Durham House

All the staff within Durham House are committed to a high quality education for all pupils, delivered through a balanced provision of pastoral care.

The Academy's ethos is strong and evident within Durham House which provides a clear thrust in boosting pupils’ performance through positive guidance. Pupils are also given the opportunity to participate in extra curricular activities which are designed to build co-operation. Success at all levels is recognised and celebrated within the House.

All tutors within Durham House endeavor to provide an environment where care, guidance, support and progress are excellent which helps pupils build foundations for the future.

Durham House - Latest News

We are already half way through the school year and so much has already happened in Durham House it is hard to know where to begin!!

There was a lot of change this year with Mr Musicka and Mr Gilbert running Durham House and we now have a Link Governor Mr Farr. Not only that but we had 3 new tutors in Miss Moore, Mr Harper and Mr Heaney. They have all worked hard together with existing staff to move Durham forward and make it a more energetic and pro-active place to be.

There have been many trips and visits, which u can see on our web page, including a fantastic outdoor adventure away day for the year 7’s, a Wet and Wild trip, 2 bowling events and a visit of our prefects to Zoë’s Place (Durham Houses Charity). This brings us nicely to our prefect team and they have been an absolute revelation! Led by the enigmatic Joe Ash and Sara Jackson the team have been central to all that Durham has done. They hold weekly meetings, led by Mrs Chalmers and Mr Gilbert, in which they organise new ventures, produce weekly quizzes, organise assembly’s (prefects have delivered 2 already) and so much more. Long may it continue and they are setting the standard that others in years to come will do well to match.

The Pastoral Curriculum has been introduced this school year which has really focused tutor time and enabled tutors to treat form time as a lesson with tutor groups being engaged in some very interesting activities such as pumpkin carving competitions, displaying team work in building various structures and reinacting the famous ‘Frog and Mouse’ fable.

The Eston Park Challenge is now in full swing and D1 currently lead the way ion the race to Flamingo Land and you can see all of Durham Houses top performers in our EPS Challenge link. The Eston Park Challenge has played a key role in our latest venture, ‘Durham’s Got Talent’ in which we plan to celebrate all the achievements in and outside of school which was kicked off with an assembly made up of 3 of our pupils performing live in front of the whole house. All 3 pupils did wonderfully well so a great bit thank you to our 3 brave stars, Rachel Barnes, Nathan Lawrence and Heather Byrne.

Other individuals who warrant a special mention are Chloe Prout who won the EPS Apprentice, Keir Slatter who was awarded the Most Valuable Pupil Award at the annual Sports Dinner, Ashley Towse and Melissa Boyle who were Superman and Wonder Woman in the fitness tests organised by the PEPe Faculty and finally Jack Dodshon who has been selected in the Yorkshire Developmental Cricket Squad for under 13’s.