Mr Bull talks about a successful first half term.
Dear DCIS Secondary Parents,
The first half term of any academic year is usually one of the busiest for parents, students and staff at the best of times and this year was no exception particularly when you throw in moving into a new building.
I am exceptionally proud of our students and staff and the way they have settled into their new home at Dover Court. Over the half term we have listened and observed to make some subtle changes as the term has developed and we will make further changes in terms of infrastructure ready for the start of Term 1.2. We are very proud of our new facilities, and we recently held an official opening ceremony which was attended by the British High Commissioner, Kara Owen, Dr Bicky Bhangu, President of South East Asia Rolls-Royce, parents students and staff. Ayush in Year 7 who won the naming competition and designed the logo for the Red Dot Restaurant was invited to cut one of the five ribbons; he managed to do so with one clean cut, something which I did not.
As you will have seen and heard about from my various other communications, we were extremely pleased with both our iGCSE and IB results this summer. It confirms that students at Dover Court achieve extremely well, and most importantly, that we take students further than they are expected to achieve.
We have had a good number of trips and visits run already this term including two Duke of Edinburgh Trips, a Red Dot Museum trip, a Geography IB trip and the World Scholar’s Cup trip to Manila, where nine students made it through to the final round at Yale next month. A fantastic achievement.
The STEAM challenge week was a huge success. This term’s challenge was called A Different Lens, featuring Felice Frankel and it asked students to explore communicating Art through Science. Felice Frankel is the Artist in Residence at MIT. Her job is to help Scientists, Engineers and Mathematicians communicate their discoveries through the use of beautiful, compelling images. Many of these images have been used on the front cover of science publications such as Nature Magazine. I was amazed by the photographs produced. We then held a STEAM exhibition in the Cooper Hall, where a selection of the most captivating images were displayed.
Despite the Singapore weather, our Secondary Sports Day was a success. We had some very close fought races, with Mr Lindsay even winning the teachers’ race. With everything accounted for, including football and indoor athletics, Newton came out overall winners with Jurong and Ubin close behind in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. A huge thanks should go to the PE team who have managed and delivered Sports Days across the whole school recently, which is no mean feat.
I have had the pleasure of inviting ten students from Year 7 and ten students from Year 8 to join me for a Hot Chocolate and a brownie as part of my monthly Headteacher Reward. I was particularly taken back to hear the stories of altruism that led to most of the students being nominated by their tutors. We are hosting the other year groups, one year group each month as the year progresses.
We also held our first PSHE Drop Down Day this term. Students attended a day of workshops and lessons to focus on key issues appropriate to each age group, from Looking after ourselves and each other in Year 7 to Relationships in Year 9 and Getting Ready for Exams further up the school.
During the opening ceremony of the Secondary building, I gave a speech where I drew upon the similarities between what this building means to our students and what a home means to us - the sense of Belonging, Comfort, Pride and Self Fulfilment. I had certainly felt this to be true when on learning walks or talking to students this term. This became however even clearer this week, when I witnessed students from Years 10 and 12 collaborate and perform on ‘The Spot’ to staff and students across the school. The atmosphere was electric. Students were cheering, dancing, clapping and most importantly, coming together as one community to celebrate in the achievements of others.
I wish you all a pleasant and restful half term and look forward to welcoming you all back on Monday 21st October.
Mr Bull
Head of Secondary
