DCIS Week Beginning 26th September

Dear DCIS Parents and Guardians,

With Term 1 now in full swing we are starting to plan ahead with the following being discussed and agreed in the last week:

1. 2017-2018 Term Dates and Holidays: We have set the dates for the 2017-2018 academic year. These are attached below and can be viewed following this link. The new calendar dates have allowed us to increase our teaching days from 177 to 180 days which will be the DCIS standard from now on. In order to achieve this, we have swapped the two week half term in October 2017 for an earlier finish in June 2018. This makes more sense from a teaching point of view, especially in year groups with external exams.

2. Meet the Principal event: During the Parent Teacher Conferences coming up in October (Primary School) and November (Secondary School), I will host opportunities for parents to meet me and learn more about my plans for DCIS. Details on these will be shared next week. In the meantime, you can also follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/dcisprincipal 

 

The next week will see the following events:

Monday, 26th September, 8.45am – 9.30am in the Cafeteria	Secondary School (Year 7 – Year 12) Parent Coffee Morning
Tuesday, 27th September, 8.45am – 9.30am in the Cafe	DSE Parent Coffee Morning
Wednesday, 28th September, 8.30am – 9.30am in Cooper Hall	Parent Workshop: Primary School Homework (Nursery – Year 6)
Thursday, 29th September, 6.00pm – 7.00pm Cooper Hall	Parent Workshop: Secondary Assertive Mentoring (Year 10 - Year 12)
Thursday, 29th September, 8.45am – 9.30am in the Cafe	ESL Parent Coffee Morning
Friday, 30th September in Cooper Hall Lower Primary, 9.00am – 9.30am Upper Primary, 10.00am – 10.30am	*Primary School Assembly Lower Primary (Class 2AV and 2JW) Upper Primary (Class 3HB and 3RG)
Monday, 3rd October, 5.00pm – 5.45pm in Room 104	Tanzania Expedition Information Evening
Monday, 3rd October, 6.00pm – 7.00pm in Cooper Hall	Year 4 Trip Information Evening
Monday, 3rd October – Friday, 7th October	September/October Newsletter Published Online
Monday, 3rd October – Friday, 7th October	Dyslexia Awareness Week

Global Expeditions Non-Uniform Day - Tuesday, 4th October

Tuesday 4^th October will be a whole school non-uniform day to raise money for the NAE Tanzania Expedition. Money raised will be going towards the projects that our DCIS students and staff will be completing on behalf of DCIS in Tanzania such as building smokeless stoves in community housing, helping to build goat sheds and building a local primary school.

The theme of the day will be Safari Animals / Eco Tourists. Teachers will be discussing this day with the students this week so they can plan their outfits for next week. The donation towards this non-uniform day will be $2 per student.

Sports Fixtures

Congratulations to the many students participating in events across Singapore. The School Blog and DCIS Facebook page have information on our sporting achievements, so do follow our students (and even our very own netball mums team, the Dover Delites) in their sporting endeavours.

In the next week, our students are being ambitious in numerous sports fixtures for Swimming, Football, Rugby, Netball and Cross Country:

16 & Under Boys Football (Home)                       Mon 26th Sept           4.30pm

9 & Under Boys Football (Home)                          Tues 27th Sept          4.30pm

9 & Under Girls Football (Home)                           Tues 27th Sept          4.30pm  

12 & Under Boys Rugby    (Away) at Turf City   Tues 27th Sept          4.30pm

16 & Under Girls Football (Away)                          Weds 28th Sept         4.30pm

Jnr School XC (Away) at PASIR RIS                       Weds 28th Sept         4.30pm

12 & Under A Girls Netball (Away) at Nexus      Thurs 29th Sept         4.30pm

12 & Under B Girls Netball (Away) at TTS           Thurs 29th Sept         4.30pm

Swim Meet v Chatsworth (Home)                          Fri 30th Sept               4.30pm

Below we have attached the new Lower Primary October Lunch Menu and the Upper Primary/Secondary October Lunch Menu from Chartwells for October. Parents will also have been informed of the future move to a biometrics food ordering process for Year 3 and above. The introductory letter and biometrics permission form can be found on our Parent Essentials website in the 'School Lunches' webpage and below.

DCA and Class Representatives Update

Almost all our classes now have volunteer parents in the role of Class Representatives. The list of Class Representatives is attached below. Year level coffee mornings at school are drawing to a close for Term 1 and the Class Representatives are actively seeking support for the DCA events in early November and December. These include a Trunk or Treat Halloween family event, the annual DCA Parent Quiz Night and the Christmas Fair.

DCIS Goes Global - Year Level Trips across South East Asia

Following the great success of the residential trips last year, we have decided to extend the offering and now all students from Year 4 onwards are being offered the opportunity to participate in incredible enrichment trips across South East Asia:

Year 4 - Kota Rainforest, Malaysia

Year 5 - Telunas, Indonesia

Year 6 - Udon Thani, Thailand

Year 7 - Phnom Penh and Kampang Cham, Cambodia

Year 8 and Year 9 - Luang Prabang, Laos

Year 10 and Year 11 - Bagan, Myanmar

We also have secondary students travelling to Tanzania in November for the NAE Global Expeditions trip. 

Well done and thank you to all the students participating in these trips and to their parents for investing in this opportunity for our students to 'Be Ambitious'.

Global Expeditions Tanzania Trip

Parents of students who are attending the NAE Tanzania Expedition are invited to attend a trip briefing meeting with the trip leaders in Room 104 on Monday 3^rd October at 5pm. We will share information about the itinerary, vaccinations, visa requirements and collecting important data about the children before the expedition. Attendance is strongly encouraged.

Skoolbo Success 

DCIS is doing rather well in the Skoolbo Leaderboard having been at the top of the Leaderboard for 3 weeks in a row. Phenomenal work!

Finally, a reminder for pick up after school and ECAs. Parents who are collecting their children from school after ECAs must wait in the Lower Primary Cafeteria NOT in the main Cafeteria or at the top of the stairs. Please do not pick your child out of a line. This will allow our ECA staff to supervise the pick up carefully and make sure the children get home safely.

Best regards,

Mr. Christopher Short
Principal

https://twitter.com/dcisprincipal 

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October Calendar of Events

Please note that further details on sporting events and any updates are also made on the DCIS Website Calendar with weekly events highlighted on the DCIS Website Homepage and the weekly news on our News and Insights webpage.

• DCIS Lower Primary Cafeteria Menu October 2016
• DCIS Upper Primary/Secondary Lunch Menu October 2016
• Chartwells Biometric Letter Permission Slip
• Chartwells Biometric Letter to Parents
• DCIS Parent Class Representatives 2016-2017