2018-2019 Term 2 College Magazine

COLLEGE The

Term 2, 2018-19

FOUNDER’S DAY

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DULWICH PRIMARY GAMES

DE T U R

P O N S MU

NDO

P12

Teamwork and Collaboration

P14

P18

Schemas in Early Years

P31

P52

Founder’s Day 2019

P55

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Shared Outdoor Learning

Learning Showcase - The Many Wonders of Year 5

Music Across the Campuses

P16

Gardening in the Early Years

P39

Early Years Sports Day

P58

International Women’s Day Art

Contents Message from the Headmaster.............................................. 6

The Dulwich Games 2019 Yangon ...................................... 36

Message from the Head of School ..................................... 10

Early Years Sports Day .......................................................... 39

Teamwork and Collaboration .............................................. 12

Senior School Sports Day .................................................... 40

Shared Outdoor Learning .................................................... 14

MISAC Athletics Day............................................................. 41

Gardening in the Early Years - A Learning Journey ........... 16

Digital Learning in EAL and SAMR Model ........................ 42

Schemas in Early Years ......................................................... 18

Professional Development in EAL ....................................... 43

Show and Tell ....................................................................... 20

Diversity Events...................................................................... 44

Learning from the Heart - The Power of Children’s

And Then There Were Four ................................................. 46

Own Interests ........................................................................ 22 The Handlebards At DCY .................................................... 47 Phonics in Year 1 and Year 2 at DCY ................................... 24 Hydroponics .......................................................................... 48 External CCAs at DCY .......................................................... 25 Chinese New Year Celebration in Star City ........................ 49 Our Learning Journey So Far ............................................... 26 Lunar New Year Celebration in Pun Hlaing Campus ......... 50 Year 3 Sleepover ................................................................... 28 Founder’s Day 2019 ............................................................. 52 Gardening ............................................................................. 29 Music Across the Campuses ................................................ 55 Star City Student Council ..................................................... 30 International Women’s Day Art ............................................ 58 Learning Showcase - The Many Wonders of Year 5 ........... 31 Safeguarding At DCY ........................................................... 59 Year 9 Transition Evening ..................................................... 32 World Book Week at Pun Hlaing ......................................... 60 International Baccalaureate ................................................. 33 Maia Learning ....................................................................... 34 Social Emotional Wellbeing ................................................ 35

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Star City Campus

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Message from the Headmaster Dear Parents and Guardians, I would like to welcome you to the second edition of ‘The College’ for the 2018/19 academic year. The publication gives all members of our community the chance to review the many exciting events that have taken place since we returned to school after the Christmas holidays.

One of the most encouraging features of our school has been the number of unique events that provide our students with educational opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable outside of the Dulwich network. These include the visits of the Roy McGrath Jazz Quartet and the University of Auckland Dance Group. These enrichment programmes allow our students to build a profile of excellence and be inspired to emulate the achievements of these accomplished visitors.

However, this term will be most fondly remembered by many for the huge success of the Dulwich Primary Games, which was hosted across both of our campuses. The event attracted high praise from each of the five visiting schools and their students, staff and parents returned with fond memories of the 3 days spent in Yangon. I feel that the Primary Games firmly established the DCY name in the Dulwich College family of schools and was great testimony to the expertise and commitment of all our staff, whether in the academic or support side.

With the milder weather of the second term, sport has been a prominent theme over the past three months. At long last, we were finally able to open our 50m Olympic pool at Star City, along with all the other world-class facilities. We have already had the Myanmar Olympic Swimming Association using the pool, and we hope to partner with them to open a Swim Academy in the near future. In football we have a growing relationship with the country’s premier club, Yangon United, who have visited us several times and hosted a training session at DCY.

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However, most of all, I have been most impressed with the value added progress that these facilities and our staff have given to the students. As the smallest school, in the local sports association, we have struggled in the past. However, most recently we have become the international schools U-14 league and cup champions, only losing one game the whole season, won a U-7 swim meet and gained an impressive amount of medals in the Primary Games. Our rugby team also remains unbeaten. Add to this the many inter-school athletic and football tournaments that we have hosted, it is clear that we are on the way to becoming the premier sports school in the city, and are definitely punching well above our weight!

Of course, Dulwich is not only about sport and we have had another busy term of events including the Thingyan and Chinese New Year celebrations, the Yangon Maths Olympiad (where DCY teams placed 1st-3rd) and the ‘Battle of the Books’ competition (with DCY placing 1st and 3rd).

I recommend that you take this opportunity to enjoy the many events that have taken place during Term 2 and then allow them to whet your appetite for those that await us in the coming months!

Yours faithfully, Daryl Orchard Headmaster Dulwich College Yangon

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Pun Hlaing Campus

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Message from the Head of School I vividly remember our DUCKS Sports Day, which was not only enjoyed by our students, but also the parents. The morning was extremely competitive, but in an atmosphere rich with encouragement. This was further visible in our parents race, which was one of the most hotly contested events of the year.

To say that our parents were ‘putting their bodies on the line’ is an understatement! Our Primary and Senior students ventured to Star City for their Sports Day, another great occasion. It is clear to see that the skills of our students have continued to improve year upon year!

We also hosted the University of Auckland Dancers, who again worked with our students to develop skills in contemporary dance and movement to music. Parents witnessed the culmination of the hard work in the Black Box Theatre, a treat which was enjoyed by over two hundred people within our community. The rich experience continued with the Roy McGrath Jazz Band working with our students. Not only did they showcase their amazing talents, but worked with our students, who benefitted from their experience.

As we moved into February, we celebrated a tremendous Lunar New Year, and a great Dragon Dance in our courtyard.

It was wonderful to see all students and parents dressed in traditional costume – and the God of Wealth making an appearance dishing out gold chocolate coins! Following on from this, our campus hosted a wonderful evening of Twelfth Night by the Handlebards under the glistening stars of Yangon in our courtyard.

Again, over two hundred people from the community helped make the occasion rather special……as well as the sparkling wine and canapes!

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I would like to congratulate our Star City Campus for hosting an excellent Founder’s Day. Seeing all students showcase their talents was a real treat, and spending the afternoon together as one College on one site with all our families was a particular highlight.

I cannot forget to mention the Dulwich Primary Games, which this year was held at Dulwich College Yangon. Not only was this an outstanding event, where our students competed and walked away with many victories, but it further enhanced the reputation of our College amongst the group. The organisation and support of all our parents and staff has been highly commended, and already schools who participated want to return. It was a truly memorable experience for all involved.

Again, our Thingyun Festival was not only outstanding, but enjoyed by all. The students and staff had a great time celebrating this very special occasion; it further shows how proud, as a College, we are of being in Yangon.

Finally, I hope that you enjoy going through this magazine, and that the images and words on the pages fill you with joy. Now, I wonder what Term 3 will bring?

Kindest regards, Luke Chaeter Head of School Pun Hlaing Campus

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Star City

TEAMWORK AND COLLABORATION

Whether we, as staff, are working together or the Toddlers are playing together – it is all about moving forward as one – in order to explore, to create and to experience the wonders of learning and more importantly, the wonders of life itself.

Being together as a team, working alongside each other and in this process, supporting one another is one of the most important gifts we guide our students to value and to explore. Life is about the journey and how incredible it is that we all have people with which to share this experience. The importance being that we recognise and value this gift.

In our Toddler setting, the children and the adults, each one a package of uniqueness and individuality, display a well-developed sense of sharing and respect for one another. At least, this is what our aim is! There is nothing more powerful as the combined energy of Toddlers ‘working’ together as a team.

