Dear Dover Court Families,
It is incredibly hard to capture the spirit and summarise the many achievements of our school community over this phenomenal year. So much has happened, so much has been restored, so much energy abounds, it is hard to recall the doldrums of 2021-22. Perhaps we shouldn’t try too hard to recall the dark months of the previous year!
In August, we welcomed many new staff and even more new families to Dover Court. Rallying around our new Mission Statement, everyone quickly embraced the ethos and the values of our diverse and inclusive community. With the exceptional summer examination achievements of our senior students to inspire us, we started the school year determined to make 22-23 a year to remember. Three new buildings were open for business right from the start, providing a welcome uplift for sport, the arts and technology, and Pathway 3. Dr Maureen Roach visited to cut the ribbon and joined again later in the year via Zoom to officially name our Pathway 3 facility “The Dr Maureen Roach Building”. Our DCA Family Picnic returned, with picnickers turning out in huge numbers undaunted by the rain, followed by Halloween and the Christmas Fair. Student sport, music, theatre and art came out of the shadows to excite us, inspire us and entertain us, thanks to our driven, indomitable staff and awe-inspiring students.
Wildlife continued to remind us of the special environment we have here on Dover Road, with nesting bulbuls, a resident party of hornbills, sunbirds and oriels being sighted almost daily. Wolves also appeared on campus, appearing on T-shirts, banners and sports kit. Wolf Fish were also in evidence, as our first ever scuba expedition headed off in April.
In the middle of the year, the unusually intense and extended rainy season confounded many of our activities. We were not to be compromised! We are now proud of our new covered walkways and will soon open our state of the art floodlit artificial sports pitch.
We ease into the summer break, basking in the glory of our sporting successes which were celebrated at our Sports Awards Evening, in awe of the achievements highlighted at our Prize Giving, and with students heading to the United Nations in New York and lined up for a visit in the next academic year to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and still more residential expeditions to take us up to the end of an incredible school year.
In finishing, I’d like to express my gratitude to all parents who supported the myriad Dover Court Association (DCA) activities this year and say “thank you” to all families for making Dover Court a truly magical community.
Richard Dyer
DCIS Principal
