Friday Bulletin - Friday 10 May 2013

Dates For Your Diary

• Year 8 Parents Consultation Evening – Monday 17 June, 4.00 – 6.00 pm
• Year 7 Parents Consultation Evening  - Monday 1^stJuly 4.00 – 6.00 pm

Parent Mailing

You will get an envelope full of documentation from school very soon.  We are asking you for information about a new text messaging service, the biometric cashless catering service and some information about free school meals and a  request for your thoughts on how we communicate.

Communication

We have tried hard in recent years to improve our communication with parents.  This bulletin is one part of that !.  One of the letters in the envelope asks you to help us improve further - please send us your comments on the tear off slip and return to your child's form tutor, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

News of Change

I have decided to move on to a new challenge!  I have accepted the headship of a big school in London and will move in the summer.  Governors have already started the recruitment process, which should be complete by the end of this term.

Uniform - Years 7 - 11

Here is a link to our uniform list.  Please make sure that you read it before buying only school clothing for the rest of this year and for September 2013.

School Transport

This letter has been sent to users of the Arriva  853, 854 and 57A buses from County Hall. If you are affected by these buses, but have not had the letter, please read it here.

Durham Johnston Music Festival 2013

The closing date for entries for the 2013 DJ Music Festival is Thursday 16^thMay. Please do encourage your child to enter. It is always a lovely evening and it gives pupils a chance to perform in front of a very supportive audience and receive some brief personal feedback. For more details please click the following link. 

Durham Music Festival Entry Form

Mr Holmes – Subject Leader for Music

Fencing Success

Last weekend Durham Johnston student Asha Edwards (year 11) was one of four young people representing the North East in the Under 16 Girls Foil at the British Youth Championship held in Sheffield. There were 52 fencers in total in the age groups and Asha fought in six matches to achieve Bronze Medal.  Asha was the only North East fencer to finish in the top four.  In fencing competitions medals are awarded for Gold, Silver and two Bronze.  Well done Asha!

Maths Challenge News

Congratulations to Cameron Bain, Ruth Augarde and James Timmins who have been awarded certificates of merit in the UK Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad

The IMOK is sat by the top 500 scorers from each school year in the Intermediate Maths Challenge and consists of three papers, ‘Cayley’, Maclaurin and ‘Hamilton’' named after famous mathematicians. The paper each pupil takes depends on their year group (Caley for those in year 9 and below, Hamilton for year 10 and Maclaurin for year 11). Each paper contains six questions. For a student to get two questions fully correct is considered "very good".

Special congratulations go to Yuriy Tumarkin (Year 8) who receives a certificate of distinction and the bronze medal.  This is awarded to the top 100 scorers in each year group.

Miss Rush, Subject Leader for Mathematics

Debating Matters

Durham Johnston History GSCE students will be benefitting from the success of Durham Johnston’s debaters. Our debating team were rewarded for their performance in the ‘Debating Matters’ competition with a one year subscription to the online AQA Modern World History practice question resource.

Students can log on at http://resources.dynamic-learning.co.uk

User name: aqamwhqp

Password: student

Centre ID: 18251

Mr Johnson – History Department

Year 7 to visit the NCJ Media offices next term

Next term all year 7 students will have the opportunity to visit the NCJ Media offices in Newcastle.   They will experience what it is like to be a journalist, sub-editor, page designer or picture editor and will use industry standard software to produce the front page of a newspaper from start to finish. On the days of the visits students will focus on journalistic writing and will produce the stories, headlines, photographs, captions, masthead and plugboxes.

A letter has been sent out informing parents and carers of the visits.  Please click on the following link for further information.

NCJ Visit

Mrs Walton - Subject Leader for PHSE

Teams of the week

Tennis

Congratulations to our Under 15 boys tennis team who beat St Aidan’s 4 – 2 to reach the semi-final of the Tyneside Cup.

