Children's Work

Dragons' Den

Year 7 have taken part in an enterprise project in ICT.  They had to produce a product with a Christmas theme to sell at the Christmas production ‘Interstella Cinderella’.  Competition was fierce as the groups got to keep their profit!  There were many brilliant ideas and it was a tough decision for the Dragons. 

Mrs McDonough, Mr Vickery and Mrs Kelly judged entries from 7M.  The winning groups were; Kimberley Renforth and Emma Ayling with Christmas cookies and Dominic Taylor, Sam Hallows and William Muers with their Christmas card design.  7B entries were judged by Mrs McDonough, Mrs Michie and Ms Element and the winning group created Christmas top trumps.  The group members were Ben Courty, Noah Frost, Alistar Farley, Dominic Schiavetta and Michael Snaiths.

Well done to all those who took part for a really fantastic project!

 

Paralympic Celebrations

Like many other schools across Britain, The Dukes School celebrated the closing ceremony of the Paralympics.

After an Olympic Dance by some of year six in assembly, pupils were given the opportunity to try out some challenges in the gym. These included sitting basketball shooting, a blindfold run, sitting javelin throw and no-hands ping pong pot.

The pupils enjoyed the challenges and commented on the qualities of the Paralympians and how hard they must work.

 

 

The Cube

Pupils at The Duke's now have their own special 'chill out' area created in one of our old classrooms.  The School Council has had major input into what is in there and how it should be used.   All pupils have passes and each year group has a different lunchtime allocated to them.  It has proved very popular so far!  Thanks to Alistair for coming up with the name.

 

Euro 2008 Final

As part of Euro 2008 we had our own competition.  Teams were set up in all year groups and names were chosen from those European Countries who had got through to the finals.  There were two competitions a plate and the knockout.  All those invovled played well and the whole school got out to support them.

 

Sports Day

 

 

Well done to all those who took part in sports day!  It was a fantastic afternoon with some very talented competitors taking part.  Walkworth were the winning house.  A Special Well done to Steph and Chris who were the senior winners and Rona and Owen who were the junior winners.

 

School Council

This year the Council have been busy raising money for a selection of charities as well as for School projects. They suggested a Concert  evening with our choir and the Duchess’ High School Choir which proved to be a huge success and raised £300 for our new Lunchtime Activity Centre, The Cube.  Many thanks to Mrs Cochrane and our choir for their fantastic performances.

We have also organised non-uniform days to support Children In Need where we had a cake sale and raised £360.78. We had a Mad Hair Day for the North Northumberland Hospice which raised £182.00.

Our next Charity event will be in aid of Grace House North East which aims to provide a home for very sick children and give support to their families. They need £3.5 million to build the Hospice and we all agreed that it would be a good local charity to support.  We will hold a Non-uniform day on Friday 6th June and will also hold a cake sale and other events.  Donations of cakes and biscuits would be greatly appreciated on the day.

 

Year 5

World War II Coffee Morning -  Wednesday 18th June

Once again we are holding a coffee morning for friends and relatives who have stories to tell about life during the war.  This is a very educational and enjoyable morning for both our pupils and their guests.  If you know someone who would be willing to come in and talk to our pupils, please pass on their name and address to Mrs Puddephatt.  If you would like to help us on the day, please let us know.

 

 

Northumberland National Park Project - Wednesday 16 July

The Year 5 pupils will be visiting the Northumberland National park to talk about the uses of the park and explaining the role of a park ranger.  The pupils will look at conservation in the park and the impact of development and tourism.

As a follow-up to the visit, we are planning to spend a day at Ingram Valley.  Activities will include river dipping, visiting a historical settlement and evaluating the Visitor Centre,

discussing future developments for children within the National Park.  Further details will be sent out nearer the time.

 

Yr 7 and 8 Ski Trip to Tignes - 23rd  – 30th March 2008

Once again the annual ski trip has been a great success, all 27 of the party returning tanned but without injury.  The pupils have been a credit to the school, working and playing hard in their lessons on the slopes.  Evening activities included bowling (Daniel Wright showed us his winning style) swimming, the slides were great even in Mr Fortune got water up the nose, a quiz, (well done the year 7 winners- I’ve never seen Henry so focused, it must have been the huge dish of sweets and the fake champagne prize that motivated him!) and the disco with the other schools in the hotel, we’ll not mention the girls school shall we Jimmy?

At the end of the week the ski tests were a challenge but all survived the experience gaining either 1 or 2 star awards, well done.  The last day the instructors were so confident with the skiing ability of both groups that they were taken up to the Grande Motte Glacier, 3456m and all skied back to Tignes Le Lac.

A big thank you from Mrs Fentum and Mrs Michie to all those pupils involved for making this such a fun week for all!

 

Yr 8

‘Is there more to Italy than Pizza and Football?’

This was the title of new History/Geography/Modern Foreign Languages Unit embarked upon by Yr 8.  To celebrate the end of the unit and say to goodbye to Mr. Porter, Yr 8 and teachers went to Piccolino’s restaurant for a very enjoyable meal.

