PADoK News
Bingo Night – Friday 7th October
On Friday we transformed the dining room into a bingo hall, the tables were set and at 8.30 the balls started rolling and dabbers were at the ready! Tara was a fabulous bingo caller with her able assistant Caroline! Some might have confused them with professionals!
There were prizes a plenty as we played five games and on each one there was a prize for a line and then a bigger prize for a full house. We held a bingo quiz which was won by the teacher table and then finished the evening with a few rounds of Higher or Lower with a deck of giant playing cards!
There was a great atmosphere so thank you to all parents and teachers who came to support the event.
Thanks go to Louise, Tara and Michelle for organising, Caroline, Alyssa, Polly and Sue for helping set up and Mr Rye for the PA system. Huge thanks to all those who helped clear up at the end, it was a slick machine!
PADoK Second Hand Uniform Shop
We are planning on making improvements to the shop over the next year or so. In the meantime, we were wondering if any of the parent community might be help us with a few items. We are in need of more storage so does anyone have any 65 litre plastic storage boxes with lids.
If you do have any of the above then please email padok@dokschool.org.
Thank you in advance.
Duke of Kent School Singers
Another wonderful turn out for singing this week of past and present parents, despite illness, meetings and assemblies. Thank you so much for coming!
We sang a couple of fun warm ups and ran through our version of ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ which is sounding great! We also talked through various ideas for a Christmas song that we would have fun singing. Sadly Shakin’ Stevens didn’t make the cut but with Mr Rye’s guidance we have decided to explore Lily Allen’s version of ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, a version offering lots of lovely harmonies for us to enjoy having a go at.
Please do keep coming and enjoy singing together. It is such a wonderful uplifting session and our main focus is on those 40 minutes we spend together week on week and enjoying the sing song. There is no pressure whatsoever to perform anywhere.
We look forward to seeing everyone again after half term and *welcome new singers at any point.* Come along whenever you fancy it, to listen and join in however you wish. Happy half term everyone 
This is a very relaxed session, no pressure to perform but an opportunity to have a sing song and a laugh with a really friendly group. So whether you sing in a shower or studio, all are welcome to come and make Thursday mornings a bit more joyful!!! Contact Cathy on rhodricathy@sky.com if you would like more information.
PADoK Running Technique – Friday morning 08.30 in Ness Hall
Running technique class resumed with aching legs for those in the London Marathon!
We were so pleased to hear of the excellent Running that Lynden (Year 1 dad) Small (Year 8 mum), Charlie Hunt (Years 6,9 and 11 dad) and ex bursar Chris Finill (who continues his marathon legacy) that our School running community achieved.
We focused on technique surrounding the pelvis stability in both lying and standing and learned how to mimic kangaroos bouncing around the sports hall
We will be here again on Friday morning progressing these techniques!
Hope to see you soon. All welcome and little folk can accompany if you need.
PADoK Book Club – A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle
We wanted to read an old fashioned Who Dunnit and set the challenge to all that join us to send your guesses to Mrs Newman (claire@bluetreerecruits.co.uk) about who you think the Murderer is as you read the book and there will be prizes for those who guess who the killer is! Join us at 8pm on Thursday 24th November by the roaring fire in the great hall with a glass of wine to chat about the book, which has been described to have 'A very clever plot and a final twist which will delight Agatha Christie fans. You'll love it.'
More information about the book is below:
A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle | Waterstones
Waterstones Thriller of the Month for August 2022
November 1924. The Endeavour sets sail for New York, with 2,000 passengers - and a killer - on board.
When a body is found on deck, ship's officer Timothy Birch is ready to declare the death a tragic accident. But Scotland Yard inspector James Temple is certain there's more to this misfortune than meets the eye. Mounting an investigation, the pair uncover the theft of a priceless painting, and encounter a string of suspects with secrets to hide.
Now, with just days remaining until the Endeavour reaches New York, their search for the culprit is fraught with danger. And all the while, the passengers roam the ship with a killer in their midst...
PADoK Walk
A good number of parents met last Friday for our walk around Pitch Hill. It was a lovely way to start the weekend and the dogs were exhausted by the end of it!
Our next PADoK Walk will be on the first Friday when we go back to school, 4th November.
Mrs Phillips
Another busy week as we run up to a well earned half term. I am sure the children will have mentioned our wood sculptor and the beautiful animals he has carved. They will now take pride of place in the School grounds. I have to say the incredible array of cakes for our first round of Bake Off was a sight to behold and the smell of sugar wafted gently through the Old Hall throughout the day! Good luck to those pupils selected to bake in the next round. For those of you who dropped into our parent events this week, I hope you found them useful. Please do keep an eye out for further parent events next half of term. Finally, our congratulations to the Green family and their gorgeous daughter Frankie! 
