Dear Parents of Year 11-13 DBIS students,
We are very pleased that we are now able to bring in all secondary students everyday from midday after the Chinese New Year. As in my earlier email today to all secondary parents we will continue with the modified structure of the day to enable every student to have three of their lessons – periods 3, 4 and 5 – in school.
We fully recognise the importance of this time for our Year 11, 12 and 13 IGCSE, A level, AS and BTEC classes and are very focused on supporting them through this key stage of their educational journey. We have investigated various approaches for the secondary phase and will continue to explore possibilities to ensure that every child is able to complete all of their courses to the highest standards and that they are well placed to achieve the highest grades that they are capable of in every subject.
To this effect, we will be continuing with moving specific scheduled period 1 or 2 lessons from their original time slot to the very end of the school day, our ‘period 6‘ (3:30 – 4:30 pm). The lessons that have moved are not necessarily the same ones as prior to Chinese New Year and are made on the basis of consultation with teaching staff about where students are with their respective subject qualifications against the course and coursework requirements. These requirements have been impacted for several courses on the back of the recent changes from the various examination boards and this is an important part of the reasoning used to decide on which lessons to move to the end of the normal school day. The list of these can be found in the pdf file which can be accessed through the link immediately below.
Link to list of Year 11-13 classes running at 3:30 pm from 22 February 2021
I would like to reiterate the value of both the support and feedback from our parental community and look to continue to engage with parents across the school, particularly those in our examination years, after the Chinese New Year holiday. This will assist us to most effectively assist students as we progress through the rest of the academic year.
If there is anything that we can do, please do contact myself, the Secondary Leadership Team, your child’s Head of Year or their Form Tutor if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.
Kind regards
Simon Oakley
Head of Secondary