From the Principal #101
22nd January 21
Hello to all members of the DLD Community, students and parents, wherever you may be. This has been an important week of events around the world with the celebration of Martin Luther King Day on Monday and the inauguration of a new President in the USA on Wednesday. Meanwhile we continue to stay safe and continue our learning across the globe.
As we continue our remote learning offering we are very mindful of the wellbeing of all members of our community and staying connected. Last week, we had a successful whole college assembly via Microsoft Teams and a question and answer session with the members of the school’s Executive Leadership Team. They were able to answer some of the questions that students had about their studies and our support. This will be followed up with a similar session for Parents and Guardians who may have questions to raise this coming Monday 25th January 2021 at 17:30 GMT. A link was emailed to parents yesterday and a reminder (with the link) will be sent again on Monday.
The session will be chaired by our Head of Wellbeing, Mark Johnson. Parents will have the opportunity to ask any questions relating to how DLD College London is responding to the pandemic and the circumstances arising from it. We invite you to submit questions in advance and you can also ask questions during the Q&A session, which will be managed by Mark, and we hope to address them all.
We continue the regular weekly ‘From the Principal Live’ assemblies aiming to share news to our global community. In addition over this period of lockdown senior members of staff have offered ‘clinics’ to the students to allow easy opportunity to tackle questions, or to check on worries. All of these are in addition to our daily check-ins from our dedicated Personal Tutors, our appointments with the counselling team and School Coach, as well as regular check-ups with the boarders from the Houseparents.
In the College our Boarding Team, Catering Team, support staff and College Nurse take care of the fifty boarders who remain in the building. We are fortunate to have such a wonderful group of staff who care so passionately about the students. Whether virtual or in-person, the fantastic relationships help build our sense of collective resilience during these challenging times.
Our remote learning provision continues to be at the forefront of our priorities and please do read John Branney’s (Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning) update later in this newsletter.
Finally, I am happy to share with you all that the Sir John Ritblat lecture will take place online on the 11th February, when our guest speaker will be Chris Lubbe, former bodyguard of Nelson Mandela. Chris is a great friend of the College, having last visited in January 2018. This day is a significant day as it will be 31 years to the day of Mandela’s release from Robben Island and Chris has dedicated his life to telling the story of his life and legacy. The talk will be online and will start at 3.30pm – parents are also welcome to listen in to this extraordinary story.
Stay safe and have a great week ahead.
Tom
Thomas Hadcroft, Senior Vice-Principal (Pastoral)
