Newsletter June 2019 - Secondary School June Highlights from Mr Bull

Dear DCIS Parents, I want to start my final newsletter of the Academic year by saying a heartfelt thank you to all of our excellent staff who have worked tirelessly over the year to deliver an outstanding learning experience for our students and such an incredible co-curricular offer. I would also like to thank all of the parents and students for making me feel so welcome as Head of Secondary at DCIS and as my first year draws to a close; I can say that I am very proud to be a member of such a fantastic school. As I have spoken about in previous communications, these are very exciting times for the Secondary School and for DCIS as a whole. I am delighted to be taking the school into the next chapter in its history, and I am determined to build on the current strengths and take the school forward on a journey to outstanding in all areas. The Secondary building is really starting to take shape both externally and internally, and we are very much looking forward to finally getting into our new building this August. Despite it being the final half term of the year, it is always a busy one, and this half term was no exception. Our Years 11 and 13 students have sat over 100 examination sessions over the last couple of months, and we are very confident and positive about their results this summer. We have recently held our inaugural Year 13 Graduation Ceremony at Eden Hall, the residence of the British High Commissioner. It was fantastic to be able to recognise the hard work and dedication of these students and formally bid them farewell on the next stages of their educational career. It is wonderful also to know that we have potential university destinations such as Stanford, Michigan, Glasgow, London, Canada and Singapore, to name just a few. We have also held our first Art and DT exhibition, which was attended by over 150 people with 95 pieces of student work displayed. I was very impressed by the quality of the work displayed. A special mention must go to the cast and crew of Arabian Nights for such a fantastic production. The nearly 90 students who took part have been rehearsing since January, before, during, and after school, giving up weekends and evenings and it indeed showed in their performance. I would also like to thank the staff for the Year 12 ESS Trip to Tioman, the Global Campus trip to Switzerland and the Year 10 and 12 Mandarin trip to China Town. The students all had fantastic experiences and are already talking about next year’s trips and expeditions. This term, we have been holding a ‘DCIS Golden Ticket’ competition, designed to reward and recognise our students who are always doing the right thing, helping others and being kind and compassionate peers. With over 1000 tickets given out, it has been a great success and highlights what we already knew, how incredible our DCIS student body is. Over the term, there have been two Golden Ticket draws in assemblies. This week 22 deserving students have experienced ‘gold class’ cinema in a private showing of MIB: International. Well done to everyone who received a Golden Ticket. We will be continuing a similar competition next year. I would like to congratulate all students on a great year of learning at DCIS. Our Year 7s have settled into life in the Secondary School exceptionally well, which is a credit to themselves and the Transition Team who ensured it was a smooth process for them all. Our Year 12s have flourished in their first year of the IBDP and are looking forward to their final year at DCIS. It is, of course, a time when we do have to say farewell to the families and staff who are leaving Singapore at the end of this year. I hope you have enjoyed your time at DCIS and remember, you will always be Doverians. Thank you for your support of your children and our staff this year, I look forward to welcoming you back with the new members of our Secondary team in August. Have a wonderful and restful holiday.