From The Principal #167
13th January 23
Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2023. I hope you and your loved ones had a peaceful and relaxing Christmas holiday and are looking forward to what the new year brings. We are all hoping that 2023 will be very different to 2022, and it hasn’t failed to deliver in that respect!
2023 will undoubtedly have its unique challenges, and I have been impressed with how our staff, students and governors have stepped up to meet the new challenges that face us all – political, financial, academic and pastoral. That’s what I call resilience. We are in the business of ‘creating unique learning opportunities’ – that is our vision, and we have continued to do just that, despite the apparent challenges.
Since returning, plenty has happened. We had our ‘Development Day’ for staff and looked at aspects of best practice with digital learning, new teaching initiatives and the importance of neurodiversity. We wish our BTEC students sitting their exams this month all the best and have been supporting them with their preparation, allowing them to demonstrate their learning, ability, and knowledge. We have put new catering and cleaning plans in place and have prepared the school for the upcoming mock and public exams over the coming weeks – my thanks to all staff and students for their cooperation and support. We also had our whole school assembly on the first day back in the atrium, welcoming our students and our new January starters to the DLD family. In our assembly, we talked about the need to be kind within our DLD community and beyond that. I drew inspiration from our school values and the Charlie Mackesy story, ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,’ which aired on BBC TV on Christmas Day. The mole asked the boy, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “Kind.” replied the boy.
We welcome the following new members of staff who have joined us this term. Mrs Hilary Fitzjohn, the new Head of Computer Science, Mr Ben Clements, our new PT Teacher of Art and Miss Sameera Mainoo, our new Boarding Assistant. We look forward to working with our new colleagues and supporting them as they settle into life at DLD.
A warm DLD welcome to all our new starters, including our new January students, and I wish everyone a better, bolder, and brighter 2023 – we can’t wait to ‘spring’ into action!
Irfan H Latif
Principal
