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 classcharts. You can check class charts with an app (see parent/carer guide or HoY for more information) to view progress for your child.

Weekly

Every week without fail we spin the wheel for ‘Super 6’ winners.
‘Super 6’ is where every subject nominates 3 students from every year group to go on a celebration ‘wheel’. The wheel is spun (every Tuesday) and students are informed during tutor time who has won (6 winners) and receive an amazon voucher.
In addition to ‘Super 6’ we have the Extra Mile club for Year 11 students. This is where students in Year 11 are nominated for going the ‘extra mile’ in lessons and are recognised and celebrated. This is celebrated every Monday.

The top 10 leaders in our main LIGHT Elite challenge are shown on interactive leaderboards around school TV’s and in tutor time. This challenge is related to “The Three R’s” we promote in school. Students are showcased for their exceptional Ready, Responsible and Respectful attitude.

Also, on a Wednesday we celebrate in tutor time the attendance of our students. Every day counts!

Half Term/Termly

LIGHT Elite Attendance – students with a high or improved attendance are rewarded with a certificate and breakfast vouchers to use in school.

LIGHT Elite Three R’s leaders – 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 top 10 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.

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.
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!