The life-chances of our young people are often determined by their attainment at the end of key stage 4. The focus on raising attainment is crucial to the task of ensuring that our young people leave school with the best possible qualifications and fully equipped for work, training or continuing education.
Forming a cohesive direction to raising achievement is something we are doing our best to address at Duke’s Secondary and identifying the mechanics by which to address it. We currently have 51% of students who are Pupil Premium, which means it is crucial that we look for impactful ways to motivate and inspire our students. Raising achievement can permeate every level and positively impact students in a multitude of ways. For this reason, we have created innovative solutions to support our students and celebrate success. We look to celebrate success through the following tailored, bespoke initiatives:
Duke’s LIGHT Elite is an initiative which provides the opportunity to showcase our students’ exceptional attitude towards their education. This links directly to our School vision of ‘Enabling everyone in our communities to let their light shine.’ [Matthew 5:16]. Our initiative aims to provide a platform filled with challenges and opportunities for our students to flourish. Each one highlights one or more of our LIGHT values.
How do we do this?
Throughout the academic year your child has the opportunity to be celebrated and rewarded for letting their light shine through achievements, effort, attainment, attitude and attendance.
When do we do this ?
Everyday
In every lesson your child has the opportunity to receive praise points from their classroom teacher through our online system.
Weekly
You will receive a ‘star’ for attendance at working lunch clubs and Champions45.
‘Stars=prizes’
Half Term/Termly
Attendance – students with a high or improved attendance are rewarded with a certificate and breakfast vouchers to use in school.
We always opportunities and unique prizes such as Easter Eggs or pizza parties or in some cases a trip to the cinema are available as rewards to the nominated students at the end of term.
In departments we see individuals being celebrated on social media or wall displays for Maths Stars, Artist of the Month, In-house Creative Writing competitions as well Duke’s Sport Stars.
‘Well done’ postcards are sent on a frequent basis by all faculties for student recognition.
Yearly
Each term during an academic year students are nominated across the school for either Principal Praise Award and Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 awards for Progress, Attainment and Effort. They received a certificate and communication with home about their achievement.
Y11 Prom Passports
We also work with our community with The Lynemouth Parish Community Citizenship Award and our own CEO NCEA Trust Award for students demonstrating outstanding achievement.
Special announcements
As a parent/carer please do not hesitate to get in touch about your child’s achievements outside of school. We would love to hear from you. It is great to hear about the amazing achievements our students have been recognized for E.g. national competitions, sporting achievements as well as succeeding in a new hobby!