November news and highlights from the Principal
Carols by Candlelight and our Global Expedition to Tanzania were just some of this month ’ s highlights
Dear DCIS Parents and Guardians ,
Thank you to all the parents that attended our Year 3 and above Carols by Candlelights Christmas concert on Thursday or Friday night last week . For me this summed up what is the very best about DCIS . We had children from throughout the school community performing at the very highest levels aided and supported by a large number of students and teachers . The community feeling of the event was further manifested by a parent running the sound for us . Both evenings were delightful and the feedback from parents and guests was phenomenal . It was a very similar story with delightful concerts from our Lower Primary School classes this week .
We have had a very successful term on the sporting field . Mr Holmes gives an update to staff during our meeting each Friday and the list of success takes up most of the time ! What really impresses me when I watch our teams is how they conduct themselves whether winning or losing . Further away from school 12 students had a very successful trip to Tanzania and made a huge impact on the school they supported as well as enjoying a safari . Our suite of year trips started this week with Year 5 off to Indonesia .
From an academic perspective the term started in an excellent way with recognition of 3 students who scored the highest in their subject in EDEXCEL IGCSE examinations . Both Primary , Secondary and the DSE have made enhancements to the way they teach and assess and the feedback from students and parents was been excellent .
Several SLT members including myself were in Hanoi earlier this month at the Nord Anglia Education regional conference which was an excellent opportunity to share expertise amongst the eight schools we have in the region . I am pleased that DCIS gave two presentations , one around how we have created a curriculum and assessment model to challenge all students to achieve the very highest and one about how we structure our support needs to ensure we are ambitious for every one of our students . To be able to present on initiatives that show excellence in the complete range of what we do is extremely powerful .
It has been a very successful term and I am grateful to the DCIS community for making me feel so welcome so quickly . I have said this before so apologies for repeating myself but we have wonderful children , a fantastic staff team and supportive parents ; a winning formula for any school . We have continued to make structural improvements to the school . Unfortunately we had a couple of technical setbacks to our half term projects but these will be finalised over the Christmas holiday so we will have a functioning covered basketball court and swimming pool in January . We have two other projects to be completed shortly . One is the Sensory Room which will provide an excellent resource for students needing sensory intervention . Another is a new library IT system that we have been working on for the last two months . Shortly into next term the pieces of card will be no more as we use bar codes to manage our library system and borrowing from it .
I have also enjoyed my first few months back in Singapore . I have enjoyed meeting various members of the Singapore education community – it turns out it is a small world after all as the Principals of Dulwich College , Tanglin School and Dover Court International School all went to the same University ; two of us more or less at the same time !
I wish all parents and children a very happy festive season and safe travels if you do get away .
Kind regards ,
Mr . Christopher Short Principal
3