have raised in excess of £1100 for the MacMillan Centre at South Tyneside. We chose this hospital as they took such good care of Miss Bittlestone.
Well done to everyone who supported, set-up and took part! Special shout out to the team of Year 12s - you were all superb.
Miss Forbes & Miss Anderson
Sixth Form Notices
Please click the link below to read the weekly digest of news and information for Sixth Form Students.
Music Notices
Music For a Summer Evening
We had a splendid evening on Thursday where Year 13 musicians and their families and friends enjoyed an informal evening of music-making. The repertoire was diverse - from Chopin and Schubert, to Bernstein, Dring and Sting - and culminated with a revival of a couple of Junior Orchestra favourites, with a scratch performance of 'The Bare Necessities' and 'Oom Pah Pah'!
Durham Music Service Summer Serenade
This Concert, which involves several current and former Durham Johnston pupils as soloists and members of the orchestra, takes place at St Giles' Church in Durham on Monday evening. For more details please follow this link.
End of the year arrangements
Thank you to pupils, parents and colleagues for another excellent year of musical activities in school. We are currently finalising dates and repertoire for next year's concerts, so keep an eye on this bulletin in early September for more information. As the end of the school year approaches, please could I remind pupils to make sure they take their instruments home for the summer holidays. Perhaps they could even do some practice?!
Mr Holmes
Subject Leader for Music
PE News
Another very busy and successful sporting year is coming to an end with only two fixtures this week.
On Wednesday, our U15 girls’ cricket team travelled to Rockcliffe CC to take part in the Regional finals of the national cup. Unfortunately, we were hit very hard with injury, illness and unavailability. Despite fielding a weakened team, we still battled hard against the best schools in the North East. This included only losing by 3 runs to the eventual winners from St Aidan's School, Harrogate. We ended up finishing 5th in the North East - a great achievement.
On Thursday our Year 9 cricket team were at Whitburn CC taking on St Wilfrid's in the county cup semi-final. We batted first and scored 112 runs in our 20 overs with Lucas Malkin top scoring on 44 runs. We then produced an outstanding bowling display to bowl them out for only 40 runs to reach the County Cup final which will take place in September.
The PE department are now looking forward to welcoming everyone to our 27th annual Sports Presentation evening next Wednesday (12th) at Ramside Hall. We are hoping to start promptly at 7.00pm so please arrive in plenty of time as we have so much success to celebrate!
Then we turn our attention to our second Malaga sports trip of the year as our Year 8s head to Spain on Sunday 16th July.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE