From our Head of College Dear Parents and Guardians, On Thursday, I went to the City of Paju where the Gloucester Hill Battle Monument stands, to commemorate the actions of the Gloucestershire Regiment and C Troop, 170th Mortar Battery, Royal Artillery, of the British Army during the Battle of the Imjin River from 12 to 25 April, 1951 during the Korean War. The end of the plaque read:
Surrounded and greatly outnumbered they Fought valiantly for four days in the Defence of freedom. Known as the “Battle that saved Seoul,” it is an inspiring story of courage and determination. I was honoured to be part of such an important ceremony. Details of the battle can be found here. I was also fortunate enough to accompany our Year 8 students in a cycling adventure this week. Students explored the banks of the Han river in glorious sunshine, ending the day with games and ice-cream before heading back to campus. We had a busy week packed with events. We hosted our third Dulwich Talk in our Thought Leadership Series, featuring music and entertainment executive Bernie Cho, who spoke about the global phenomenon that is K-pop and its implications. While there were no surprise performances by K-pop idols, the audience was deeply engaged and stayed on to chat with Mr Cho long after the event ended. In addition, I’m happy to report that our preliminary survey feedback is overwhelmingly positive. On Tuesday, we welcomed a large group of prospective parents for an Open House. Based on anecdotal and survey feedback, our guests greatly enjoyed learning more about our curriculum, facilities and community. I would like to thank those who made these events possible as well as students and staff members who kept our campus extra tidy and ready for guests. Special thank you to our Primary School and Senior School Leadership Team members who took the time to give our guests a tour of our wonderful campus and a taste of the Dulwich College Seoul experience.
This week, we launched a new database system and parent portal called iSAMS designed to improve access and navigation of your child’s information. I hope you found the disruption to be minimal and that you have all the information you need to transition smoothly. Please email passwords@dulwich-seoul.kr if you encounter any problems logging in. I would like to acknowledge and thank our Friends of Dulwich (FoD) parent volunteers for organising a very successful used uniform sale that took place yesterday and today. It takes a lot of effort, time and dedication to collect donations, sort and display the goods and through the sale, ensure we reuse gently worn clothes and reduce waste as much as possible. This is in line with our sustainability core value and I am so thankful for our community’s commitment to this cause. Thank you for filling out the annual survey. We received a lot of great feedback about what is going well and also what areas can be improved. The findings have given us a lot of food for thought and we have begun addressing the feedback in various areas throughout the school. We will be sharing highlights of the findings with the community in the next few weeks. Today is Earth Day and we are celebrating in various ways. We invite you to come plogging with us on Saturday by the Han River. Organised by our Primary School, all students and parents are invited to take part in this “jogging and picking up trash” activity, where the hybrid term, plogging, originated from the Swedish term “plocka upp” meaning “pick up” and jogging. Please see our Primary School section for event details. With more restrictions lifted around events, we are excited to launch our Donuts with Dads in a big way beginning in May. Please stay tuned for more information soon. I hope you have a fantastic weekend in this gorgeous weather. With my best wishes, Mr Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson Head of College
Whole School CHQ Changeover Advisory In conjunction with the rollout of iSAMS, we will also be migrating our current (CHQ) ECA platform, which will allow us to leverage several new innovative solutions to support our parental community: We will deploy a single sign-on to allow your new iSAMS parental credentials to be used across the new ECA / Transport and Parents Evening system, so one password for all the school systems. As a parent, you will benefit from a consolidated ECA portal where you will be able to book activities and clubs, read school communications and see your child/children's ECA and trip events all in one place. The new Schoolsbuddy ECA platform will also encompass a new bus transport solution. Parents can view their child's transport arrangements and make dynamic change requests to notify the College. Moreover, the transport solution will also allow parents to track the progress of a given bus through each route and stop. Finally, the new Schoolsbuddy ECA / Transport solution will also be available as a mobile app for your iPhone or Android phone. These are just some of the changes we are making to support the communication and service between the College and our parental community.
Open House
On Tuesday, we welcomed a large group of prospective parents onto our campus for our Open House event. They were led on guided tours of the campus and learned all about our students’ personalised learning journeys while exploring the various facilities. We run these events periodically. If you would like to sign up for an Open House in the future, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Admissions team.
Dulwich Talk - Bernie Cho
On Wednesday, we hosted our third Dulwich Talk in our Thought Leadership Series, featuring music and entertainment executive Bernie Cho, who spoke about the global phenomenon that is K-pop and its implications. It was interesting to hear his insights about the challenges and opportunities for the next generation of aspiring creative art professionals and his experience with working with iconic and indie Korean music artists. The audience was deeply engaged during the talk and there were some great questions asked during the Q&A session. On that positive note, we are pleased to announce that the date for the next Dulwich Talk has been set for Wednesday 11 May. Details about the guest speaker for that event will be shared soon, so please watch this space!
Dulwich Photo Competition - Last chance to submit your entries!
A gentle reminder that there are only eight days left until submissions close for the Dulwich Photo competition on 29 April. This is your last chance to submit your photographs and be in the running to win one of the many prizes on offer! The winners will be announced on 18 May, so please stay tuned.
EiM Community University Talks Series
We are excited to announce that the second session of the EiM Community University Talks Series will be with New York University. The session will be held on 11 May from 7.30pm - 8.30pm (GMT +8). The University Series will feature the following format and is open to all students and parents as an exclusive online event for EiM schools: 20min general presentation from the guest university 20min guided discussion that will explore key information about the university and the application process between the university and one of our counsellors 20min of Q&A
DCSL Community Values
As adults and therefore role models in the Dulwich College Seoul community, we are expected to adhere to the Community Standards. These remind us of appropriate ways of acting and being within a learning community which focuses on young children, preteens and teens. Naturally for our community, this is quite easy to do but we have had a couple of incidents recently which have resulted in us wanting to revisit these values with families.
Please take a moment this weekend to refamiliarise yourself with our community’s expectations of the families who call Dulwich College Seoul ‘home’. Showing kindness towards other people’s children when they have a ‘bad day’ Showing understanding and respect towards other families who are experiencing challenges in their lives Not talking about other children and their families in front of our own children
Dulwich College Seoul Community Values
DCSL Family Hike
Primary School Dear Primary parents,
I hope you had a good week. We certainly did in Primary with trips and special events really getting good momentum.
ECAs this week: We had a great start to ECAs this week. We have everything from sand castle building, outdoor adventurers, creative movement, cross-stitch, fitness club, gardening, tee-ball, PE games, stop motion animation and smart Miniblocks. Something for everyone’s head, hand and heart!
Visiting Prospective Parents: The campus was brimming with visitors on Tuesday afternoon for our Open House for prospective families. Over 40 parents join us for a 90-minute tour of campus and Q&A. It’s always a pleasure to show visitors around and the guests that day were impressed by the academic standards of the Primary classes, the very warm relationships between adults and children, and the fun they saw in the very evident learning. We are already quite full in many year groups for next year but this didn’t put families off - they have their fingers crossed for a place at DCSL!
Uniform Sales This Week Many thanks to the parents who sorted the gently used uniforms and then sold them to families. This was of great service to our community. It was lovely to have everyone on campus again and we were delighted that the mums enjoyed their school lunch with the students too.
Year 1 Adventure Day Our Friday morning was spent learning about campfires - how to create a good fire, how to safely behave around fires, then how to roast marshmallows and create sweet s’mores. I was so impressed with Year 1’s great sense of safety and their big appetites. The children also had the chance to put up tents and find the names of the
equipment used in camping. In the afternoon, the teams went for a neighbourhood hike to enjoy the local flora and fauna. Thanks to Ms Brigham, Ms Goddard and the Year 1 team for a lovely day of outdoor learning.
Dulwich College Seoul 2022 Parent Survey: The College Leadership Team (CLT) and Primary Leadership Team (PLT) have begun exploring parents’ feedback as captured by the annual community survey. We have already begun making improvements to provision based on the feedback, so many thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the questions and share their thoughts. These include: more parents on campus, additional community events and revising the school report formats. A detailed analysis of parent and student feedback will be shared in the coming weeks, as will details of our next step improvements.
Year 5 and Year 6 Hikes: Year 5 and Year 6’s hikes were postponed but are now back on the calendar: Year 5 Spring Hike - Tuesday 10 May Year 6 Award Hike - Tuesday 31 May
Mobile/Cell Phones in School: Primary students are not permitted to bring a mobile phone to school. Please ensure your son/daughter has left theirs at home before travelling to school. The College takes no responsibility for the loss or damage to any phones brought by students. We reserve the right to remove a mobile from a student and ask the parent to come to collect it. Many thanks for your understanding.
Donuts with Dads is coming soon! Despite the name of this new breakfasting/networking event, it’s not just aimed at dads - mum, a grandparent or other special person should accompany each student to enjoy refreshments and to meet new people. There will be juice, milk and coffee served alongside homemade donuts and fruit.
In Assembly prior to the event, your children will improve their social skills by learning how to: Introduce their parents to another adult. How is this done in different countries and cultures? How to ask another person what they would like to eat and drink. How to politely serve and take care of another person’s needs on campus. How to tidy up and clean up after an event.
