16 January 2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has certainly been an action-packed start to 2026; January is shaping up to be one of our busiest months yet with a calendar packed full of events designed to support, challenge, and inspire our students.
Next week sees our Sixth Form Open Event on Wednesday. This is a great opportunity for prospective students to meet our current Sixth Form students to find out more about our unique societies, enrichment opportunities and A-Level courses and gain further insight into what it is like to study at Durham Johnston. The Sixth Form team will be on hand during the evening to support with new or ongoing applications or any other queries. In a similar vein, the Year 9 Options Evening also takes place this month; a pivotal moment for our Year 9 students as they begin to shape their academic journey. So many of our students are currently making choices about future courses and pathways and these decisions require a balance of logic, passion, and strategy. Some may approach it like an engineer ensuring their foundation is structurally sound. For others their creative inner artist might draw them to subjects which resonate strongly with their interests. Our athletes might think to play to their strengths and identify which subject will best challenge them to achieve peak performance. To be honest, the best decisions are probably a blend of all three; career aspirations often require specific stepping stones, success often follows passion and enjoyment, and hard work in areas of strengths often leads to peak performance. Whatever pathway your child is thinking of, we recommend that all students engage with every opportunity to ensure a well-rounded view of courses and what they entail before making any final decisions.
Thank you for your engagement in our Parent Governor Election – this is the highest number of nominations we have ever received and is also set to be the largest voter turnout we’ve ever seen. We are incredibly lucky to have such a proactive and supportive parent body, and we are looking forward to welcoming new contributions and perspectives to the strategic leadership of the school. Please make sure you take the opportunity to cast your vote before next Wednesday’s deadline. Thank you also to all the Year 11 parents who attended the presentation on Monday and met with their child’s form tutor. We value the partnership between home and school especially as we approach the next set of mocks. Year 11 are really starting to step up now – it always seems to me that the introduction of the hoodies marks a heightened level of maturity and increased focus on their next steps.
Finally, this month also sees lots of music and drama activity with choir competitions, theatre visits, university drama specialists’ sessions, as well as regular rehearsals for the next set of concerts and of course the school show. The first ever Key Stage 3 Talent Showcase was launched this week organised by our fabulous Year Lead teams. They are looking for a range of acts from music performances and dance acts to speciality performances like magic, comedy, poetry-reading, sport, art installations and everything in-between so please encourage your child to apply! If performing is not their forte, remember they can still get involved in our plethora of extra-curricular clubs, societies, charity work and house events.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McFadden
Key Dates
A reminder that you can find all the dates of our parents’ evenings and parental information presentation (PIPs) on the website under ‘News and Events’ – click here for the direct link.
Please click here to view the slides shared at Monday’s Year 11 PIP.
Year 9 Options Evening is on Monday 26th January. The relevant section of the website has now been updated and is live under Learning > Year 9 Options – click here for the direct link.
Year 9 Vaccinations are on 2nd & 3rd February. A letter from the School Immunisation Team has been emailed directly to parents and carers; the deadline for completing the consent form is Monday 26th January.
Class Charts
We have a large number of parents and carers signed up to Class Charts; we highly value parental involvement and this software is aimed at supporting parental engagement by providing you with a platform to access key information and updates to help you support your child's educational journey. It is an easy and convenient way to check attendance, report absence, and receive real-time updates of your child’s house points and behaviour events. For Years 8-11, Class Charts can also be used by class teachers to set homework; we also use it to send announcements home.
If you are not currently signed up to use Class Charts, please contact the school via school@durhamjohnston.org.uk in order to receive your Parent Code.
SEND Clinics
We will be holding SEND online clinics every month for parents to meet with a member of the learning support team to discuss any area of their child's learning or development. The aim of the clinic to identify the most appropriate support which may be signposting to external support. The first clinic will be held online 30th January between 8.30-11am. If you would like to make an appointment to talk with a member of school staff, please contact learningsupport@durhamjohnston.org.uk to arrange this.
Parent Governor Election
The ballot for the election of three Parent Governors is open. We were delighted to receive so many nominations; thank you to all those who have already voted.
The ballot is electronic, via MS Forms; parents are required to submit their names, as well as the name of their oldest child at the school as part of the voting process.
As there are three vacancies, each parent* of a registered student at the school will be allowed to vote for no more than three candidates.
Irrespective of the number of children who are registered as students at the school, each parent will only be allowed one ballot.
*Definition of a "parent" in accordance with the Education Act, 1996, Section 576:
"Parent", in relation to a child or young person, includes any person:
(a) who is not the natural parent but has ‘parental responsibility’ for the child
(b) who has care of the child.
The vote closes at 9:00am on Wednesday 21st January.
Sixth Form ‘Keeping In Touch’ Event
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Year 12 Geography Field Work
On Wednesday, the Year 12 Geographers travelled to Newcastle to complete their urban field work assessing the difference in lived experience across the city. They carried out a wide range methods to collect their data including questionnaires, environmental quality surveys, sound scape mapping and clone town surveys. All students did brilliantly with the depth of their data collection. Their next piece of field work will take place in March profiling sand dunes on the North East Coast.
Mrs Hardwick
Second in Department, Geography
PE News
Last Friday our Year 8 boys’ basketball team were at Emmanuel College competing in the Tyneside Schools finals. We started strongly with an excellent 22-14 win against Dame Allan's. We then met the hosts in the final, going on to become Tyneside champions with a 14-10 victory. It was a great team performance, but joint POMs were Roan P and Sam P.
On Saturday evening 50 of our Year 9 & 10 skiers met at school ready to travel to Italy to enjoy what appears to have been an amazing week of skiing in glorious conditions. They have been a credit to the school throughout the week and we wish them a safe return to school on Sunday afternoon.
We were due to host the Year 7 Area basketball tournament on Tuesday but unfortunately there were no other entries, so it had to be postponed.
Yesterday our Year 10 boys’ football team travelled to Ponteland High School in the English Schools Cup trying to reach the last 32 schools in the country. We fielded an under-strength team due to the ski-trip but despite this we were 1-0 ahead at half-time. We conceded a second half goal as the game went to extra-time. This couldn't divide the teams as the game went to penalties. Unfortunately, we lost 3-1. Louis B scored our goal and Harry S was POM. Special mention to Levi G, Louie H and Toby R from Year 9 who stepped up and played.
We also have a busy weekend of sport. On Saturday morning Durham City basketball club and their coach Lee Davies are kindly providing a free taster session for our Year 7 & 8 boy and girl basketball players at Maiden Castle. This will be an excellent opportunity to form a closer link with the club and develop basketball in the Durham area.
On Sunday morning around 40 of our cross-country runners will be at Barnard Castle School representing Durham Central at the County Championships. Durham Johnston runners are making up the majority of the area team and hopefully we can bring news of success next week. Any runners finishing in the top 16 places will be selected for the county team and represent Durham at the Northern Counties Championships at Sedbergh on Saturday 7th February.
Finally, excellent swimming news this week regarding Year 11 student Ben B. He has just broken the North-East junior record for 200M fly. This is on top of five Northumberland & Durham records he has broken so far this season. An amazing achievement.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE
A reminder of our weekly sports bulletin:
We have also been asked to share the following:
Waves
