🌈 LIGHThouse - issue 35

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To help make sure you don't miss out on any important updates for your child's school, check out the summary below of what you can find in this issue:

Last chance for free uniform delivery from Michael Sehgal (Bishop's/Duke's/Castle Schools)
School Diversity Week comes to NCEAT! (All Trust)
Year 6 transition - virtual open evening resources now online (Bishop's/Duke's)
Staff humbled by National Thank a Teacher Day (All Trust)
County athletics success for Duke's pupils (Duke's)
Growth Mindset Day at Grace Darling Infants (Bishop's)
Warkworth Primary needs your help! (Warkworth)
Duke's student turned pro football star hosts special assembly (Duke's)
CEO's blog: Bishop's changes get green light from Department for Education (All Trust)

Last chance to secure free delivery on uniform orders!

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School Diversity Week comes to NCEAT!
21-25 June is School Diversity Week. Organised each year by the 'Just Like Us' charity, the week is designed to celebrate LGBT+ equality in education.

At NCEAT, we are proud to be inclusive and across our schools, we do all we can to educate our children and young people and help them to be true to themselves. Here's just a taste of the different activities that have been taking place throughout the week:

Bishop's Primary - William Leech Campus

As part of Diversity Week, children at William Leech Campus have been exploring how we are all wonderfully different through a new collection of books in our library.

The books tell stories and explore themes such as stereotypes, being yourself, equality and diversity. They have really helped children to think about the language they use and to support everyone regardless of what they look like, their interests or their family background.

The books are currently in the library to share as a class or small group but will be available to borrow after this week.

Warkworth Primary School

Pupils at Warkworth Primary have taken Diversity Week a step further and are enjoying an entire Pride Month! Classes have decorated their windows using chalk paint with rainbows and messages of love and support for the initiative. As part of their school transition exercise in partnership with Duchess High School in Alnwick, the Year 6 pupils have also been busy making pom poms to create a giant pom pom rainbow to go on display at the school.

Duke's Secondary School
A former Duke's student, who now works as a drag artist known as 'Pia Pressure', created a special video message for Duke's pupils about their own experiences at school, why they do drag and why events like School Diversity Week and Pride are so important for educating our young people about the LGBTQ+ community. Watch the video in full on our Youtube channel or click the image below.

Pia Pressure.

See more images from School Diversity Week

Year 6 Transition Open Evening resources now online
Due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, our intended Open Evening for Year 6 transition pupils and their parents has unfortunately had to be cancelled. However, so you don't miss out, we've created a virtual hub of information including virtual campus tours, introductions to our Year 7 teachers and information about our Chromebook scheme. Check it out!

Check out the virtual Open Evening online hub

Staff humbled by National Thank a Teacher Day
On Wednesday this week, schools and colleges across the UK marked 'National Thank a Teacher Day'.

While almost any member of staff who works in a school will tell you that they're doing what they love and that they don't need any recognition - in the aftermath of what has been a challenging year for everyone in education, our staff were humbled by the lovely notes, gifts, drawings and paintings that were sent into school.

"We would like to share our thanks and appreciation to our wonderful pupils, who will always be our greatest teacher."

See more images from Thank a Teacher Day

County athletics success for Duke's pupils
After competing at the county athletics championships last weekend, year 9 students from Duke's, Kaitlyn Waddell and Georgia Turner, have been ranked in the top 10 for the whole of Northumberland in the hammer throw event.

Placing 1st, Kaitlyn is now the county champ for hammer throw for her event and age group and is ranked number 2 in the whole of England and Scotland - which means she will likely be selected to represent English schools nationally at the next event on 11th July. Meanwhile, Georgia Turner also qualified in the same event and is now ranked number 8 nationally. We see Olympic potential in these girls' futures! A huge well done to both!

Pictured: Georgia Turner.

More news from Duke's

Growth Mindset Day at Grace Darling
On Friday 18th June, pupils at Grace Darling Infants enjoyed a variety of activities for their Growth Mindset Day.

Designed to help children become more resilient and teach them how to look at problems and mistakes in a positive way in order to learn and grow from them, the pupils were set a variety of challenges which they had to work in teams to overcome.

The children were challenged to build a strong house that the wolf from the 3 little pigs story wouldn't be able to blow down. They worked in pairs and tested different ideas. We encouraged the children to never give up, to try new techniques and if their house blew down, to try and adapt it and keep trying until their house stayed up. They also read stories with messages of resilience and determination at their core: "Giraffes Can’t Dance" and "The Lonely Rain Cloud" and completed activities about their own character traits and ambitions.

We need your help!
NCEA Warkworth Primary is looking for donations of anything and everything blue to help them with a supersized art project they're working on with Cloud Dancer Photography.

If you have any old towels, bed linen, tarpaulins, material, curtains or old clothes lying around in a cupboard in any shade of blue, please get in touch with marketing@ncea.org.uk to arrange drop-off at our Robert Stephenson Campus in Ashington, or contact Warkworth Primary directly for drop-off at the school.

More news from Warkworth Primary

Former Duke's student turned pro footballer hosts special assembly
Earlier this week, Year 10 pupils at Duke’s Secondary School were treated to a very special assembly, hosted by a celebrity guest…

Sunderland AFC player and Duke’s alumnus, Denver Hume, stopped by to give a presentation about the importance of sticking in at school, building up mental resilience and setting goals for personal achievement – both on and off the pitch. He also answered questions from students about his life as a professional footballer.

Bishop’s changes get green light from Department for Education

We have received notification from the Department for Education that we have been granted permission to split Bishop’s into 5 separate schools. We are awaiting full details but the intention is to make this change from September.

Each school will now have a Headteacher rather than Head of Campus but I am delighted that Mrs Hinson will act as Executive Headteacher, so that each school is supported as they establish themselves as new schools.

The change was granted on the back of the support received during the consultation period and we are incredibly grateful to staff, parents, carers and the wider community for their support.

We proposed to make the change to the way that Bishop’s is run to bring each school closer to the heart of its local community, simplify the admissions system and to secure additional funding for the benefit of the pupils. We believe that this will allow us to build on the success achieved by Bishop’s as a single school, while retaining all of the positives we enjoy from working together across the Trust.

Continue reading on the CEO's blog