BREAKING NEWS - ISA WINNERS

Duke of Edinburgh News

The following four Y11 pupils have successfully completed their DofE Bronze Awards: Grace W, Harvey C, Daisy M and James H. Apart from passing their Practice and Qualification expeditions they had to complete three sections entitled 'Volunteering', 'Physical' and 'Skill', two of those lasting for three months, and one for six months. They join Oisin W and Poppy S who were the first to complete the Award in their year group.

Grace enjoyed Military History club, roller blading and volunteering at Godalming Library (pictured). Harvey volunteered with DofE Club as well as enjoying karate and Rock Choir. Daisy was a peer-mentor at DoK, was another military historian and an expert ice-skater. James also volunteered with DofE Club, was a sous-chef and a regular at his gym.

All four also successfully navigated themselves around the Surrey Hills and camped, cooked and cleaned to the best of their abilities! I look forward to announcing more DofE completions in the near future. 

Mr Lodge

National Careers Week 1-5 March 2021

NOT JUST FOR YEAR 10 & 11: Career planning should start as early as possible, even if you or your child have no idea what career path they want to take.  GCSE Options are decided in Year 9 and these decisions will already be affecting the options for A Levels and Undergraduate choices that lay the foundation for career choices.

It can be difficult to have realistic conversations between children and parents as each may have very different ideas and expectations but it is important to support and nurture our children’s ideas and ambitions.  Download the following parents guide for useful resources on how to discuss the future with your teenager, how to build on their strengths and navigate their limitations, and how to then explore and research different career paths and routes.

Parents' Guide to Careers 2021

Work Experience - Helping You Stand Out From The Crowd

For 12 -14 year olds and 15-16 years: Due to the pandemic many organisations and employers have become very creative in offering, in many cases, free access to virtual work experiences. You might have to register and places might be limited in some cases but these can be invaluable experiences that can help to broaden your child’s horizons and make your child stand out from the crowd in an evermore competitive workplace.  In this link, you will also be able to access information regarding post-16 routes into education and work.

Guide to Virtual Work Experience and more

It is my hope that this post gives you some additional tools for those important conversations with your child and gets them planning something positive for their future.

Any feedback on experiences that you take up will be very useful for me to share with our community.  Also if you need any further one to one advice please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Mrs LaCroix

World Book Day

Next Thursday is Virtual World Book Day 2021. All students, staff and parents are invited to dress up as their favourite character from their favourite book and attend all of your lessons in fancy dress. There will be a Virtual World Book Day assembly and House challenges including, 'The Masked Reader' and all lessons will be book-related! There will be an opportunity to win prizes on social media so throughout the day and a 'Book Club Chat' from 1:00pm to 1:30pm. Make sure you get your costumes ready this weekend!

Miss Anand

Travel to Tokyo challenge 

As a whole school, we have launched the "Travel to Tokyo" challenge to help encourage our pupils and school community to be as active as possible.  The idea is for pupils and staff to log any activity they complete. This activity will then be converted into kilometres and added together to help us on our whole school challenge to reach Tokyo!

The journey is spilt into smaller segments and takes the scenic route taking in multiple different countries on our virtual journey around the world! Since we launched the challenge on Wednesday, we have already made it to France then Greece and we are now well on our way to Alanta! Keep an eye on our social media for more updates. 

Pupils in Pre-prep and Prep should log any activity via the Get Set website (https://www.getset.co.uk/travel-tokyo/log-activity) meanwhile Senior pupils and staff should log their activity via the Google Form on their PE Google Classrooms. Remember, ANY type of exercise counts! Don't forget, you can add multiple submissions each week!

We are aiming to reach Toyko in time for the rescheduled 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games this Summer so the challenge will continue when we are back at school. Keep going team, we are doing brilliantly so far! 

Miss Vickers

House Updates

Over the half-term break, the Prep and Senior Students had the opportunity to take part in the House Virtual Crafts Competition. The challenge was to make pieces of art using whatever they could find lying around the house and those that were entered did not disappoint! The level of skill and ingenuity that went into each submission was impressive so everyone that entered should feel proud of their creations. Our esteemed judge (Mr Watson) picked out art that Daisy N (pictured below, left) and Annabelle R (pictured below, right) produced as the winners, due to the variety and complexity of their ideas as well as the high level of skill and patience required to create them. The end of block chopping board, which was created by Johnny McM, was another notable submission as it required significant craftsmanship to create. 

Well done to Hillary who have currently collected the most stars in the Prep School and to Chichester who have the most stars in the Senior school (by a significant margin!). Armstrong has a clear lead in the number of Senior Commendations earned so far this term. Whittle still maintain a narrow lead; however, the other Houses have earned more House points this week so that gap is closing. Chichester may soon overtake Armstrong to snatch 3rd place if their progress continues at the same pace. It is all to play for over the next few weeks as the results from House Music and the PE Dance Competition can make a significant difference. 

