DCIS Newsletter September and October 2019

DCIS Newsletter 

September / October 2019 

Brit Cham UK Impact in Singapore 

Award Winner 

We were recently awarded the UK Impact in Singapore Award at the 20th Annual Business Awards 

organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (BritCham). 

The UK Impact in Singapore award 

acknowledges the important relationship 

that exists between the UK and Singapore 

and this year was particularly important in 

light of Singapore’s bicentennial celebration 

and BritCham’s 20th year of annual awards. 

The judges were looking for UK organisations 

who have made an impact on Singapore’s 

economy and society at a business, 

community or CSR level, contributing to the 

strengthening of the UK-SG partnership. 

Our entry centred on the work Nord Anglia 

Education has done over the last 5 years to 

improve Dover Court International School’s 

educational offering and facilities. The 

entry also focused on our almost 50 years 

in Singapore as well as our community, 

approach to inclusion and professional 

development of staff. Mr Lowther, our Visual 

Content & Design Manager, accessed the 

National Archives to obtain photos of the 

school when it was a British Military barracks 

and in its early days as a school in the 1970’s. 

These booklets and our description of the 

development of the school over 5 decades 

persuaded the judges to shortlist us. 

Once we were shortlisted, BritCham 

arranged for a video to be made to support 

our entry and to be played on the night for 

the audience. I am grateful to Mrs Pereira 

who represented our parents, Ms Bennett 

and Ms Izah who represented our staff and 

Jessie and Joseph who spoke on behalf of 

our students for the passionate comments 

they made about Dover Court and why 

we should win. Jessie and Joseph were 

acknowledged by the host as Dover Court’s 

secret weapons! 

There were 7 awards altogether, 6 of which 

had been decided by the panel of judges. 

We were delighted that one of our parents, 

Stewart from ERCE was the recipient of the 

Start-up Excellence Award. The UK Impact 

in Singapore was the last award category 

and live voting opened up as they showed 

the videos of the four contenders. After an 

extremely tense few minutes following the 

ever updating bar charts we were declared 

the winners. I’ve always wondered if Oscar 

winners are telling the truth when they say 

they are surprised to have won and hadn’t 

prepared a speech but now I know they are – 

at least from my experience! 

We are very grateful to BritCham and the 

judges for organising the Annual Business 

Awards. It is our second award in row as Ms 

Dolan, our Head of Year 2, won the Future 

Leaders Award last year. 

Christopher Short 

Principal 

2019-2020 Calendar Events and 

Other School Information 

2019-2020 Term Dates 

DCA Parent Association 

DCIS Facebook Page 

DC Bear Facebook Page 

DCIS Youtube Channel

Letter from the Principal: 

September and October Highlights 

Our Principal Christopher Short writes his 19th Newsletter. 

Dear DCIS Parents, 

This is the 19th Newsletter I have written at 

Dover Court and I think I am going to start this 

one in a similar vein to the previous 18. It has 

been an extremely busy but successful half 

term. Many of our teams worked through the 

summer to get the new Secondary Building 

and the Sports Hall ready for the new school 

year and we have been delighted by the 

response from students, parents and staff. 

There is still a little work to be done on 

the Sports Hall and this will be completed 

over the half term holiday. I’d like to thank 

all members of the school community, 

especially the PE team, for their flexibility 

and understanding while we worked around 

the logistics of our new buildings. The school 

year started with some phenomenal results 

from last year’s Years 11 and 13. As I wrote 

in my recent blog we do need to be wary of 

overall averages but we were delighted that 

we were above the World average for the 

IBDP and the UK average for GCSE. There 

are some great individual stories behind the 

headlines and our 10 graduates from Year 13 

are now successfully onto their next exciting 

challenge. 

The new Sports Hall hasn’t impacted on 

our Sports programme yet but we have had 

a very successful start to the year. We have 

had record numbers of students attending 

the trials for the FOBISIA, NAE Games and 

other teams and we have had some great 

results in this season’s ACSIS fixtures to date. 

We sneaked in the Sports Days around the 

weather just before half term which were 

hotly contested in all year groups. 

