Important Notice: Cyber Security Issue

2nd February 2022Leanne Tonks

Dear parents/carers,

It has been brought to our attention by a parent from one of our Trust schools that a suspicious looking email, seemingly sent by members of staff within the Trust, has been issued. The emails have a ‘zip file’ attachment and password to use to open it, however, this is not a legitimate email so please do not click on the attachment.

While a thorough investigation is still being carried out by our IT team, we can confirm that this is part of a wider cyber security issue which highly likely originated from outside of NCEAT, but is now having a direct impact on our own communications systems.

We have increased our internal online security as far as possible and are working with providers to ensure that as many of these potentially harmful emails are ‘filtered out’ of our network, however, if you do receive any suspicious looking emails, claiming to be from James Knott Primary, please do not click on any links or attachments and mark the email as ‘spam’.

To help you to identify a potential scam, please see some guidance below:

  • The “sent by” address will either be a jumble of random letters and numbers or have an unusual domain (not .com or .co.uk)
  • The email will contain links to click to ‘confirm your details’ or ‘make a payment’
  • The email may have an attachment which looks strange or unsafe to open
  • The email may give you a limited time to reply
  • There might be spelling mistakes, bad grammar and sentences which don’t quite make sense
  • If the email contains any logos or images, these may appear ‘pixelated’ or blurry
  • If requesting money, the amount will usually be quite specific, not rounded up to the nearest pound/pence to try and make it seem legitimate, eg £692.88 instead of £700,00.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We are working as quickly as we can to resolve the issue. If anyone has any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Trust Primary School’s in national Top 50 for reading achievements

30th September 2021Leanne Tonks

NCEAT’s primary schools have been recognised in the UK’s top 50 schools for Accelerated Reader usage.

Accelerated Reader is an online platform which supports pupils’ reading skills. When they first start using the platform, pupils complete a STAR reading test which gives them a level based on their reading ability and advises on the books they should be reading. This allows teachers to ensure that pupils are challenged with an appropriate text and develops their reading fluency.

Once they have finished reading their book, they can then complete a comprehension quiz to assess whether they have understood what they have read. This gives teachers valuable information about pupils reading ages and also reading comprehension ability.

Prior to the summer holidays, the primary schools within the Trust had a big push on reading for pleasure, encouraging pupils to read at home with parents and carers. This push has seen pupils carry out over 28,537 Accelerated Reader quizzes online since August – that’s 28,537 books read across Bishop’s, Grace Darling, James Knott, Thomas Bewick and William Leech C of E Primary Schools!

Jack Christophers, Director of Literacy, commented:

“We’re absolutely blown away by what our pupils have achieved through Accelerated Reader. The statistics speak for themselves – our pupils have put in an amazing amount of effort and we’re extremely proud of each and every one of them.”

To find out more about reading in the primary curriculum, visit our Reading Corner!