11 July 2025
Dear Parents and Carers,
It’s been a vibrant and action-packed week that has exemplified our core value of Diverse Opportunities. Enrichment fortnight includes a range of events in school including “Parliament visit your school”, first aid, focused assemblies, music performances, languages events, sports events, an extracurricular taster day, as well as various trips and visits. There have also been age-appropriate RSE sessions delivered sensitively and informatively which students have engaged with thoughtfully and respectfully.
We have also had celebration assemblies for each year group recognising the achievements of our students and highlighting their academic successes, personal growth, and some outstanding contributions to school life. Year 7 and Year 10 have had sports afternoons, and we have been impressed with their boundless energy and enthusiasm. Team spirit was in full display as students got involved in a whole variety of ways by participating in events, officiating, and cheerleading, encouraged on by their (sometimes overly competitive!) Form Tutors.
Wednesday was our 29th annual Sports Presentation Evening. It was wonderful event that recognised the hard work, commitment and resilience of all the students who have participated in extracurricular sports over the year be it County Championships, League Cups, national competitions or just competing against friends in the sports hall.
Congratulations to Wakenshaw, the House competition winners, for their consistent efforts and achievements throughout this year. They have had a fantastic celebration event this afternoon and were joined by form reps from all houses as well as students who had been nominated by their Year Leaders for their behaviour and contributions.
We are incredibly proud of all our students for their positivity, engagement, and achievements not only this week but across the whole year. I would also like to thank our amazing staff who make these events possible.
Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine.
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 YouTube.
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
Geography Fieldwork
On Monday 30th June, Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th July the Year 10 GCSE Geographers visited Hamsterley Forest to investigate how the River Bedburn changes downstream. The students had to conduct various methodologies such as measuring the width, depth, gradient and velocity at different sites. The students’ conduct was exemplary and they were a credit to the school.
Mr Ray
Subject Leader for Geography
English Department News
Poetry By Heart Competition
Alexandra C from Year 9 performed on stage at the Globe theatre on Monday and in the Sam Wannamaker theatre as part of Poetry by Heart 2025. Although we didn't win the trophy this year, Alex did an amazing job to be selected out of over 3,000 entries and performed fantastically on the day. We had a wonderful time in London, enjoying a performance at the Globe theatre, a backstage guided tour and a Shakespearean sword-fighting demonstration, amongst other things! An incredible achievement and something we will both remember for life, well done Alex!
Help us win books!
As we continue to expand and grow our library, we are always looking for ways to acquire new books.
Please take the time to nominate Durham Johnston to win £1000 worth of book tokens with the National Book Tokens. All you need to do is enter your email and nominate Durham Johnston Comprehensive School. The more nominations, the higher chance we have of getting even more exciting books for our library in September!
As always, thank you for your support!
Please click here to nominate the school.
Library Update
A new wish list for books for the school library is live on the Collected books website. This list has been collated especially by Year 10 students who have been working with Miss Bailey to consider the interests of themselves and their peers. We are excited to expand the library's non-fiction range and expand opportunities for super-curricular reading at KS3 and KS4. Thank you for your ongoing support in resourcing the library, which is now open to Year 7. The library will continue to serve this cohort in September, as well as opening to new Year 7s.
Please click here to visit the wishlist.
English Department
PE News
The highlight of this week has been our 29th annual sports presentation evening which was held on Wednesday evening at Ramside Hall. A record attendance of 350 parents and children celebrated the amazing achievements of our students in so many sports across the year. We had 5 national finals to recognise along with countless area and regional successes and a double world champion. Team of the year went to the Year 8 dodgeball team who finished 3rd in the country and the John Sinclair award to Quinn M. We were also lucky enough to welcome former student and now Blackburn goalkeeper Aynsley Pears as our celebrity presenter. The evening concluded with a disco which included our traditional "Love Train" in memory of John Sinclair. Hopefully everyone will join us back the Ramside next year for our 30th anniversary celebration.
Fixtures have also continued this week. On Tuesday our Year 10 cricket team travelled to Whitburn in the semi-final of the Tyneside Cup. Unfortunately, we had to field an understrength team due the D of E expedition. However, we still came close to reaching the final but ended up 14 runs short of the total we needed. They still have the county cup semi-final to come when we return in September.
Yesterday our Year 7 cricket team faced Easington at Murton CC in their County Cup semi-final. It was a difficult afternoon for us as we underperformed with the bat scoring only 81 runs in our 20 overs. We bowled well but Easington reached our total with 7 balls to spare.
We are heading back to Malaga on Sunday with our Year 8s for what should be an excellent end to the sporting year.
On behalf of the PE department please can I thank all parents for their support this year and look forward to another successful sporting year starting in September.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE