A group of ten students in Year 10 and two in Year 12 are currently visiting Collège Béranger, our partner school in Péronne, near Amiens in France as part of their languages studies.

Interviews are currently underway for the much sought after places on this year's team for the Future Business Magnates (FBM) competition.

Staff and students are celebrating after record GCSE examination results. 100% of our students achieved 5 A*-C grades, with a significant improvement on headline measures from 2012 results. Congratulations go to our students for their efforts and achievements.

Our Sixth form students are celebrating after another year of success and improvement in AS and A2 examination results. We wish to congratulate the superb attitude and efforts of these students in achieving such high standards.

During the summer holidays, eight students spent 17 days in Florida on the fifth Enterprise USA trip, which is organised by Mr Brown and Miss Howard.

Each year at King James we offer a free two-week long summer school for Year 7 students who will be joining us in September. We organise a fun-packed programme of activities in school, followed by a free three-day adventure holiday at Winmarleigh Hall in Lancashire to round off the fortnight. The programme is specifically designed to help our new students make friends and build confidence; this makes the transition from primary to secondary school much easier.

With new recording facilities and rehearsal spaces on the way as part of our new development, Music students will be able to learn about commercial aspects of the music industry from performance techniques to sound engineering.

The first batch of Mrs Babington's Incredible Edible plants are thriving in our new fruit and vegetable garden thanks to the hard work of a dedicated student team.

King James is 'ahead of the field' and looking forward to the opening of the first 4G Artificial Turf Pitch in Bishop Auckland.

Planning and fundraising for the first Phillippines Dive Project is now well underway. This amazing opportunity for a group of students in Years 11, 12 and 13 will see them spending three weeks in the Phillippines during the summer holidays next year.