They can ‘move mountains,’ not to mention anything else that stands in their way. With this strength in numbers, it is evident that they thrive when being surrounded by friends. Every child and adult needs to feel that sense of belonging. It is what makes us human.

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Communication, with or without language, as is often the case with the little ones, continues to develop with each interaction. They all love to be heard. Those who are less self-confident and prefer to be quiet and to observe, with the passing of time, will also develop their opinions and creativity.

Teamwork provides wonderful opportunities for each one of us to recognise that we all have our differences and that these need to be acknowledged, discussed and supported. In the case of the little ones, this is a great time for them to realise that there are certain boundaries in life and that they need to be respected and adhered to. Many a time has a Toddler been heard to say, “You put it back. Tidy up now!�

With both adults and Toddlers alike, being part of a team presents opportunities in which we may become aware of the needs or shortcomings of others. We are then in the wonderful situation whereby we can give comfort, support and understanding. A crying Toddler seldom needs to fetch his own tissue in class as we now have a very caring trio of girls who jump at the opportunity to help and collect the much-needed tissues!

In a multi-cultural environment, such as Dulwich College Yangon, it is vitally important to nurture and respect the fact that we are from many different backgrounds and belief systems. The Toddlers are a powerful example of this. As long as they have access to exciting resources, an abundance of water-play and freeflow snack time, despite a few emotionally-charged discussions, they are more than happy to play alongside anybody. Their joy in experiencing the learning journey with friends and adults who provide unconditional love and support, is evident. It grows within the encouragement we give, in order for them to extend their own learning capabilities.

Through teamwork and collaboration, we sincerely hope to develop within each child and adult, the awareness of the important things in life – to be loved, to be nurtured in every way and to possess the gift of laughter!

Ingrid van Ginkel

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Pun Hlaing

SHARED OUTDOOR LEARNING

Outdoor learning complements indoor learning and is equally important. Play and learning that flow seamlessly between indoors and outdoors enable children to make the most of the resources and materials available to them and develop their ideas without unnecessary interruption. Outdoor learning encompasses all that children do, see, hear or feel in their outdoor space.

This includes the experiences that practitioners create and plan for, the spontaneous activities that children initiate, and the naturally occurring opportunities linked to the seasons, weather and nature.

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The children have progressed so much by not only having the opportunity to free flow between the indoors and outdoors but by sharing their space with older and younger children so they can learn from each other. Sharing our outdoor space has supported the children’s social and emotional learning. The older children who are settled have taken on leadership roles and supported those who are less capable than they are, while at the same time building their own self-confidence and self-esteem and have modeled turn taking and sharing. The children with no younger siblings at home have also had opportunities to ‘be a big sister or brother’ and

nurture and help others as well as form relationships with the younger children. Play is often more complex as older children extend younger children’s ideas or younger children follow the ideas suggested and contribute to the play. We have noticed the children’s language development thrive through these interactions. The older children have been role models for our younger children and surround them with language of different levels. They are learning to adapt their language, behaviours and expectations based on the ages and understandings of the other children. It has been wonderful to observe the older children ‘reading’ the younger children’s non-verbal cues and responding accordingly.

A few special moments include Hailey from Foundation 2 helping Wayne transition around the outdoor space which was a new environment for him.

She held his hand and guided him to the places he wanted to go, asking him questions along the way.

The children have gathered resources from each

other’s classrooms to use outside to create shared picnics. They have created role play situations of parties and decided what foods they needed.

They shared out the resources and made some tasty treats. The older children have supported our youngest children use some of our larger balancing equipment. The younger children observed the older children using the equipment which motivated them to want to try. Many of our Early Years siblings have been able to support each other to settle into our environments. The older siblings have been taking on the responsibility of looking after their sibling/ siblings. The younger siblings have been extremely proud to show their older siblings that they are at school and challenge themselves to show them what they can do.

A fabulous term of shared outdoor learning!

Danielle Devanny

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Star City

GARDENING IN THE EARLY YEARS A LEARNING JOURNEY

From school garden to table... a dream we had when we opened our Star City campus, which has finally turned into reality!

We are incredibly fortunate to have outdoor decking areas leading directly outside from all of our Early Years and Key Stage One classrooms. These areas, in turn, lead straight onto a wonderful landscaped grassy area. Our outdoor space contains endless opportunities for children to develop in every curricular

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area. We have made a conscious effort to include gardening as part of our daily routine, and we are now seeing the true benefits of including it within our continuous provision. Children can freely plant seeds, water and tend to what they have grown on a daily basis, which allows them to take real ownership, interest and care in what they are doing. Of course, the adults are there to guide and facilitate the learning taking place, asking questions to extend thinking and encourage problem solving.

We have learned a lot about failure in gardening.

Anthony often mentions the lime seeds he planted... we have no idea why they did not germinate. Add to that the cucumbers which did not thrive in a shady spot, the radishes which never grew beyond a small shoot, the peas which were eaten by birds and you begin to get the picture! This has provided excellent opportunities for reflection and problem solving, including building a scarecrow (Elle’s memorable idea) and asking for kind parents to help us improve our soil quality.

Our first surprise success has been our tomatoes.

They took months to grow and then started multiplying at an almost alarming rate! The children currently delight in picking them daily and are experts at knowing which ones to leave on the vine and which ones to pick and wash. We have made some into a pizza sauce and the children will get to create their own pizzas, using tomato sauce and basil from their own garden.

The number of tomatoes we have managed to harvest has now turned into an excellent opportunity for young entrepreneurship, as Fu Fu suggested we sell them. Julian, Elle, Owen, Fu Fu and Samy set up a shop area outside our classroom. Han Htoo Pyae Sone and Xander wrote a rota to ensure that every child will have a turn at being a shopkeeper on a different day. The children researched prices of tomatoes at home by going to shops, taking photos and bringing in receipts and we started selling to willing customers! In addition to tomatoes, we were able to sell aubergines and we soon hope to add corn and courgettes to the mix! The children are even more motivated to water the vegetables now that they have decided that they would like to use the money made in selling them to go on a special class trip...

Finally, the impact of our school garden on healthy eating and understanding about where food comes from has been clear. The children seem to have a different appreciation for and understanding of the importance of vegetables as part of a healthy diet, now that they have spent time growing their own.

Let’s see if we can harvest our first fruit (melon) before the end of the year!

Becci Lee

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Pun Hlaing

SCHEMAS IN EARLY YEARS

When you watch your children play you may find yourself wondering why they do the actions that they do. Why do children wrap themselves up in layers of clothes? Line up rows and rows of the same object? Develop fascinations with throwing or hiding?

Repetitive behaviour like this is known as schematic behaviour and while it may not be immediately obvious what learning is going on, it is in fact a very important learning mechanism. Through repeated, sometimes compulsive, actions, children are discovering the underlying structure of the world around them: if this happens this way, does it also happen that way?

“A schema is a pattern of repeated actions. Clusters of schemas develop into later concepts� (Athey, 2007). So these schematic behaviours help children to learn and make sense of the world around them.

In F1 and throughout our Early Years provision we as practitioners are really focusing on observing and identifying the different schematic behaviours our children are exhibiting. There are many different schemas but some of the most common in Early Years are the following:

Trajectory - Creating lines in space by climbing up and jumping down. Dropping items from up high.

Positioning - Lining items up and putting them in groups.

Enveloping - Covering themselves or objects completely. Wrapping items up or placing them in containers.

Rotating - Enjoys spinning items round and round. Likes to run around in circles or being swung round.

Enclosing - Adding boundaries to play areas, e.g. fences around animals. Adding borders to pictures.

Transporting - Carrying or moving items from one place to another; carrying items in containers or bags.

Connecting - Setting out and dismantling tracks, constructing, joining items together with tape or glue.

Transforming - Exploring the changing states of materials, transforming them from a solid to liquid state and back again.

Orienteering - An interest in positioning themselves or objects in different places or positions, e.g. upside down or on their side.

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There are examples of those schemas from different children in our environment. At the moment, we are seeing three dominant schemas emerge in the children’s play in F1. Firstly positioning. The children are enjoying lining up lots of loose parts in different ways. Other children have been enjoying sorting objects by colour or shape. Secondly, transporting.

Lots of children are exhibiting this schema. They like to move objects around our learning environment, bringing their play to different areas.

We make sure we have a variety of different bags and boxes for children to move items around the classroom in. Lastly, we have seen an interest in transforming. Lots of children have been adding paint to water or other sensory activities to change the col-

our. They have also enjoyed adding water to sand or oats and exploring the change of texture.

We have even rearranged our learning environment to better allow for these dominant schemas. It is now easier for the children to transport water and sand without soft furnishings in their way and there are more open spaces for the children to transport their learning to.

Why not try and think about what schemas your children are exhibiting in their play at home. Do they like lining things up, wrapping up objects, knocking down structures? Following these schematic behaviours will only enrich your children’s learning.

Anne Hegarty

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Pun Hlaing

SHOW AND TELL This term, we had show and tell sessions in class, held on Mondays and Tuesdays. Two children were chosen each week to bring a special item from home and to talk about it in front of the class. After their little presentation, their friends then had a chance to ask them questions about their special object. We have seen a text reading pen, different dolls, games, robots, stuffed animals and cushions, 3D books, and dragons. Some even read stories from books all by themselves!

Show and tell sessions were put in place, to develop a child’s confidence speaking in front of an audience and aid them in their language development, as well as advancing their listening skills and responses to questioning. It was great fun and really interesting to hear all about their things from home that we had never seen before.

As a result of these sessions, we have seen progress in the children’s questioning skills and how they are now more able to think about questions that they want to ask.

The practise that they got every week really helped them formulate their thinking and develop their language and vocabulary.

Our show and tell sessions were a big success and the children thoroughly enjoyed them. They always remembered to say, “Well done.” to their friends when they had finished their turn because it is not easy having such a responsible job! Their listening skills have also improved enormously.

As an extension to this learning, we decided as a class to have a show and tell book, where the children stuck photos from their show and tell sessions and wrote about them. They look back at them whenever they want to. The children wrote sentences and used their phonics skill to spell the words they needed. They remembered to use a finger space in between words and put a full stop at the end of a sentence. They also decorated their own pages and decided on the page layout.

We are looking to progress from show and tell into something equally exciting next term!

Jem Eliscupidez & Sam Baker Page 21

Star City

Learning from the heart - the power of children’s own interests

Did you have a burning passion when you were a young child? Did you collect shells, or tickets from trains or summer days out?

Did you hoard postcards, stamps, collect trains or cars, or, like I (still!) do, collect shelf upon shelf of books? Were you one of those children who was obsessed with dinosaurs, or insects, or snakes, or birds?

Educational research, such as the study by psychologist Joyce Alexander and her team at the Universities of Indiana and Wisconsin, USA, has shown that children who have intense interests during childhood do better in life and that these interests ‘enhance perseverance, improve attention and enhance skills of complex thinking as the processing of information’. Whether this holds true for all children with intense interests requires a great deal more research. However, what is beyond all doubt, is the wealth of learning that takes place when children are not only encouraged to develop their own interests, but to share them with others.

There is so much more involved in children having intense interests than just any potential academic advantage. The soft skills that are involved in sharing these passions with their friends and teachers – effective communication, sharing information with others, reasoning, developing research skills, teamwork, peer teaching – are essential for our children’s success as adults in the 21st Century world of work. Providing children with the space, time and opportunities to further develop and extend these interests, is critical to both their holistic educational development, and their development of these vitally important soft skills.

In Year 1 and 2, there are a huge wealth of different interests amongst the children! A tremendous passion for drawing. For marine conservation and shark protection. For building

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Lego models. For cars and trains. For making complex and intricate objects from paper. A passion for cats and dogs and dinosaurs! For some of the children, these passions have been a constant thread in their lives for as long as they have been in my class, over eighteen months. In this time, I have not only watched their own knowledge deepen beyond all my expectations, but I have watched them ignite similar levels of excitement and inspiration amongst their fellow classmates.

I have watched children sit side by side, sharing their knowledge and skills, patiently teaching their friends about the things they love. I have watched children become intensely motivated to improve their reading, just so that can read every book they can find about their particular passion. I have watched children become so inspired by their friend’s passion for

drawing, their own ability to draw has soared. I have watched children return to the same task over and over, practicing the same skill again and again until they have mastered it.

Such dedication to their learning shows tremendous resilience, determination and an understanding of the need to work hard at something for long periods of time in order to understand or master it. These are all lifelong skills necessary for a successful life but also, to tackle the never-ending challenges they will face as adults. So the next time you trip over their box of cars, or your child asks you to read THAT dinosaur book for the hundredth time, just remember all the tremendously important learning that is happening, and how necessary it is to support and encourage your children’s passions.

Kerry Aryal

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Pun Hlaing

Phonics in Year 1 and Year 2 at DCY

Phonics is a word that is often spoken about between teachers, students and parents, with our campus putting a huge emphasis on it within the DUCKS department, but what exactly is phonics?

Phonics is an approach that’s primary aim is to teach children to read with the secondary aim being to teach children to spell. It teaches children that words are made up of sounds and that each sound is represented by a letter or combination of letters. By learning sound and letter correspondence students can blend sounds together when reading, and can segment or breakdown words when spelling.

The majority of schools will use a phonics programme to help deliver phonics lessons to students. There are many different phonics programmes to choose from, each with their own merits and the end goal of them is the same. They vary in the fact that the sounds taught may be in a slightly different order from one programme to another but by the end of each one the students should all be at the same point in their learning.

As a campus we use a programme called ‘Floppy’s Phonics’ which is a synthetic approach to teaching phonics to primary aged children. It links well with the Oxford Reading Tree scheme that is used throughout DUCKS to engage students and create a love of reading. All teachers and assistant teachers in Year 1 and Year 2 have been trained on how to deliver the programme. The fact that so many adults can teach phonics to our students means students can be grouped according to their ability. We currently run 5 different phonics groups and this enables all students to make good progress because they are working at a level with which they feel comfortable and there is no risk of them getting left behind or being held back as their learning can be tailored on a much more personal level.

We are really proud of the phonics teaching and learning that takes place at our Pun Hlaing campus and it is great to see the students applying their learning into their reading and writing. At the end of Year 1 all students take part in the ‘Phonics Screening Check’ which is a statutory requirement for students who live in England. We are proud to say that the number of students at our campus meeting the expected level in this check is well above the national average in England.

Martin Thompson

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Pun Hlaing

External CCAs at DCY

A strong and varied co-curricular programme is an integral part of the experience at Dulwich College Yangon.

We encourage both personal and academic achievement and challenge students to excel in their studies and in their personal development. This is achieved by focusing on developing the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills students need to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. Co-curricular activities give students opportunities to be active in their communities and to take their learning beyond the classroom. This, in turn, helps students do better academically and be better prepared for the next stage in their life.

Studies have shown that co-curricular programmes are beneficial for the following reasons: •

Students often participate in co-curricular activities with students in other year groups which helps to develop relationship skills and, in many cases, lasting friendships.

•

Students participating in co-curricular activities learn to manage their time effectively, priortise among different competing commitments, and be proactive and creative problem-solvers. Often, the students most engaged in co-curriculars also have the strongest time management skills.

•

Co-curricular activities offer a vast range of possibilities for students who want to develop and nurture various interests from athletics to the arts and beyond.

• Experiencing success or being recognized for a contribution to a co-curricular activity can greatly

improve students’ self-esteem. Often, this can have a positive impact on performance in the classroom.

•

Participation in co-curricular activities requires students to make a longer-term commitment to something and see it through. Many students stay involved in the same activities year after year and can eventually take on a leadership role.

This term, we continue to have a wide range of activities available to students from Foundation Stage all the way through to Year 9.

Along with specialist activities run by teachers, we are very lucky to have outside providers who offer a number of sport and dance based activities, including: taekwondo, ballet, football and fencing.

Laurie Stevenson

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Star City

Our Learning Journey So Far

The Year 3 and 4 class have enjoyed their learning so far, and we have been very busy. Here are some of the highlights of what we have done.

In the first term, during our science lessons the children used the science lab to make observations on states of matter. We observed ice slowly melt into water then evaporate into water vapour. This tied in with our Wacky Weather unit to illustrate the science behind the water cycle.

We have also been very fortunate to have Mr Orchard help with teaching our mathematics lessons. Mr Orchard thoroughly enjoys teaching our Year 3 students during the week. The children love having him in class, as they play engaging maths games that reinforce their skills. All in all, the Year 3s have made tremendous progress in their mathematical ability over the year.

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One of the focuses of our learning this year is the implementation of technology in our lessons.

We have used word processing software, made PowerPoint presentations, used QR codes, created quizzes using Kahoot and used iPads to access online libraries with RazKids and Epic!

The highlight for our Year 4 students this year would have to be the Hpa An trip. On this trip the children explored caves, went kayaking on rice paddies and learned a lot about our home country, Myanmar. For many of the children, it was a fantastic opportunity for them to hone their independence and self-management skills. Since the trip, I have noticed that the students have developed a sense of maturity and are taking more responsibility for their everyday tasks at home and at school.

For the Year 3s, their most memorable moment has been the Year 3 Sleepover (in which some of our Year 4s participated). The children went for a local area walk around Thanlyin, had a chance to use our new swimming pool facilities and were treated to a barbecue feast prepared by the Aden staff. I was very pleased with the Year 3 students’ conduct and ability to follow instructions during the sleepover.

They have come a long way since the beginning of the year.

Erik Wong

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Pun Hlaing

Year 3 Sleepover

The annual year 3 sleepover was yet again another successful event this year. Students from our Pun Hlaing and Star City Campuses joined forces for the first time, which proved a wonderful opportunity for some cross-campus collaborative learning.

Such collaboration allows the children to form new friendships, work and learn together, and share new experiences away from home. The children enjoyed an early-evening orienteering activity, which took them out of the school grounds and into the local area, followed by the opportunity to make use of the newly opened Star City swimming pool. They then enjoyed a delicious outdoor barbeque dinner before retiring for a night-time film. Despite there being a

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larger number of children due to the two campuses coming together, they all managed to get a good night’s sleep. The following morning they enjoyed yet another delicious breakfast before getting involved in some team-building activities in the school playground. For several children, this was their first night away from home and events such as these are invaluable in developing their independence and self-confidence. It also prepares them for trips of longer duration and travel further afield which will await them as they progress up the school.

Christopher Perkins

Pun Hlaing

GARDENING

Over the holiday break our clever Aden staff built two wonderful garden beds and soon after, the students and I got to work on them immediately. As with many projects in life, we have needed to problem solve and of course be very patient. We have discovered that growing a garden is not something that happens overnight.

We began germinating different vegetable seeds in the classroom. They needed to be tended regularly and we discovered the germination times differed greatly between different seedlings. There was much excitement after discovering germination had occurred over a weekend and some seedlings were already 5 cm high. There have been lots of questions asked and lots of discussion around these questions.

Keeping in mind the focus of being sustainable and reusing items we would usually discard. I challenged the children to bring in carrot tops to see if we could grow them again. We had trouble with them rotting and had to restart a few times. It was very exciting to discover small white roots. They are now planted in the garden and from the top they are doing very well. It is very frustrating for many to not be able to see beneath the soil. We have researched how long carrots need to grow before harvest. We have marked the date and are all anticipating and hypothesizing what we might find when we dig them up.

The soil in our gardens is extremely sandy, so we are planting in only one garden at the moment and trying to increase the organic matter in the other. We are achieving this by using all the waste we create from our lunches. This is being composted using Bokashi Myanmar’s composting system. The students have overcome the smell and sight of the food and with wonderful enthusiasm dug it into the soil. We will continue to do this and hope to have enriched soil to plant in at the beginning of the next school year.

By involving the students in the garden, we seek to ensure that learners are equipped to participate in and contribute to, their own society and the wider world. We hope to be able to regularly harvest from the garden. An important aspect of being involved in this ongoing project is to encourage students to consider significant future focused issues such as sustainability. Students will gain the life skill of gardening and the benefits of working together to produce their own food.

Anna Elworthy

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Star City

STAR CITY STUDENT COUNCIL The Star City Student Council have continued their excellent work this term.

At their request, the play equipment in the Ducks play area has continued to expand and play equipment has been added to the KS2 and KS3 break time play area. Student Council funds were also used to purchase some board games for the Library and we will continue to build on this.

The Student Council were instrumental in organising class activities for Founder’s Day. The representatives liaised between their classes and the teachers, selecting an activity and deciding on which resources were required. This led to a wonderful range of activities and developed upon our goal of having greater student input into these events. The Dulwich College Star City stalls raised an impressive MMK 304,000. This term also witnessed our first ‘Dulwich Got Talent’ show, an event held at the request of the Student Council. This was held on Friday 22nd March and enabled students from Years 1 to Year 9 to display their amazing talents. It was a very entertaining morning.

The Student Council have continued to meet with visitors from inside the Dulwich Group, including Dr. Cameron Pyke from Dulwich College in London, representing the views of the students. All visitors have commended the students on the maturity with which they are able to express their views and opinions.

Matthew Chapillon

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Pun Hlaing

Learning Showcase – The Many Wonders of Year 5

As part of Year 5’s learning all about the many different wonders of the world and their different classifications, they began to think about what things around them and in their home countries are important to them. What are my wonders of the world?

Over the term students spent time developing their understanding of a range of wonders until they had focused in on something that excited them personally. There was a great range of choices from ‘The Chocolate Hills of Bohol’, ‘The Great Wall of China’ and ‘The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)’.

Rather than displaying learning about these choices in their books an open morning or ‘learning showcase’ was arranged so that the students could show off all their varied learning and skills about the diverse topics. This helped to focus all the Year 5s to produce improved pieces of work

so that they could show off their developing skills.

It was fantastic to see the Year 5s truly being independent in their learning and organizing their own time, leading up to and during the showcase. Once we had developed rubrics and research grids and narrowed down what specific skills we needed for

the projects, they were able to complete large posters which included; computer work, models, art, cooking and many other elements. After discussing with the class after the showcase about the presentation they were interested in presenting their learning in a similar way in the final term – watch this space.

Mark Vincent

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Whole College

YEAR 9 TRANSITION EVENING After half-term the Senior School team presented the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) options to parents and students in Year 9, at both Star City and Pun Hlaing. The IGCSE is globally the most widely accepted examination course taken by pupils aged between 14 and 16 years. Ms Ravenscroft showed how the IGCSE courses will link seamlessly to the IB (International Baccalaureate) Diploma Programme, which we are applying to run in Years 12 and 13. Ms Hinojosa also described the pathway through Dulwich College Yangon to university. We are already running several events, such as receiving external speakers to speak to our senior students, to help with university course awareness. Our senior school students are familiar with Maia learning, a platform to track their contributions in and around school as well as offering appropriate guidance towards potential university courses.

As I stated at the evening itself, there will be increased academic expectations and increased responsibility placed upon our Year 10 students next year. They will be the first students in the school to face public exams, which will take place at the end of Year 11. Most of our students will follow a course of English literature and language, maths, double award science, global perspectives, a language and a choice of: art, computer science or music. In addition, we will develop a non-examined philosophy course as well as an exploration of business. The students will continue to follow an extensive PE and wellbeing curriculum.

I am very excited about this latest chapter that is opening at DCY. We have gained accreditation from the Edexcel exam board and are well on the way to receiving accreditation from the Cambridge exam board too. My colleagues and I feel confident that this current cohort of students has the potential to do very well in their exams; they will receive great support from their hugely experienced teachers.

If there are any parents of students in younger years, who would like to know more about the IGCSE experience, or anything else mentioned in this article, please do email me at philip.clear@dulwich-yangon.com.mm. We have a brochure about the IGCSE programme on offer, which I would be very happy to share.

Philip Clear

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Star City

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE This term has seen the wider school community at Dulwich College Yangon being introduced to the International Baccalaureate (IB). Dulwich College Yangon is beginning the application process to become a candidate school, which would then allow the College to apply to become an authorised IB world school. Parents and students have been informed about the plan to apply for candidacy to run the IB and the feedback was extremely positive. Several other Dulwich Colleges currently offer the IB Diploma programme (IBDP), including Dulwich College Singapore and Dulwich College Shanghai.

Dulwich College (Yangon) - Star City Campus plans to run the IB for the students in Year 12 and Year 13. The IBDP is a prestigious programme, which consists of a wide range of subjects. Students choose six of these subjects (including a science, art subject and a language). Students will also complete a 4000-word extended essay on a subject that they have chosen, take part in different activities as part of creativity, service and action (CAS), and complete an essay and presentation on theory of knowledge (TOK). The subjects that the Year 9 students have recently picked at IGCSE will link with subjects offered in the IB Diploma programme.

Anna Ravenscroft

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Whole College Maia Learning is the new college and career readiness platform that senior school students continued to delve into this term. From initial personality assessments, personal statements in the near future, to university research, Maia Learning offers an array of tools to support our students as they begin their journey to choosing their career pathway and finding their “perfect fit” university. Students in Year 7 started with a Learning and Productivity assessment which explored the learning styles that best fit them. Year 8 students, in addition to Learning and Productivity, were given an assessment of intelligences that rated their abilities and preferences as well as reviewed their strengths and challenges. The assessment also explored careers that matched the students’ strengths. The main assessment for Year 9 students was the Interest Profiler, where students decided how much they liked or disliked a task, and were matched with careers based on their responses. After reviewing results from these assessments, the search for careers and universities is quite extensive, therefore, students will continue to explore Maia Learning as they continue their education at Dulwich College. Helping students have selfawareness, identify their strengths and challenges, and discern what their interests are is the first step to finding the right career pathway and “perfect fit” university.

Rita Hinojosa

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Pun Hlaing

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

School is not only a place where children learn reading, writing, and maths. It is also a place where they learn to get along with other people and develop social-emotional skills. Research shows that social and emotional factors have significant weight on a child’s learning. Additionally, companies throughout the world are identifying social-emotional intelligence, tenacity, and ability to work in a team to solve problems as critical skills for the 21st century workplace. These are also skills that we need to interact within our cultural environment.

Every month we start our wellbeing lessons with a character strength. Through activities and open dialogue about real life scenarios, we explore the meaning of these character strengths. We began this term with “teamwork” as our character strength and students engaged in activities that emphasized the importance of being a good team member and communicator. Since our character strength is a monthly, whole-school focus, classroom teachers also support character strengths in their classrooms through positive reinforcement when they see it in action.

As parents, you too can help support the development of your child’s social-emotional skills by asking them openended questions about what they are currently learning in their wellbeing class. For instance, try using “WH” questions: why, what, who, and where. This will help you as parents to motivate your child to go beyond facts and think more deeply. Therefore, instead of asking: “Did you like your wellbeing class today?” try asking, “What was the favourite part of your wellbeing class?” or “What was the most interesting part?” You can extend and have conversations about scenarios at school, as well as discussions about real life scenarios at home. Your support at home is the strongest foundation on which to build your child’s socialemotional skills.

Rita Hinojosa

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Whole College

THE DULWICH GAMES 2019 YANGON

This year we were very proud to host the Dulwich Primary Games 2019. This is our most prestigious sports event for our Primary School children and is an international competition of a high standard. The Dulwich Games provides our students with the unique opportunity to test their ability against their peers from across the Dulwich network of schools in football, basketball, athletics and swimming.

Day 1 Team Sports Football In football we had a great tournament in both the Girls’ and Boys’ division. All players put in 100 percent effort and demonstrated what they had learned and practised during training sessions.

Our U11 boys won the plate competition and the U10 boys finished with the 3rd place trophy. This is very impressive considering our small student population, in comparison with most of the other Dulwich Colleges. Equally impressive were the girls who won the shield trophy after beating Dulwich College Shanghai in the Shield Competition final.

Basketball The basketball competition was 3v3 which is a new format of the game for our students. However, after a slow start, our basketball players were quickly up to speed and displaying some fantastic skills and overall teamwork. Our U9 boys, U11 boys and U11 girls were winners of the Bowl competitions, which like in the football, is a fantastic achievement and something they are proud of.

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Day 2 Athletics and Swimming Athletics The athletics competition was a chance for individuals to demonstrate their prowess in both the track and field events. As with Day 1, this was also a very successful day with multiple medals won across a number of events. All children showed what they had learned in the training phase leading up to this completion and, it was wonderful to see all participants competing with determination while, at the same time, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Swimming Our first swimming gala in our Olympic pool was a huge success. As with Athletics, this event provided the opportunity for some of our talented swimmers to compete against the tough opposition for gold, silver and bronze medals in multiple swimming disciplines. We are a new school and our swimming programme is in its infancy, but we still managed to collect our fair share of the medals.

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Overall, the Dulwich Primary Games was a huge success. There were 166 basketball games, 81 football matches, 108 swimming races and 114 track and field events with over 270 children competing. This event is not only a wonderful experience from a sporting perspective, but was also a unique opportunity for our students to socialise and make friends with their fellow students from the multitude of nationalities and cultures that our family of schools consist of. Everyone involved had a fantastic time with medals and trophies won in all sporting areas, but most importantly everyone enjoyed the event with new friends made and memories that will last a lifetime. Well done to all!

Peter Poulton

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Pun Hlaing

EARLY YEARS SPORTS DAY

In Term 2, we hosted some huge sports events and there is no bigger school sport event than our very own annual Sports Day. Firstly, at the beginning of the term we organised the Early Years’ Sports Day, which saw our younger students participate and compete in a variety of events based around their physical components and motor skills. These 6 events were 30 metre sprint for speed, obstacle race for speed, agility and power, egg and spoon race for speed and co-ordination, throw the bean bag for strength, throw the ball to the target for co-ordination and shuttle races for speed and agility. All these events were performed in the correct manner in a highly positive environment and in a good team spirit. The house system was in full affect with each individual athlete performing their best to achieve points or stars on the day for their house. At the end of the student competitions, we had some parent and teacher races, which were very entertaining, not just for the

competition, but for some of the falls displayed!

All students received a participation certificate and 12 students were awarded Star Performer Medal in assembly the next day. They were in Foundation 1 Max and Chriselle, Foundation 2 Amy and Chan Chan, Year 1 Gabriel and Yu Yu, Year 2 David, Shine Shine, Fico, Thune Thune, Dino and Thiri.

The Early Years results were: 1 – Anawrahta – 202 points 2 – Johnson – 167 points 3 – Curie – 146 points 4 – Shackleton – 145 points Congratulations to everyone for a fantastic morning on both campuses, showing great team spirit and encouragement to all that participated.

George Demetriou

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Whole College

SENIOR SCHOOL SPORTS DAY Later in the term, we hosted our annual Senior Sports Day, this time at Star City - a fantastic venue displaying a full size 400m track outlined on the grass. The venue was ready for the ultimate Sports Day competition in track and field events throughout the day. The students arrived in their house coloured tops, staff were at their stations, parents were ready in support, and everything was prepared for the start of the 2019 Sports Day. The events to be competed in were: 60m/100m/200m/ 300m/800m/4x100m relay/shuttle team relay on the track, and shot putt, high jump, discus, javelin, long jump and triple jump in the field. The girls would be in the field in the morning and on the track in the afternoon whilst the boys did the opposite. The races were exciting and the field events very challenging, but with the smoothness of the event came a healthy competitive edge by all the students performing

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at their maximum to achieve their own individual achievements, but acquiring points for their house.

After all the student events were completed, we amalgamated teams of staff and parents to fulfill a very competitive Shuttle Team Relay race.

The Senior Sports Day results were: 1 – Anawrahta – 582 points 2 – Curie – 500 points 3 – Johnson – 476 points 4 – Shackleton – 369 points Overall, both Sports Days were a huge success competed in good spirit with individual and team successes rewarded. Congratulations to Anawrahta for winning both the Early Years and Senior Sports Day events. We look forward to next year’s events.

George Demetriou

Whole College

MISAC ATHLETICS DAY We have hosted many events this year for our MISAC family of schools ranging from the cross-country races at both Pun Hlaing and Star City campuses, U14 and U19 football competitions at Star City and the U11 Handball B competitions at Star City. Our latest event was a huge athletics event, similar to our Sports Day, but larger in numbers and competition.

The results for the MISAC Athletics Day were: 1 – BSY 2 – NET 3 – DCY 4 – MISY 5 – MIS 6 – YA

The following MISAC schools attended: BSY / DCY / MIS / MISY / NET / YA.

This year we have all raised the level of the sports we offer and compete in. The MISAC group has a structured schedule of events throughout the year with rigorous planning going into every event to make it as professional as possible. I would like to say a huge thank you, not only to the MISAC group, but also our maintenance and support team from Aden who work tirelessly with us to ensure all the events we provide are both enjoyable and safe.

Each school had to enter two athletes per event per age group and an athlete could only compete in 3 events, (2 track and 1 field or 2 field and 1 track) and the relay events.

The events we competed in were 60m/100m/300m /400m/600m/800m/4x100m relay and shuttle team relay on the track and shot putt/javelin/high jump/ long jump/triple jump/discus in the field.

George Demetriou

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Star City

DIGITAL LEARNING IN EAL AND THE SAMR MODEL Students learning English at Dulwich College Yangon benefit from the use of technology and digital resources in the modern age.

At Star City, EAL learners have access to laptops and tablets at their fingertips. From the simple use of translation apps to fully-integrated collaborative projects, students follow the SAMR model (see below) and progress from using technology as a substitute to ultimately redefining the way in which they learn.

Examples of substitution include; using a dictionary app or typing a report, rather than completing it in an exercise book or using a paper dictionary.

Beyond substitution, learners begin to augment. That is to say that there is a functional improvement and the technology allows for a task to be completed more effectively, easily or quickly. This could include producing a simple digital presentation to be shared with peers or right-clicking a word in an encyclopaedia article to translate and add a definition to a digital dictionary.

Older students at Dulwich College Yangon have access to Office 365 accounts.

Using these tools provides powerful applications that allow learners to journey from augmentation, where they may open an email to access a PDF document for homework, towards modification. In OneNote (which students all have access to via school and their BYOD devices) students are enrolled in a digital EAL classroom. Learning becomes fundamentally different. All notes can be combined, saved and accessed at any time.

Instead of clicking to find a definition or translate a word, the text can be annotated digitally. The PowerPoint presentation produced before now includes a combination of images, text and embedded video and audio. Something that would not be possible with pens and paper.

Beyone modification is redefinition of learning. Previously inconceivable tasks now become accessible. Shared collaborative spaces in the OneNote classroom allow teachers and students to learn together in real-time. The teacher has access to a student’s work and learners draw upon a wealth of tools, resources and ideas. A creative assignment could be given recorded voice feedback from a teacher or peers.

As we prepare students for an exciting future where technology and learning are becoming increasingly interwoven, the need to create for EAL learners to communicate and receive feedback are at the heart of becoming proficient speakers and writers of English.

Peter Collier

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Pun Hlaing

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EAL 2018 & BEYOND At the beginning of this academic year, nine members of our teaching staff signed up to be trained in this highly acclaimed course developed by Lexus Education.

Outcomes: • Identification of the language-related needs of ESL students and the development

of teaching practices that address their needs in a holistic and explicit manner • Development of teachers’ awareness of how to accommodate the cultural and

linguistic diversity and experiences of ESL students • Provision of a positive context for teachers to trial suggested strategies and

reflect critically and openly on their teaching • Exemplification of how to develop collaborative working relationships between

teachers (across subject areas) through a shared understanding of how to support

ESL students.

There are a total of 9 modules, each one taking 2.5/3 hours to complete, plus time to research and trial the new ideas, as well as additional academic reading material. The team have been attending training after school and during Professional Development days and will be putting their conclusions together at the end of the programme to support whole school development in the teaching of cross-curricular English language skills.

Well done to them for their huge efforts and do keep your eyes peeled for the PLC poster, which will be up at the end of Term 3!

Rebecca Carver

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Pun Hlaing

DIVERSITY EVENTS As part of the DCI Diversity program, which sees world class performers and artists working in our schools, Dulwich College Yangon hosted the acclaimed University of Auckland Dance Group, and the Roy McGrath Remembranza Quartet during Term 2. Both groups worked incredibly well with our students, and provided opportunities to experience music and dance in a hands-on, interactive environment.

The incredibly hard-working University of Auckland Dance group conducted workshops across all ages at both campuses, nurturing a love and appreciation of dance in our students. Creativity of movement and body awareness were significant components of the workshops, as well as more traditional dance steps and concepts. Students were encouraged to express themselves through

creative movement and teamwork, and a large group of DCY dancers took to the stage during the evening performance to share what they had created during the day with an audience.

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Chicago based jazz saxophonist Roy McGrath and his Remembranza Quartet shared their talent and love of music with students across both campuses. Roy and his group performed and ran songwriting workshops, giving our students a special insight into the world of jazz, both performing and composing, and into the life of a professional musician. We were very lucky to see and hear the excellent musicians performing on the piano, drums, and double bass, and Roy worked closely with our saxophone students. Students were engaged and inspired by Roy’s visit, and we hope to see him back at DCY in the future.

Maxine Lee-Morath

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Pun Hlaing

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR…

The TED club started in April 2018 as a CCA, with fourteen student members. The premise of ‘TED’ is to offer a platform for individuals to espouse their “big idea”. One, which they are passionate about, or offers some innovative insight into an idea, mindset or issue previously overlooked by most. Since its inception, TED has morphed into local ‘TEDx’ and ‘TED-Ed’ Club events, the latter aimed at younger contributors, normally in secondary education.

Therefore, in October of 2018 we became TED-Ed Club DCY with eight student members. It is difficult for an 11-12 year old to recognise if they have a big idea and harder still to articulate it. So, for 6 weeks we investigated styles of presentation, introduction, hooks, the take away message, and the skills required for constructing a TED-style presentation, which normally follows an American style homily with a memorable punchline. There are many young presenters on TED-Ed, who fall into the category

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of well-rehearsed home-schooled US students who deliver surprisingly well-honed presentations about the importance of topics such as veganism and global warming. For our students it was not to be so easy, as their ideas had to be exactly that, theirs. The presentations were entirely of their own construct.

The contributions from staff were restricted to feedback from the many rehearsals. Eventually, Anna (Y6), Amara, Ava and Brooklyn (Y7), completed their talks and delivered them during assemblies in the Spring Term. Congratulations to them all! It was a long a difficult road, and full credit to them for their perseverance and determination in completing this mammoth task.

Their talks will be all be submitted to TED, for publication later this term. Watch this space…

Dr Shaun Baker and Thin Htone

Pun Hlaing

THE HANDLEBARDS AT DCY

In February we were fortunate to once again host the travelling Shakespeare company, The Handlebards. They have built up a fabulous reputation all over the UK and Asia in the last few years for delivering a fresh, fun spin on Shakespeare. This visit was no exception.

and Pun Hlaing were fortunate enough to participate in drama workshops with The Handlebards.

Drama is such an important tool for developing confidence, public speaking skills and body language techniques; the chance to learn from professional actors was a real privilege.

The day began with a performance of one of the less well known plays, Twelfth Night. It is a rip roaring comedy that relies on confusion, misunderstanding and mistaken identity to have the audience in stiches. Despite the challenge of the language, something that often makes people nervous about watching Shakespeare, our students enjoyed every moment of it. By using physical comedy the performers ensured that all of our students were thoroughly amused and entertained while at the same time developing their understanding of Shakespeare’s work. After the performance students from both Star City

A remarkable day ended with a second performance of Twelfth Night in the courtyard of the senior school. The show was open to parents and friends of Dulwich

and we were delighted with the number of people who came along to enjoy it with us. For many it was a first taste of Shakespeare and an opportunity to understand just a little of what goes on in English lessons every day.

We very much look forward to welcoming The Handlebards back in 2020.

Craig Holmes

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Star City

HYDROPONICS This term has seen the Year 5 to 9 students engaged with growing their first crop of plants independently as part of the business game. In December, each year group was given 10,000kyat budget to set up their hydroponics business.

Students worked in teams to decide which plants to grow and what equipment to purchase, based on the previous crop cycle and their independent research. The year groups organised themselves to seed and subsequently transplant the seedlings into the hydroponics minifarms, taking full ownership of the process.

Basil was the most popular and most successful crop; students shared it with parents, teachers and the school canteen, adding a delicious and healthy touch to their lunches!

Students wanted to do even better in the second round, and so they asked Mr Masa from Univege to come back to school to give them some advice. They reflected together on factors undermining the success rate of their seeding and devised strategies to increase it.

As a result, students diversified their selection of plants, tested different places for the nursey and added in elements to their minifarms. Year 8 and 9 students also continued to learn how to code with raspberry pis and applied what was learnt to the hydroponics project. We are now waiting to see which year group will have the biggest crop and how much money they will make from the sales!

Elena Cozzi

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Star City

CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION IN STAR CITY

This year Dulwich College Yangon celebrated Lunar Chinese New Year, the Year of Pig, on Feb 9. It was a successful celebration, which brought good fortune and happiness to all students and their families.

The celebration started in the morning and lasted until the afternoon. In the morning, an assembly was held, in which students showcased their Mandarin and understanding about the culture. Students in F1/2 sang Gong Xi Gong Xi with traditional costumes. Y1/2 students had a Chinese Zodiac Model Show and Y3/4 students danced Baby Shark. New Year’s wishes were given by Y5 students. Students in the Senior School acted the legend about Chinese New Year. The highlight of the day was the visit of the God of Wealth and Lion dances, which were enjoyed by all.

In the afternoon, students experienced Chinese culture through a serious of activities.

These included; Chinese calligraphy, traditional Chinese painting and moveable printing.

Students also made dumplings and experienced paper cutting.

It was the first time for many students to do these activities during the Lunar Chinese New Year. All the activities enhanced their knowledge of Chinese Culture.

Shuang Tan

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Pun Hlaing

LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION IN PUN HLAING CAMPUS

Lunar New Year is the most important cultural event in Chinese society. Every year the school celebrates Lunar New Year with student performances and a lion dance. We invited parents to come to join us to celebrate this event watching the students’ show and lion dance. This year we celebrated on Friday 1st February.

This year’s event was hosted by Miki and Hein. We started with a power point presentation introducing the Lunar New Year and followed by Foundation Stage students singing the “xin nian hao” song.

Our Year 1 and Year 2 sang the “Wa Ha Ha” song.

Year 3 to Year 6 girls did a lantern dance. Year 7 to Year 9 played “taiji”. The whole school sang “gongxi gongxi”. We ended with the Lion dance in the courtyard.

Hung Hua Chen

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Whole College Page 52

FOUNDER’S DAY 2019

Pun Hlaing

On Saturday 9th February, the whole of the Dulwich College Yangon community from both campuses joined together at Star City to celebrate Founder’s Day. This was a day to celebrate the school that Edward Alleyn set up in London in 1619 and to celebrate what that school now looks like in Yangon in 2019.

The day began with a concert which showcased the range of musical talent at the College with solo instrumentalists, choirs and an orchestra all playing their part and producing a great sound.

After the concert, the games and activities began on the field with stalls ranging from face painting through to a blindfolded assault course and, of course, soak the teacher! Classes came together to raise money for the Student Leadership Council who will then vote on how the funds raised should be spent, with previous funding going towards local charities and providing engaging outdoor learning environments. Well done to Year 3 and 4 from Pun Hlaing and Year 6 and 7 from Star City, who raised the most money.

As well as student stalls, the Friends of Dulwich also ran stalls where they sold

food from some of their home countries including Myanmar, Korea and New Zealand. Possibly unsurprisingly, a mini-pub was provided by the British representatives!

Whilst all these activities were going on, performances were also happening on stage. A highlight was the performance by a small singing group, The Piccolos, of ‘We’re So Proud of Our School’. As the day progressed there were also great performances from parents, other students and members of the community including national dances, magic shows and a rendition of ‘Baby Shark’ sung in Korean! Once the student and parent stalls had closed, the school community came together to take part in the International Parade with waving flags followed by those in the national dress of each country.

Finally, after all this, everyone could relax and watch the finale of the fire dancer and band performance.

Thank you to everyone who supported this year’s Founder’s Day. See you at the Pun Hlaing campus for Founder’s Day 2020!

