Dear Parents and Guardians,
It was wonderful to see students and staff sporting hanbok, traditional Korean dress, throughout the College today, in celebration of Chuseok, or the Harvest Moon Holiday.
We had an active sports day on Wednesday where each of the four Houses went head to head against each other in friendly competition. Students were treated to some favourite traditional Korean dishes such as songpyeon rice cake, meat patty pancakes and japchae (glass noodles with vegetables) popular during special holidays. The festivities culminated in the assembly today that included talent shows, poetry recitals, student performances and ended with our annual staff video and dynamic performance by a professional samulnori percussion ensemble that delighted our audience with their lively drumbeats and impressive skills.
I would like to thank Ms Jude Lee who organised our Chuseok celebrations for doing such an exceptional job, and all the staff members who helped out to make this day as special as it was. Kudos to Sam Wigginton for producing yet another fantastic Chuseok staff video that our students thoroughly enjoyed.
This week, we had the pleasure of hosting David Fitzgerald, Global Director of Education, International at our parent company, Education in Motion. He visited our school and met with our students, staff and parents and got a great sense of how strong our community is.
We had a nice kickoff to our Primary School parent event, Muffins with Mums, which is a continuation of our successful Donuts with Dads series that invites parents to meet other parents of children in the same year group as their own and be served (pampered!) breakfast by their children. We look forward to seeing you in future events in the next coming weeks.
We also had a great UCC kickoff for Year 13 parents, where our new Director of University Counselling, Mr Paul Sweet and Counsellor Joanne Kim provided parents with an overview of the process for students to apply for college and the support the office offers. The takeaways seemed to be:
- Attend university visits to broaden students’ options – universities keep track of who attended these and this “demonstration of interest” could be the extra push students need when their applications are reviewed.
- Have students sign up for the weekly UCC newsletters.
- Students shouldn’t blindly follow their friends: it’s less likely that a university would accept a large group of students from the same school.
- Limiting the number of schools students apply to (to 10) gives applicants more credibility with the universities as they know students are serious applicants.
- Make sure you have three categories of universities: Reach, Target and Likely to get in, so students diversify their options and find the best fit university.
- Make sure students get enough sleep!
- This is their application process. They’re in the driver’s seat. Support them but don’t do it for them!
We are looking forward to our monthly Friends of Dulwich (FoD) coffee mornings that all parents are welcome to join. The upcoming one scheduled for Thursday 15 September will also feature FoD’s very first used book sale, thanks to your generous donations before the summer. Come with some cash and bag to carry some great reads for the family!
I wish you a wonderful Chuseok holiday and restful long weekend.
Mr Gudmundur Hegner Jonsson
Head of College