Dear Parents and Guardians,
Happy New Year! We welcome back our Year 10 DBIS students and families, and I trust that we will be able to share in a productive, meaningful, and happy term ahead.
Since the beginning of the academic year on August 25th, our Year 10 cohort has slowly and surely adapted to getting back to school and a sense of normalcy. While it has taken time for some of our y10’s to get used to school routines, it is clear that our students have started to embrace the challenges of their IGCSE/BTEC courses.
I am very proud to have witnessed many examples of the students being conscientious and proactive in their learning, and also showing maturity, kindness, and compassion towards their peers, juniors, and staff members as they grow into becoming older teens. Many of our Year 10s have impressed their teachers and many of those specific details have been emailed to you as parents. I am incredibly proud to also tell you that students have begun to engage in several ECAs as well as entered leadership and responsibility roles of helping out in Prefect councils, coaching for Years 7/ 8 ECAs, Primary Netball, being library assistants, reading to Early Years and helping to organise the Chinese New Year Fair. Thank you for encouraging this and we hope to see more of this for the rest of the year.Â
Towards forward planning, this is to inform you that the Year 10s will have their mock exam week in Term 3, May for all IGCSE subjects and this will be a great way to see what progress has been made. The dates will be shared later during the term. As you must have realised, the jump from Year 9 to Year 10 is significant and the students have found the workload higher and demands greater. As parents, I ask that you guide your teen to carry out one hour of homework/study everyday to begin to develop good habits of time management and self-discipline, and to help mitigate any feelings of anxiety or overwhelm that could potentially arise.
Our tutors, Ms Lara Scrimgeour and Mr Jack Piggot will continue to meet with the students 1:1 regularly to support their wellbeing. We do also, of course, still have the support of Mr Broderick, Ms Bredbury and Mr Willett. Please do feel free to reach out to myself or any of the tutors if you feel that your child would benefit from wellbeing sessions with Mr Broderick or counselling from Ms Bredbury or Mr Willett.
A few reminders:
Punctuality and attendance
- Students must arrive at school between 8 and 8.25am.
- 1:1 sessions with their tutor are compulsory. We will send emails home when a student misses a session more than once.
- If your child is unable to come to school, please fill in the JotForm here and encourage them to access the Google Classrooms once they are well, to catch up on missed work.
Uniform
- Full PE kit should be worn on days when students have PE at any period.
- Particular reminders – jewellery (a pair of plain ear studs/sleepers are permitted) and clear nail polish is acceptable.
- In cold weather, only school hoodies or jackets may be worn. Please buy them from the uniform shop that is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Full details can be seen in the student diaries
Diaries, and Dates to remember
- Students should be writing down all of their homework, test dates and reminders in their school diaries. A gentle reminder that diaries should be signed by parents/guardians weekly.Â
- Our Chinese New Year Celebration is on 20th Jan, Friday and the CNY break is from 23rd Jan – 27th Jan.Â
- Students will be meeting 1:1 with their subject teachers again soon to review their Term 1 targets in the first two weeks of March (6 Mar – 17 Mar) – it is important that parents/guardians also have conversations around these targets at home; all of them are written in school diaries.
I think this term is going to be a very fast-paced one. Thank you for your continued support and best wishes for all of us in the term ahead.
Best regards,
 Amrith Prabhu
Head of Year 10