Matthew Grace

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MUSIC

Whole College

MUSIC ACROSS THE CAMPUSES

The two campus organisation of Dulwich College Yangon provides a continually interesting mix of challenge and opportunity to the music departments in Pun Hlaing and Star City. With the campuses being different sizes, each with its own structure designed to ensure optimal teaching and learning, we ensure that joint musical work is effective despite the music curriculum and associated activities being delivered in slightly different ways.

With the opening of the Star City campus, the initial challenge was not only to develop a successful music department in its own right, but also for the activities carried out to allow students from Star City to perform effectively, as soon as possible, alongside their counterparts from the already wellestablished, dynamic and thriving music department in Pun Hlaing.

point in the development of the Star City Music department. This performance went extremely well, but for very obvious reasons at that stage, the Star City contingent had to assume a supporting role to the more numerous and musically experienced Pun Hlaing students. By Founder’s Day last year, greater numbers of Star City students with growing confidence and increasing instrumental skill were able to take slightly more prominent singing and instrumental roles alongside their Pun Hlaing counterparts.

The first cross campus music event was a Christmas concert in Pun Hlaing in 2017; still a very early

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This academic year, Star City instrumentalists have been able to display more developed technique and have built on work from last year to demonstrate more polished performance skills. The choir has also increased in size and evolved a more challenging repertoire. When possible songs are chosen that can be sung by the Star City and Pun Hlaing choirs together, taking account of the fact that the number of students in Pun Hlaing allows separate Junior and Senior choirs to be run whereas in Star City there is, for now, a single choir consisting of students from Y3-Y9.

An indication of how a whole can be greater than its constituent parts was shown by how our two contrasting music departments came together on this year’s Founder’s Day. While Pun Hlaing clearly remains the elder sibling of the departments, Star City

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students started to hold their own proportionately for the first time in a whole college event. The performance illustrated that we can capitalise on some of the differences between the campuses.

For example, string and woodwind players in the college orchestra presently come from Pun Hlaing, along with some percussion and keyboards. Star City provides the brass section (along with some extra percussion), as it focuses on trumpet and trombone lessons for students in Y6 and upwards.

The combined college choir has also worked out well, especially with part singing. Two-part songs can be very demanding for developing choirs to learn and a challenge to teach. If a combined choir consists of two independent choirs, it is relatively simple to teach each choir one part only, leaving it until the last minute to bring the two choirs with

their separate parts together. We did exactly this with the finale song for the Founder’s Day concert, “Everybody Sing�. The process was remarkably easy with the two choirs slotting together with far less effort than would have been needed had we chosen to sing in two parts in both campuses.

In terms of curriculum, the contrast between how the Pun Hlaing and Star City campus music departments operate probably varies most at Key Stage Three.

For example, in Pun Hlaing, students in Years 8 and 9 follow what we might call a more standard route to achieving the aims of the curriculum. Essentially, this means that the core areas of performing, composing and listening are very integrated with a sequence of projects covering all these aspects. Creativity is a major part of the overall process and instrumental or performance work usually acts in support of this with students having a great deal of choice as to

which instruments they use. By contrast in Star City, KS3 students are following a more instrumental based route (currently with trumpets and trombones) which has proved very suitable for smaller classes. It has also resulted in the production of performance standard players in a relatively short period. This does, however, mean that creative material and listening activities reinforce performance work rather than vice versa.

Ultimately, the goal is for the curriculum to run in parallel on both sites with Star City gradually moving towards the model delivered in Pun Hlaing.

At present, though, we can take advantage of those differences with complementary activities allowing us to cover a greater breadth of music provision as a whole college than is possible by each campus individually.

Graeme Abernethy

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Whole College

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY ART

Art students during this academic year had the opportunity to celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th March and create artworks focused on a significant female artist. As a class, we discussed the relevance of recognising female achievements in history and the promotion of women’s rights.

Students were asked what female artists they were aware of and then were introduced to one focus artist for their artmaking. Four notable female artists were analysed for their particular distinctive art practices. Frida Kahlo portraits were made in honour of the Mexican artist using oil pastel, paper and watercolour. French artist, Louise Bourgeois, spider sculptures were created with wire, paper and spray paint. Yoyoi Kusama dotty pumpkins and collaged self-portraits were designed in the Japanese artist’s style. Georgia O’Keeffe flowers were painted with watercolour and acrylic paint. The students enjoyed exaggerating Frida Kahlo’s eyebrows and sculpting spiders, along with decorating their own image in the likeness of Kusama’s style. The Georgia O’Keeffe flowers were also a great success.

Carmen Woods

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Whole College

SAFEGUARDING AT DCY

Safeguarding the students at Dulwich College Yangon is central to everything we do. As teams across both campuses we are constantly striving to improve our systems and training to ensure the best possible safeguarding practices.

At the beginning of the school year we received updated guidance from the UK on ‘Keeping Children safe in Education’. We have used this guidance to update our training. Our teams on both sites meet regularly to support students and staff.

As part of the speak out stay safe curriculum we encourage the students to understand what is acceptable behaviour from others and what they can do to stay safe. During February, as part of Internet safety week, the students took part in assemblies and activities to promote online safety. They also learned about the importance of not disclosing personal information. This time there was an emphasis on gaming and how online friends made through popular games may not always be who they claim to be. Older students also discussed online bullying, what to do if you are being bullied online and how to report it.

Kay Chaeter

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Pun Hlaing

WORLD BOOK WEEK

Our students participated in various reading related activities for the celebration of World Book Week (25 th February to 1 st March) at Pun Hlaing Campus. The celebration of books, reading and sharing stories made it an enjoyable event for all of us!

The event was aimed at encouraging our students to keep reading and exploring different ways to enjoy reading books not only for themselves but also with others. During the week of celebration, we were excited by the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ activity by reading a book or story twice a day for at least 10 minutes when we heard an announcement via the tannoy. Students also watched short educational films relating to literacy, supported by World Book Day in the classrooms, featuring 16 of the very best authors and illustrators and were greatly inspired by this.

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Under the supervision of our KS3 English Teacher, Mr. Holmes, our Reading Ambassadors did a fantastic job. They set an example as role models by reading together with younger students.

Younger students really enjoyed reading with older ones and had an invaluable experience.

Students were thrilled to guess readers who were covering their faces and reading behind the books in the ‘Guess-the-Reader’ activity. Students who enjoy art and craft had a chance to share their favourite books by making or drawing it. Many thanks to Ms. Woods our art teacher.

To our surprise, F2 students and Y2 students also showed their writing skills by taking part in the ‘Share a Story – Book Review’ activity.

Thank you so much to the class teachers for arranging this. Our students who learn Myanmar also took part by reading books in the language of the host country.

We would also like to thank parents for taking time and celebrating with us for our very first ‘Share-a-Story: Photo Contest’, a wonderful shared activity. We received many great photos and had a hard time to choose the best – almost all were engaged in reading, having fun together and celebrating reading at home with their children. The benefits of parents reading with their children is huge.

Last but not least we cannot end this article without mentioning the character dressup activity. Can you imagine that moment when all our favourite characters came tumbling off the pages and visited both assemblies? Now they have all gone back inside their covers….. you may find them again in the Library.

Thank you everyone for making reading fun and interesting by participating in World Book Week with us.

Craig Homes and Cho Thu Aung

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DE T U R

Pun Hlaing Golf Estate Avenue, Hlaing Thayar Township, Yangon T: 01-3684460 admissions@dulwich-yangon.com.mm

dulwich-yangon.com.mm

Star City, Kyaik Kauk Pagoda Road, Thanlyin Township, Yangon (+95) 09966423015

P O N S MU

NDO