We’ve had a full set of local trips already this 

half term. I have enjoyed talking to children 

about their exciting visits to local museums 

and other areas of interest that Singapore 

has to offer. Our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award 

expedition hit the first hazy weekend in 

2 

3 years but they managed to get through 

most of their challenges. Further afield our 

Secondary World Scholars Cup trip to Manila 

was extremely successful and 9 students 

have qualified for the final stage at Yale later 

in the term. We’ve recently partnered with 

International SOS who have augmented our 

staff training and provide crucial planning 

and back up for all our international trips. 

More details will be available in specific trip 

information. 

Our Performing Arts have really benefited 

from the new facilities afforded to them in 

the Secondary building. We have long had 

a track record of some outstanding pieces 

of work from drama, music and art and 

we look forward to seeing this continue. 

We introduced Dance with the support 

of Juilliard last year and Ms Dodson did a 

brilliant job of starting this development. Ms 

Hughes has taken this over and we welcome 

our second Juilliard dance artist to DCIS in 

November. 

It has been lovely to see so many parents 

at our various events; coffee mornings, 

information sessions, parents consultations 

or the Parent Support Network. We welcome 

(suitably badged!) parents to use our 

Lounge at all times and I’m really pleased 

that this is being used more extensively. The 

DCA AGM was extremely well attended and I 

continue to be grateful for the support of the 

co-chairs, the executive and the volunteers 

for the plethora of activities they run each 

year. The DCA have also been instrumental 

in the feedback they supply – the recent 

improvements in lost property management 

are based upon discussions with them. 

We were very excited to win the UK Impact 

in Singapore Award at the BritCham Annual 

Business Awards last week. This category 

was a live vote so we had to wait while 

the bar charts moved up and down until 

the close of the poll – an agonising few 

minutes! Many thanks to the parents who 

were attending the Awards Dinner for their 

support and congratulations to DCIS parent, 

Stewart Easton, for winning in the Best Startup 

category. This is the third major Award 

we have won in the last 2 years and we are 

delighted to get the recognition for Dover 

Court for the hard work of our staff and 

students and the dedication of our parents. 

In November we welcome the Council of 

International Schools (CIS) accreditation 

team to the school for a 4 day visit. This 

is the final stage of our CIS accreditation 

process. All our staff have worked hard on 

this process but I am especially grateful to 

Kiara Gray for her great work over the last 

two years leading this process. 

I hope all staff and students have a restful 

half term break and that those families who 

manage to get away have a great holiday. 


Principal

Primary School September and October 

Highlights from Ms Lebihan 

Ms Lebihan reflects on the highlights of a busy first half term 

in the Primary School. 

The first half term in any school is always busy 

and this half term at Dover Court has been no 

exception! 

We were delighted to welcome several news 

students and their families to the primary 

school; I have greatly enjoyed visiting classes 

and getting to know our newer children who 

have clearly settled in well. I have also had 

the great pleasure of meeting many of our 

new parents at the Coffee Mornings hosted 

earlier in the term, as well as at some of the 

Primary School events. Hopefully, you all feel 

welcome and your children are by now happy 

in their new school and familiar with their new 

routines. 

We literally hit the ground running with our 

educational visits in the Primary School this 

term, with our very first outing to the National 

Stadium where Year 3 were invited to watch 

the Walking With Dinosaurs performance. The 

children (and the staff!) told me that it was 

a great show and a brilliant entry point for 

the Year 3 Project Work, Footsteps From The 

Past. Thank you to Mr Neeson and the Year 3 

team for giving up their Saturday morning to 

take the children to the performance, I know 

this was greatly appreciated. Following this, 

Years 4 and 5 went to the theatre to see the 

Mandarin version of Fantastic Mr Fox. Thank 

you to the Miss Hey and the Mandarin team 

for organising these trips. The children told 

me that they had a great time and thoroughly 

enjoyed the performance. As well as this, Year 

2 have visited the Cloud Forest and Flower 

Dome at Gardens By the Bay, Year 4 had a great 

session at the Science Centre, Year 3 went to 

Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, 

Year 6 had a fantastic experience at the Forest 

Adventure at Bedok Reservoir Park and EYFS 

tested out many activities (and gained many 

skills!) at Kidzania. We have many more visits 

planned over the rest of the term and we will 

keep you updated! 