Parents will then accompany their children to class for a glimpse of morning routines and learning, and followed by an optional tour of the campus. An information letter and sign up survey will be sent to each year group just before their event. However the dates are below so you can save the relevant dates. Please do join us! Breakfast from 7.30-8.30am on the dates below: Year 6: Tues 3 May Year 5: Tues 10 May Year 4: Tues 17 May
Year 3: Tues 24 May Year 2: Tues 31 May Eagles and Cranes: Tues 7 June Teals and Herons: Tues 14 June
DCSL Community Values: As adults and therefore role models in the Dulwich College Seoul community, we are expected to adhere to the Community Standards. These remind us of appropriate ways of acting and being within a learning community which focuses on young children, preteens and teens. Naturally for our community, this is quite easy to do but we have had a couple of incidents recently which have resulted in us wanting to revisit these values with families.
Please take a moment this weekend to refamiliarise yourself with our community’s expectations of the families who call Dulwich College Seoul ‘home’. Showing kindness towards other people’s children when they have a ‘bad day’ Showing understanding and respect towards other families who are experiencing challenges in their lives Not talking about other children and their families in front of our own children
Dulwich College Seoul Community Values:
Assembly this week: Monday’s assembly was led by Mrs Curran and, helped by Ms Goddard, she talked to the children about respecting differences in people. Friday’s assembly was led by Mr Loft and his special guest, Dulwich College Seoul parent Jesper Holst, about building and operating offshore wind farms.
Summer Uniform Transition Week: Students will transition to wearing their summer uniform by Friday 29 April (next Friday). Please refer to the Parent Handbook for full details of the required summer uniform. Please also note the shoes and hair requirements too. Many thanks for your support in this important area of College life.
NEW: Parent Handbook link
- You will find the link to the Primary School Parent Handbook at the base of the Newsletter each week and in your Week Ahead email from each year group.
Upcoming Primary Parent Workshops: Term 3 Primary Parent Workshops will be held on Campus (2F Primary Inquiry Hub) from 2pm to 3pm. The B1 coffee shop will be open for parents from 1.40pm. Tuesday’s Assessment session with Mr Harvey was busy and well attended. Many thanks to those parents who came along and contributed to the conversation.
Tuesday 26 April
Help Your Child’s Maths Development - Maths teaching has changed a great deal in the past 25 years - learn about how DCSL teaches Maths in 2022. Get a sneak peek of our new ‘calculation policy’. No maths experience needed!
With Phoebe Rowbottom and Kate Dark
Stars of the Week (DUCKS to Year 4) and Learning Warriors (Year 5 / Year 6) Each week, our staff spot a child in each class who has been doing especially well with the IB Learner Profile dispositions and that child becomes SoW or the LW for the class. Click here to see who was spotted this week and click here for Week's ahead.
Quadra Instagram page link - see daily posts by our caterer, Quadra, showing the lunch served to students that day.
Contact details of Primary Leadership staff: Jane Smith, Head of Primary - jane.smith@dulwich-seoul.kr Jim Harvey, Deputy Head of Primary (Academic - online learning, curriculum and reporting) james.harvey@dulwich-seoul.kr Maggie Goddard, Deputy Head of Primary (Pastoral - student wellbeing and support) maggie.goddard@dulwich-seoul.kr Esther Yang (Primary Admin) - esther.yang@dulwich-seoul.kr
Have a fun and safe weekend with your family.
Kind regards, Mrs Jane Smith Head of Primary School
Year 4 Royal Shakespeare Company workshops
Year 4 started off their learning about Macbeth with the help of Chris from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Through 3 different workshops, Chris helped us to understand the main themes of the play and introduced us to some of the main characters. Students worked collaboratively to freeze frame different parts of the play as well as the themes, such as betrayal, magic and power. It was an excellent way to start our topic and give us some inspiration for our upcoming production as we had to work like actors and use some of the original script.
Year 4 Leader
Year 6 Royal Shakespeare Company workshops
What a wonderful week Year 6 have had exploring the language of Shakespeare and performing dramatic scenes from the infamous play, ‘Macbeth’! Year 6 were lucky enough to have a member of The Royal Shakespeare Company (via Zoom in London) lead two drama workshops for each class, focusing on different scenes from the play. The students learned a great deal about the techniques used to perform Shakespeare’s material and about how to create tension and dramatic effect when delivering lines. Students discussed the ways they could act out different scenes as well as ways to film or edit the scene to make it as dramatic as possible.
