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LIFE&FAMILY
140
October14
Dover Court
Preparatory
School is at 301
Dover Road.
6775 7664
dovercourt.edu.sg
Maureen’s tips for parents
•
Discuss with your children the things that will
be similar to home in the new location, and
those that may be different.
•
Assure them that the people they are leaving
behind will be there when they return to their
home country.
•
Remind them that, through email, Skype and
other online platforms, they will be able to keep
contact with friends and family, talking to them
regularly and seeing them onscreen.
•
Let them know if grandparents may be able
come over to visit them on holiday, and talk
about the fun of acting as a guide to their
visitors in the new country.
“We think it’s important for all children to feel part of the school from
the word go,” says Maureen. Dover Court welcomes new students in
myriad ways, including the following:
1.
The class teacher meets every child on an individual basis the
day before school begins.
2.
For the first week of term, staff form a welcome committee on
the front steps to greet all children and take them individually to
their classrooms.
3.
Thereafter, they are welcomed by name eachmorning at the school
entrance. If they still require it, they are accompanied to their room,
or if they are more independent they are “buddied” with a friend.
4.
Each new child is linked up with a buddy who has been in the
school for some time and who knows its routines.
5.
With younger children, issues of new friends, leaving behind other
friends, grandparents, pets, and so on are addressed inCircle Time.
6.
At playtime, the school council members set upplay areas, approach
children who may be alone or looking sad, and invite them to play.
7.
At Upper Junior and Senior levels, topics of friendship, loss, grief
and change are addressed through PSHE at tutor group time.
8.
The entire Senior Department is taken to a residential camp
within the first few weeks, where sessions on team building and
facilitating friendships are held.
9.
If children present themselves regularly at the nurse’s station with
headaches, stomach ache or other concerns, this is carefully
monitored; the principal will chat with the child about his or her
feelings about the new school, life in Singapore, missing friends,
grandparents, pets, and so on.
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Parents are alerted as sometimes these feelings may not be
manifested or noticed.
back home. While there are going to be
consistencies, the curriculum and topics
they study can be vastly different. That
can cause problems in the upper years,
especially if you’re a student moving
school halfway through your GCSEs,
as you may not have the same choices.
It’s important, first and foremost, to
understand the curriculum.
What about age differences
within each class?
Richard:
In an international context,
age difference in class is not awkward
or unusual for kids. Moving from the
US curriculum to the British is a great
example, because the British curriculum
is a 13-year curriculum and the US one
is a 12-grade curriculum. The equivalent
of the US Grade 2 is Year 3 in the British
system. So when an American family
moves to the British system their child
should not go from Grade 2 to Year 2. It
can cause a bit of confusion.
Different countries also start
term at different times of year,
don’t they?
Richard:
Yes, most Australian schools
start in January and finish in December.
That can cause issues in terms of
equivalency and age-appropriateness.
The British schools are based on age-
appropriateness and they’re very clear
about what level a child should be
performing at, according to their age.
Here we assess the child to see if they’re
capable of being in their age-appropriate
year, because our priority is to try to put
children of the same age together. If we
find that the child has been in the grade
below and it’s not the right thing to do,
then we’ll put them in the year below –
we do that after complete consultation
with the parents, though.
WAYS DOVER COURT HELPS
NEW CHILDREN ASSIMILATE
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