As well as this, we have enjoyed our Primary 

Sports Days this term out on the track and 

field. It was a pleasure to see the children 

so engaged in their carousel of activities 

with everything from the long jump and the 

hurdles, to sprinting and shot put! Each child 

had the opportunity to shine and they were 

encouraged to do so by our amazing PE team. 

The events ran seamlessly, apart from the 

Singapore weather playing a trick on Year 1, 

and this is of course down to the prior planning 

on the part of the staff. A big thank you to each 

and every one of the for super set of events 

and thanks also to the parents who managed 

to come along to support the children – it was 

great to see you there. 

Over the half term we have seen some great 

class assemblies presented by the children 

themselves. Thank you so far to for all the 

staff and students concerned. You may also 

have heard that our very own Dover Court 

Superheroes made a guest appearance at 

our first Vision assembly of the year. This was 

a great opportunity to re-cap on the school 

vision and the characteristics we embody here 

at Dover Court. We have also been delighted 

to award our Care and Collaboration awards 

to some of our students this term. I know 

they were as proud to receive their pin badges 

and certificates in assembly as I was to award 

them. 

We have some great events coming up 

over the next few weeks, so here are a few 

reminders to pop in your diary. UN Day will 

soon be upon us (25th October). Don’t forget 

to organise your country costumes – we look 

forward to seeing parents there to support 

the children. Another day to make note of is 

our Deepavali celebration which is happening 

on 1st November. Your children are invited 

to dress in Deepavali or bright clothes, I am 

already looking forward to the assemblies on 

that day! Halloween will also be soon upon us 

with the annual ticketed event which is run by 

the DCA. Watch out for more spooky details! 

And finally, during the week commencing 

4th November, we will be sharing with the 

children information about the importance 

of Remembrance Day. We have some lovely 

activities planned for the week - more 

information to follow after the break. 

So, all in all a busy half term to lead us to a 

relaxing break. I hope you all manage to have 

some special family time together and I look 

forward to seeing the children back, refreshed 

and raring to go, after the break. 

Best regards, 

Kara Lebihan 

Head of Primary School 

3

Secondary School September and 

October Highlights from Mr Bull 

Mr Bull talks about a successful first half term. 

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 

4 

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. 

Craig Bull 

Head of Secondary

Dover Court International School 

GCSE Results 2019 

Dover Court International School students received their GCSE results and we would like to take 

this opportunity to congratulate them on their successes. We are very proud of their achievements 

and we are so glad to be welcoming 24 returning and new students into our Sixth Form and onto the 

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. 

This year, over 78% of our students achieved 

5 GCSEs between 4-9 (C - A**) including 

English and Mathematics with 21% 

achieving 5 or more GCSEs between grades 

7-9 (A - A**). 31% of our entries for the new 

GCSE exams achieved a grade 7 – 9 (A - A**), 

this compares favourably with the average 

across all GCSE papers of 20.8% (source: 

BBC). Furthermore, two of our students 

achieved a full suite of 7-9 grades. 

In addition, some of our younger students 

took Maths and Language GCSEs this year. 

Seven students in Years 9 and 10 took 

Mathematics GCSE, all of whom achieved 

grade 9 and five students from years 9 and 

10 took French and German, all achieved 

grade 9. 

Reflection on Results 

Understandably schools celebrate the 

achievement of their students on each of 

these days and each school will compare 

themselves to the UK or global average – 

usually very favourably, sometimes incredibly 

impressively. Our school is no exception – 

we gleefully shared photos of our students 

celebrating their success in iGCSE and IBDP 

results and promoted our UK/World-beating 

averages. 

DCIS is a more inclusive school than most 

and as such, the average only tells part of 

the story. We live in a world where increased 

accountability and the need for shorter 

snappier headlines are a juxtaposition of 

Mr Bull, Head of Secondary says “I am 

incredibly proud of the achievements of 

all our students and the progress they 

have made at DCIS. I am excited by the 

opportunities in life that these excellent 

results will offer our students giving them 

a very positive start in shaping their future. 

