23rd January 2026

Welcome to our weekly bulletin,

This week has possibly been the busiest yet with competition winning, national recognition and some rather important visitors.

We have been very busy...

Watching the roof construction

Our builders have been working at height this week and we have seen parts of the roof being craned into place.

In addition to this, the cafe structure has been constructed onto the side of the building and this will be our dinning facility.

Being inspected by OFSTED

We had the pleasure of being visited by OFSTED on Tuesday and Wednesday and whilst we can not share the provisional gradings until they are final, we can tell you that our students shone and were a credit to our school and your families. They were, as always, confident when talking about all the opportunities they are given her, respectful when conducting themselves around site and ambitious in their lessons and ACCESS activities.

We have been looking forward to this inspection for a while because our community deserves recognition for all the excellent things we do.

Thank you to all parents who took the time to share their parent voice. Hearing you say that your children are thriving in this school and that they feel happy, safe and well cared for was even more important to us than the inspection itself.

The final report will take around a month to be published and this will be shared in full with parents and carers as soon as we receive it.

Coming 2nd in the whole country

Year 9 students smashed it during the Generating Genius CSI Blood Pool challenge on Monday. The CSI blood pool simulation is a masterclass in experiential learning, transforming a classroom into a high-stakes forensic environment that instantly hooks student interest. By presenting a complex, "frozen-in-time" mystery, the activity compels participants to move beyond passive observation and engage in critical analysis under the clock.

Year 9 were beaten only by 1 other school in the country, coming 2nd overall. We are so proud of you Year 9. Well done.

Being recognised for good attendance

The SIMS attendance reports were published this week and we are very pleased that our school came 5th place against all other similar school in attendance.

This is a huge testament to the partnership between parents, carers and school because we are ensuring all students attend and learn well.

Thank you to Miss Hall, our attendance lead and to all parents and carers for helping us secure great attendance.

Planning the Durham University residential

It's hard to believe that our annual residential is almost upon us again but Mr Talbot has been hard at work preparing risk assessments and organising sessions with Durham University.

Students in Year 10 will now begin weekly sessions in preparation for March whereby they will get to experience life as a member of university with their own accommodation.

A huge thank you in advance to Durham YPP University Ambassadors who make this possible.

Being visited by the Esh Group

Year 8 students heard from The Esh Group today who outlined a number of future projects we will be delivering over the course of this year.

These projects include looking at different aspects of the business, developing career insight and employability skills such as how to present yourself in person, on paper and online.

Being brilliant

15 year 10 students have been working with PHD students from Northumbria University this morning as they start the university project on bacteria spores. Students will now write a 500 word essay which over the next term builds up to a submission of 2000 words which is graded using degree criteria. This is an amazing opportunity to gain real life experience of degree level thinking.