A big thank-you to Duke’s alumni Alex Brown and Cameron Donnelly, who helped deliver assemblies to Y10 and Y11 this week.
They provided key ‘tips’ on revision, planning, discipline, time management and the importance of a strong work ethic to our students. This will hopefully help our students with their forthcoming mock exams.
They are both inspirational role models to our students.
Cameron is studying Sports Science at Sunderland university and Alex is studying Physiotherapy at Northumbria. They both work part time

, alongside their studies.

Each week, through our school-wide subscription to National Online Safety, Duke’s receives information about new and ‘trending’ apps and tech which might have a harmful impact on our pupils. This week’s update is about an app called ‘Replika’.

Replika is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot companion that its developers claim users can form an actual emotional connection with. Once users have created an account and chosen a 3D avatar, they select the type of relationship they want with the chatbot: friend, mentor or romantic partner. Using a neural network to hold an ongoing one-on-one conversation, Replika gradually becomes more like the user as it gathers data from their responses. It isn’t the only AI chatbot app available, but Replika pushes the boundaries of the concept to offer a highly realistic conversational experience.

In the guide below, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as possible addiction, inappropriate content and in-app purchases.

As school returns after our Christmas break, please see below a really useful guide on how to set up parental controls on new (and existing) devices for your children. It might be that you think that setting up such controls might require difficult to follow instructions, or be tricky, but this guide explains in very simple terms how you can add an extra layer of protection for your son / daughter.

The term ‘devices’ includes X-boxes, PlayStations and any other piece of technology that can connect to the internet.

Adding parental controls can help to prevent and restrict access to inappropriate content, block in-app purchases, restrict who can contact your child online, help you with setting automatic screen-time limits.

If you have any questions about this or need any further advice or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Dear Parent/Carer

The Department of Education has reintroduced the wearing of face masks in school. Face masks are now compulsory in communal areas and on buses for all year groups (unless medically exempt).

Can we also please ask that students continue to take lateral flow tests, twice weekly, at home.

These measures have been put in place to protect each other and hopefully ensure everyone gets to enjoy a wonderful Christmas.

We thank you for your continued support.

Thanks,

In line with the Government’s challenge to all schools to reduce the use of single use plastics by 2022 (Schools challenged to go single-use plastic free by 2022 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) we have made the decision to phase out the selling of bottled drinks over the course of this half term.

Drinks bottles are probably one of our major sources of plastic waste at school and, having already removed the use of plastic cutlery, we are keen to reduce our plastic footprint further.

We have water fountains installed around the school and have recently installed a new larger capacity fountain in the dining hall so that all students have regular and easy access to drinking water and we would like to encourage all of our students to bring their own reusable bottles so that they can continue to stay hydrated throughout the day.

Please help us to achieve our aim of reducing the use of plastic in school by providing your child with a reusable drinking bottle for use in school.