I would like to thank our staff and parents 

for their continued support of our young 

people, it is an important partnership that 

makes a huge difference to the value our 

school adds to our students’ education 

which, this year was almost half a grade 

better progress than where students were 

expected to get to. I am also delighted to be 

welcoming so many of our Year 11 students 

back into Year 12 this year as our IBDP Sixth 

Form continues to grow” 

Attainment is only one measure of how our 

students have performed and we are proud 

that our school has supported students on 

average to achieve almost half of a grade 

better progress than they were expected to 

achieve. This year’s results are testament 

to the resilience and determination of our 

talented students and staff and the support 

of our parent body. We will, as always, look 

to build on this success and strive to provide 

the first class education our students 

deserve. 

Dover Court is not a selective school, we 

welcome students of all academic abilities 

and it’s because we offer support for many 

different academic, social and emotional 

needs that our student population is 

incredibly diverse. Our school community 

reflects the wider global community and 

everyone benefits from this. We are a truly 

comprehensive school for all talents which 

is founded on the belief that all students 

are good at something, and in which all 

gifts, abilities, aptitudes, attainments and 

achievements should be recognised. 

Accepting students of all abilities does 

not mean we are any less ambitious for 

every single learner. This year we have 

seen students graduate with more than 

40 points in the IBDP programme and gain 

entry to the world’s top universities but 

we will also support students for whom 

success will be marked by acquiring the 

skills and qualifications to allow them to 

secure productive and fulfilling jobs and 

subsequently leading independent lives. 

Over the past few weeks we have seen schools and school membership organisations celebrate 

some astounding results in (i)GCSE, at A Level and in the IB Diploma programme. 

priorities that don’t lend themselves to 

getting to the underlying story. Attainment is 

only one measure of how our students have 

performed and we are equally proud that our 

students on average achieved almost half of 

a grade better than expected. As an example, 

on results day last year we celebrated record 

averages for the school and on the very same 

day our student Annie came up to me to tell 

me, in equally excited fashion, that she had 

been accepted at catering college. Annie had 

been a student at the school for 7 years, in 

our SEN pathway and this was a tremendous 

achievement. There are no simple statistics 

to share the successes in this pathway, each 

child is following a very unique path. We can 

and do tell the individual stories, but my fear 

is that they don’t get the headlines the iGCSE 

A*/A or 4+ or IBDP average point scores get, 

as they are more difficult to understand and 

simply take longer to read and comprehend. 

This, for me, is a real dilemma – education 

isn’t all about numbers, it is about stories. 

I don’t know the solution yet, but it is 

something that we have on our agenda at 

DCIS. How we celebrate every students’ 

success and make them understandable, so 

we remain accountable not only for some but 

accountable for every one of our cohort. 


Principal 

5

STEAM Week - A Different Lens 

Last week was our first STEAM Week of the academic year. In the Primary School, children have 

been attempting the first MIT Challenge – A Different Lens. 

This challenge was inspired by the MIT 

Professor: Felice Frankel https://felicefrankel. 

com/ and was centred around scientific 

images. Here is a summary of how the 

challenge was attempted in each year group: 

EYFS have enjoyed learning about what 

STEAM is and accepted their first challenge 

with much excitement! The children have 

been shown how to use the camera app on 

the iPads and some of the functions, such 

as the zoom, and were then hunting around 

the classroom and outdoor areas to take 

scientific photos. The children in EYFS loved 

being photographers for the week and took 

some amazing photos! The children loved 

sharing their photos with the class. 

Year 1 had a whale of a time with our STEAM 

work this week. We learnt about the meaning 

behind STEAM, why it is so important in 

today’s world and what we would like to 

invent if we had the chance. I think a robot to 

make and do as we command, was definitely 

top of the Year 1 list! We learnt about the 

photographer Felice Frankel and then made 

our own pin hole cameras. A top time was 

had by all! 

6 

In Year 2, the children loved this first STEAM 

Challenge. During their first lesson, the 

children worked on developing their learning 

powers of CCP (Curiosity, Creativity and 

Problem Solving). They were then thrilled 

to use macro lenses attached to iPads to 

capture unusual images around our school 

grounds. The children then learnt how to 

edit them using some basic tools on the 

iPads. Finally, the children learnt about the 

incredible image – The Pillars of Creation 

(https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/thepillars-of-creation). 

