Music students in Years 11 and 12 have been reviving the sounds of the "80s in preparation for a themed concert, which will be held at Bishop Auckland Town Hall in May. "Back to the "80s' will feature classics such as Madonna's "Get into the Groove', Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give you Up' and Womack and Womack's "Footsteps'; combined with a themed disco it will certainly be a night to remember!

Last term, 11 students in Years 9-13 took the ABRSM Grade 1 Music Theory exam for the first time at King James and all passed with flying colours

This year, eleven of our Year 13 students will be working at Glastonbury Festival thanks to a new initiative by Mr Longstaff, our Assistant Head Teacher and Director of Learning for Business Studies.

Year 12 Law students enjoyed a Q&A session with Helen Goodman MP recently as part of their A Level studies. The visit was organised by our Teacher of Law, Miss Grieveson as a follow-up to an initial meeting which took place in November in London.

Year 12 Photography student, Adam B has received a commendation in the national competition, Social Sciences for Schools.

Students in Music and Media were given an insight into the television industry when Dialogue Editor, Tom Williams visited King James. He spoke in both departments about his job, having worked for over seven years on shows such as Whitechapel, The Musketeers and Golden Globe winning Downton Abbey.

ICT students in Years 11,12 and 13 have visited Sunderland University School of Computing to see the excellent facilities and to find out about the options available for further education in the field.

As part of our A Level Sociology course with Mr Shearer, we recently went to see 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert' at Newcastle Theatre Royal. This was linked to our studies of culture and diversity as it looked at people's reactions towards drag queens and addressed the issue of stereotypes.

Sixth Form Drama and Performing Arts students have recently spent two days in London discovering the progression routes into a career in the Arts as part of our Aim Higher programme.

Sixth Form Media students have recently turned author-illustrators for a BTEC unit on Graphic Narrative. Eighteen students in total have written and illustrated a range of children's story books and comics for a variety of age groups, with exceptional results. Their work has now been produced as a collection of hard-back books.