Duke’s Alumni Assemblies

21st January 2022Louise Gatti

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.

Horror games: are they suitable for your child?

20th January 2022Leanne Tonks

This week’s Online Safety guidance focus is around apps that go under the broad title of ‘horror games’. A PDF of the advice and guidance poster can be found below.

In the guide, you’ll find tips on a number of potential risks such as adult themes, psychological horror and violent content.

Horror video games come in a such a variety that the genre can hard to define. The overlapping element is that these games are designed to scare or unsettle the player through gameplay, atmosphere, story, music, setting and ‘jump scares’. The most common sub-genres are survival horror, action horror, psychological horror, jump-scare horror and reverse horror. These games originate from a range of developers, including smaller indie studios which release download-only titles (that is, they aren’t physically sold in shops) and therefore aren’t subject to age ratings.

A thank you from Wansbeck Food Bank

19th January 2022Leanne Tonks

Over Christmas, pupils across Duke’s worked incredibly hard to collect hundreds of food items and raise money for our local food bank which supports people living across our community.

We’ve received a lovely thank you letter from Wansbeck Food Bank which we want to share with you (see below). Well done again to everyone who got involved!

Do you know who your child is communicating with online?

14th January 2022Leanne Tonks

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.

Assessments for Years 7 – 10 will be taking place in school between 24th January and 7th February.

13th January 2022Louise Gatti
Assessments for Years 7 – 10 will be taking place in school between 24th January and 7th February. Over this period of time Years 7 and 8 will take assessments in English, Maths and Science, Year 9 will take assessments in English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, Geography and History. Year 10 will take assessments in English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and some option subjects. The timetables for these assessments are recorded below.
These assessments are an important opportunity for all students to consolidate their learning and gain vital practice in the revising for and taking of the type of exams on which their final grades at the end of Year Eleven will be based.
Students have been provided with knowledge organisers for each of the subjects they will be taking assessments in. Knowledge organisers contain all of the information that they will need to know to be successful in these assessments and students are expected to use them to revise and prepare in their own time in the run up to the assessment periods.
The results of the assessments will be reported after each of the assessment periods. Outcomes may result in some students moving classes to ensure that they are receiving the correct levels of support in their studies.

Year 7

Date
Period
Exam
Monday 24th January 4 Mathematics
Thursday 27th January 2 English
Friday 28th January 5 Science

 

Year 8

Date
Period
Exam
Wednesday 26th January 4 English
Thursday 27th January 1 Science
Friday 28th January 4 Mathematics

 

Year 9

Date
Period
Exam
Monday 24th January 3 Geography
Monday 24th January 5 Physics
Wednesday 26th January 1 French
Wednesday 26th January 5 English
Thursday 27th January 4 Maths
Thursday 27th January 5 Biology
Friday 28th January 1 Chemistry
Friday 28th January 3 History

 

Year 10

Date
Period
Exam
Monday 31st January 1 Geography
Monday 31st January 3 Mathematics
Monday 31st January 5 Engineering
Tuesday 1st February 1 French (Reading & Writing)
Tuesday 1st February 2 History
Wednesday 2nd February 5 Physics
Thursday 3rd February 1 English
Friday 4th February 3 Chemistry
Monday 7th February 1 Biology
Monday 7th February 3 French (Listening)

Thanks to Ponteland HS for use of their revision website. Some of the content is personalised to Ponteland and does not apply to Duke’s.

 

https://sites.google.com/ponthigh.org.uk/how-to-revise/home?authuser=1

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.