Keeping your children safe online

5th January 2022Leanne Tonks

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.

Duke’s Christmas Performance 2021

17th December 2021Leanne Tonks


(If the video doesn’t load in the frame above, click on the icon in the right hand corner of the grey box to view)

We are delighted to share with you these Christmas performances our students have been working on. For many of our students it is the first opportunity they have had to share performances with friends and family for quite some time and they have been working incredibly hard over the past few weeks rehearsing and recording.

We hope you enjoy listening to our students perform Christmas favourites, such as ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ and we wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Pupils collect over 900 items for local food bank

16th December 2021Leanne Tonks

As part of it’s annual Christmas campaign, The Beacon lunch club at Duke’s Secondary School chose to once again support the Wansbeck Valley Food Bank. This is the third year that the school has collected long-life foods, tinned goods, toiletries and Christmas items such as boxes of biscuits, Christmas puddings, crackers and chocolates to donate to the food bank, which does incredible work to support families and individuals in our local community.

Due to Covid-19 the support the food bank offers is more valuable than ever. Recognising this, The Beacon students went above and beyond to support and promote the campaign and ended up collecting over 900 different food items! All of the donations have now been boxed up and will be collected by the food bank.

In addition to the food collection, the students also organised a raffle and have sold Secret Santa candygrams in-school, so we were also able to make a cash donation to the food bank of £100. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person who contributed to our collection and to this wonderful cause.

Christmas card competition winner is announced!

15th December 2021Leanne Tonks

Pupils at Duke’s Secondary School were challenged to come up with designs for a traditional Christmas card, inspired by the school’s ‘DNA’ (Differentiated for support and challenge, New and exciting learning opportunities and Active learning).

There were over 100 wonderful entries submitted across the school, but the winning design chosen by Mr Atkinson was created by Christopher Marshall from Year 7 and we think it’s pretty amazing! Well done Christopher!

Covid-19 Update

29th November 2021Leanne Tonks

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,

Plastic bottle announcement

18th November 2021Leanne Tonks

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.

ClassCharts Tips

17th November 2021Leanne Tonks

Did you know you can view your child’s timetable via the ClassCharts app?

View our hints and tips sheets to help get you started below.

What is ClassCharts for parents?

Signing up to Classcharts

Viewing your child’s timetable

You can log on to Classcharts either on a laptop or tablet, or even just download it as a free app.

If you need a reminder of your password codes – please email your child’s form tutor (your child can access their tutor email address on their Duke’s email address book) or email directly brad.rhodes@dukes.ncea.org.uk