Week Beginning 9th December 2019 - Christopher Short, DCIS Principal

Dear DCIS Parents,

The DCA Christmas Fayre was a fantastic way to start the Festive celebrations. I am very grateful to the DCA executive and volunteers for all their hard work organising the fayre. Our music concert in the Primary canteen was a lovely event and I am very grateful to Mr Dwyer and his team for their great work rehearsing the students and running the event. Mr Lewis deserves special mention for his resilience in keeping his MC role going with great distraction from the moving audience. We also had an inaugural dance recital in the Cooper Hall choreographed by Ms Hughes, but run on the day by Ms Robertson and Ms Torres as Ms Hughes was in Vietnam with our NAE Games team. I was very impressed with all dancers, it is hard to believe that they've only been dancing together for one term!

There was no rest for the choir as they left immediately after the concert at school to head to the Shangri-La for the Great British Ball. They did a marvellous job of entertaining the 650 guests at this very high profile event. We had some lovely feedback from the people attending the Ball.

We have a busy last week of term and I am very excited for the EYFS and KS1Christmas Performances on Wednesday and Thursday. I have seen a lot of farm animals, angels and even camels around school today as they are busy with their final rehearsals.

The Secondary school have their last PSHE Drop Down Day tomorrow, with a variety of activities going on in the different year groups, from a beach clean-up to preparations for university.

Our Parent Satisfaction Survey is now live, we had a fantastic response last year, with a lot of valuable feedback. We want to give your child the best possible education and your feedback is vital to us. Access the survey here.

The Secondary Student Council are running a charity event all week, collecting books for the Salvation Army and money for ACRES. Any book donations can be left in the foyer, outside reception between 8.00 and 8.30am, money can be put in the charity boxes located in the reception and outside the offices in the Secondary block.

As per tradition, Friday will be a non-uniform day, we welcome a $2 donationthat will be shared between our school charities. The DCA are also collecting any outgrown uniforms in good condition, there will be a collection box outside reception.

The Mandarin Department will, for the second year, organise a Temple Fair in celebration of Chinese New Year. The fair will take place on 23rd January and will be a cultural extravaganza featuring different activities as well as Lion Dances and musical performances. We are looking for parent volunteers to help support the department in running some activities for the students. If you would like to help out, please fill out the form attached below. More information will follow in Term 2.

As Mr Williams said in his letter last week, I still have two more busy terms at Dover Court and look forward to my remaining time here.