Rounders

Well done to our years 7 – 9 rounders teams who played some excellent games despite heavy rain and wind to be leading against Framwellgate School. The matches were stopped after first innings and will be completed later in the season.

Finally both our year 7 and year 9 football teams were playing in finals last night. Despite winning with one minute left our year 7 team eventually lost on penalties. It was a similar story for our year 9 team who were winning 2 – 1 with 10 minutes  left and conceded 2 late goals to lose 3 – 2. All the boys were a credit to the school throughout the games.

Mr Hopper – Subject Leader for PE

Friday Bulletin - 3 May 2013

 Dates For Your Diary

• Parents Forum – Thursday 9 May in James Hall
• May Day holiday – Monday 6 May 2013

Battle of the Bands 2013

This year’s annual Battle of the Bands competition will take place on Wednesday 26 June at 3.00 p.m.  The competition is a ‘plug and play’ competition, similar to ‘Live and Unsigned’ and entries of any genre are accepted, as long as the performance is live.  Bands must have more than two members to qualify, and will be expected to perform one song, either an original composition or a cover.

Prizes will be awarded for the best overall band (1^stPrize), the most promising band, the best original song and best cover.

Entry forms are available from Music department staff or may be downloaded by clicking on the following link.  All entries must be submitted by Wednesday 5 July at the latest.  Any year, any song, plug in, Rock On!

Battle of the Bands Entry Form

Mrs Sinclair, Music Department

Foodbank Week

Next week is Foodbank Week and it is the last chance to donate in this House year.  All donated items will be sent to the Durham Foodbank for distribution to families and individuals in crisis.  Please find a list of preferred items below.   

Thank you to all pupils, parents and staff for continuing to support this very worthwhile cause.

Miss Bittlestone, House Activities Co-ordinator

Year 12 Biologists take part in the Biology Olympiad Competition

Four of our A level biology students, Riley Clennell, Hannah Rhodes-Cheong, Lucy Henderson and Shentong Wang, took part in the Biology Olympiad Competition this year.   Between them they received 2 gold medals, one bronze medal and a Highly Commended result!

Shentong Wang obtained a mark high enough to be entered into the second round which was only offered to 155 students out of the 4200 that took part throughout the UK.  Although she did not make it into the last sixteen students, as Shentong is in year 12 , she is able to take part in the competition again next year.    In recognition of her achievement , Shentong has been invited to London to take part in a training session with the actual 16 finalists, four of whom will be representing the UK in the International Biology Olympiad.  This will be a fantastic experience for Shentong to meet up with top A level biology students from around the UK. 

Congratulations to all four of our Biology Olympians.  It was a tough 2 hour test and they have all done extremely well.

Dr. Bolton, Subject Leader for Biology

Durham Johnston ‘Karting’ team comes second

Durham Johnston’s Karting team, consisting of Kieran Smith, Connor Toghill and Luke O’Rourke, recently competed in the Regional Final of the British Schools Karting Championship where they finished in 2^ndplace They were ‘pipped to the post’ by only 2 points, which equated to 1 higher placing in any of their 6 races, so they did extremely well against a very strong set of racers. The team is now through to the National Final which is to be held near Silverstone later in the year.

Congratulations to the team! 

Mr Kennedy, Design and Technology Department

Teams of the Week

Congratulations to our year 9 and year 11 football teams who both reached League Cup Finals this week. Unfortunately they both played well but lost to very good teams. The year 9 team were particularly unlucky to lose 3 – 2 to a penalty in the last minute of extra time. They however won the Bishop’s Cup semi-final 10 – 1 against King James last night so have another final to look forward to next week.

Mr Hopper, Subject Lead for PE

Vacancy for a Governor at The Meadows School in Spennymoor

The Governing Body of the Meadows School in Spennymoor is seeking to recruit one or two additional governors to their active Governing Body.  A recent campaign to recruit from within the immediate area has been unsuccessful and the Governing Body is now looking to recruit amongst parents who have children at other schools in the area. 

