Dear Parents and Guardians,
I am writing to you today from Singapore, where I have travelled on behalf of the College to visit our Singapore Campus and the offices of Education in Motion (EiM), our parent company. I supported the recruitment fair for our sister schools in China. With around 2,500 students, Dulwich College Singapore operates on a very different scale than our more intimately-sized school in Seoul. It is an eye-opening experience to say the least, and I look forward to sharing more details from my trip with you after my return on Monday.
I learned today that our Primary School and Senior School Charity Committees raised nearly KRW 2,000,000 in support of the victims of the Itaewon tragedy and their families. What an astonishing result. I am immensely proud of our community for working together to accomplish this amazing feat. Thank you to those who organised and to those who gave generously. All proceeds will be donated to the charity Hope Bridge that works on disaster relief.
Today is Remembrance Day. Peace is a word that is easy to say, but a state of mind, of existence, that is fragile and requires hard work, perseverance and dedication to achieve and to maintain. We wear poppies in remembrance of those soldiers that died so that we may live in peace. Although I could not be there in person, I recorded the below video message ahead of this morning’s Remembrance Assembly with Year 6 students and the whole of Senior School in attendance.
Click here to listen to John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields read by Leonard Cohen, which I introduced in the video.
Our Head of Senior School Suzy Pugh will attend the Commonwealth Remembrance Service at the Anglican Cathedral and the Reception at the British Ambassador’s Residence this Sunday on my behalf.
Our Head of Senior School Suzy Pugh will attend the Commonwealth Remembrance Service at the Anglican Cathedral and the Reception at the British Ambassador’s Residence this Sunday on my behalf.
This week we welcomed Caroline Taylor, Global Director of the Ignite: Switzerland Programme, which is a unique 12-week educational opportunity exclusive to Year 9 Dulwich students. Please see the Senior School section of this update for more information on this exciting programme.
Today we also observed World Kindness Day, which officially falls on 13 November each year. As you must be well aware, kindness is one of our core values at Dulwich College Seoul. Throughout the day, students wrote warm and supportive messages on each other’s t-shirts in affirmation of their ability to demonstrate kindness towards others.
In the face of great tragedy such as we have experienced recently, it is heartening to be able to look to the youthful optimism of children, and to see their warmth, energy and sincerity in participating in such an activity. It reaffirms my confidence in the resilience of our Dulwich community and fills me with hope that we will see brighter days ahead.
With my best wishes,
Mr Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson
Head of College