We showcase our teachers creating stimulating environments where amazing discoveries are taking place for our Primary School students
We showcase our teachers creating stimulating environments where amazing discoveries are taking place for our Primary School students
Dear DCIS Parents and Guardians,
Welcome from the Primary School!
I must say, I have been delighted with the way our Primary School students have settled into their new classes this term. I have been in and out of many classrooms over the last couple of weeks, and it has been lovely to see them at work with the children. The teachers have created warm and stimulating environments and the learning taking place is great. Here is a snap shot of what is going on.
Our Nursery children have established daily routines and behavioural expectations which have created a positive working environment in each classroom. The children have been recognising writing and numbers and have enjoyed leading their learning through themes such as space, sea creatures, fire fighters and colour mixing. What busy people they are!
In Reception, children have been getting to know all our new classmates and finding out about each other in their show and tell sessions. They have been exploring colour with hand printing, spray painting and colour mixing. Children have also been linking sounds to letters and solving number problems such as finding the missing number in a number line.
In Year 1 in Maths, children have been focusing on number work and measures. In English they have been looking at word and sentence work, linking this closely with our project, 'The Magic Toymaker'. During project work, children have investigated materials and tested them in a range of different conditions. They have also looked at toys from the past and researched the toys their parents and grandparents played with.
In Year 2 children have been learning all about our world and the things around them. They have looked at skylines from around the world and the shapes that they create. The children then made their own amazing skylines using water colour paints and other materials. They have been on tree hunts around our school and used their search to create tree booklets which included diagrams and bark rubbings.
Year 3 children have been thoroughly enjoying their project 'Footprints From The Past'. The children have been incredibly enthusiastic about researching and discovering more about the prehistoric giants that once walked the earth. English work has encompassed: dissecting a traditional fairy tale, getting to grips with all aspects of the structure and re-imagining our own version and recording research through writing non-chronological reports about dinosaurs. In maths, children have consolidated our knowledge of place-value using this to develop skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Year 4 have been using enquiry to investigate key facts about the Ancient and Modern Olympics from a range of sources. These facts will help the children in writing our own non-chronological reports about the Olympics. Additionally, they performed a news broadcast reporting news about the Ancient Olympic Games and designed an Olympic stadium for Singapore. As well as this, our educational visits programme begin with Year 2 leading the way. Year 2 are going on their first trip to Cloud Forest at Gardens By The Bay. Here they will learn about how plants and animals adapt to the environment - we hope that have a lovely time!
Parent Workshops
I greatly enjoyed meeting many parents at the workshop on Wednesday on our approach to homework in the Primary School. Thanks to those who came along for your interest and feedback on the homework programme which is now up and running. Over the next two weeks we have two more Primary School specific workshops that may be of interest to you. On Wednesday 5th October, Mrs Gray and Mrs Smith will leading a session on Reading Fundamentals, our approach to phonics at DCIS. Following that, Wednesday 12th October, Mr Rinaldi will be talking to parents about the International Primary Curriculum and our approach to project work. Do come along if you can spare the time.
Reading Parents
Something that may be of interest to some of our parent body – we are delighted to announce that we are looking for parent volunteers to come into school to hear children read. Several parents have expressed a wish to come and help out and we would love to see that to happen. ‘Reading Parents’ will be a regular commitment of approximately 1 hour per week and will be scheduled at the same time each week for those who would like to take part. While we can try and schedule you to work with your child’s year group, the commitment would be with a class other than that of your own child. If you are interested then please could you email your name, phone number, your own child/children’s class(es) and the year group you are interested in helping with to Mrs Catherine Gwee (catherine.gwee@dovercourt.edu.sg). It will take us a couple of weeks to collect the information and allocate times and classes to parents, so do bear with us on this. This is an excellent opportunity for parents to become involved in the life of the school – we will of course give training to our volunteers.
Lost Property
And finally – lost property! We seems to have accumulated a lot of items in a very short time. Having sifted through the lost property myself just today it is clear to see that much of the problem lies with the lack of labelling of school uniform and PE and swimming kit. We would be most grateful at school if parents could label their child’s uniform (as well as lunch boxes and water bottles, and everything else!) over the next few days. If you would like to have a look through the lost property yourself then please do call in, the red crates are located in the main cafeteria just by the secondary block and also just inside the entrance to the primary block, very close to my office – feel free to pop by and a member of staff can point you in the right direction.
As ever, do let me know if you have any questions or concerns, I am always happy to be of assistance to you.
Kind regards,
Ms Kara Lebihan
DCIS Head of Primary School