Mr Gritton

Senior School Updates

With just over a week now until the return of pupils to the classroom it is hard not to have a slight spring in the step. I for one cannot wait to welcome students back into school once again and see the place abuzz with activity, something we have all sorely missed. Whilst there have undoubtedly been a number of successes throughout this remote learning period I think we can all agree that replicating the classroom at home is no substitute for the social, intellectual and emotional development that takes place in the classroom. This is not over, and strict guidelines will need to be adhered to, but, as the sun pours in this morning, it is hard not to feel we may be heading towards happier times.

Commendations this week go to four year 11 pupils for completing their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award; Daisy M, Grase W, James H and Harvey C. Within the remit of their chosen Volunteering, Physical and Skill activities these four have participated in areas as diverse as ice skating, karate, roller blading, sous-chefing and litter picking. A wonderful achievement rewarding their commitment and hard work. In year 8 we have four more commendations going out to Fleur S, Johnny M, Frankie M and Rufus B. These are for their excellent achievements in Science, most notably their production of a really imaginative and interesting presentation regarding ecosystems. Well done to all of you!

I hope you all have a restful weekend and enjoy the sunshine.

Mr Wilson

Coming Up Next Week:

Weekly Wellbeing

With the government’s announcement of our phased return to school beginning on March the 8th, pupils, parents and staff’s thoughts will have understandably focused on this date and what it means for us as a whole school community, but also, importantly, as individuals. Most people are delighted that we are returning to school as it marks the beginning of a hopeful return to more normal times.

It is, however, important to acknowledge and recognise that not everybody necessarily feels the same way about the return to school.  There are a multitude of individual and often contradictory emotional reactions that you may be processing right now. Some of you will have been away from school for almost 3 months by the time you return (a lot longer than the 3 weeks you and we had planned for) and this has been an uncertain time. Now we are returning, you may be feeling: happy, nervous, pleased, impatient, concerned, joyous, apprehensive, thrilled, confused, indifferent, excited, fearful, relieved, worried or any combination of these and other emotions. It is important to remember that you are an individual and your reaction is yours and therefore as worthy and valuable as anybody else’s.

Recognising how you are feeling and considering what you can do to best cope with those feelings, is an important part of preparing yourself for the return to school and building on your own amazing resilience.

Parents may find it helpful to fill out the sheet in this link with their children which helps focus on what the feelings are, addressing concerns and considering coping strategies.   https://www.partnershipforchildren.org.uk/uploads/Files/PDFs/Resilience%20Activities/Going%20back%20to%20school.pdf

This website link offers advice and insight for pupils who are anxious about returning to school:

  https://youngminds.org.uk/blog/coping-with-anxiety-about-going-back-to-school/

Mrs Douglas, Wellbeing Coordinator 

E-Safety Tips

Are YOU smartphone secure?

AUTO-LOCK CHECK: 

Is your phone set to auto-lock? Protect your device with a pattern, PIN code, password, or fingerprint. 

PASSWORDS CHECK: Are your passwords tough enough? Use upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and special characters (!*%). Keep them different for each site. 

CAMERA CHECK: Do you think about what you snap? Images accidentally shared can can give away private information, such as location (e.g. school uniforms, street signs and door numbers).

Mr Boden

A Message from the Medical Room

I've been reviewing the local Covid-19 infection figures this week to see how far we've come during lockdown, and the reduction in infections locally is really impressive.  For example, on the 8th January 2021, the rate of infection for Guildford borough was 553.7 per 100 000 per week, and for Waverley borough it was 679.2.  This compares with a rate of just 54.4 per 100 000 for Guildford borough and 48.3 for Waverley borough on the 24th February 2021.  

These figures should give us huge confidence about the children's return to school on the 8th and 9th March, but also clearly indicate how effective social distancing is, and therefore how important it is for all of our community; pupils, staff and family members alike, to continue to follow government guidance as the lockdown is gradually eased. 

At school, we are busy making plans for the safe return to school for all staff and pupils, including planning the NHS Test and Trace mass asymptomatic testing of senior pupils as they come back to us, before they transfer to home testing twice a week (after having their first 3 tests at school).  More details to follow next week.

Finally, if there are any significant medical updates on any of the pupils as they near the return to school, please do email me directly at csarjant@dokschool.org so I can update medical records and notify relevant members of staff accordingly.

Thanks so much, and enjoy a lovely sunny weekend - it looks like spring might be on the way!

Mrs Sarjant

School Social Media

At Duke of Kent School we have two social media platforms; Instagram (dukeofkentschool) and Twitter (@DoKSchool).

Our Twitter account is public however, our Instagram account is private to keep it strictly for the Duke of Kent School community only. To follow the School Instagram account you will need to request to follow the account. 

We recommend following all three accounts to receive push notifications with news, updates, educational articles, interactions with other schools, communities and public figures.

Miss Vernon