12th December 2025

Welcome to our weekly bulletin,

This week's bulletin contains important information about the end of term arrangements as well as celebrating another fantastic week in school. Please share the link with anyone who may not have seen it.

We have been very busy...

Watching the building grow

The framework now includes the front entrance of our new school and a large section on the main building.

With every hour that passes another section is visible and along side this, the groundworks continue to supply services in and out of the site as well as those required underground.

Enjoying our festive feast

400 children and staff enjoyed their free festive feast on Wednesday and the kitchen did a fabulous job to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Our site team donned their Christmas jumpers (who says Mr Coates is a Grinch...) and served drinks, cleared tables and re-set tables to ensure that every child had a restaurant style experience.

It was a huge team effort and thoroughly appreciated by staff and students alike. It was particularly lovely to see our Year 11 students take the lead on thanking the kitchen team and telling them how much they had enjoyed their lunch.

Processing reward requests

As we explained last week, our rewards shop is now open and those students who have purchased an off-site reward have been given a letter to outline arrangements.

In order for the them to attend, they must return their consent form (to the reward shop (between 8.15am and 8.45am ) before Wednesday 17th.

Once their letter has been returned it will show in class-charts as confirmed and the points will be deducted. £5 travel donations will appear on School Gateway.

Reminding Year 11 Parents about January Exams

Thank you to all parents/carers who attended our progress evening last night. We had an 80% turn out which is fantastic.

If you were unable to attend please contact reception. Your child's mentor will be in touch too.

Year 11 exams begin on Thursday 8th of January and your child will experience the same examination conditions as in the summer term. 100% attendance is vital to ensure they do not miss anything.

Bulletin Exam TT - Sheet1.pdf

Picking up our Feeding Families Boxes

Thank you to Mr Milligan and Mr Stocks who collected 50 boxes this week. Any family is eligible for a box- you just need to let us know you need one. If things are stretched this month and you would benefit from some of the basics please give us a call or pop into reception.

Celebrating Holly

Our Year 7 student Holly has been given a special mention in social media posts by espire.education this week. Amazing work Holly. We are very proud of you. Their comment says it all...

espire.education said:

"🚀 November’s Classroom Hero: Holly - Durham Academy 🌟

For November, we’re celebrating a student whose determination didn’t just help her team…

It opened doors that changed the whole project.

Meet Holly, our November Classroom Hero.

When the team needed sponsorship, Holly took the lead.

She drafted a professional, thoughtful letter and reached out to Willmott Dixon with confidence well beyond her years. Her message landed so strongly that a representative visited the school to see the Key Stage 3 team’s work in person.

And thanks to Holly’s initiative and communication skills, the team secured the sponsorship they needed to keep building, testing, learning, and dreaming bigger.

Here’s how Holly describes the experience:

“I really enjoy working on the STEM go-kart project in school, it is really fun.”

This is what leadership looks like in the classroom:

Not just talent, but courage.

Not just teamwork, but ownership.

Not just showing up, showing what’s possible.

Thank you to Durham academy, Advance Learning Partnership Trust and Mandeep Atwal for providing the imagery and quote from Holly."

Reminding you about the end of term arrangements

Next week might be the end of term but it's not like the old days when schools became awash with Christmas films from the start of November and very little else was achieved. Our students will be learning until the very last afternoon and so attendance is vital every day next week.

Year 11 students will have their Art exam across Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Mr Talbot has several careers visits and visitors on site for students in different year groups and our Big Question is all about Human Rights.

Friday morning has a personal development focus and will include our reward assemblies for each year group unless your child is on an external reward trip (which leave around 9am and return for the end of the day).

Friday afternoon then includes two hours of rewards which end at 3pm.