27 June 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we near the end of another successful academic year, we want to take a moment to thank you for your ongoing support and partnership. As part of our reflection on this year and planning for next year, we launched our second survey of the year to parents and carers yesterday morning.
As a school community, we work hard to provide the best education and opportunities we can for all our students. We strive to have high expectations of ourselves; however, we know we are not perfect, and we genuinely value your feedback to help us identify where things are going well and areas where we can improve and develop. Your feedback makes a real difference, and we appreciate your time, honesty and constructive comments as we work together to ensure the best possible outcomes and opportunities for our students, your children.
We have had another busy week in school. Alongside the usual routines and lessons, Year 7-9 have all had RSE events; Thursday saw our 16th annual Music Festival with some outstanding induvial performances; and today we welcomed nearly 200 prospective Year 12 students into school for their induction. It was lovely to see a mix of familiar faces from Year 11 and also to meet lots of new eager students joining our Sixth Form from elsewhere. There were also some very tired faces on those returning from the Year 7 trip Malaga…but the PE staff did well to last to the end of the day! By all accounts a wonderful time was had by all as they developed independence, teamwork and resilience.
Next week there is our second Dance Show of the year on Tuesday, our annual public speaking competition on Wednesday, Music for a Summer Evening on Thursday and finally Friday sees the new Year 6 students visit for their taster day. I wonder if they will like the gravy as much as our current Year 7s…?!
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
Safeguarding
We are always keen to support students and families with safeguarding issues. This week's safeguarding theme is TikTok.
Please click here to read the factsheet.
You can also find these on the Class Charts app and you can find the link to the school website on Online Safety for further information here: Online Safety | Durham Johnston School.
Mr Bowman
Associate Assistant Headteacher
Parental Survey
As a school we are always keen to know what our parent body is thinking. To that end, we run surveys for parents twice each academic year, in the autumn and the summer. The summer survey opened for responses yesterday at 8.00am, and will be available until Thursday 10th July at midnight.
The link to the survey was emailed directly to parents and carers earlier this week; if you did not receive it, please contact the school via school@durhamjohnston.org.uk
If you have multiple children in the school, please feel free to complete the survey for each child.
The survey is a really valuable tool to let us know what you think about the school as parents or carers and helps us to understand how we need to continue to develop and improve to best serve you and your children. It is also helpful in identifying what we are doing successfully. We thank you in advance for sharing your views. We use the surveys to inform our planning, and the feedback has a direct impact on what we do in school.
Individual responses to questions are not possible when completing the survey and we would encourage anyone with a specific question or concern to contact the school directly via the school email address.
As previously, we use an outside organisation to carry out the survey who will then analyse the responses for us. However, this organisation has had no access to anyone's personal data at any point, nor will they share your responses with anyone other than us.
As ever, your support is much appreciated.
World Challenge
This month sees the departure of both our World Challenge Teams with Team 1 departing on July 2nd and Team 2 departing on July 10th. The team have fundraised over two years to pay for their expedition, showing commitment and resilience. As part of the expedition the teams fly into Delhi and then make their way north to Rishikesh and Uttarkashi. After completing 4 days trek in the valley of the flowers at 4300m the team will visit sites in Jaipur and spend time living and working with a local community in a rural area. They end their experience at the Taj Mahal at sunrise before flying back to Newcastle. Where mobile service permits, you can follow their adventures via the school Instagram @durhamjohnstoncomprehensive. Good luck to all the challengers!
Mrs Hardwick
World Challenge Coordinator
Annual Colour Run
Last Friday 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 2018. The colour run represents her fun loving and positive outlook.
We were delighted to see so many of our Y7 & Y8 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 £1000 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 (and the Year 13s who couldn't stay away) - you were all superb and this wouldn't happen without you.
Another wonderful charity supported by our "giving back" campaign.
Miss Forbes & Miss Anderson
Music Notices: 16th School Music Festival
Congratulations to all performers in the Music Festival last night. Members of the audience were treated to a fantastic wide range of repertoire from a Welsh folk tune on the French Horn to an arrangement of a Lewis Capaldi song on the piano and pretty much everything in between. We were delighted to welcome Mr Howarth, who will be taking over as Subject Leader for Music next year, as our adjudicator. We had 29 great solo performances and although it was really about the pupils performing their music, the following pupils were specifically praised by Mr Howarth.
The Whinney Hill Cup (Grades 1-3)
Winner - Elsie (Piano)
Runner Up - Oliver (‘Cello)
Most Promising - Carolyn (Double Bass)
The Crossgate Moor Cup (Grades 4-5)
Winner - Alan (Sheng)
Runner up - Harry(Piano) & Joe (Clarinet)
Most promising - Megan (Violin)
The Durham Johnston Cup (Grade 6+)
Winner - Leo (Bassoon)
Runner up - Alastair (Saxophone)
Most promising - Jessica (Piano)
Mr Holmes
Subject Leader for Music
PE News
Having just returned from our Year 7 Malaga Sports trip, I would like to start this week by saying what an amazing time everyone had. We had an incredible week of high-quality sport using some of the outstanding facilities in the Marbella area. The children were a credit to themselves, their parents and the school, receiving lots of compliments on their behaviour. The children competed in teams representing a country and this years' winners were Spain (with a record score). I would also like to thank our VIth Form leaders who did a great job organising, coaching and supporting their team. I am sure everyone has made many lifelong memories. We now look forward to doing it all again with our Year 8s in two weeks’ time.
It has also been a busy week in school with three teams competing in national finals and our Year 7 basketball team taking part in the North East Junior NBA finals.
It was a 5.30am start on Tuesday as our U13 boys’ and girls’ handball teams travelled to Nottingham University for the English Schools National Finals. Our girls competed in the morning. We had a tough draw and met some of the best teams in the country but never gave up, eventually finishing 16th in the country. It was the turn of the boys in the afternoon. We won our second group game but produced our best performance in our last game to beat Downlands School, West Sussex 8-4 to finish 9th in the country. Well done to the whole team. POT was Dylan F who scored 7 goals in the final game.
Also our Tuesday, our Year 7 basketball team were at Newcastle Uni playing in the Junior NBA finals. Despite half of our team being on the Malaga trip, we produced a great display in our semi-final winning 21-11 to reach the final. Unfortunately, we faced a strong team finishing runners-up after a 24-12 defeat. Amazing to finish second without a full-strength team!
It was another early start on Wednesday as our U15 girls’ handball team made the journey to Nottingham for their finals. Despite dominated possession and displaying great passing skills we struggled to score consistently eventually matching the excellent achievement of our U13 girls finishing 16th in the country.
Good luck today to our Year 8 cricket team who take on St Leonard's in the Tyneside Cup semi-final.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE
A reminder of our weekly sports bulletin:
Sports Bulletin
We have also been asked to share the following:
Message from Arriva Buses
The end of another school year is now fast approaching, and Arriva UK Bus would like to take this opportunity to highlight the most cost-effective ticket options that are available for your pupils who may be traveling to school on Arriva buses during the 2025-26 academic year.