Upcoming Term 2 Highlights from
Mr John Smith
The start of Term 2 includes Secondary School residential trips , plus planning for Global Expeditions to Les Martinets , Switzerland and MIT in Boston as well as preparations for the upcoming IB Diploma Programme
Dear DCIS Parents and Guardians ,
We all enjoyed greeting our students at the beginning of Term 2 . It was good to welcome a number of new students into Year 5 and 6 and our ever-expanding Secondary School . We have been enjoying catching up with everybody ’ s holiday news and we are now looking forward to another action packed term and , as well as the academics , there are a number of events and opportunities for students and parents .
In February our Year 6 to 11 students will be taking part in residential trips to Thailand , Cambodia , Laos and Myanmar . We will be sending out some further communication on the final documentation required and the logistical arrangements . Our trip leaders will also be running a drop-in session for any last minute questions . As detailed in the December newsletter , our Year 8 and 9 students also have an opportunity to participate in the NAE Global Campus Worldwide Expedition to Les Martinets in Switzerland . We are hoping to run this trip in June and , if you haven ’ t done so already , please let Mr . Woodhall know if you would like your son / daughter to attend . More details ( including the final costs ) will be sent out as soon as possible .
DCIS has also been given the opportunity to participate in the Nord Anglia Education collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ). As many of you know , MIT is considered one of the top universities in the world and we are very excited about this initiative . The collaboration is focused on STEAM subjects ( Science , Technology , Engineering , Arts and Mathematics ) and will enhance the curricula across the school . It also gives an opportunity for four DCIS students ( from Year 6 and 7 ) to visit Boston to take part in activities in a synthetic Biology lab , workshops in real-world gaming , nautical engineering , programming and music production . The students will also have the opportunity to tour both MIT and Harvard Universities . We are running an internal competition to choose the four students who will participate and our applicants are busy preparing a short presentation about an invention of their own design . They will present these to Ms . Mahoney and me shortly so we can choose our four participants .
Once again our students have been very active participants in all Global Campus activities . Last term we submitted our entries for the Creative Writing Competition and I am delighted to announce that we had nine DCIS winners from Years 5 to 11 . We will also be presenting last year ’ s winners ( Christopher in Year 10 and Emilia in Year 11 ) with their published anthologies and the published Photographer of the Year Calendar to our DCIS winner Aasmi in 5EC . This term we have the Visual Arts Competition and the Global Challenge , which will be launched alongside the new Nord Anglia Education partnership with the United Nations .
Term 2 is also an important time for many of our year groups . Year 6 students will be spending time preparing for the important transition from Primary to Secondary School . We will be running a number of information sessions and induction activities to make students and parents more aware of what life is like in the secondary environment . Our Year 9 students will be choosing their subjects for IGCSE and we will be running an options evening for students and parents so they can fully understand the process . Also , our Year 11 students are taking their very important mock examinations before they take their final IGCSE examinations in May and June .
Finally we will be hosting visitors from the International Baccalaureate Organisation ( IBO ) to verify our preparedness for offering the IB Diploma Programme from August 2017 . This project is being led by Mrs . Rinaldi and a large number of our teachers have been involved in an exceptional effort to get us ready . Many have already completed their training and the preparation continues as we plan and prepare the different curricula . I will update you on this as soon as I have further news later on this term .
In closing we would like to wish everyone an excellent start to Term 2 in Secondary School .
Kind regards ,
Mr . John Smith Head of Secondary
5