Newsletter June 2019 - Primary School June Highlights from Ms Lebihan

Dear DCIS Parents, As the term draws to an end it is always rewarding to reflect on the highlights. As ever, it has been a busy term in the Primary School with lots taking place and much achieved. EYFS have enjoyed a fun-filled term exploring their interests in firemen, snakes, rainbows and superheroes through play. Nursery have been writing letters and numbers in their independent learning, which is fantastic. Reception have been working towards their transition to Year 1 by joining in with Maths and Literacy carousel activities. During their transport topic, ‘From A to B’, the children in Year 1 have been learning about transport from the past whilst in Year 2, the children enjoyed their unit on ‘Hooray! It’s a Holiday’, which began with a trip to Centre Stage School of Arts. Year 3 students have been enjoying learning all about our Active Planet. From the entry point to preparing for the exit point, students have been engaged and enthralled by the fascinating forces that keep our planet changing and evolving. Our Year 4 students have been learning about Land, Sea and Sky. The children have found out about fish adaptions, the difference between land plants, floating plants, fixed plants and underwater plants. They have even tested which bird beaks are the most effective when picking up different types of food! Year 5 have thoroughly enjoyed developing their scientific knowledge and understanding this term during their ‘Fairgrounds’ topic. In English, the children have covered a variety of genres, including suspense writing, poetry and rap. Year 6 have had a fantastic final term in which they have spent time preparing for Secondary and of course preparing and rehearsing for their wonderful Celebration Afternoon, which was full of reflections, performances and stories, all to celebrate finishing their Primary School education. Our trips have continued into Term 3 with our EYFS children enjoying a lovely visit to Singapore Zoo. The staff told me that the children had a great time; they certainly came back tired and full of stories about what they had seen, and they were fortunate that the rain mainly held off for the day. Well done to the children on their excellent behaviour and thank you to the staff for arranging the trip and supporting our youngest children over the day with the activities. With the end of term, parents should now have received their child’s final report. It was great to see so many of you here at the Parent Teacher Conferences. We have received some excellent feedback on the year to date – thank you for that. As ever, this is sad time of year for us as we say a farewell to several members of the Primary team. To the staff leaving us, I know you will join me in saying a big thank you to them for all their work, dedication and achievements over their time with us. Every individual will be missed and I hope each and every one leaves us with happy memories of teaching at DCIS. A special and thank you and goodbye goes out to Mr Rinaldi who many of you know as Deputy Head of Upper Primary. Mr Rinaldi will be hugely missed by us and we wish him well in his first headship in Qatar. Thank you for all you have done over your 5 year at DCIS, Mr Rinaldi. We are equally sad to have to say goodbye to some of our lovely students and their families. We wish all our leaving students and their families the very best for the future. Please don’t forget us and we promise not to forget you! On a final note, happy holidays everyone and for those travelling overseas, I wish you safe travels. Most importantly, have a restful break with time to recharge the batteries and enjoy some family time. For those returning to DCIS, we look forward to seeing you again in August.