Parents’ guide for booking appointments
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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.
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.
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!
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,
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.
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
Pupils at Grace Darling C of E Primary School in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea and Duke’s Secondary School in Ashington have welcomed a very special visitor, The Right Reverend Mark Wroe, Bishop of Berwick.
Formerly the Archdeacon of Northumberland,the Right Reverend Mark Wroe was installed as the Suffragan Bishop of Berwick in January this year – only the second person to have received the title in living memory after the Diocese of Newcastle resurrected the role in 2016 following a 444 year hiatus.
Serving the areas between the Tyne and Tweed rivers, the Bishop’s role is vast and varied. Having been consecrated during the Covid-19 pandemic, this visit has been one of the first opportunities for the Right Rev. Mark to get out to meet some of the children and young people in the South East of the county.
During his visit, the Bishop was treated to a tour of the full Grace Darling C of E Primary School campus, visiting each class in turn to view their displays and find out how they were settling back into school after the summer holidays. He met with the school’s ‘Gardening Gang’ who look after the school’s outdoor spaces and spoke with staff about the school’s involvement in the Thrive programme for promoting positive mental health and wellbeing in children.
On arriving at the Duke’s Secondary School campus in the afternoon, the Bishop met with the school’s Principal, Russ Atkinson, and was shown around some of the classrooms where Covid-19 catch up sessions were taking place for students in critical exam years. The day was rounded off with a meeting of school leaders from across Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust (to which Grace Darling C of E Primary School and Duke’s Secondary School are members).
Commenting on his visit, the Right Reverend Mark Wroe, said:
“I’ve been really impressed by what I’ve seen today. The resilience that has been shown by teachers and pupils during what has been an incredibly challenging time for schools is just amazing and it’s great to see how people have come together to support each other. I’d like to thank Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust for having me today and I’ll look forward to visiting again in future.”
Alan Hardie, CEO at Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust, added:
“It was wonderful to have Bishop Mark with us today. At NCEAT, we value our close working relationship with the Dioceses of Newcastle and Durham and it is always a pleasure to host members of the clergy at our schools.”
For more information about Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust, visit www.ncea.org.uk.