They used this to inspire 

them to make their own cameras – of the Pin 

Hole variety! They then tested them in the 

playground to see if they worked. 

In Year 3, the children particularly enjoyed 

the problem solving challenge. They were 

excited to explore the school grounds as 

nature detectives, as they were given the task 

of finding evidence of food chains, which they 

found in the form of half-eaten leaves and 

ants’ nests. 

All the Year 4 classes really enjoyed revisiting 

CCP and we are going to try and have this 

mindset more as we do our Project Work, 

English and Maths. We have used the work 

of Felice Frankel to inspire our photography 

skills whilst on a trip to the Science Centre. 

We used the macro lenses to take close up 

photos of various scientific objects which 

really showed the textures in great detail. 

Finally, we made pinhole cameras (however 

we have not really had the opportunity to test 

these yet and are waiting for a nice sunny, 

haze free day to try them out!) 

Year 5 have explored ‘persistance of vision’ 

for their STEAM activities this week. This is 

the phenomenon where a series of photos 

sequenced and shown to us at a speed 

quicker than a tenth of a second fools our 

eyes and brain into seeing a moving image. 

We discovered how this works by creating 

flipbooks, zoetropes and thaumatropes. 

In Year 6, children were challenged to take 

some science inspired photographs. The 

children also enjoyed making their own 

camera obscura. A device, which was used to 

create images, shortly before cameras were 

first invented. 

Mr Baines 

Year 2 Teacher and Primary STEAM Leader

DCIS Year 8 Headteacher Reward 

Mr Bull thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Year 8 Headteacher’s Reward winners this morning. The 

key theme in all their nominations was kindness, something that we are particularly proud of. 

The students enjoyed hot chocolate and 

brownies and had some great discussions 

with Mr Bull about the things they love about 

Dover Court and the things that they would 

like to see improved. 

Congratulations to: 

Reyna (8LC) - Reyna has received outstanding 

achievements in the Nord Anglia Education 

Creative competitions. She is a kind and hardworking 

student who truly takes advantage 

of every opportunity available to her. 

Isuka (8LC) - Isuka is a joy to have in every 

classroom. He is polite, engaged, and offers 

the most mature and well thought-out 

answers routinely. Isuka is kind to both his 

peers, teachers, and anyone with whom he 

comes in contact. He is an incredibly valued 

student at Dover Court. 

Hailey (8DS) - Hailey has had an amazing 

start to the academic year. She has shown 

fantastic resilience to difficult situations in 

this time and flexibility to new routines and 

situations. 

Erwan (8DS) - Erwan has been the leader of a 

number of initiatives in form time and has an 

unwavering dedication to DCIS, whether that 

be linked to representing the school, helping 

to run activities or helping his peers. 

Anastasia (8AN) - Anastasia is an exemplary 

student who is kind-natured, sensible and 

amicable. This is demonstrated throughout 

school on a daily basis. It was a pleasure to 

have Anastasia represent Dover Court as part 

of the World Scholar’s Cup competition. 

Zac (8AN) - Zac invests maximum effort into 

all of his tasks. He can be relied upon to 

motivate himself as well as his peers. It is a 

pleasure to have him in our form group. 

Thomas (8HV) - Whilst on the World Scholar’s 

Cup, Thomas showed superb camaraderie 

by encouraging peers, checking how they 

were feeling, and consistently having a smile 

on his face. I was very proud that he was 

representing Dover Court. 

Sophie (8HV) - Sophie has made an excellent 

start to her time at Dover Court, settling in 

incredibly well and being prepared to get 

involved in the wider school community by 

applying to be a House Captain. 

The next Headteacher reward is for Year 9s on 

the 1st of November. 

Charity Awareness Day 

Share A Dream is an online social 

engagement platform, designed to engage 

Nord Anglia Education schools, students 

and teachers in outreach activities. As an 

intuitive solution for social responsibility 

engagement, Share A Dream helps facilitate 

the good work happening in every Nord 

Anglia school community, and gives 

students and teachers the power to effect 

positive, lasting change through activities. 

