Mr Bull reflects on the fantastic achievements of our Secondary students.
Dear DCIS Secondary Parents,
As we approach the end of our first term in the Secondary School and the end of 2019, it is timely that we now reflect on the fantastic achievements of our students.
Our leadership team have spent a significant amount of time assessing the quality of teaching and learning that has happened this term. We have been very impressed by the attitude to learning and the progress being made by our students across the year groups.
UN Day is always an important and successful day in the DCIS calendar, and this year was no exception. We have reviewed and made improvements to this year's plan, which saw the introduction of music, dance and art workshops across the school with fantastic performances and seminars from our students and staff. A huge thank you to everyone for their participation in the event.
I have carried on my Headteacher Rewards and have had the pleasure of inviting students from Years 9, 10 and 11 to join me for a Hot Chocolate and a treat of their choice. Again, there is a theme in students' nominations both for academic achievements and kindness shown to others. It has also proved a very useful opportunity to listen to students on what they are enjoying about school and what they feel we could do better.
A huge thank you to the DCA for the Halloween and Christmas Fayre events this half term. I know that our Secondary students appreciated more of a Secondary focus. I have also met parents either at the Curriculum evening, Year 11 Sixth Form Event, the evening Parent Tours or more informally at other events around the school. I have heard such positive feedback and anecdotes about what the students are enjoying in Secondary School so far. We have listened to the areas which we could improve and develop, and have started working on this.
We held our second PSHE Drop Down Day this half term. Students attended a day of workshops and lessons to focus on key issues appropriate to each age group, from Enterprise projects in Year 7, Sex and Relationships in Year 10 to Drugs/Crime and University in Years 12 and 13.
The 'In' Art exhibition at the Australian High Commission saw our largest number of student work displayed this year. The standard of the work continues to improve year on year, and I am already excited to see what we produce for next year. The exhibition is open until the 10th January, so if you haven’t already, do pay a visit!
In early November we welcomed our Year 6 students into the Secondary School for the first of three transition days. The feedback was excellent, and I know our students made them feel extremely welcome.
We have had several external guest speakers visit our school this half term. This is always an excellent opportunity for our students to hear from specialist experts in particular fields. This term we welcomed Adrian Hayes, a British record-breaking polar explorer and adventurer, Zoe Griffiths from Think Maths, Archaeologists Michael Ng and Esther Seah Hui En from The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) plus Donna Costello and Stephanie Cunningham from Juilliard. Juilliard curriculum specialists such as Stephanie and Donna are experienced educators and artists who have expertise in The Juilliard Approach to Classroom Instruction, teacher collaboration and Juilliard Creative Classroom resources.
A big thank you must also go to one of our Year 12 parents, Kim Forrester. Kim ran an insightful, emotional and inspirational kindness workshop during Kindness Week. Kim is an award-winning author, educator and holistic wellbeing advocate and demonstrated kindness herself by giving up her afternoon to come and talk to our students over a lunchtime to round off a fantastic Kindness Week.
We have had many trips run this term including the STEAM Festival to Thailand, the World Scholars Cup trip to Yale University, where our nine students received an impressive 24 medals in total - 9 gold and 15 silver, Mandarin Trips to the local Hawker centre and Sun Yat-Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, our Year 11 Geography trip, the Golden Ticket winners trip to Gold Class Cinema and our weekly 11ML trip to Rebel Foods. Our choir also represented us at the Kranji Remembrance Memorial Service and at the Great British Ball.
Thank you for your support this term. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2020!
Mr Bull
Head of Secondary
