Category : Front Page News

Bright Futures – Residential Trip to North Wales

This week a lucky group of year 9 students got to travel to North Wales as part of the Bright Futures programme. The member of staff accompanying the group wrote up this report:

 

Last week eight students from Duke’s took part in the Bright Futures Residential Trip to North Wales. After a long morning of travelling the students were quickly thrown straight into the deep end of outdoor activity – being guided in a gorge-scramble up a rushing river, navigating slippery rocks, jumping into rock pools and navigating through rushing waterfalls. Whilst there was some initial trepidation, all got thoroughly involved and I was pleased to see them bravely entering the chilly, as well as being helpful and caring towards their fellow (and newly encountered) students.

 

Our second day consisted of a number of outdoor activities; a long walk through the mountains, canoeing races, wild swimming and orienteering in the evening. Exhausting! What I was most pleased to see was how friendly our students were to their peers from the other Aldridge schools. We had students from Brighton, Manchester and London. The outdoor activities and mealtimes were a great opportunity for everyone to mix and get to know each other and learn about each other’s cultures. Some of the Duke’s students informed me that they’ve exchanged contact details with those from other schools and intend to stay in touch.

 

Before heading back to London on the last day, the students all took part in climbing activities and zip wiring. It was no surprise that everyone fell into a deep sleep on the train back to London. I really feel like the whole experience was memorable for all and that everyone has learnt new skills, especially how to be more independent. Overall, I was very proud of how everyone acted and got involved in everything, they definitely made Duke’s school proud in North Wales!

We can’t thank the Bright Futures team and the Aldridge Foundation enough for their amazing organisation and help over the three days.

Sporting Success

Our Y7 & Y8 athletes took part in The Haringey Borough Athletics Competition against 10 other schools this week. Some fantastic performances all round and we are rightly proud of all the students involved. 

Pupils who finished in the top 3:

• Cavalli – Winner of 200M race (undefeated in this event since the start of Year 7)
• Darius – Second in 300M race 
• Micah Second in 100M
• Diego – Second in 80M Hurdles 
• Le’Keyshia – Winner of 80M hurdles
• Chrisstanel  – Second in 100M
• Cavalli, Micah, Tafari & Diego – Winners of 4×100 relay
• Nizae, Rohan, Khavalli & Michael – Second in 4×100 relay 

We do however want to draw particular attention to the performance of Darius. Darius managed to finish in second place despite being injured during the race – a real testament to his resilience! 

 

Hope in Haringey – Youth Summit 2024

On Friday 7th June a group of our student leaders attended the annual Hope in Haringey Youth Summit. This year the theme was ‘safer schools, safer community’ and speakers included David Lammy, representatives from the serious youth violence reduction team and fantastic music and dance performances from a number of artists.

Our students gave a presentation on some of the work we have been doing in school to reduce bullying. The students presented incredibly well and represented us fantastically. It was a great morning all round!

 

OpenView Workshops

During the past two weeks we have been visited by workshop leaders from ‘OpenView’. The company has delivered workshops to our students on the importance of being an upstander, not a bystander. These workshops have been interactive and great fun for all our students. The learning opportunities around feeling safe and not being afraid to speak up have been brilliant. 

Student Success – ‘The Voice Kids’ – Poland

This week we are profiling some great news for a Duke’s student. Michell Siwak in year 10 took part in the Polish version of ‘The Voice Kids’ recently and won! The whole of the Duke’s community is very proud of Michell and the experience has opened up a number of doors for her in the future.

Michell is an incredibly talented singer and songwriter who has showcased her talents at Duke’s on many occasions. Michell said ‘I love singing but I’m not singing to be famous. I sing because I wouldn’t know what to do without it. I’ve always said that to myself to stay grounded.’ Michell also writes her own songs which she loves.

 

Of the experiences working on the ‘The Voice Kids’ Michell said: ‘It was so much fun. Every performance was energetic and getting advice from the famous Polish singers was amazing’. 

 

Everyone at Duke’s is so proud of Michell. We know we’ll be seeing more from her in terms of performance in the future.

Trips and Workshops 

We’ve had a busy week this week with trips and workshops. Our weekly ‘inspire’ group took a trip to Linklaters Law Firm as part of their English and employability workshops and got to learn more about communication in the world of work. 

Alongside this our year 7 Challenge Mentoring group also took their trip to Linklaters on Wednesday as part of their mentoring programme. The students took part in workshops aimed at improving confidence, motivation and academic attainment. The positive feedback from students was overwhelming.  

 

Bright Futures 

The Bright Futures Team were back at Duke’s delivering one of their final workshops before the residential trip taking place in June. The year 9 students who have now been selected to attend the residential trip found out about what they will be doing during their trip to North Wales. The activities and sessions they will take part in are fantastic and all of the students are very excited!