The Meadows is a mixed secondary special school that caters for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). The school is very well managed and the most recent Ofsted in late 2012 produced a very good report. In addition, the school has recently been given £2million to improve facilities which will build the improvements to the facilities and buildings carried out in recent years.  In addition the school is now engaged in an interesting development to accept a small number of pupils who would normally attend primary school.
 

 If you are interested in becoming a Governor at this school and would like to find out more please contact  Sue Cook, Headteacher   on 01388 814050 or Bill Worth, Chair of Governors on 0191 3880629.   http://www.themeadowsschool.info/
 

Friday Bulletin - 26 April 2013

Dates For Your Diary

• Year 7 Parents Induction Programme (Languages) – Monday 29 April
• Parents Forum – Thursday 9 May in James Hall

Warhammer

On Tuesday Jamie Watkins, Tom Wilkinson, Ben Redhead and Yang-Yang Wang were placed 6th  in the regional finals for the Warhammer School League. They had a brilliant day, winning 8/12 matches. They are now through to the National Finals in June.

Mr A Ferguson, Maths Department

Battlefields Visits 2013 reminder

The penultimate payment of £150 for the History department’s Battlefields visit is due by 6^thMay. If there are any concerns regarding this payment, please contact Mr Wilbraham in History. A meeting for parents will be held in July.  Itineraries will be distributed prior to the half term holiday.

Mr Wilbraham, Subject Leader for History

Could you help Scouting?

A Message from Durham City Scout Executive

I wonder if you could help? We are looking for a couple of new people to join the Durham City Scout Executive. This group oversees the Scouting in the Durham City area and encourages best practice, joint activities and new developments. The Executive is made up of people who are not Scouts but are critical friends to the movement and provide support to the District Commissioner as he develops Scouting through the different Groups.

This is a role which would appeal to adults who like young people to get outdoors and understand the attraction of regular informal learning as part of their development. There are currently about 500 children and young people (male and female) in Scouting in Durham. 70 adults volunteer in a wide range of roles. There are existing thriving Groups across Durham City at Framwellgate Moor, Waterhouses, Brandon, Elvet, Gilesgate, and Belmont. We have just started a new Group at Coxhoe, and a branch at Trinity School. We would like to see new Groups at Langley Park and Sacriston.

The Executive meets about 4 times a year, but there is some work between meetings: agreeing money payments, thinking about how to develop a Group etc. As with all voluntary bodies the work expands to match your capacity and interest.

If you are interested you can get in touch with John Little who is the District Commissioner This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

You might like to look at these websites for a more detail:

http://www.durhamcityscouts.org.uk//index.php?logout=1is the District site, and it includes specific volunteer job vacancies.

http://scouts.org.uk/home/is the main national Scout website.

http://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/71is the Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) defines the structure of Scouting in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and provides information about its management and training.

6^thDurham Johnston Music Festival

Entries are now being taken for the 2013 School Music Festival which will take place on the evening of Thursday 4th July. The Festival is open to solo performing musicians of any standard and the closing date for entries is June 17^th. For more details please click on the following link.

Durham Music Festival Entry Form

Mr Holmes Subject leader for Music

Teams of the Week

Our U13 and U15 girls cricket teams are through to the regional finals, representing Durham County, at Headingley, Leeds.  U13’s played on Tuesday this week result (to follow!).  Good luck to the U15 team, made up of year 9 and year 10 girls, who are representing County Durham in the final today.

Congratulations to our Intermediate Boys’ Athletics team who took part in the Tyneside Boys’ athletics Championships at Monkton Stadium on Wednesday. They were competing against the best schools in the North-East. This competition is dominated by the private schools with RGS, Newcastle winning nearly every year. However we produced some outstanding performances to score 101 points, beating Emmanuel College (98 points) and RGS (80 points) into 2^ndand 3^rdto become Tyneside champions. Special mention to Oliver Watson who won all three of his events (800M, Long Jump and relay)

Mr Hopper, Subject Leader for PE

Friday Bulletin 19 April 2013

Dates For Your Diary

• Year 7 Parents Induction Programme (Languages) – Monday 29 April
• Parents Forum – Thursday 9 May in James Hall. 

