Autumn 2015 School Magazine Kindergarten, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Present Christmas Around the World! Contents
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Autumn 2015 School Magazine Kindergarten, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Present Christmas Around the World! Contents Cover image - Music from Around the World - Arts Depot Christmas Around the World 2 Welcome from the Head of School 4 Our History 5 Sparks of Genius 6 Global Vision 8 Community 10 Beyond the Classroom 12 And finally 14 Music from Around the World 15 Welcome from the Head of School, Mr. David Rose Welcome to our Autumn edition of the Dwight School London magazine for the 2015/16 academic year. The school year got off to a fantastic start with many trips, activities, performances, and academic successes and I am delighted to capture some of these in this term’s magazine. During this term, we have seen our students head off to France, Shropshire and Kent. Student art has travelled with an exhibition to our sister schools in Seoul, Korea and to Shanghai, China. The students have performed at the Arts Depot and premiered their films at a the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair. We have had a focus on careers and university guidance and are delighted that our students are already having university interviews (including Oxbridge) and receiving firm offers. The students are already preparing for the next term where some of our best musicians are heading off to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. I am sure they are welcoming the upcoming winter break to give them time to recharge for the rest of the busy year ahead. Best wishes for the holiday season. David Rose Head of School 4 Our History We often get asked about the history of Dwight School London and the significance of our logo, so here is a brief insight into our background. There are three parallel stories – the Dwight family, the development of the school in New York and then the development of the schools in London and globally. The story begins in the UK in 1634 when John Dwight and his family made the journey from the small Essex town of Dedham in the UK to what became Dedham Massachusetts in the US. Prominent in local law and the military the family were very well respected and in 1795 descendant Timothy Dwight IV became the President of Yale College. His grandson Timothy Dwight V entered Yale in 1845. He served as a tutor in the College from 1851 to 1855 went abroad to continue his studies at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin and in 1886 he was also elected President of Yale College. During his years in office, Yale was recognised as a university – the third oldest in the US. In 1935, Yale constructed the ninth of its twelve residential colleges - Timothy Dwight College named after both Timothy Dwight V and his grandfather as they were regarded as important Presidents of Yale. _______________________________ In 1872 in New York, Dr Julius Sachs opened the Sachs Collegiate Institute (while his brother founded Goldman Sachs with his father-in-law Marcus Goldman.) Following many moves and developments Dr M C Spahn became Headmaster in 1950 followed by Dr Paul Beresford-Hill in 1976. In 1990 Dr Beresford-Hill introduced the IB into the school that had become known as The Anglo-American School. In around 1880 there was also involvement with the New York School of Languages and in 1888 that school was renamed Dwight in honour of Timothy Dwight V who said: “I cannot doubt that those who enjoy the advantages of your institution will be well prepared for their subsequent studies and their college life’. Dwight School merged with The New York Preparatory School for Boys in 1895 and further relocations and generational leadership changes went through to 1967 when Chancellor Stephen Spahn took over and in 1993 Dwight and the Anglo-American became one (and 48 years later Chancellor Spahn is still at the school.) _______________________________ Meanwhile, here in London there was another story. It started with Mrs Maria Wilson who in 1885 opened a small school called Holmewood in the Woodside Park area of Finchley in north London and at the same time, in Friern Barnet, St John’s High School for Boys (which became Friern Barnet Boys Grammar School) was founded. Also in the area was St Alban’s Catholic Preparatory School, opened in 1928. In 1972 Chancellor Stephen Spahn, always innovative and an educational pioneer, opened a campus here in London and later bought the three schools and merged them together to create what we have today. Today we continue to share our Dwight School logo with Timothy Dwight College at Yale. In spite of research there is no explanation why the items on the crest - the lion rampant, the crescent and the cross, were chosen except that it was the design engraved on a tankard for the Dwight family in 1725. The Dwight family crest Timothy Dwight College Yale Dwight School We have made occasional connections with Yale and Timothy Dwight College – the Yale choir ‘Out of the Blue’ visited and performed for us in Upper School and with the IB as our programme we certainly endorse their mission statement: ‘To prepare students for leadership and service in an increasingly interdependent world.’ For the full history of Dwight go to http://issuu.com/thedwightschool/docs/dt_final/25 or the timeline http://www.dwight. edu/about/history/timeline. 5 Personalised Learning Igniting the Spark of Genius in every child Musical Maestro Budding Movie Director Congratulations to Jacques For her M5 (Year 11) Personal Jervis from M5 (Year 11) who Projects, Isabella Santangelo created played cello with the Harringey a short film using her iPhone and Young Musicians Symphony video presentation software to Orchestra – HYMSO. They record staff and student comments gave two concerts in the historic – written, illustrated, filmed and theatre at Alexandra Palace on edited all by herself she now has Saturday, 19th September to a great marketing piece that we mark both the centenary of the have added to our World War One Internment website. Scan the Camp and the closing of the QR code to view it. theatre for refurbishment. Jacques also got to practice with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Articulate Author Congratulations to Upper School teacher Ms. Gemma Fanning who recently co-edited a book for Garnet Education publishers called Teaching Children English: From Research to Practice. This was a project set up by Gemma and her colleagues on the Young Learners and Teenagers Committee, which is part of IATEFL (International Association of TEFL). Gemma also contributed a chapter on the topic on one-to-one teaching with teens, drawing on her experience at Dwight School London’s EAL department. ISBN: 9781901095661. Since publishing the book in October, Gemma has moved to the Teacher Development Committee at IATEFL and recently completed her qualification to be an EAL Teacher Trainer at the University of Reading, with Communications Across Cultures. Star of Stage IB Diploma student, Samar Barakat enlisted the assistance of a few friends to help her to stage a play on the theme of mental health called I Am Not Me Anymore. She had an audience of about 20 healthcare professionals who were very moved by her one-woman show and who were very complimentary about her efforts and the school. Samar did an immense amount of research for this project and one of the theatre companies she contacted, Harts Theatre Company, featured Dwight London alumnus Holly Taw-Smith who attended Nottingham University where she studied English and Creative Writing and graduated with a first-class honours degree. Specialising in using drama for mental health awareness, this company will be running workshops with our students in the New Year. Dwight London in the Fast Lane Captained by M4 student Bethany Abbott, Dwight Lions will be taking to the track in the British Schools Karting Championship for 2016. Bethany races regularly on circuits across the UK and she is looking for recruits for the team. Drivers will be aged from 13 to 18 and practice sessions will give them the chance to familiarise themselves with the speed and the handling of the karts and learn the track inside-out so that when the racing starts, every driver is fully prepared. Bethany who holds a Motor Sports Association (MSA) licence is looking for volunteers and is happy to share her knowledge of the sport. Many of today’s successful racing drivers, including Lewis Hamilton started off in kart racing so who knows what the future holds? 6 Singing Sensation We are proud to share that Camille Palmich in D2 passed her Grade 6 music exam this month at the Central School of Music. She achieved 99% and a Distinction, singing four songs from musical theatre: There are worse things I could do from Grease On a tree by a river (Tit Willow) from The Mikado Home from The Beauty and the Beast The Wizard and I from Wicked Swim to Win This term we competed in the Independent Schools Association London North Competition and had some fantastic results as three of our swimmers walked away with a medal: Ben Dunatov finished 3rd in the Year 4 front crawl event and won a bronze medal; Alexander Jensen finished 2nd in the Year 5 backstroke and won a silver medal; Sterre Blaauw finished 1st in the Year 4 breaststroke and won a gold medal. Because of their event times, both Sterre and Ben have been invited to compete in the National Competition which is being held on Saturday 23rd of January at the London Aquatics Centre in East London. They will be swimming against the best ISA swimmers in all of the UK.