16th January 2026

Welcome to our weekly bulletin,

Week two of the term has flown by with visitors, exams, more building developments and some fabulous work of the week.

We have been very busy...

Reading about our new build in the news

The Northern Echo reported on our major milestone last week during the steel signing ceremony where Mrs Jobling explained what a huge difference this building will make to our community and how the new facilities will provide our pupils with modern, inspiring spaces to learn and grow, while supporting our commitment to delivering the highest standards of teaching .

The full article can be read here.

Hearning from our alumni

56 key stage 3 students signed themselves up to hear about a career in nursing from the fabulous Helen McAdam. Helen left this school in 1994 and is now a senior lecturer at Sunderland following a highly success career in midwifery.

Students were captivated by her experiences and had many questions to ask about the profession, expected salary and progress routes into nursing.

A big thank you to Helen for giving up her time to speak to our students who showed confidence, ambition and respect during the talk.

Inviting parents to a careers event

There is less than a month until The Degree Gap host a Live Online Complimentary Webinar: ‘A Parent’s Guide to Supporting GCSE Success’.

If you have not signed up yet, there is still time.
So, what will the session cover?
- What mock results really mean and how to respond calmly
- What effective revision actually looks like at home
- How to spot burnout early and fix it before motivation drops
- How to set one or two focused goals that lead to visible improvement
To sign up for the event on the 28th of January 7-8pm, please use this link or watch the session snippets embedded attached.

Launching the Next Gen Project with Durham University

Durham Academy have been given a fantastic opportunity to work with Durham University on their Next Gen Durham Project. This project will start in January for 30 Y7 students and eventually involve students from every year group.

The programme is designed for students from underrepresented backgrounds who demonstrate the potential to go onto University. It offers a series of targeted activities to support students to explore higher education, strengthen academic skills and build confidence for University study.

Students will attend engaging workshops, campus visits and inspiring academic experiences, gain meaningful insight into life at Durham and the range of future pathways available to them.

Thank you to all parents who attended the session on Monday12th. If you were unable to attend but want to know more you have been sent a letter but please do not hesitate to contact Mr Talbot, our Careers Leader.

Celebrating work of the week

As you know, students nominated for work of the week have an early lunch with Mrs Jamieson on a Wednesday where they share their achievements and discuss how they secured this prestigious award.

This week saw nominations from food technology after Year 7 students demonstrated professional standard awareness of health and safety in the preparation of poultry, and they were able to demonstrate this to the rest of the class showing confidence and ambition.

In fact year 7 stole the show this week with Frazer's nomination from Art and he explained the process behind this Angie Lewin inspired piece.

A huge well done Year 7 Keep up the hard work!

Reminding you what your child is learning this term

At the start of every term we remind you what your child is learning in each subject area. The full set of curriculum journeys can be found on our website or by following this link but the focus this week is on English and in particular, the Year 8 unit of work on rhetoric.

Being able to communicate to others in an effective manner is a life changing skill. Students have started their unit of work learning about Aristotle and what makes someone a talented orator before moving on to analyse iconic speeches from throughout history. They are now writing their own speech on whether or not video games should be banned and their passion and newly developed skills in doing so has been fantastic to see. In fact I'm fairly certain we have the makings of a future Prime Minister in this year group.

If your child is in year 8 (or any year group for that matter) please encourage them to debate this issue. Try to get them to persuade you that they are right about something and challenge them by suggesting alternative opinions.

CO-V4.pdf

Carrying out an environmental survey

The school council have developed a very comprehensive action plan for this year and one of their development aims is to become more sustainable as a school.

This week has seen them complete a survey of how much waste is put into the correct bin during lunchtimes and whilst the numbers were promising, they have suggested a few improvements. This includes the lids being removed from the bins so that students can easily see the contents and requesting that the site team empty the bins during lunch as well as at the end of the session so that people are not tempted to put recyclable goods in the wrong bin when it becomes full.

Taking part in a vape debate

Our Thursday literacy lens focused on the topic of vapes in many tutor groups with students reading about the law, the risks and the reality.

As always they were encouraged to discuss the news article and share their opinions with their class.

All students have access to The Day, our student newspaper via their chromebook and if they are using a different device, through their school log in landing page.

We encourage all parents/carers to read this article too and talk to your child about the dangers of this addictive habit.

If you have concerns about your child please contact their head of year.

theday.co.uk-Help us fight vape battle say schools.pdf

Signposting the School Nurse

Our school Nurse, Kelly will be in school on Tuesday 20th of January and any student can make an appointment to see her.

If you would like your child to access this service you can also request an appointment by contacting the School Nurse Duty Line - 03000269875

It is often difficult to make GP appointments and Kelly can help with all kinds of issues including stress, eating, sleeping, puberty related issues and contraception so please just let us know if you would like your child to see her.