Well done to our Easter Lucky Dip winners

Sally, our Chaplin, pulled names out of a hat for the top Classchart points winners for this term to win a chocolate egg.

Also Sally dashed off to judge our Easter Egg Virtual Competition and see our winners below.

Students at Duke’s got the fantastic opportunity to take part in an initiative “Fish In Schools Hero programme”

PLATE EXPECTATIONS: A delicious salmon creation

CATCH OF THE DAY: Students at Duke’s Secondary participate in an educational first courtesy of the Fish In Schools Hero (FISH) programme

Students at Duke’s are the lucky recipients of Alaska salmon to upskill their fish cookery.

Run by the Food Teachers Centre, in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
#fishheroes and tag us in @FoodTCentre @fish.heroes

Hospitality and Catering students hooked on new educational fish promotion project

Students at Duke’s Secondary have been involved in a groundbreaking project as part of their Hospitality and Catering courses. In a national first, Duke’s were the recipients of a special delivery of wild Alaska pink salmon to use in their classrooms, in a bid to improve their fish cookery skills.

Fish in Schools Hero (FISH) programme devised by The Food Teachers Centre, in partnership with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Together, they will deliver 20,000 fillets of wild Alaska salmon to schools for cookery students to prepare up and down the country.

The programme aims to ensure that every child gets a chance to prepare, cook and eat fish before they leave school. It teaches students about sustainability and nutrition as well as developing delicious dishes with the Alaska salmon in their practical classes.

Students watched teacher and online demonstrations attentively observing before tackling the complex dishes and flavours. Many of our students had not tasted or cooked salmon before so this was an amazing opportunity for them.

Jayne Fitzsimmons Hospitality and Catering teacher “We are thrilled that we have been selected to receive the wild salmon from Alaska. It means that our students can not only learn about wild fisheries and the different tastes, textures and usages, but also cook with the fish themselves.”

To support teachers, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute and Food Teachers Centre have also developed sample lesson plans, a training workshop and video recipes by chef and former MasterChef winner Dhruv Baker.

Both teachers and students are completing the online Alaska seafood training course, which is a deep dive into the Alaskan fishing industry and the different species available from Alaska.

We have been working with the Fish In Schools Hero programme since the beginning of the year to get the Alaska salmon into students’ hands and we are pleased that students will finally get the opportunity to cook with it.

Pupils at Duke’s Secondary School recently held a fundraising day to raise money for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Staff and pupils got really creative with their fundraising ideas! We had a nail bar where staff could have their nails painted, this raised £100. We had cakes on sale the kitchen had kindly made and staff sponsored the sales to raise extra funds. Students and staff were encouraged to wear yellow and blue and thanks to a last minute donation of £45, we have managed to raise a grand total of £1,000!

It was a truly inclusive day with staff and students encouraged to write messages of support or prayers onto paper doves. These doves will be on display in the Atrium for everyone to see and there were lots of heartwarming and thoughtful messages written. All money will go to the DEC appeal which will provide valuable support to the organisations which are helping the people of Ukraine. A huge thank you to everyone involved!