13 June 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
It really feels like the summer term this week with the sun shining and our thoughts moving from formal exams to end of year celebrations and activities. The next couple of weeks will include events such as the Prom, Music for a Summer’s Evening, the annual Public Speaking competition, a Dance Show, Celebration Assemblies for all Years, Sports Days, Head Student Interviews, House System events and much more; that’s on top of the usual plethora of extracurricular activities. I look forward to updating you on these events are they occur.
This morning we had an unexpected fire alarm in school. Whilst I am pleased to confirm that this was a very minor accidental incident and there was no danger to students or staff, I wanted to share with you how well our students conducted themselves. They were calm, mature, and responsible and followed instructions immediately, evacuating the building in an orderly and composed manner. Their behaviour was nothing short of exemplary. Staff’s calm approach minimised the disruption to the formal exams taking place allowing us to return to normal very quickly. In truth the whole situation was only about 15 minutes from the alarm to students back in their lessons and learning again. The experience served as a powerful reminder of the strength of our systems and the resilience embedded in our school community.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs McFadden
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 Assessment Calendars, and 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
Reading Room Wishlist
Our final library wish list for the year features non-fiction titles. Thank you to everyone who has already bought and donated books - our shelves are filling up and we are looking forward to opening our library to more students in September!
Public Speaking Competition
Our 37th Public Speaking Competition final will be held on on Wednesday 2nd July, 4:30-6:00 pm James Hall. All are cordially invited to attend!
“Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” R.W Emerson
The English Department
800 Years of Magna Carta 2025
Year 10 History and Latin students have been taking part in a project to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta; as you may know, this was originally sealed in 1215 by King John, but subsequent English kings re-issued the charter as a sign of good faith that they would govern according to the law. The 1225 manuscripts were issued by Henry III, and have become the definitive version of the document. The Society of Antiquaries in London are putting on an exhibition about these manuscripts and they asked schools to collaborate on translations of the text to use in the exhibition.
Durham Johnston is one of six schools nationally that are taking part, and we hope to be able to visit the exhibition in the autumn to see our work in situ. Working from transcripts of the original manuscript that are available online, students used their knowledge of Classical Latin plus a very big dictionary and some online research to produce an intelligible translation. We were fascinated to see in detail the kind of issues that this famous document deals with – if horrified by the attitudes to women!
Mrs Bothwell
Languages Department
PE News
On Monday our U13 boys’ tennis teams travelled to Egglescliffe for league and friendly games. Our B team played their A team and lost a very close game after a deciding tie-break shoot-out. Our other teams all won their matches comfortably.
Also on Monday, our Year 8 boys’ cricket team played High Tunstall in the County Cup. We were set a modest score of 96 to win but struggled against a strong bowling attack eventually falling 6 runs short. Wilf B was our top scorer on 25.
The highlight of the week came on Tuesday as our Junior and Inter boys’ athletics teams were at Monkton Stadium for the Tyneside Schools Championships. The best schools in the North East gathered for an excellent day of athletics. In an amazing achievement, both our teams won the competition to become Tyneside champions. Our Junior team won by 15 points and our Inters by 18.
Also on Tuesday, our Year 7 rounders team played there first games in the area tournament at Parkview. We had a tough first match against Durham High which we lost, but improved with every game eventually finishing in 3rd place after an excellent 6-1 victory against Hermitage in our final match.
Cricket continued on Wednesday as our Year 10 boys’ team played English Martyrs in the County Cup. We bowled very well restricting them to only 74 runs. We reached that total within the first 10 overs to move into the quarterfinals. Isaiah M top scored on 33.
On Wednesday evening 40 of our students gave up their time to help run the Durham Dash. This is a large primary school event held every year at Beamish. They received lots of complements on their conduct and attitude throughout the evening.
On Thursday, our Year 8 boys’ cricket team were back in action as we played Hermitage in a friendly. This was a high scoring match played in a great spirit. We lost in the end after failing to reach their total of 175.
Today our Year 10 GCSE PE boys are umpiring at Durham City CC for a primary school competition. Also, today we are hosting the Year 8 area rounders tournament. Good luck to them.
Finally, good luck tomorrow to around 30 of our athletes who are at Monkton Stadium competing in the County Championships.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE
A reminder of our weekly sports bulletin:
Sports Bulletin
