9 January 2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
Doing the Great North Run, eating healthier, joining the gym, learning to play the guitar… welcome to January, the month of bold pronouncements and New Year’s resolutions! There is something about the idea of fresh beginnings and reinventing yourself that make the New Year quite special but, in truth, it’s actually really hard to make changes and even more difficult to stick to them. Resolutions are not just about willpower. They are (depending on your subject specialism!) a variable, a force, a social contract, or a biological challenge.
Let start with Newton's First Law in Physics. “An object at rest stays at rest until...” Your current habits are powerful forces of inertia. To change them and start that new gym routine, you're battling the "static friction" of your cosy couch. It takes more energy to get moving than to keep moving. So maybe we need to add in some activation energy from Chemistry to get us moving. This is where a chemical reaction needs a specific spark to get going. We have to be careful though; if that spark is too big, the reaction won't happen. We need to make sure our resolutions or goals are small enough to be manageable.
No bulletin would be complete without a wee bit of maths so we should refer to the power of tiny gains and smart investments. All too often people approach resolutions with a ‘go big or go home’ mentality, but this idea is sadly mathematically flawed. As my Year 11 class know, embracing the compound interest formula can lead to huge gains with very small changes over time. If we improve by just 1% every single day, after a year, we will be nearly 38 times better than when we started. That's the beauty of exponential growth! We need to focus on consistent, minuscule improvements for long term gains.
A biologist would tell you that your brain is incredibly adaptable, thanks to neuroplasticity. Every time we repeat a habit, we are literally strengthening the neural pathways in your brain, thickening the "myelin sheath" that helps signals travel faster. This is how habits become automatic. However, doing this can be metabolically expensive, so we need to remember that fatigue isn't just "weakness", it's a biological signal. It’s important that we prioritise sleep, nutrition, and managing stress to help us stick to our goals.
For the non-scientists, history shows us that resolutions have evolved from ancient Babylonians vowing to pay debts to Roman promises to the gods. It seems that in those days people were, unsurprisingly, more likely to stick to pledges when the threat of cosmic or community consequences loomed. All great mythological stories have a hero’s journey (think the Odyssey) where they will have challenges, setbacks, and moments of doubt, but they succeed in the end. Perhaps we need to imagine that setbacks are just plot twists in our own narrative, and opportunities for character development, not reasons to end the story.
Finally, a little Geography and the environment that plays an important role. If your kitchen is still full of half-eaten selection boxes, it's far harder to maintain a healthy diet! If your desk is a mess, focusing on work can be an uphill battle. This is environmental determinism in action. Designing our physical space to make the desired behaviour the easiest option, and the undesired behaviour the hardest can only be a solid approach.
As parents and teachers, we can often focus on encouraging children's willpower. Whilst of course that is important, a multidisciplinary approach can teach us that there are actually many other factors that help us, not just good old fashioned sheer grit. So what can we do to help? Maybe instead of telling students to just try hard, concentrate and get their homework done, we can help them be a geographer of their study space. Is it quiet? Are distractions minimized? Are supplies easily accessible? Is their phone out of the way? Is they are struggling with revision, maybe we can talk to them about the small, consistent practice that builds skills and long-term knowledge rather than the overwhelming day of revision. We can help them understand their own energy levels and how sleep impacts their performance.
By teaching children to think about their goals through these diverse lenses, maybe we are not just helping them achieve one resolution; maybe we are equipping them with a powerful structure for lifelong problem-solving and self-mastery.
Happy New Year! Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McFadden
Key Dates
A reminder that you can find all the dates of our parents’ evenings and parental information presentation (PIPs) s on the website under ‘News and Events’ – click here for the direct link.
In particular, we would like to remind parents of Year 11 students that there is a PIP on Monday 12th January, from 4:30pm to 6:00pm, which includes the opportunity to meet your child’s tutor and to learn more about the core subjects including revision support for GCSE Mocks and Summer exams.
