IB Diploma Programme scholarships, overseas trips, the upcoming Global Campus Alpine Expedition and preparations for the iGCSE
IB Diploma Programme scholarships, overseas trips, the upcoming Global Campus Alpine Expedition and preparations for the iGCSE
Dear DCIS Parents and Guardians,
Following our exciting news about our approval as an IB World School we are continuing to prepare for the launch of the IB Diploma Programme in August 2017. We are also in the midst of recruiting students onto the programme and are pleased to be offering scholarships. There has been a significant amount of interest and, shortly, we will be offering places to a number of students, both internal and new to DCIS.
Our overseas trips were a resounding success and we have had some excellent feedback from parents, teachers and Rustic Pathways staff. This week we have had conversations with staff at Rustic Pathways and other providers so we can begin to plan our trips schedule for the next academic year. The behaviour of the students was exemplary on the trips and they are a credit to DCIS. It was great to receive the following mail from a member of the public, unconnected to DCIS or Rustic Pathways, who shared a flight with our Year 6 students:
“Monday the 6th of February my wife and I was travelling from Singapore to Bangkok. When we arrived at the departure lounge we found it half filled with children wearing blue t-shirts. At that time my initial thought was to batten down the hatches and prepare for a noisy couple of hours. However, very quickly it became clear that the boys and girls were not only well behaved, they were also led by very well organised teachers who had planned and carefully thought through every part of the journey. It was a pure pleasure to observe the professionalism of the teachers throughout the journey from boarding to passport control.
“Having led a few similar trips myself previously in my career, the excellence displayed by students and staff made an impression on me as a professional and I felt compelled to write this email to compliment your students and staff.“
We have one final overseas trip this academic year to Les Martinets, Switzerland for the NAE Global Campus Alpine Expedition. Several students from Years 8 and 9 are participating and will begin a structured training programme to prepare them for the rigours of the mountain hikes they will be involved in.
Following the launch of the NYAA programme this year (the equivalent of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award), our Year 10 participants have been working independently on their service based work. They have also started to prepare for the Singapore overnight expedition and have been practising putting up their tents after school this week. There are two stages to the expedition: they will be completing a one-night practice expedition before their ‘real’ expedition on Pulau Ubin later this academic year.
My thanks to those parents who supported the recent Parent Consultation Evenings. We had excellent levels of attendance and a wealth of positive feedback about our new online booking system. The evenings went very smoothly and will only need a couple of small changes for next time, e.g. our teachers need a short break as three hours non-stop is a long time!
As you may be aware, Nord Anglia Education has created a partnership with UNICEF who have developed the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. They have set all NAE schools the challenge to create projects in their local communities to positively contribute towards these goals. There are seventeen goals to achieve by 2030, one of which is to achieve zero hunger around the world. Our Year 10 Global Citizenship students have chosen this goal to focus on and have developed the Dover Court Food Drive along with ‘FoodBank SG’, an organisation that works to deliver food to people in Singapore who are in need. There are posters around the school giving further details.
Finally, our Year 11 students have entered the last stages of preparation for their iGCSE examinations. Most subjects are nearing the end of the formal teaching of the syllabus and students are working on the crucial revision stage. We have spent time this week working on different revision techniques and have contacted parents to give details of the different methods so they can be reinforced when the students revise at home.
To conclude I would like to thank you all for your support and we are looking forward to the next half term.
Best regards,
John Smith
Head of Secondary School
