The school is now entirely bricked at the back of the building and classrooms are being painted inside. 

We have one Maths classroom that is almost complete so we can see the final finish and use this to perfect the other rooms. 

By next week, all scaffolding will be removed and the lifts will be installed!

Our Kart has had been transformed with an updated finish ready for racing tomorrow. 

A huge thank you to Dr Atwal and Mr Talbot who are accompanying students on their F1 trip today. 

Following the rewards update last week students have started to purchase their end of year activities.

Once they have qualified for a reward the following must happen before they have a guaranteed place:

• Classcharts reward shop to order by 29th June

• Letter handed back into reception by Monday 7th July (including consent/waiver/educational visits form)

• The required payment will then be placed on your School Comms account

• Payments must be made by Monday 14th July

As you can imagine, organising hundreds of students to visit a range of reward activities requires much thought and invoices must be paid before the day of the activity for your child to take part. This can be done in weekly instalments or in one payment. As we do not handle cash on the school site, you need to be able to access your School Comms account to make a payment. Please contact reception asap if you have any difficulties with this so they can support. 

Places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. 

If your child qualifies for free school meals, a packed lunch will be provided. 

Some trips will involve a return after the school day and if your child selects one of these they must be able to make their own way home from school or be collected. 

Our KS3 students had an incredible opportunity to step out of the classroom and into the shoes of 19th-century medical detectives during a brilliant "Cracking Cholera" workshop at Newcastle University.

The day began with a rare privilege. Students were granted access to invaluable local archives, handling first-edition books and examining authentic 1800s records from the town of Gateshead. Seeing the real names, dates, and impact of the cholera outbreaks right on our doorstep brought the history to life in a way no textbook ever could.

After studying the grim symptoms of the disease, students travelled back to the 1800s to act as local apothecaries. Facing a simulated cholera outbreak, they put their medical intuition to the test by mixing their own traditional herbal potions to try and "cure" the illness. It was a fantastic, hands-on way to understand just how desperate the fight against disease was before modern medicine.

To wrap up the day, students stepped back into the present day to see how far science has come. Utilising university microscopes, they examined the actual Vibrio cholerae bacteria, making scientific observations about its structure and how it spreads.

A huge thank you to the team at Newcastle University!

The Governement have recently prublished a White Paper which outlines a number of changes for schools in the future. 

This week, they released further information about 'Enrichment for All' which specifies that all school should develop an enrichment programme.

As you know, our ACCESS programme already offers a huge range of enrichment activities for all students in our school and these government guidlines cement what we already value and provide an opportunity for us to develop this even further.

In next week's bulletin we will explain exactly how ACCESS will work next year and we would like you to discuss with your child, the importance of developing wider skills and getting involved. 

Year 8 Parent and Carer Evening is on Thursday 25th of June. Please book your appointments using School Cloud. 

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