A Message from Mrs Knox

Gosh – another week. Time seems to fly for me – I wonder if it does for you too? I thoroughly enjoyed Mr Watson’s Art assembly this morning and the last quote: “Don’t count the days, make the days count” resonated with me.

As I observe what our pupils have been up to this week, they are absolutely making each day count. Thank you again for the encouragement and love you are giving to the children and the support you are giving to us as a School. Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Knox

National Numeracy Day

Wednesday this week was National Numeracy Day ant the prep pupils took part with their usual gusto. They had a fun quiz to complete with the help of the numeracy supercomputer were able to find the winners video. Well done to all. They also spent the day getting to grips with all the maths around them the may not usually notice everyday, with Josh W and Scarlett R in year 6 in particular, who came up with so many examples! Levi L in year 4 also looked like he had fun discovering all the maths it took to do his baking. Happy Numeracy Day everyone. 

Mr Ellarby

Here are some examples of staff using #EverydayMaths on National Numeracy Day:

Prep and Pre-prep News   

Just as everyone was settling into a lovely long weekend...BOOM! Monday morning struck. Yet, despite a few of us feeling a little lacklustre as the working week began, the Prep School children quickly got up to speed and set themselves to their learning with characteristic gusto. On Google Classroom, it's been wonderful to see excellent examples of pupils' work being shared by their teachers: Clara H-S, Jack P and Henry R in Year 5 produced some entertaining and persuasive adverts in their English lessons; Year 6 have been making informative posters about fire safety in Science, and Freddie P and Ben W impressed Mr Rye with their stories inspired by the music of Debussy. If you haven't seen these - or Phoebe's beautiful and uplifting artwork - go along and check out the stream in the Prep School Classroom now. 

Values awards for this week are awarded to:

Effort - Tiago G-W,  Josh W-D, Holly B, Pip C-G, Tom S, Eva P-R, Arthur D-K and Charlie L

Kindness - Scarlett R

Responsibility - Eddie P

Here is a link to the Prep and Pre-prep podcasts too, enjoy:

https://youtu.be/NlV_SdzMNas

https://youtu.be/VuHZJrIs6QE

Congratulations everyone, and I look forward to celebrating more of your achievements next week. 

Mr Wright

Stars of the Week

Nursery: Joshua B for his positive and enthusiastic attitude towards activities and his wonderful use of descriptive language.

Reception: Logan N for construction wonderful numerals in Lego.

Year 1: Jack C for the amazing effort you have put into you English work this week. Well done! 

Year 2: Ellie C for consistent hard work and effort during the Home Learning period. Well done!

Ben W for superb English work this week. Your exclamatory sentences added emotion and drama to your writing. Well done!

Mr Wright

Performing Arts News

House Drama has been launched this week and already plenty of pupils are working on their monologues! pupils can check their Google Classrooms for all the information, or do feel free to email Mrs Honey on shoney@dokschool.org

Three Little Birds - It has been a brilliant week for the Three Little Birds Project with over 40 videos being uploaded so please keep those coming. We are hoping we can get a few special guests into it as well!

Summer Concert - The Summer Concert was scheduled to be held on Saturday 27th June and we are looking to honour that date - albeit virtually! Pupils are reminded that they can submit videoed performances to Mr Rye and he will compile a virtual concert. It is open to the whole school and there are plans afoot for performances from The Senior Chamber Choir as well as a few ensemble performances! 

Pre-prep Ballet Club has been going strong with Miss Francis. She sends a video of their class every Saturday morning which they dutifully try at home, so if your child would like to be included, please email efrancis@dokschool.org

Fizz T.V. Mr and Mrs Fizz have been busy keeping Pre-prep entertained musically. If you fancy a laugh then check out Mr Rye's bonkers Mr Fizz videos. Learn to sing a new Fizz song each week. Or just laugh at Mr Rye!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqxSX6QEmjO2DbiiBroK_12EyKXV3Jc7

Ukulele Video Lessons - there are now three ukulele videos up on Youtube. If you want to learn how to play the uke then head on over. In the lessons Mr Rye takes you through strumming, chords and you start to learn 'Octopus's Garden' by The Beatles!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcqxSX6QEmjNbuTeRuI9FDla2EbjJKuRq

Mr Rye's Podcasts - episode 6 is now available. This week a stroll through the world of musical thievery, examining how classical composers have unwittingly composed some classic pop songs!

https://soundcloud.com/nickryemusic/mr-ryes-podcast-ep-6-1452020-genius-borrows-greatness-steals/s-fwmnNcCwJM0?in=nickryemusic/sets/mr-ryes-music-podcasts/s-tIxuCNhilwD

Mr Rye

E-Safety Tips

A recently released computer security paper has highlighted a vulnerability in thunderbolt-enabled devices, such as apple macbooks.  You might recognise the thunderbolt port on the side of your device as denoted by a little lightning bolt arrow next to the relevant ports.  The attack, known as "Thunderspy", involves gaining access to the port inside the device itself by removing the backplate and attaching an external device to it.  One attached it would only take a few minutes for the attacker to gain complete control of the device and do whatever they wanted with it.

As of this moment, almost all devices made before 2019 would be affected, especially if they are running an Operating System that is not MacOS.  Some devices made after then would be protected by virtue of more up to date hardware protections installed since, or protections included in more recent MacOS updates.  The only definitive way of preventing such attacks is to disable the thunderbolt port in your computer's BIOS settings, however I would not recommend this unless you are confident with changing those settings as changing the wrong settings may make your computer malfunction.  

The simplest way of protecting your device is just to not leave it unattended in a public place for more than 5 minutes at a time, which should be achievable during lockdown, and to only use trusted external devices with your computer such as your own usb sticks and hard-drives.  The attack itself requires physical access to the computer, and as long as that is denied then your computer is safe.  When we are able to go out and use our devices in public places, default to denial of access - take your computer with you wherever you go and turn it off when you are not using it.

If you are interested in the mechanics of the attack and how it was developed I have attached a link to the site that detailed it below, as well as some news articles that go into more detail.

Here are the links:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/thunderspy-attack-hack-mac-windows-linux-security-thunderbolt-a9509906.html

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/11/21254290/thunderbolt-security-vulnerability-thunderspy-encryption-access-intel-laptops

https://thunderspy.io/

Mr-Win-Pe

Pause for Thought

We all hit the wall at different times and although we have a lot to be grateful for it is still tough. I am so missing hugs and physical contact with others, coffee with friends and general camaraderie with others. Zoom and google meets are great but it almost emphasises the gaps and the distance we feel.

Hold on, take a break, take a breath and know that you are held in the hearts of all who love you.

Till we meet again......

With every blessing to you and those you hold close

Rev Kia