Learning to Belong - Settling into a new Country
As we settle into the new school year it’s important to validate that many of our new students and families are joining us from overseas where they have left family and friends behind. Rachel Edwards, our Head of Secondary, shares some tips for families who have joined us this year.
As we settle into the new school year it’s important to validate that many of our new students and families are joining us from overseas where they have left family and friends behind.
No matter how warm and welcoming our DCIS community is (and it really is!) or how exciting it is to live in Singapore, it takes time to settle, time to make new friends, and time to build a new home. Having raised a family in five different countries, here are some top tips I have learned and offered other parents and students along the way:
- It’s ok and natural to miss your ‘old life’ and important to express your emotions honestly about changes.
- Young people need control over their spaces at home so that they are comfortable and have familiarity around them. Pictures, mementos, and memories are very important.
- It’s crucial that the school knows about the students' interests and achievements so they are not ‘starting again’. Do share information about your child with us!
- Don’t worry about the ‘small stuff’, establish good routines, and keep communicating.
- Find activities to participate in and involve everyone in deciding what you’d like to try first.
- Keep connected to friends and family, now more than ever this is ‘a given’ post-Covid. Accept and enjoy continuing to nurture friendships online. Accept and embrace that young people now live aspects of their social lives online and providing this is safe with parameters on time online, it’s a good way to keep connected.
- Encourage teens to say yes! to invites to join groups, to trips and activities, and try things they may not have considered before.
- Create new family traditions and ‘must-do’s’ when celebrating events from afar.
- Talk to others and seek help and tips from other parents and the school, you will not be alone in navigating new experiences.
In the last twenty years, much has been researched and written and continues to be, about children and adults who are ‘Third Culture’, living lives in transit. Much will resonate and reassure. Perhaps the most well-known/used is ‘Third Culture Kids, Growing up among worlds’ by David C. Pollock, Ruth E, Van Reken and Michael V. Pollock.
Rachel Edwards
Head of Secondary
