30 January 2026
Dear Parents and Carers,
Since I wrote to you last Friday, we have received a number of communications from the Department of Education, two of which I would like to share with you today.
The following is an excerpt from a letter I received from Bridget Philipson (Secretary of State for Education) at the end of last week.
“Congratulations to you and your team on the excellent outcomes the disadvantaged pupils at Durham Johnston Comprehensive School achieved at the end of the 2024/25 academic year. Your school’s performance places it among the very best nationally, and this is a significant achievement.
This success reflects the dedication of your staff and the hard work of your pupils. It shows what can be achieved when ambition and commitment come together. Thank you for everything you do to give children the best possible opportunities to succeed”
As a comprehensive school that serves the young people of Durham, our dedicated staff have always strived to give those young people the best possible start in life, regardless of background or ability. The outcomes celebrated above reflect our commitment to our core values of academic excellence and social justice and we are delighted that these strong results will have helped so many of our students achieve their next steps. Going forward, we will continue to endeavour to provide the best possible educational experience for all of our students.
The second communication related to mobile phones. At Durham Johnston we have always had a strong, consistently implemented and effective mobile phone policy; indeed, we were one of the first schools in the local area to introduce a “not visible on site” rule. This Monday, as widely published in the media, the DfE issued “Strengthened guidance on mobile phones in schools”. Whilst we support the principles of this new guidance, we intend to take the necessary time to review it fully in the context of our school before making any adaptions to our existing policy. As a diverse school serving a geographically wide area with a large Sixth Form, there are many aspects we must consider. I am aware that this is an area on which many of our parents and carers will have strong views. I would like to reassure you that the best interests of our students will remain at the heart of any decisions, and we will carefully consider the impact of any changes on all members of our school community.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McFadden
Road Safety
We would like to encourage all parents and carers to remind your children about road safety. We are especially concerned about the habits of some students crossing the A167. In particular, if your child catches a service bus and gets off near Sainsburys, please remind them to use a designated safe crossing point across the Great North Road. At this time of year with poor weather and poor visibility we remind our students regularly about keeping themselves safe, and the importance of following the Green Cross Code!
The Green Cross Code
1. Think! First find the safest place to cross
2. Stop! Stand on the pavement near the kerb
3. Use your eyes and ears! Look all around for traffic and listen
4. Wait until it's safe to cross! If traffic is coming, let it pass
5. Look and listen! When it is safe, go straight across the road – do not run
6. Arrive alive! Keep looking and listening
Sparx Reader Form Competition
This week in English, we launched our Sparx Reader League Table. Forget the Premier League, this is where the competition gets exciting!
Form groups in Year 7 and 8 will compete to achieve the highest total Sparx Reader Points and average completion rate. A huge well done to 7JW and 8SW, who have the highest SRP, and to 7UA and 8SW, who have the best completion rate! A special mention to 7UA, who have had 100% homework completion for 5 weeks in a row! These students have earned 20 house points for Annand with their fantastic homework effort.
Students must complete 250 Sparx Reader Points each week. This equates to 30-45 minutes of careful reading of a book of their choice. Sparx Reader homework is set every Tuesday and due the following Tuesday.
Keep up the great work Year 7 and 8, and may the battle commence! We will announce our Term 2 winners before Easter, who will win a form class prize!
Miss Bailey
English Department
Festive Fun Run
Well done to all of our Year 7 and 8 students and their families who contributed to the Festive Fun Run in December; we received this 'thank-you' this week!
PE News
Last Friday our Year 9 boys’ basketball team hosted Dame Allan's in the Tyneside Cup Final. This was a great game between two very strong teams. We took an early lead and never gave up but eventually lost 65-40. A great team performance with 10 different scorers. Our Year 10 team have their Tyneside final next week against Kings School.
On Monday our U16 boys’ basketball team made the short journey to Durham School for a friendly match. We proved too strong for them playing some excellent basketball going on to secure a 75-29 victory. POM was Reuben V with an excellent second half shooting display.
Also on Monday, our VIth Form boys’ football team were at Cardinal Hume for a league game. We started slowly but soon found our rhythm scoring five first half goals on our way to a 6-3 win. Our goals came from Cole C (2), Yacine B, Dan B and 2 from POM Dom W.
Also on Monday, we hosted the County round of the English Schools badminton competition for both KS3 and KS4. There were some excellent very close matches with our teams finishing runners-up and just missing out on the regional finals.
On Tuesday the weather caused the postponement of the Year 7 and 8 girls’ CVL football competition at Parkside. However, we did host the Area Year 8 basketball competition. We entered an A and B team, and both played some excellent basketball. Our A team beat our B team in the final game to finish runners-up with our B team in 3rd place.
On Wednesday, our Year 7 boys’ football team hosted Parkview in the Tyneside Cup. We produced our best display of the season, completely dominating the game and eventually winning 11-1. Blake I scored a hattrick but the whole team were awarded POM.
Our VIth Form boys’ football team played their second game of the week against Whitburn in the League Cup. We dominated possession and had many chances but just couldn't find the net eventually losing 2-0. Joint POMs were Alex H and Harry C.
Last night our Year 9 & 10 netball teams were in league action against Lanchester St Bede's. We secured two comprehensive victories as our Year 9s won 19-2 and our Year 10 team won 32-7. Our Year 10s remain unbeaten and top of the league with only Framwellgate to play.
Also last night, our U15 girls’ football team were at Parkside for their CVL. We fielded an understrength team but battled hard claiming a 2-0 victory against Staindrop and draws against Parkside and Woodham. POM was Roma B
Thanks again to Durham Uni handball team who gave up their time this morning to offer some excellent coaching to our U13 girls’ team in preparation for their county tournament. It will be the turn of our U15 boys next week.
Finally, good luck to our U19 netball team who on Sunday are at Sports Central, Newcastle for the regional netball finals. If we manage to finish in the top two schools, we will qualify for the national finals which take place in March.
Mr Hopper
Subject Leader for PE
A reminder of our weekly sports bulletin: