Group Connections

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that on the back of the feedback from the Secondary Parent Focus Group on Tuesday 22nd February, we are making some changes to the start of the day.

Checking in with students has always been an important role of the tutors and Heads of Year at DBIS, but even more so now when we are not in the same physical location as our students. With this in mind, we would like to conduct weekly student ‘group connections’ as a way to have connection conversations, to gather quick feedback, and to find the students who need extra help right now – academically, socially or emotionally.

These check-ins might focus on social–emotional elements, such as wellness, emotional status and social connectedness or take an academic focus relating more closely to class assignments, work ethic or providing some targeted help for students who are struggling. 

Tutors will start these from Monday 28th February, and the daily groupings for the week will be shared on the tutor group Google Classroom. Of course, to honour student agency, some tutors will be asking students their preferences for check-ins and will mix up groups each week (if this works for the tutor group).

The second thing we will be doing is extending Wednesday morning tutor time from 8.30am–8.50am so we can alternate Prefect-led assemblies and inter-house competitions to enable opportunities for collaboration, communication and challenge among the students. The House Captains will be communicating the different competitions on the House Google Classroom, and assembly information will be shared via the tutor and the tutor Google Classroom.

We hope the introduction of these pastoral elements will add to our established online learning. As always, we will reflect, review and continue to evolve our approach when necessary. I trust that we can keep all our students happy, safe and well.

Kind regards,

Ms Karen Hartcher

Assistant Head of Secondary (Pastoral)

DBIS Hub

DBIS Hub