Every Friday sees another step made towards our state of the art new build. The layout of specialist science labs has been the topic of planning between our Trust, the Department for Education and our builders this week. 

We want all students to experience the highest quality of learning labs and with STEM at the centre of our school, we have agreed that labs will contain an element of flexible seating. This means that experiments and theory can be carried out in optimal conditions and demonstrations can be seen by all students by ensuring they have a clear view from every seat. The decisions being made about this may seem ahead of their time but considerations around light, plug sockets, gas taps and sinks are intrinsic to designing a future proof building that stands the test of time and ensures we have scientists who are ready for the world of work and research. 

Some of you will have learnt science in the same labs your children are learning in now and whilst they hold a great deal of legacy and have inspired scientists in the field today, we are very much looking forward to unveiling our science labs for the future. 

Our staff and students have shown their respect by observing a whole school two minutes silence on Monday and followed this with much reflection during Tutor time on Tuesday. Thank you to Mr Jackson who delivered our Remembrance Day assembly this week.  In a busy week in a busy school, giving time for real consideration of others is really important to us. Our students have shown great maturity in the conversations they have had and considered the bravery and self sacrifices made to give them a future. Lest we forget. 

Five of our fabulous Year 9 students have travelled to Wickes HQ in Watford this week to take part in the national finals. After winning the school round they were then able to put their ideas to senior staff at Wickes. The two part challenge: Using Wickes products, promote inclusivity and physical, mental or emotional wellbeing in an area of the school. Develop a concept for a product or service that could be offered by Wickes to encourage more customers to take on a DIY project and shop in store. They showed great leadership, team and communication skills in planning and delivering their presentation ideas to the judges but unfortunately didn’t win.  

Speaking in public can be a daunting task but they did this brilliantly and really showed just how confident they are. 

Thank you to Mr Talbot and Miss Chapman for giving up their time to make this a memorable experience. 

As you know from last week's bulletin, reading is really important to us because it is central to life long learning and success. 

This week some of our Year 10 and 11 students have been trained as Reading Ambassadors (they even get a badge) by Victoria Downs, a local and highly successful author. 

Once training is completed they will be matched with a year 7 student and carry out paired reading on a Thursday morning. 

Educational research tells us that paired reading can have a massive impact on reading development and the opportunity to be an ambassador is a great example of student leadership in our school. 

The School Council has been busy this week debating and deciding on end of term rewards. 

All students are eligible for rewards and are given star student points every lesson if they meet expectations. These points can be used to purchase rewards in our rewards shop and at the end of each term the big prizes are there for the taking. 

The Student Council have requested Ice Skating, Laser Tag and Bowling and these activities, along with in school activities, will be available to select this week. 

The year group with the best attendance this week is Year 7! 

Students with 100% attendance will be entered into the weekly draw to win amazon vouchers.

Those who have missed lessons due to absence will have to catch up missed learning. If your child has missed a day this week their work will be shared with them on Google classroom and when able, they are expected to close the gap. All staff are on hand to support with this but your child must be ambitious and try to complete it as soon as possible so it remains in the sequence of learning. 

Tutor reps for Year 11 have requested a school prom this year and have been busy planning where and when this will take place, whether there will a chocolate fountain and how we could reduce the cost of an event by making it more sustainable. In previous years we have run an in school celebration with a festival vibe which has allowed us to remove the high cost associated with school proms. This is something we feel very strongly about and we are working with Tutor reps to ensure that whatever is planned does not put financial strain on parents and carers. 

One way we have come up with is to issue students with a Star Card. Every Year 11 student must achieve a minimum number of starts each week in order to be invited to the Prom but if they attend 100% of the time, take part in revision sessions (which are delivered free to all students) and meet all expectations, they will be able to exchange the stars for a reduced price Prom ticket. 

Some super duper work was nominated this week with Music, Science and Maths being celebrated in the Cafe on Wednesday. Alisha was nominated for the second week running so must deserve an extra mention! Well done Alisha, Riley, Leo and...

We particularly enjoyed seeing Year 9 science work on cells in the form of a job application, showing careers learning woven into the curriculum. 

We work with a number of Universities across the year and this week it was the turn of Newcastle University who held the first in a number of sessions from the Future Me programme. All students in Year 10 and 11 engaged in a session which encouraged them to consider how they could be more resilient in their approach to work. It also explored ways to motivate themselves in the lead up to their GCSE examinations, and prepare for the next steps in their life. 

Our ACCESS programme aims to include all students in extra-curricular opportunities and Coding Club is a very popular option. We have a long established partnership with the altitude foundation who run this after school event.  This year's focus is 3D printing; students use BlocksCAD to learn how to code and before Christmas they will each visit the Altitude Foundation, The Lumen, Newcastle to print their 3D models. I am sure this will make a lovely Christmas gift! 

Thank you to Dr Atwal for organising this group every year. 

Telephone: 0191 3730336

Email: contact@durhamacademy.org.uk

For the most up to date information about what is going on in our school, please visit our website at:

https://durhamacademy.org.uk