Friday, 4th March 2016
Whole School Newsletter

Alison Cobbin - Head of School

An IB Education

One of the distinctive features of the IB Diploma is the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) course. The course challenges students to think about the nature of knowledge and the way in which we acquire knowledge. Last week the D2 students made their final TOK presentations. Students were given the freedom and responsibility to choose their own topics, using real life situations to explore questions of knowledge.  I heard some very thought provoking presentations about how the media affect our perception of events, the role of thoughts in controlling our actions, the ethics of ‘smart’ drugs and the value of technology in our lives. These presentations demand high order thinking skills along with polished presentation skills and it was very satisfying hearing our young men and women discussing these pertinent questions with gravitas and poise.

An essential component of all the IB programmes is community engagement and service action. Diploma students are required to undertake at least 50 hours each of creativity, action and service to complete their CAS programme. Congratulations to D2 students Hugo and Elias Ferrer Breda who ran in the Sahara Marathon this week to raise funds for Sandblast, a non-profit organisation that is helping the Saharawi people in the Western Sahara to rebuild their refugee camps after flooding. This was a challenging and meaningful CAS project for the boys who have a close personal connection to the charity. If anyone would like to support their efforts you can donate via their Just Giving pages:

https://www.justgiving.com/Hugo-Ferrer/
https://www.justgiving.com/Elias-Sahara

The current Unit of Inquiry in Year 4 is about organisations. The pre-assessment task had the Year 4 students organising their own club for Years 3-6 without adult intervention. By all accounts this was a challenging task and they learnt a lot about the need to be well-organised and to communicate effectively. To further their understanding of how organisations are run they interviewed me about the organisational structure of Dwight School London. I had to be at my sharpest to answer their thoughtful and insightful questions about time-management, organisational structures and routes to promotion. In addition to composing these probing questions the students also made notes during the interview, practising the skills of listening and summarising. Thank you to Year 4 for inviting me to their class and allowing me to contribute to their unit.

Theatre in Education
It was a real pleasure to welcome back one of our ex-students in the role of workshop leader last week. Holly Taw-Smith, who was a star drama student when she was a student at Dwight London led a workshop on Mental Health for our drama students in the Upper School. Holly remarked on how advanced Dwight students were in their understanding of the issues surrounding mental health compared to students in other schools she has visited.

To view more photos from the exhibition, please click here.

Diploma Visual Arts exhibition

Our D2 Visual Arts students exhibited their work in the Jubilee Hall this week. It is a fascinating exhibition demonstrating the high level of creativity and skill in the group. WE were also entertained at the exhibition by performances from our music students. Due to the breadth of the IB diploma students who aspire to a wide variety of disciplines can continue to take creative arts subjects like Music, Theatre Arts and Visual Arts until they leave school. More than two-thirds of our D2 cohort study creative arts subjects alongside their more traditional academic subjects, which is a great credit to our thriving Arts department.

MYP Ofqal recognition

Our M5 students this year are part of the first cohort to complete eAssessments for MYP certification. All eAssessment subjects in the Middle Years Programme (MYP) have been accepted by Ofqual, the UK government agency responsible for the regulation of qualifications, examinations and assessments in England. This recognition demonstrates the IBO’s commitment to high-quality assessment and is an international benchmark providing evidence that the assessments are rigorous, fair and fit for purpose. Our M5 students are working hard and we wish them the best of luck in their preparations for these assessments in May.

Out and About

On Friday, 26th February, the Out and About Club took an Unexpected Walking Tour of London. From Temple to Embankment along the Thames they were shown some of the hidden gems of the city; Two Temple Place, St Clements, Strand tube station (unused but fully functional and often used in movies), a hidden Italian chapel inside Kings College and the secrets of Somerset House.  It was a beautiful day and the lively group all enjoyed their day out. Their next outing is a tour of Highgate Cemetery on Monday, 14th March. If you are interested in joining the group contact Michele O’Neill - michele@seanoneill.com for more information.

Re-registration

As the school is refining preparations for the next academic year, it is approaching the time for re-registration. This year we will be making the process much simpler by making re-registration available online. Please keep an eye out for a communication from the school with details about how you can re-register for the coming academic year.


Best wishes for the weekend.

Alison Cobbin
Head of School

Upcoming Events

Monday, 7th March
Reception Trip to Grovelands Park
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

M2 careers workshop
1.40 PM - 2.40 PM


 

Quicklinks

Lower School Newsletter

Upper School Newsletter

School Calendar

Unsubscribe from this eNotice.