Durham Johnston Comprehensive School

Durham Johnston Comprehensive School is a secondary school in Durham, UK.IntroductionDurham Johnston is a 1500-place 11–18 school serving Durham City and communities beyond to the south and west. It is situated on Crosssgate Moor, on the A167 (the former Great North Road). Durham Johnston traces its history to the foundation of a county grammar school for girls and boys in Durham City, partly funded by the will of Susan, widow of James Finlay Weir Johnston, in 1901 in South Street. Johnston is a Language College and a lead school for Gifted and Talented education, with full International Status. It is usually oversubscribed and runs on strict admissions criteria based entirely on students' addresses, managed by the County Council. The local Labour MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods is a governor of the school and was formerly Chair of Governors.HistoryDurham Johnston was founded in 1901 with money left to the County Council by Susan, widow of JFW Johnston who died in 1855. He was a pioneering educator, influential also in the development of Durham University and the colleges which became Newcastle University. He worked to bring education to a wide range of people – rich and poor, male and female – and believed that it should be secular, useful and scientific as well as historical and literary. The first Johnston was, unusually, a mixed grammar technical school until 1918, when a girls’ grammar school was built which is now the Durham Gilesgate Sixth Form Centre.The Johnston School opened in 1901 with 13 pupils. They came from a range of backgrounds. James Jefferson and William Potts were the sons of schoolmasters, John Wetherell’s father was the manager of the City Swimming Baths; Arnold Shaw’s father was a clergyman while Mary Martin’s father owned Martin’s Flour Mill in the City. Elizabeth Herbert’s father was a clerk and Lydia Pearson’s a signalman. Frances Guthrie was simply described as ‘orphan’.