Headmaster's message Friday 8th September

By

 Dear Parents and Guardians,


We have had another busy week at DBS as we settle into the new academic year. 

In Pre-Prep we held two parent workshops this week; one on supporting your child with reading and another on using Tapestry in the Early years. Tapestry is a fantastic product which allows us to build a digital journal of your child's progress. Assessment in the Early Years is very different and much of what we are assessing is social and physical development, characteristics that don't lend themselves well to A, B and C grades...

In Prep we held welcome events in each section. The idea for these events came from our parent forums last year and we were glad to develop this idea this year. I also hope you enjoyed seeing our refurbished corridors and new library.

We have started the year with some extra-curricular success with our World Scholars Cup students qualifying for the Tournament of Champions at Yale. Congratulations to all of our World Scholars!

Last weekend we held our Year 13 residential and residentials for other year groups will happen in November. Last year, we were very mindful that after the pandemic, many parents may not yet be comfortable sending their children on residentials.  As such we adopted a flexible approach for last year only. We firmly believe that residentials are an essential part of an international school education. We are now returning to the norm in other premium international schools and we consider our residential week to be a compulsory part of our curriculum. During this week, we will not offer alternative provision on campus. There are a number of reasons for this decision. The experience for students left behind is not optimal, and as we grow, it is simply not sustainable to staff both adequately and we need to ensure that we have the required staff ratios on each residential trip. Above all else, we want to ensure that our students have a formal opportunity to develop outside of the classroom and develop independence. We firmly believe that the learning that takes place on these trips is essential.

Have a nice weekend.


Jonny Liddell

Headmaster