Year 12 & 13 – Welcome to Term 2

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

Happy new year to you all! Term 1 was an exciting and busy term in the Sixth Form with our Year 12 induction programme including the infamous amazing race around Discovery Bay, a Sixth Form BBQ, and students in Year 13 collecting their AS results in August. There has been much to celebrate between August and December. Two of our students, Mario Liang and Phoenix Broderick, were awarded the prestigious Cambridge High Achievement awards at the end of November. One of our Class of 2024 students, Aarushi Sharma, also achieved the Edexcel award for the highest mark in the world for A Level Psychology. Aarushi is currently studying Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Well done to you all. 

Continuing with academics, our Year 13 students have started to receive university offers from a number of universities around the world. Some of our students have received offers from Cornell University, King’s College London, Rhode Island School of Design, and Boston College. Many are still finishing their applications to the UK, Europe and Hong Kong, and we continue supporting them through this process. We wish the Class of 2025 every success with their university and careers applications going forward.

Our Prefect teams have been incredibly proactive in organising events across the campus during Term 1, including the Christmas Concert on the Pitch, the Year 9–13 Sports Day and various house competitions. I would like to extend a huge thank you to Dexin Ouyang for her leadership in the Community Council’s weekly #sixthformfriday posts on our social media platforms. These posts have helped our wider community stay informed about the exciting happenings on our campus. Please remember to like and share these posts with your family and friends.

November’s “Week Without Walls” was a resounding success, with some of our students travelling to Thailand and Bali, while many honed their arts and sports skills right here in Hong Kong. Our Sixth Form students were exemplary and continue to serve as excellent role models for our younger students. We have received numerous emails from staff expressing gratitude for the students who have volunteered to support or even lead extracurricular activities across the school.

Our Sixth Form common room had a makeover at the beginning of Term 1 with some new seating, plants and accessories. Many thanks to the PTSA for organising and funding this for our students. We are currently in the process of extending the common room area to include a kitchen and accessible toilet. The work has been delayed but should be completed by Easter. We have also installed lockers for our students on the DB North Campus in order to store their possessions. There are still more available so please encourage your child to approach Ivy if they are keen to secure one for this term.

If you are DBIS alumni or have children who previously attended the school, please make sure you email [email protected] to stay up,to,date with our alumni news via our new termly newsletter. The first edition was published on 12th December. 

We are always looking for guest speakers to discuss their careers journeys with our students, so if you would like to arrange to come in and share your expertise, we would be delighted to welcome you. Please email [email protected] if you are interested in supporting our careers programme. 

Finally, a reminder that if a student is absent then please complete the absence jotforms. If an absence is planned, please complete this jotform. If an absence is unplanned, for example illness, please complete this jotform. Students are expected onsite from 8.20pm – 3.20pm and are not allowed off site during their study periods, other than break and lunch time. If a student is taken ill during the day, they need to notify Ivy at the North Plaza campus reception or their Head of Year to sign out in order to go off site. These procedures are incredibly important as part of our school’s safeguarding and child protection policy.

To conclude, please find a list of useful key dates for your diaries and document links below:

Term 2 – Monday 6th January 2025 – Thursday 3rd April 2025 (includes Chinese New Year half-term holiday from Monday 27th January to Friday 31st January)

• Tuesday 7th January: IAL modular examinations begin
• Friday 24th January 2025: CNY celebrations
• Wednesday 12th February 2025: DBIS Live
• Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd February 2025: AYP silver assessed hike (provisional)
• Wednesday 26th – Thursday 27th February 2025: Secondary School Production
• Friday 7th March 2025: PD day – no students in school
• Saturday 8th March 2025: International Food Fair
• Monday 10th – Wednesday 12th March 2025 : IAL linear mock examinations
• Friday 21st March 2025: House Charity Event Day
• Monday 24th March 2025: Aspirational target setting review 2 (start)
• Thursday 27th March 2025: Mocks and strength & target published
• Monday 31st March 2025: Parent–Teacher–Student Conference
• Wednesday 2nd April 2025: Spring Concert
• Friday 4th April 2025: Public Holiday

Term 3 – Tuesday 22nd April 2025 – Friday 27th June 2025

• Monday 21st April 2025: Public Holiday
• Thursday May 1st 2025: Year 12 study leave begins
• Tuesday 6th – Friday 9th May: Year 13 ‘Spirit Week’ events
• Monday 12th May: Year 13 study leave begins
• Thursday 19th June: Year 13/ Class of 2025 graduation and graduation dinner

Useful Documents:

• Secondary Parent Handbook: https://issuu.com/dbis3/docs/dbis_secondary_parent_handbook
• A Level Options Handbook: 

2025-27 _ DBIS A Level & BTEC Level 3 Options B.pdf

 

Wishing you and your families a very happy and prosperous 2025. 

 

Rebecca Boddington and Nick Moore