Dear Parents of secondary DBIS students,
We are pleased to let you know that the Education Bureau (EdB) has confirmed that DBIS is allowed to return to normal days for secondary students at DBIS. There will continue to be rules and regulations from the EdB about certain parts of our procedures that we will need to follow so that we can provide our students with the regular school day.
Timing of the school day
We will return to the planned format of the school day. This is shown below
- 08:00 – 08:20 Arriving at school / 1-1 Tutoring
- 08:25 – 08:45 Tutor-time
- 08:50 – 09:50 Lesson 1
- 10:00 – 11:00 Lesson 2
- 11:00 – 11:20 Break
- 11:20- 12:20 Lesson 3
- 12:30 – 13:30 Lesson 4
- 13:30 – 14:20 Lunch (Two sittings – further details shown below)
- 14:20 – 15:20 Lesson 5
Lunchtime
To accommodate the EdB requirements regarding students eating patterns at lunchtime, we will have to return to having two sittings, with set year groups having their lunch at certain times. Students will also need to eat their lunch in either the Canteen, Globe or Sports Hall.
The first sitting will be from 1:30-1:50 pm and will be for students in Year 7, 8 & 11.
The second sitting will be from 2:00-2:20 pm and will be for students in Year 9, 10, 12 & 13.
Please can a pre-packed lunch and snack be placed in separate containers and brought into school by the children in the morning. We cannot, at this time, accept hot food deliveries. The canteen will be open for those who order meals.
We appreciate that this is later than we would like for certain year groups but staggering the lunches is a requirement from the EdB as is time for cleaning of the venue between sittings. To make this easier for students to manage we encourage students to bring snacks that they can eat at break time.
Health and Safety measures
We appreciate your continued support with our health and safety measures. This includes filling out your child’s temperature check form in the morning before they arrive at school and keeping them at home if their temperature is above 37.5 degrees or they show symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
Examinations
The return of students for the full day along with the rules about the use of those venues that our students use for eating in the school means that we have had to make alterations to the venues that we will use for our examinations from next Monday, the 24th of May.
There will be a separate communication going out today by email and also onto the Parent Hub – Friday 21st of May – explaining the situation for exams in more detail for each of the Year groups. However, essentially the actual examinations that Year 11, 12 and 13 students are sitting (these are all for the Cambridge International examination board) will be held in a separate part of our North Plaza campus. Additional guidance will be provided for the internal Year 10 mock exams. The only changes for any of these exams will be the venue that they are being held in. If you or your child has any questions we encourage you to reach out to our examination team at [email protected].
I would like to use this communication to repeat how much we value our positive relationships with you as parents, and that your support and guidance have played a significant role for us in being able to help your children through this pandemic. We all hope that this is another step towards a more normal schooling experience for all of our students. We aim to be able to support all our families through these challenging times and encourage you to reach out to 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