The children
The children are the heart of our school. Beyond our proven academic success we believe in the importance of a broader approach based on creative thinking and learning, resulting in an environment that gives every child the confidence to fulfil their potential.
We believe in listening to our pupils in the classroom and beyond the classroom. The School Council is an effective forum for this. A boy and a girl are elected by each class to represent their fellow pupils. Any issues or concerns can be brought to the Council meetings, which are attended by the Headteacher, and addressed.
We have 4 Houses: Garnet Earth, Ruby Fire, Sapphire Air and Topaz Water each with their own crest. House points can be earned for good work, good behaviour, effort or anything else deserving of acknowledgement. Our House Captains for 2009-2010 are:
Ruby Fire: Alice Collins 6SP Calum McKewan 6E |
Sapphire Air: Henry Simpson 6JP Millie Zeffertt 6JP |
| Topaz Water: Elias Christou-Hill 6J Rosa Davies 6JP |
| Garnet Earth: Chris Fitzpatrick 6SP Anna Gould 6JP |
Our School Councillors for 2009-2010 are:
Vita Love 3F
Harry Bassi 3F
Matthew Cuitayne 3S
Ellie Dollard 3S
Alex Richards 3H
Sally Prifti 3H
Elsie Fell 4W
Alfie Brown 4W
Lola Lindsay-Price 4B
Eddie Davies 4B
Tessa Doubleday 4T
Luke Sinclair 4T
Thomas Blackman 5DB
Jane Sanders 5DB
Megan MacGillivray 5HB
Alexander Galouzis 5HB
Harriet Humberstone 5C
Ziyad Elkhawad 5C
Iskander Assali-Hughes 6SP
Flora Rogers-Murray 6SP
Billy Fisher 6JP
Rosie Bayliss 6JP
Ceidra Murphy Badger 6E
Oskar Williams 6E
Pupils are encouraged to evaluate their lessons and consider and communicate to others how they learn and identify what lessons they particularly enjoy.
Our Peer Mediation Programme gives children the chance to become a trained mediator to help other children resolve playground issues without relying on the intervention of an adult. Mediators are available at break times to help if problems arise, and can often succeed without adult assistance, although members of staff are always there if required.
Our House System was developed in direct response to children's requests and the four houses -Topaz Water (yellow), Garnet Earth (green), Sapphire Air (blue), and Ruby Fire (red) encourage vertical relationships to be formed from Year 3 to Year 6. Children earn housepoints each week for good work, effort, behaviour or plain good manners. The winning house is celebrated on a Friday and earns a star to display in Turney Hall.
We recognise that success is not just about fantastic SATs results, it can just as well be found through music, on a sports field or in a swimming pool. Greatness doesn't have to be big, loud or showy - it can be found in the quiet satisfaction of getting six more spellings right in a termly spelling test.
Our achievement certificates and thank you tokens are distributed to encourage and celebrate success and pupil effort.
Our opinions of learning at Dulwich Hamlet expressed in September 2008:
"It's taking ideas into your mind-it's thinking about things that are happening, not just school subjects but about the world."
"I't's when you find out things that you don't know, finding out more things to become more clever."
"Teachers give you ideas -at home you can add on something and make it your own."
Learning is different ways to expand your brain."
"It's experimenting - half the stuff you learn is from your mistakes."
"Learning is about taking risks"
The best way to learn is to think about it all day, and then go home and try it out"
"Half the stuff you learn is from your mistakes"
"It's not so good to watch -it'd better to do it for yourself"
"Learning is about asking questions and adults don't always know the answers"
"Learning is when you find out things you don't know"
"Life is like a big project."
These views were expressed by our School Councillors listed opposite.