DCIS Newsletter September and October 2019

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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. Christopher Short 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
Page 1: DCIS Newsletter September / October
Page 5 and 6: Dover Court International School GC
Page 7 and 8: DCIS Year 8 Headteacher Reward Mr B

DCIS Newsletter September and October 2019

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