Congratulations to Chloe Smith from Year 7 who won a National Online Languages competition!!! Chloe wrote this beautiful song in Gaelic, about the sadness of the Gaelic language disappearing from Scottish culture, and submitted it to the British Council’s ‘Festival of Language’ competition in February. They were so impressed that Chloe was invited to perform the song at an online event, with only 7 other people throughout the world being among the winners! She was amazing!!! Well done Chloe.

Controversial changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy back in 2021 was a major shot in the arm for Telegram, as millions of users began searching for a more secure messaging platform. Indeed, Telegram is so confident in its resistance to hacks that it’s previously set challenges (with a prize of up to $300,000) to any user who’s able to crack its encryption.

Telegram isn’t new, but it’s grown significantly in popularity over recent years, due to its secure nature and speedier performance than many of its competitors, including WhatsApp. Whilst Telegram is an excellent app in terms of actual performance, like any other messaging platform it brings its own challenges for parents and carers when it comes to feeling confident about children being able to handle their own messaging conversations and contact with the outside world in general.

With protected ‘secret chats’ and self-deleting messages, however, Telegram’s security advantage has also been subverted by criminals using the app to trade stolen data, share child sexual exploitation material and arrange drug deals. As Telegram’s popularity continues to grow, our #WakeUpWednesday guide tells trusted adults what they need to be aware of.

Dear Student / Parent,
The Dukes’ Year 11 Revision Timetable is now live on the school website. To access it, please follow the link below or go to the school website / Student Hub / Revision Timetable.

Revision Timetable | Duke’s School (ncea.org.uk)

The timetable shows the dates and times of all revision sessions over the summer exam period, 15/5/2023 to 21/6/2023. These revision sessions will provide an opportunity for teachers to present last minute instruction, revision and advice before each exam and for that reason, all students are expected to attend the sessions for which they are taking an exam.
Students will be in full time school as normal up until we break for the half term holiday on Friday 26th May, so revision sessions up to this time will form a part of the normal school day. Once students return to school on Monday 5th June they will only be expected to attend when they have their usual timetabled English or Maths lessons or any of the revision sessions shown on the timetable. Once the final English and Maths exams have taken place (the last English exam is Monday 12/6/23, the last Maths exam is Wednesday 14/6/23) students will only be expected to attend school for their remaining revision sessions and exams.
In addition to the timetabled revision sessions, before each exam there will be an additional short revision session put on by the Head of Subject to remind the students of some of the key learning and skills they will need to exhibit in that paper. These will all take place in the Main Hall and students will afterwards be sent directly to their exam. Students should ensure that they are in school at least half an hour before their exam starts so that they can attend these important last minute support sessions.
May I take this opportunity to wish you well for the coming exam period and remind you that there is plenty of revision material available on subject Google Classrooms to support preparation for each exam. We also have plenty of tips and advice for effective and successful revision for each subject on our website for students to access. There is also a more general guide on revision techniques and a guide for parents on how you can best support your child through the exam period. You can access these by following the link below.

KS4 Revision Tips and Ideas

And finally, remember that every success starts with the decision to try.
Good luck.

Mr Line

Wizz is a networking app which allows users to connect and chat with other people around the world. Its principle is similar to a dating platform: users have a profile and up to three photos, with optional interests and hobbies tags. This allows other like-minded people to be recommended in searches. If a user likes what they see on someone’s profile, they can initiate conversation through the instant message feature; otherwise they swipe on. The app does use age verification technology when an account is created and groups users by age.

As of spring 2023, Wizz sits in the App Store’s top 20 social networking downloads and has amassed an impressive 10 million users globally. The majority of its user-base hail from Generation Z (that’s anyone currently between the ages of about 8 and their early 20s), with the app’s aim being to enable young people to forge rewarding online connections with others.

Despite its verification processes and security checks, Wizz can still be prone to risk, however. Bypassing the age limit of 13 isn’t particularly difficult, and – regrettably – wherever young people gather to chat online, potential predators and the possibility of explicit material are seldom far behind. Our #WakeUpWednesday guide has the lowdown on Wizz.