The planning team met last Friday to discuss heating, lighting and energy usage in our new school. 

Our mission is to be a sustainable organisation that contributes to our world without damaging the environment. We currently have solar panels on the Tinkler building and using renewable sources is a high priority.  

Getting lighting right is more complex that you might think. From planning glazing to maximise on the distribution of natural light, to overhead fixtures, we need to plan installation very carefully. It's vital that our staff and students are exposed to natural lighting. It's important for body clocks and brain function but if windows are positioned in the wrong place, it can impact on the ability to project teaching and learning materials and the ability to see without glare within the room. 

We need our building to be warm but not too hot and to be responsive to the rather changeable Ushaw Moor climate! Corridors need to be heated but not waste the heat and maintaining a comfortable temperature in a sustainable way requires much consideration and expertise. 

More on the new build progress next week...

Year 8 students have been experiencing university life this week with a very special visit to Newcastle University. As well as a guided tour of campus, students experienced Maths and Sciences lectures. 

As we couldn't all be accommodated at once, our second group will visit on the 12th of December.

A great time was had by all the students who were a credit to our school. Thank you to Dr Atwal for organising this and the second event. 

Every year, more than 1700 people die on UK roads.

Another 30,000 receive serious, life-changing injuries.

The numbers are shocking, and there has been no significant reduction for more than a decade. Road casualties are not just statistics. Behind every number is a family in turmoil. A grief-stricken family trying to navigate its way through the complex procedures that often follow a road crash. Behind every number is a family whose lives have been changed forever in an instant and our students have been learning about how to stay safe near roads including outside of school. 

The paths near school are narrow and our car park is strictly for buses and local authority taxis only. Please be mindful if you park near school gates when collecting students and ensure that your parking does not endanger the life of a child. All children have to leave via the pedestrial gate and will not been allowed to leave via the vehicle exist. This is to protect their safety. Any parent who is collecting a child on foot must also abide by these rules. 

Each faculty in school has a fortnightly quality assurance review. We analyse the quality of education, student voice, personal development, attitudes to learning and behaviour and the leadership thereof. 

Our spotlight this week has been on Science and we are very pleased to learn that our development priority to increase the number of practical lessons has been achieved with 98% of year 7 students telling us that they do science practical experiments on a regular basis. 

So far since September students have carried out practicals in Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

This is what science is all about and creates a love of learning and an understanding of the subject that underpins progress in key stage 4. The impact of this can also be seen in behaviour data for Science as there has been a significant increase in the number of Star student points being issued by the faculty. 

Miss Chapman's Tutor Group have been the best attenders in school this week. Well done 7CH! 

This week we have also had a focus on punctuality. Being on time is part of being ambitious and the start of the day is really important because it's when we award ready to learn points, check equipment, carry out our personal development programme and attend assembly which often include guest speakers. We know that there are occasions when cars break down or snow prevents us being on time but if a student is late because they just haven't tried hard enough to be on time, they will recieve a detention. 

Christmas lunch will available to all students on Wednesday 11th of December. 

We all look forward to sharing our festive feast together and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, all students are invited to have the set lunch as a free school meal on that day. Halal options are also available and allergies as always, are catered for. 

As you can imagine, this is a significant undertaking for our kitchen staff and the entire Cafe is filled with staff and students who sit together and enjoy this event. If your child does not want to have their free school meal on that day they will be required to bring a packed lunch as this is the only service available. 

A big thank you in advance to our catering team- we can't wait!

Computing was the star of the show during Wednesday's Work of the Week. Wan and Rebecca were nominated for creating a fantastic coding game on scratch. Mrs Blankley couldn't help but nominate Alisha and Ria  for their marvellous Maths work (again!) and Mrs Ball nominated Summer for some absolutely incredible Child Development Coursework. Each piece of work shared showcased confidence, ambition and respect and it was a pleasure to see.  

Students from Durham Academy and Shotton Hall gathered together this week to showcase the work that they have been doing with Elysium Theatre. Students performed their scenes based upon the work that they have been doing with Elysium, critiqued others and even gave interviews to the Elysium media department. Students confidently represented Durham Academy in their project bringing Shakespeare to all.  Thank you to Mrs Anderson for making this happen and to Mr Clarke and Mrs Hesslewood who accompanied the students to their performance.

Yes, Oases. Not Oasis.  In June we successfully applied for a £10000 grant to develop our school environment by turning some grey areas green. This also allowed us to begin to redevelop sections of our school garden. We worked really closely with OASES, an educational charity based in Esh Winning, and groups of students have designed and built planters, audited our school site for wildlife and shared their views on how they would like the site to be developed.

We were delighted to discover this week that we had been awarded a further £2000 which is to develop a pond in our garden, and support resources to help study wildlife in our Geography and Science lessons. We were also excited to welcome OASES to deliver an assembly to Y7 and Y8 students which discussed the findings of their survey on local wildlife, as well as showcasing some brilliant ways that engineers have made sure animals are safe within towns and cities across the world.

If your child would like to support the development of the school garden they should speak to Mr Potter in the first instance.

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