Dover Court has a history of extensive charity work and 

with the launch of Nord Anglia Education’s Share a Dream 

initiative we have worked on a new charity programme. 

During term three last year the Dover Court 

students had the opportunity to select the 

charities that the school would support over 

the next two years. 

Friday 11th October was our first Charity 

Day of the year and a range of activities have 

been going on on campus to raise money 

and awarenss. All students were invited to 

a non-uniform day for a a small donation, 

the new charity collection boxes placed at 

the entrence were a great success and the 

children enjoyed putting their donations in 

the boxes. The students had created some 

wonderful posters that were displayed in 

the foyer. 

8MM and 11ML had worked hard all week 

in preparation for their bake sale in The 

Lounge. The students had baked all the 

goods on sale, made posters and ran the 

stand, all by themselves. They would like 

to thank all parents and staff for supporting 

them and helping them help others. 

The Spot in the Red Dot Restaurant saw 

a number of busking performances, all 

performing to raise funds. 

A wonderful day, truly showing that our 

students embrace the Dover Court vision. 

7

Year 2 Learning Showcase 

It was an exciting day in Year 2 as the children had the 

opportunity to share their learning with their parents on the 

Project Work topic of ‘Our World’. 

The children showed their parents all the jigsaw research they carried out, which they then 

used to write an explanation text about the different biomes of the world; desert, polar 

regions or rainforests. The children explained how they designed and made their plants with 

special features to allow it to adapt to a specific biome. They tested their parents on their own 

knowledge of the continents and oceans of the world, plants that grow in the rainforests, polar 

regions and desserts and what different animals have that allow them to live in the different 

climates. 

The children were fantastic and were so knowledgeable in their learning that I am sure the 

parents learned lots of new facts. Well done Year 2! 

Monica Dolan 

Year 2 Leader 

Advice and Guidance - Sleep 

Our Educational Psychologist, Ms Wigford and psychology teacher, Mr Lindsay write about the importance of sleep. 

Dover Court students are generally lively and 

happy with plenty of energy. However, there 

are also some students who are finding it 

hard to pay attention, are forgetful, yawn and 

fall asleep in class. These students may not 

be getting enough sleep and are therefore 

unlikely to be learning as well as they could. 

Sleep is essentially a biological requirement 

for physical and mental health and learning 

(particularly memory consolidation). 

Children and young people who don’t get 

enough sleep often have problems with 

learning and behavior regulation. Tired 

students find it hard to focus, they may be 

hyperactive and have mood swings which 

can lead to upset. Many parents also have 

problems sleeping and this can get in the way 

of calm, responsive parenting! 

We recently completed a sleep survey with 

our Year 11 students to discover that 50% 

of them reported getting the recommended 

8-10 hours of sleep a night. However, the 

other 50% reported that they were getting 

less than 8 hours each night - no one was 

sleeping too much! 

8 

We therefore thought a few tips/reminders of 

the most effective approach to a good nights’ 

sleep might be helpful. Small changes in 

routines can have a noticeable impact after 

just two weeks. 

Bedtime tips for a good night’s sleep: 

Routine – go to bed at the same time even on 

the weekends if possible. 

Don’t go to bed with a full stomach or hungry. 

Finish eating at least two hours before bed. 

Avoid caffeine 4 hours before bedtime – 

preferably avoid caffeine after lunch time. 

The bedroom should be dark, quiet and cool. 

No electronic devices from 1 hour before bed. 

Calming activities such as reading a book 

before bed time. 

Getting plenty of exercise in daylight is also 

important. 

REF: Mindell & Owens (2010) A Clinical Guide 

to Pediatric Sleep. 

Dover Court International School (Pte) Ltd is registered with the Committee for Private Education | CPE Registration No: 197100313E | Registration Period: 05/07/2019 to 04/07/2023 

The Committee for Private Education (CPE) is part of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) 

Sleep needs by age: 

Reception and Nursery (3-5 years): 

10-13 hours recommended 

Primary and Year 7 (6-13 years): 


Secondary (14-17 years): 


Adults (18 +): 


Ms Wigford 

Educational Psychologist 

Mr Lindsay 

Psychology Teacher

DCIS Newsletter September and October 2019

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?