Senior School (Secondary School) 11 - 18 years old
Meet Melanie Ellis, Head of Senior School
Dulwich College Senior School in Singapore provides a comprehensive educational program for students aged 11 to 18, spanning lower school, middle school, and senior high school.
It is a very exciting time as we create a Senior School in line with the high expectations of our similarly named predecessors. We are very proud of what we have achieved since 2014, growing from 800 students to over 2600 students.
The information you will find on these pages gives a flavour of what we offer. Please find some time to visit our impressive facilities and meet our amazing students and passionate staff. We look forward to welcoming you to the College.
One of our school's missions is to equip students for success in a globalized world by delivering a holistic education within an international context. This includes preparing students to enter top colleges and universities through accredited pathways, the IGCSE and the IB diploma curriculum (Year 12 and 13).
We aim to develop confident, thoughtful, and outward-looking young people who have a passion for learning by delivering a rigorous academic programme. We believe that successful students are not defined solely by their attainment in tests and exams.
Our programme of study allows students from Years 7 to 13 access to subject specialists and maintain breadth as well as depth. Our enhanced selection of topics in the curriculum aligns us with the expectations of top independent schools in the UK.
Our co-curricular activity programmes provide opportunities for students to excel and develop passions for and skills in sports, performing arts and academic enrichment. We also encourage all our students to take part in service projects that address local and international needs.
It is essential that our students develop curiosity and wonder about the world we live in and their part in it; we also need to nurture their sense of responsibility for it, and their sense of connectedness to it. This, along with the development of knowledge, independence, self-efficacy and self-awareness, will allow them to navigate their way through it, and truly ‘live worldwise’.
Curriculum
Lower Senior School - Years 7 and 8
Lower Senior School students follow an enhanced version of the English National Curriculum which is contextualised to our location as an international school in Singapore.
Our curriculum aligns us with the expectations of top independent schools in the UK and international schools in the region, ensuring students have breadth as well as depth across a wide range of subjects: Art, English, Dance, Design and Technology, Drama, Geography, History, Mandarin, Mathematics, Modern Foreign Languages (French, German and Spanish), Music, Physical Education, Science, and Wellbeing.
The Lower Senior School curriculum equally values the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills (subject specific and Approaches to Learning or (ATL) skills.
Middle Senior School - Years 9 -11
Students in the Middle Senior School follow 3 -year IGCSE/GCSE programmes and qualifications from prestigious providers such as Edexcel International and Cambridge International and AQA and CCEA. Students are able to choose from the extensive range of subjects previously studied in Lower Senior School as well as new options such as: Business Studies, Economics, Film/Media, Dance, and Food/Nutrition.
The Middle Senior School curriculum is also driven by the Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills, developed through subject areas as well as through our non-examined Global Skills, Wellbeing and PE programmes.
Upper Senior School - Years 12 -13
Upper Senior School students can choose to follow either the two year International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme or IB Career Related Pathway.
We are committed to creating personalised pathways for our students that will recognise each individual’s passions and aspirations. This is particularly important as our students get older, and in the Upper Senior School we seek programmes that are innovative and allow students to apply their skills in a variety of different contexts.
The Upper Senior School curriculum is also driven by the Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills framework, developed through subject areas.
Follow our Senior School students in this short video to see what life is like at Dulwich College (Singapore)
Having relocated to Singapore with a pre-teen and a teen during the turbulent and complex year that was 2020, we really can’t praise Dulwich enough for providing a stable, well-organised, safe, and welcoming environment. The children have both settled beautifully despite the many challenges that Covid restrictions have brought, and this is very much down to the inclusive approach that the school nurtures, always mindful of individual passions, interests, and circumstances.
High Potential Learners
The approach in Senior School is to not only develop subject proficiency and skills, but also lifelong, transferable skills such as research, communication, thinking, social and self-management skills.
This ensures students can take ownership of learning in school and life beyond, as well as developing a lifelong love of learning. In Years 7 and 8 the curriculum has been designed to develop individual subject-based skills and build knowledge and understanding to provide a strong foundation for the I/GCSE, IB programmes and beyond.
Students are banded in Mathematics, English and Languages to accommodate and differentiate for High Potential Learners.
To learn more about our High Potential Learning programme in Senior School click here.
Student Leadership
In Senior School, guided by a teacher mentor, our student action groups are established to enable student voice and involvement in a range of key school issues. Students meet weekly to support the development of a range of projects including sport/CCAs, community projects, events and facilities development, technology, the environment and gender equality. Our student council is the link between the student body, staff and the wider College community. As well as being leaders in the classroom, the student council members also have the opportunity to propose new initiatives which will improve life at DCSG from a student's perspective. The Senior School student House teams are led by House captains with the assistance of House representatives for each tutor group.
THE INSIDE STORY
In this series, five of our Heads of Departments in Senior School each take you behind the scenes. Learn about what is most important to them when teaching, gain an overview of each department’s curriculum as it evolves from Years 7 and 8, into our three-year IGCSE and finally the IB programme, as well as the importance of preparing all our students to Graduate Worldwise.