On Friday afternoon, we were absolutely delighted to welcome Elliot Giles to Duke of Kent School. Elliot is a professional athlete, specialising in 800m, and completes regularly at international events. He is an 8 time British Champion and won a bronze medal at the European Championships in 2016. Elliot has been to the Rio and Tokyo Olympics too! He did a fantastic talk on his experiences so far in his sporting career, including the challenges, injuries, achievements and much much more. All pupils were invited to the talk at lunch time and it was incredible to see over 50 pupils ranging from Years 3-11 in attendance asking some fabulous questions. After the talk, selected students in Years 7 & 8 had the chance to take part in an athletics session with Elliot. He took the pupils through some of his favourite warm up activities and spoke to them about the importance of technique when running. Elliot commented on the wonderful behaviour of our pupils and enjoyed signing water bottles and chatting to them after the session. Thank you so much for joining us for the afternoon Elliot, it was a hugely inspirational visit! 
Over the last week the Art and Design Department have had the pleasure of working alongside chainsaw sculptor Mike Jones. Our pupils, although not able to get too hands-on with this process for obvious reasons, have enjoyed watching Mike at work. They have been particularly impressed with the speed and accuracy with which he works. Pupils had the opportunity for a Q&A session between sculptures, asking Mike about his working process, where he outlined his thoughts on subtractive sculpture and introduced us to his biggest chainsaw which towered over even the tallest of our Year 9 pupils! Pupils and staff alike were particularly impressed to hear that Mike takes commissions for pet portraits such is the accuracy with which he works.
And just like that, 6 weeks have flown by...but what an amazing amount has been achieved! Those who arrived, somewhat tentatively as newcomers in early September, are already feeling part of the old guard, fully at home in their surroundings and amongst now-familiar faces. We've had some wonderful assemblies - from Years 4 and 5, visiting speakers (including the more silent, prickly type), House competitions, matches, adventures in the forest, culinary delights, an array of trips and far more besides. This week, we were treated to our first pupil-led Talk of the year, thanks to Ben W and Thibaut J in Year 6, who spoke most entertainingly about their love of books. Their relaxed, comical, but also informative style set an excellent example for others to follow, and we look forward to Talks on a variety of topics after half term. Year 4 also experienced an exciting first this week - sharing their debut Endeavour Award projects with their classmates, the theme of 'Heritage' eliciting presentations on an array of historical figures, from Elvis Presley to Mary Anning! Also in Prep School, there's been much discovery about the human body this week in Science lessons: Year 3 were using purple disclosing tablets to reveal the hidden plaque on their teeth and were relieved to see how clean they managed to get them after a thorough brushing; Year 5 were investigating how exercise affects one's pulse; and Year 6 learned just how many positive microbes there are in food, and in what ways they help our gut stay healthy. 
In Pre-prep, Year 2 have now finished their sun-catcher jellyfish, which now take pride of place on their classroom window, and the Nursery children have begun to turn their attention to Halloween, learning about bats, autumn and frothing pumpkins! In STEAM club, this week's activity also took a spooky turn, as the children looked at spiders' webs to understand how they construct them. Using marshmallows and cocktail sticks, they then created their own spider web in groups, demonstrating great engineering and team work skills! Lastly, congratulations to Year 1, who made a stop-motion animated film last week about their September trip to Arundel Castle. The lovely people at Arundel loved it so much they shared it on their instagram feed! 
All Prep School pupils were able to take part in the House Swimming Gala on Monday. It was a fantastically noisy and exciting gala in which all the swimmers did their very best for their houses. The standard of swimming was great and the pupils' ability to cope with the pressure of competition was wonderful to see. The amazing support from pupils and parents spurred each swimmer on wonderfully. The final results were:
This week began with a message from all the staff to the pupils that ‘how they feel matters’. Staff from teachers, to cleaners, to catering staff, to support and office staff donned yellow clothing and accessories to demonstrate their support for the mental health of the pupils in celebration of World Mental Health Day. There was an impressive array of sunshine shades to bring some colour to what started as a dark grey rainy, Monday morning. In a wonderful analogy, the weather soon changed to beautiful sunshine by late morning, demonstrating that like the weather, our feelings are changeable and don’t last forever. If we are struggling with an emotion in a moment, we should retain that it will change to something else before long.
We chose to support Young Minds, Hello Yellow campaign as a fun way to draw attention to the difficulties young people may be having with their mental health, and a reminder that they are not alone.I hope that some of the pupils enjoyed the little messages of support hidden in their books by their teachers.