Year 6 Leader
Team Values
Here we see the Reception Class developing their teamwork skills. Only by working together can they complete this relay challenge. They are learning that it takes all members to pull together to get the positive outcome they are looking for. A valuable lesson that no matter what age we are, we can all improve upon! PE Department
Delicious Bibimbap
Year 3 students had an exciting cooking session this week after learning about Korea’s healthy and balanced dishes during Korean Studies lessons. For the past weeks, Year 3 students learned about the origins of bibimbap, found out the benefits of eating each ingredient and talked about what makes the food healthy. For many of our students, the most enjoyable part of the study was to learn the bibimbap (mixed rice and vegetables) recipe and make our own dish in order to taste it. Everyone collaborated in the kitchen and the bibimbap tasted even better after working so hard.
Ms Jude Lee
Stars of the Week - DUCKS Year 2
Key Stage One: Year 3
Year 4
Senior School Year 8 Cycle Adventure I spent three days cycling with Year 8 this week, as they enjoyed the second part of their adventure experience. There were plenty of wobbles, the odd tumble and more than one collision as students got used to their bikes on the first day. However, the students quickly gained confidence and were soon whizzing along the cycle paths alongside the Han River. They were rewarded with ice cream each afternoon, which was well-deserved after their efforts! Thursday was a very special day for me as I celebrated my 50th birthday. Cycling with Year 8 wasn’t how I imagined spending the day, but I enjoyed every moment of it. Thank you to the students for making it a day to remember!
Earth Day
Senior School students dressed in green today to mark Earth Day. This non-uniform day was organised by Shackleton, with donations going to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Two parents joined us for the Senior School Assembly. We were delighted to hear from Mr Jesper Krarup Holst, a partner and SVP at Copenhagen Offshore Partners. He gave a fascinating presentation on renewable energy and wind power in South Korea. We were also thrilled to welcome Mrs Christina Cheong, who works for the Global Green Growth Institute. She spoke about the impact of buildings on climate change and the need for ‘green’ construction. Huge thanks to both of these parents for their time and for sharing their wisdom with Senior School students and teachers.
Student Leave for Year 11 and Year 13 It was the last day of formal lessons for Year 11 and Year 13 today. They are now on study leave for their IGCSE and IB examinations. On behalf of the school community, I wish them all the best for the next few weeks. I look forward to seeing Year 11 back in school for the IB Diploma Induction Day on Wednesday 15 June. Year 13 will be celebrating the end of their IB Diploma and their journey through Dulwich College Seoul at the Graduation Ceremony on Friday 20 May.
Year 7 Parent-Teacher-Student Conference We look forward to meeting Year 7 parents and students for the online PTSC on Tuesday 26 April, 4pm-7pm. Sign-up details have been shared via email.
Senior School Parent Representative Meeting I am meeting with Senior School Parent Reps on Friday 29 April for our first face-to-face meeting in over two years! Please send your comments and questions to the representatives for your year group. I will share notes from the meeting next Friday.
Rapid Antigen Tests Your child received a Rapid Antigen Test on Tuesday. Please administer the test on Sunday evening. Report positive results to Nurse@duwlich-seoul.kr. Best wishes for a relaxing weekend, Ms Sarah Harrison Head of Senior School
Earth Day
For Earth Day in Senior School we had some guest speakers in assembly. First we had Mr Jesper Krarup Holst, who is a Partner and Senior VP at Copenhagen Offshore Partners, speak to us about offshore wind farms. Then Mrs Christina Cheong, who works for Global Green Growth Institute, spoke about Sustainable buildings. We also had a week-long photo competition around the theme “Invest in our planet”. This was a house event and the winners will be announced next week.
On that note, we are pleased to announce that Dulwich College Seoul is now a registered ‘Eco-School’. The Senior school students have commenced the seven step programme to becoming a ‘Green Flag’ certified school. https://www.ecoschools.global/seven-steps
Friends of Dulwich Uniform Sales
The Used Uniform Sale was a huge success and very well-attended thanks to a great team effort from the FoD. Preparation ahead of the event included advertising the Used Uniform Donation Drive, sorting the uniforms, logistics, organising volunteers, making appointments, sending announcements and laying out the displays. We would like to give a special thanks to our parent volunteers: Maria
Vicky Helena Xuxu Jamie Elisabetta Bron Patty Minju Jeongsook Leila Kelly Stephanie
Thank you all for the generous donation of your time and energy.
Meet the members of FoD
Hello, my name is Patty, and I am the mother of Emi in Year 3. This is our second year at Dulwich College Seoul. I first learned about FoD at the new student welcome event, but because of the pandemic, meetings and events were all being held back until recently. I see FoD as a friendly bridge connecting the school, parents, and students, and together we can create an even better place for our kids. I look forward to getting more involved, participating in upcoming events, and meeting new and current parents!
International Cooking Class