Yr 7

As part of our ‘Normandy’ project we shall be visiting Alnwick Castle to help understand how the successful Norman invasion of 1066 was able to go on and control England.  We shall also visit the Northumberland Fusiliers Museum to find out about their part in the Normandy Invasion of 1944.  This comparison of invasions is part of a joint project with Modern Foreign Languages.

 

Magistrates Mock Court Competition.

After our success in the area competition, we now go on to the Regional final on Saturday, May 17th at Market Street Magistrates Court, Newcastle.  We shall be competing against schools from Newcastle, Durham and Cumbria.

Musical production of

Little Red Riding Hood

Rehearsals are well under way for our forthcoming production.  Pupils from all year groups are working hard to put the acting, singing and back stage work together.

We are hoping that we will be able to perform towards the end of May, if all goes to plan, exact date to be confirmed.

Parents of any pupils in the cast are invited to come and watch, so listen out for the announcement of the dates.

Year 6 Steel Band

 Workshops

We have been lucky enough to book North Tyneside steel band for a half day visit with year 6.  This will form part of their St. Lucia enquiry project that they start after the half term holiday.

Each year 6 class will have the opportunity to play a steel pan in a one hour workshop.  The whole school will enjoy a performance by North Tyneside steel band themselves

 

GIRLIE  STUFF

The girls in year 6, 7 and 8 had the opportunity of trying some new things in the “Fun Fitness Club”, held after school during the spring term. A good way to keep fit and brighten up the dark nights they had visitors giving taster sessions in cheerleading, yoga, salsa and Arabic dance.
	Mrs. Caygill added zany aerobics, (something to do with shopping and housework) choreography and dance to the list. The pupils enjoyed the sessions and hope they will begin again later in the year. (Even Mrs. Caygill could be seen having a go at the back of the class!!)

 

WORLD MUSIC

The Duke's Middle received a visit from a Paraguayan group who treated us to a fanatastic afternoon of music.  There were lots of questions from the students and everyone was amazed when we found out one of the members had already had a hit all over the world!  Can you guess who and with what?  Ask one of our pupils for the answer!

THE  MAGISTRATES’ COURT COMPETITION 2008

 

Thirteen members of year 8 are hoping to build on the success enjoyed in the previous two years by the Duke’s Middle School in the annual Magistrates’ Court Competition.

The competition will take place at South East Magistrates’ Court on Saturday March 15th. The students will compete against five other middle and high schools. Each school provides defence and prosecution lawyers, a legal executive, witnesses, tree magistrates and a court usher. The case to be considered this year is one of harassment.

Preparation involves after school practice, visits to Alnwick court room and a visit to see a court in action at Bedlington. Young people usually have to be 14years of age to attend a court but special dispensation is given to competitors. Local magistrates have also been helping us to prepare.

We have done very well in the previous two competitions, winning the first and coming very close to winning the second.

Members of the team are Andrew Kane, Reiko McLean, Anna Schiavetta, Jordan Brown, Kieran Foy, Lisa Muers, George Puddephatt, Jessica Wilce, Ash Williams, Ellie Woodhead, Kitty Chrisp, and Rachael McTigue and Will Young.

 

Ski Trip 2008

The annual Ski Trip is rapidly approaching and this year we are off to Tignes on 23rd March.  It will be a fabulous week as always with all the pupils taking part benefiting from the experience.  Along with their twice daily ski lessons those on the trip are encouraged to speak French as much as possible and complete some academic tasks which are handed in on our return.  Both Mrs Fentum and Mrs Michie are really looking forward to it.

 

EWiNN PROJECT

Two of our Year Eight pupils are taking part in an ICT project to promote economic wellbeing in North Northumberland.  The company they have formed is called Nothumberland Connections - The future of ICT is now.  They are looking for businesses who currently use ICT in the area who would be willing to give some information on how and why they use it.  If you think you would like to contribute please contact Mrs Fentum.  This is an exciting project and their will be more happening so watch this space!

 

RAF RESCUE HELICOPTER VISIT

On Monday 12th the RAF Rescue helicopter landed on our school field!  It was extremely exciting, pupils and staff

had been waiting with anticipation over break time before it arrived.  The landing was particularly impressive as it

swept into view.

 

 

After an assembly which outlined the work of the RAF Rescue helicopter the students were split into groups to find

out more about the helicopter and some of its equipment.

 

Keeping dry and warm in our school hall!

We would like to thank the RAF Rescue Helicopter Team for the visit and their time, it was fantastic!

 

YEAR FIVE SAFETY WORKSHOP VISIT

 

Year Five had a great afternoon at the Safety Workshop which took place at The Alnwick Garden.  They gained a lot of important skills such as how to put someone in the recovery position as you can see above.  The event also taught the pupils the dangers of electricity, personal safety, road safety, how best to deal with a fire in the home and safety on and around the railway.

 

 

The students conducted themselves very well and gained a lot of information from the day.  Well done!