Tickets still available – ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ 12/7/23

12th July 2023Louise Gatti
Last night was our opening night for Little Shop of Horrors and it was an enormous success.
We have got a small but significant cast made up of mainly Year 11s who have worked tirelessly during exam season and they performed brilliantly last night.
There are still tickets available (in advance or on the door) for tonight and we invite you to come along if you can. The students love it when staff are in the audience and we are sure you will be blown away by their talents!

Take your Parent/Carer to School Day

12th July 2023Louise Gatti

Thank you to all the parent/carers who visited Duke’s on 11 July for ‘Take your Parent/Carer to school day’.
Parent/Carers where able to take part in lessons with their child as well as have a buffet prepared by our catering 6th form students to mingle with Duke’s staff.

Thank you for the Science Department for organising this wonderful day.

Duke’s Elite Warriors

6th July 2023Louise Gatti
A small group of year 10 students took part in an Army supercamp over 3 days as part of their work experience. For the first part of Monday, students visited Harrogate Army Foundation College which involved a tour of the site, an introduction to drill marching, an explanation of all of the kit soldiers use as a part of their training, as well as personal training which involved an obstacle course to test speed and balance, and crab football. On Monday afternoon, students moved to Catterick Army Base where they ate in the mess hall amongst regular soldiers, got to see an operational army base, were issued their kit to wear and the items they would need for fieldcraft the following day; they also had the opportunity to sleep in an army dormitory.
On Tuesday morning students woke up and packed their kit ready to move to Albemarle Barracks for the remainder of the experience. Firstly they were introduced to Battle PT, Team building exercises and a STEM activity which involved collaboratively building a device to transport an ammunition container. Then students moved into the field where they were shown how to cook ration pack meals for themselves. Students were then shown how to construct their own sleeping space in the woods using a basher, rope and sticks which they would be sleeping under that night. Tuesday was rounded off with some lessons on first aid, reconnaissance manoeuvres, a stalking exercise through the woods and a mini reconnaissance mission.
After a night sleeping in their shelters, students were surprised with an attack simulation which required them to respond to the sound of gunfire, investigate the situation and then conduct an emergency medical evacuation as a team, transporting the wounded soldier to a safe helicopter extraction site. The students threw themselves into the supercamp and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Rumble

6th July 2023Louise Gatti
Big names, challenging opinions and comparatively lenient censorship. Rumble is a video-sharing platform which has achieved stellar growth in recent years – as well as drawing a similarly eye-catching amount of criticism for the views of some of its best-known account holders

As our  guide this week explains, young users of the app (even ones who are over the recommended age limit) may encounter hazards including political bias, potentially harmful misinformation and inappropriate content if they stumble across Rumble.

ECourier from the Northumberland Education website.

5th July 2023Louise Gatti

On the ECourier from the Northumberland Education website.

There is an opportunity for staff, students and parents.

The Solihull Approach is a portal of online training and resources promoting emotional and mental resilience and wellbeing through positive and healthy relationships.

The  FREE online courses developed by psychologists and professionals can now be found on a dedicated web page.

https://solihullapproachparenting.com/online-courses-Northumberland/

Schools are encouraged to share these resources with parents, together with the access code HADRIAN. They cover aspects of parenting including understanding the teenage brain and understanding your child’s feelings.

I have sent the following information to students via the PSHE google classrooms.

There is a teenager’s version of each of these two courses (postcards attached here and here) Understanding your brain and Understanding your feelings.

If you would like to promote these with students over the summer, there is also an online video which introduces the course about the teenage brain.

Thanks Helen