Durham Johnston Students join National Youth Orchestra performance workshop

The National Youth Orchestra held their Spring Course in Durham this year and on Easter Monday four Durham Johnston Students were privileged to join them for the day. The students reported that it was a fascinating and beneficial experience. Congratulations to Harriet Chater, Rachael Coultard, Shentong Wang and Joe Wright for taking up this challenge.

Mr Holmes, Subject Leader for Music

Durham Johnston student to spend summer in America

Sixth Form student Sophie Cordery is to spend summer in America this year!  Sophie has been successful in gaining a place on the Sutton Trust Summer School programme which aims to give year 12 students a taster of studying in the USA.   In August, Sophie will spend a week at Yale University and will also pay visits to other campuses and attend a USA College Day.  As part of the initial application process Sophie attended a finalists’ residential course in London.  Finalists had to undergo an ACT test and an interview and were provided with a wealth of information about making application to a US university and the benefits of studying abroad.  

Click on the following links for further information.

http://www.suttontrust.com/home/

 http://www.suttontrust.com/programmes/university/sutton-trust-us-programme/

Maths Department News

International Mathematical Olympiad and Kangaroo

Congratulations to Zak Beattie in year 9 who has been awarded a certificate of merit in the Intermediate Mathematical Oylmpiad and Kangaroo.

Newcastle University Maths Challenge 2013

Year 8 student from Durham Johnston, Yuriy Tumarkin is one of the prize winners in this year’s Newcastle University Maths Challenge. There were over 1200 entries this year, so the standard for prize winning entries was very high!  There will be a reception held at the University in May where winners will receive their prizes and certificates and enjoy an entertaining mathematical talk.  Well done Yuriy!

Junior Maths Challenge 2013

120 pupils from years 7 and Year 8 will take part in the Junior Maths Challenge on Thursday 25^thApril.  The standard of entries has been very high this year and we are expecting a number of pupils to qualify for the next round.

Miss Rush, Subject Leader for Maths

Durham Johnston teacher accompanies the Young Americans on their first visit to South Africa

During the second week of the Easter Break I was lucky enough to accompany the Young Americans their first visit to South Africa as part of their ‘International Music Outreach Tour.’ After seeing the success of their project in our school I was excited to see how they worked in other cultures. We visited 3 schools during the week, two in townships and one in a more affluent part of the city. It was so inspiring to see these performers literally change the lives of poverty stricken children in just a couple of days.

As part of the project I was able to create some exciting partnerships with the schools we visited. Students from Johnston have already written letters to their South African counterparts to share their experiences of Young Americans and also their life in Durham. This is something which I hope is able to Continue in years to come. Our official partner school is I.D Mkhize which is in the Cape Town township called Gugulethu. The students there face many day to day hardships including, but not limited to poverty, HIV and gang violence. It was heart warming to see such happiness and hope in the faces of those who face such adversity. In the coming months and years, we will strive to strengthen our partnership with I.D Mkhize through fund raising, resource sharing and communication. It is a venture which both schools will benefit immensely from.

Mr Blake, Science Department

Durham Foodbank Trolley Push

Pirctured below are two of our Sixth Form students who took part in a supermarket trolley push through the city centre today to help raise awareness of the work of the Durham Foodbank.

Team of the Week

Football

Congratulations to our year 7 team who beat Wolsingham 10 – 0 on Tuesday and Sedgefield 10 – 0 tonight to win the Bishop Auckland Schools League title – an excellent achievement. Their league record this season is:

Played 12       Won 11           Drawn 1         Lost 0.

The team are also in the league cup final in 2 weeks time. Our year 9 and year 11 football teams have also reached league cup finals which will be played in the next 2 weeks.

Mr Hopper, Subject Leader for PE