For parents of Year 12 students, Virtual Parents’ Evening is on Monday 19th January, from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Appointments will be available to book from Monday 12th January at 10:00 am until Thursday 15th January at 5:00 pm via SchoolCloud.
Extra-Curricular Programme
Our extra-curricular programme for the term has been updated and is available on the website under ‘News and Events’ and ‘Personal Development. This includes details of all revision sessions available to students in exam years – click here for the direct link.
Parent Governor Election
As previously advertised, we have three vacancies for Parent Governors on the Governing Body. We would like to invite nominations from parents and carers who are interested in contributing to the effective governance and continued success of the school. Please click here for more information and links to the nomination form.
The deadline for receipt of completed and signed nomination forms is by close of business Monday 12th January.
Children’s Commissioner – A Guide For Parents On Managing Children’s Digital Lives
Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, has just emailed schools with a new guide for parents and carers on managing children’s digital lives.
Technology is moving at a concerning rate, and our young children are at the forefront of that technological shift.
Dame Rachel de Souza writes in her email to headteachers:
“Children are clear that they value firm, informed and protective boundaries when adults have concerns about the content they are accessing online.
As parents, carers, and educators, our job must begin and end with our children’s care and safety. It’s what they expect and what they want from you.
As one young person told me: ‘Don’t be afraid to be firm… If you are worried [that] your child is seeing harmful content and you don’t know what they’re watching and it’s affecting the behaviour, just take it that you know best – they don’t.’”
My favourite section contains recommendations from our young people on “home rules”, these are:
1) No phones at the dinner table (adults included)
2) No devices in your child’s bedroom
3) Have some phone-free time
4) Share why you’re using your phone.
You can read the PDF version of the booklet here, and visit the Children’s Commissioner resources webpage here.
Great advice for us all.
Mr Digby
Strategic IT Lead
Food Department News
Future Chef Success!
Congratulations to Nathan and Ruby, who have made it through to the local final of the Future Chef competition! We travelled to Darlington College, where they competed against other schools from across the North East.
Both students are passionate about pursuing food and catering studies next year, and this event was a fantastic opportunity to showcase their skills. With just one hour and a £6 budget, they created two incredible dishes:
• Fish with homemade tacos
• Burgers with homemade brioche buns and mayonnaise
An outstanding effort from both young chefs – well done, Nathan and Ruby!
Also congratulations to a group of Year 10 & 11 students, who stayed after school to bake hundreds of festive pies to feed those who were attending our schools Christmas Concert in December. The evening was a huge success and we also sold hot chocolates. All money raised will go towards our GCSE food trip and a donation also made towards the Trussell Trust. Excellent job catering for so many, well done team!
PE News
It is excellent to start 2026 with news of success during the holidays. On Sunday 28th December, nine of our athletes travelled to Lancaster to compete in the northern regional biathlon championships. After an excellent day of running and swimming, Wilf B won the Year 9 event to become northern champion (a title he won last year). Seb C also finished 3rd and Jensen S 6th. That meant we also won the school team title for Year 9. All our other athletes also did very well, finishing in the top 12 places. They all are now waiting to see who has qualified for the national finals which take place at Bath University in March.
Despite the weather we have been able to get all our clubs started again this week and have also hosted three Bishop Auckland Schools futsal finals. On Tuesday our Year 7 girls faced Whitworth. This was a close game throughout which we unfortunately lost 4-3. Halle R was POM. On Wednesday it was the turn of our Year 8 girls to play St John's. We played some excellent futsal on our way to a comfortable 14-3 victory. POM was Molly C. Straight after that our Year 11 boys also played St John's. This was a closer game, but we held on to win 5-3 with Zack S POM. Both these teams are now area champions and progress to the next round.
Good luck tonight to our Year 8 basketball team who are at Emmanuel College competing in the Tyneside final.
Finally, a reminder to our Year 9 and Year 10 skiers to meet at school for 11.30pm on Saturday evening ready to travel to Italy for what should be amazing week of ski-ing.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE
