DULWI C H COLLEGE (SIN GA P O R E) NE W S LE T T ER O C TO BER 2 0 1 3 No man is an island: Parent power Dear Parents and Friends of Dulwich College, It was an absolute pleasure to have so many Dulwich parents actively involved as part of the interview process for our new Head of DUCKS last week. Students, parents, teachers and administrators were involved as part of a comprehensive selection process. This is your school. We will always involve you and give you a voice in the key decisions that affect your children. You can find out more about Joanne Woodward, our new Head of DUCKS in this newsletter. The Friends of Dulwich are the backbone of our Dulwich family. Our success as a school will be in no small part to the contribution that the FOD will make in enriching the lives of students, teachers and parents at Dulwich. Although we are still 10 months away from opening it is important that we continue to nurture a sense of belonging in our parents, students and staff. The Friends of Dulwich will be pivotal in creating this sense of community which will unite the Dulwich family in Singapore. The Friends of Dulwich(FOD) – The College needs you I would like to invite you to work with me to establish the FOD in Singapore. We are looking for a group of parent volunteers to become involved in the organisation of social events and gatherings where we can all start to get to know each other a bit better, to make new friendships and to get a true sense of belonging. We will host our first FOD Meeting on Tuesday 8th October at 10am at our United Square Admissions Office. This will be a relaxed and informal affair where I will introduce my vision for FOD in our start-up phase. We can then develop some ideas for Dulwich family events over the coming months. If you would like to be involved with the FOD then contact Victoria Hope at [email protected] and we shall then get back to you with more details. Joanne graduated from Westminster College Oxford in 1991 and took up her first teaching post as a class teacher and maths co-ordinator at a combined school in Buckinghamshire. During her time there she was one of the first teachers in the county to be awarded Advanced Skills Teacher status. Congratulations to Joanne Woodward, our new Head of DUCKS In 2001 Joanne was appointed as a County Numeracy Consultant and spent three years working in schools across Buckinghamshire to raise standards in mathematics through teacher training sessions and classroom observations and paired teaching. As part of her role she worked with the National Numeracy Strategy to write plans for teachers to use to teach maths in Reception to Year 6. She was also one a small group of authors who wrote a maths scheme for Cambridge University Press. In 2004 Joanne and her husband moved to China and Joanne joined Dulwich College Shanghai as it opened its doors, initially as a year 2 teacher. After one year Joanne became the Head of DUCKS and has been instrumental in building it into one of the leading Early Years programmes in China. Most recently she has overseen the implementation of the dual language approach in English and Chinese and will bring her considerable experience of this approach to Singapore. Joanne will be joined in Singapore by her husband Andrew. They are both very excited to be moving to Singapore and Joanne cannot wait for the children to arrive in DUCKS. Welcome Maria Jenkins - Head of Art and Design Technology We are pleased to announce Maria Jenkins as our Head of Art and Design Technology. Maria is currently Director of Art at Dulwich College in London, and is delighted to be able to bring her experience to such an exciting venture. Maria started her teaching career at Chatham Grammar School for Girls in Kent, and was Head of Art there for five years. Maria studied Photography at West Surrey College of Art, but she would describe herself as a painter/printmaker. Maria is particularly excited at the prospect of using local processes and materials to enhance what she already does, and is looking forward to investigating textiles and three dimensional work in particular. Maria will be accompanied by her husband Luis, and daughter Liliana, who is particularly thrilled to be embarking on a whole new chapter in her life. Looking for general information about Dulwich? Our regular Parent Information Sessions in which you can find out about life in general at Dulwich and how we propose to offer something “a little different” to the current education scene in Singapore, continue to be very popular. For those that are interested there are still (in some cases) limited places available at some of these sessions taking place in October and early November. Dates included are 2nd, 23rd , 24th October and 13th November. Sessions are at 10am and 6.30pm. Parent Information sessions for October and early November Please click here to sign-up. Please note that places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Thursday, October 31st. Please save this date in your diary. This will be your opportunity to meet the inspirational Shane O’Shea, Director of Music for Dulwich College International, who has responsibility for promoting and supporting the performing arts across the Colleges (if you attended our launch event at Eden Hall back in February you would have seen Shane conducting the Dulwich Beijing Chamber Choir - pictured left). Dulwich Talks – The Performing Arts at Dulwich – Thursday 31st October at 10am and 6.30pm From performing Mozart’s Requiem in the Forbidden City concert hall to hip hop extravangas at this year’s Diverse-cities2 Festival in Beijing and Seoul, Shane has built up a formidable reputation for staging some outstanding international music events across Asia and bringing the world’s best music practitioners to work with our students. More details will follow very soon but this promises to be a most informative and entertaining event. Watch this space. Dulwich by Numbers Academic Rigour Part 1: Celebrating our success in IB Next month Part 2: iGCSE and A Levels Construction continues to proceed as planned. Despite this, our project management team constantly reviews timelines and schedules in order to ensure that we will open on time for all our students, staff and parents. Although there is some way to go, the main structures are completed, and we are now devoting more time and attention to final design adjustments. One example is the restaurant area on the second floor, where we have introduced a flame pizza oven into the design. The dining room is at the heart of the College and we aim to provide an enhanced experience for our students as well as an efficient food service point. Construction Progress Update In the Junior School block we are now considering future links into the second building phase. The basement gym provides a very large indoor area for sports and activities with three full size basketball courts. It will also feature retractable seating for competitions and performances. Theatre lighting and staging ensures that an immediate high-end facility for music and drama performances will be available with a seating capacity for 1200. In Phase Two, a full theatre and performing arts centre will add to our range of extensive facilities. Within the Early Years (DUCKS) and Junior School, specialist music and drama rooms support our commitment to the performing arts. For the Dulwich (Singapore) team, the physical emergence of the College is just reward for the years of hard work that have already gone into this project. We look forward to sharing more news about the new College with all of you as progress continues. And finally…. Only a few days now remain until our inaugural OA and IOA Dinner at the Singapore Cricket Club on 3rd October. We have Old Boys flying in from all over South East Asia and Dr Colin Niven OBE OA the President-elect of the Alleyn Club and founding Headmaster of Dulwich College Shanghai will attend as our guest of honour. It is a privilege to be associated with such a network. Warmest regards, Nick Magnus Headmaster, Dulwich College (Singapore) Subscription You are receiving this newsletter because you are either a staff/student/alumni or have signed up to receive updates from DULWICH COLLEGE | SINGAPORE | Copyright © 2013 DULWICH COLLEGE | SINGAPORE | . All rights reserved. Admissions Office: #18-05/06, United Square 101, Thomson Road, Singapore 307591 [email protected] +65 6338 4771 Please add us to your ‘Safe List’ to continue receiving our updates. This is a computer generated email, please do not reply to it. If you have any enquiries, please contact us.