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DOWEN COLLEGE NEWSLETTER 

MAY  EDITION

 

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK :

Dear Parents / Guardians,

We thank you for your wonderful support, and as we look forward to the winding – down of this session (2008/2009), we give God the glory for the events and occasions of the half term and we thank everyone who had contributed to the success of our 9th Inter – House Sports Programme. We solicit your partnership in making future programmes more successful through advert placements and other forms of support.

Academic work schedule for the term is almost concluded, as we endeavour to give our children more revisions so as to prepare them to face the challenges of modern education.

Let me use this medium to pre – inform you about our Valedictory and Graduation Ceremony slated for Friday the 12th of June, 2009 and to which you are cordially invited.

The Graduation Ceremony at Dowen College Lagos is a highly

memorable event which we solicit our amiable parents / guardians not to miss.

Remember we maintain an open door at all times for you to come and discuss all matters concerning Dowen College and our children. The school resumes back fully on Monday 1st June, 2009 for the second half of the term.

We look forward to seeing the children back in top shape.

Thank you.

PRINCIPAL

 

ADMISSIONS

In view of the recent increase in applications for admissions and transfers, the school is planning to introduce an e – admission portal for processing admissions which will make the process much easier for parents / guardians.

We will create an on – line e – admission portal where :

·        Applicants will apply at the school web site by filling out a form and submit on – line.

·        Applicants make e – payments at the site for the application process.

·        The portal generates a complete profile with the applicants bio – data, educational history, examination scores and picture.

·        Applicants will be scheduled to be given e – examination at any of our centres nationwide or overseas.

·        Admission letters will be generated by the portal.

Parents and the general public will be adequately informed as we finalise the adoption of this IT based admission process. We will also like to add that this admission procedure will be in use along side the current procedure for a period of time.

We also wish to inform our dear parents that admission into year 7 (JS1) is still in progress. Please call the admissions office on 01 – 2706010 or 01 – 2706012 for further enquiries.

COUNSELLING DEPARTMENT

Dowen College’s Career week commenced with taster lessons between the 18th and 22nd of May, 2009. The taster lessons introduced the JS 3 students to Senior School subjects. This is with a view to informing their judgement of the need for a particular career and also equipping the subject combination of JS 3 students for the Senior School.

 Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th of May have been set aside also for excursion of JS 3 students to various establishments / organizations to enable them have a one on one motivational experience.

ACADEMICS

We sincerely thank all our parents/guardians for their support in seeing that all our set programmes are well accomplished. However we are still seriously embarrassed by the lackadaisical attitude of some of our students to their primary assignment in school. They are in school without their books and writing materials and they default on assignments.

  We are here again calling the attention of parents (at least of day students) to their primary responsibility failing to do which

affects adversely the good work and intention of the teachers.

We use this medium once again to enjoin our parents to visit the school especially on Open Days to discuss the students progress. We hope the affected parents will rise up to the challenge so that the children can obtain better results for this huge investment called Education.

(A) Participation in Examination

It is now common practice for some parents to register students for dual examination at the SS 2 level when part of the  syllabus has not been treated, possibly in a bid to make the children finish schooling in “ record time” with the help of half backed “home teachers”.

Our experience is that most often than not the students end up being confused, even while missing out on our continuous assessment since they (students) are out of the school most of the time and the effect is counter – productive. Let me remind you that education is a process and

any stage not adequately completed wil have it’s recurring decimal in the child’s future.

(B) Public Examinations

We are happy to announce that the Checkpoint Examination and Junior School Certificate Examination are over now. The students have very good reports at the end of each paper to give their teachers.

In the same vein, the Senior School Certificate Examination is over except for Technical Drawing,while the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) Examination is still on and will end (by His Grace on the 12th June, 2009).

We thank you all for your support while hoping for excellent results.

 C. Promotion Criteria

We need to remind both students and parents that the Promotion criteria are still in place for the promotion of students to the next class. The motto of the school” To Be The Best” and we encourage our students to always target excellence in anything they do.

For the avoidance of doubt please find below the criteria for both Junior and Senior students respectively.

PROMOTION GUIDELINES

1. JUNIOR SCHOOL

 An aggregate annual score of at least 60% in each of at least

twelve(12) subjects including the core subjects. The core subjects include  Mathematics, English Language, Integrated Science, Social Studies, French and Introductory Technology.

2. SENIOR SCHOOL

Students in the Science classes must attain Five credits (60%) and above including Mathematics and English Language. They MUST also have credits in any two of the core subjects, which are:

 ARTS: Government, CRK, History and Lit.in Eng.

COMMERCIAL: Accounts, Commerce/Business Std, Economics.

SCIENCE: Chemistry, Physics, Further Maths, Biology.

3. JS 3 – SS 1 : Pass in Federal NECO JSCE.

 

4. RESIT AND SUBSEQUENT  PROMOTION

A student in Senior Secondary School may be given the option of a resit in particular subject(s) if he / she has a maximum of four credits (annual scores) in the required subjects i.e within the above guidelines.

However, he / she passes the resit and has a minimum of five credits, he / she can then proceed to the next class.

NOTE: Resit Mark – 100% of the resit examination.

REPITITION

A student who falls short of 1. 2, 3, and 4 above, shall be asked to repeat the class. However, no student can repeat a class twice.

Repeaters attaining four credits or less will not be eligible for resists. They will be advised to withdraw form school.

D. Leadership Training at The Sea School.

The second batch of SS 2 students went for the training

during the last Easter break. It was a worth while experience for those who partook in the exercise.

The Training included:

·        Endurance

·        Leadership

·        Discipline

·        Team Playing

·        Mutual – Co existence

·        Respect for others

·        Initiative

·        Public Speaking among others.

We hope all parents will embrace this laudable scheme and support us in the next edition. It is strictly for SS 2 students.

 E. Transfer Examination Against 2009 / 10 Session Enrolment.

The school welcomes applications from students wishing to transfer into various classes against next academic session. Forms are available in the Bursary and selection of examination date can be arranged with the admissions office. Limited spaces are available.

F. Staff Training

 This is an on – going process in

the school. Recently some of our teachers attended a Workshop on “Understanding the British Curriculum” BEC. Likewise, Dowen College is among the thirty (30) top schools invite for a pilot project on “Easy Pass” – a full ICT interactive programme to boost the teaching process in the school for better academic achievement at internal and public examinations.

G. Career Week for JS 3 Students

A post JSCE programme of activities was organized for our JS 3 students to acquit them with the subjects and possible career options available as they are graduating into the Senior Secondary School.

 Visits / Excursions were also organized for them to visit organizations where questions were asked from professionals to further motivate them.

SPORTS

This years sports day was spectacular in many respects with lots of revelations and witnessed by large crowd of sports men, women and lovers of sports.

 

The Yellow house led by Ify Onyeka successfully defended the trophy they won last year With a total of 34 medals while Blue house came second with 20 medals. The 3rd place Red House won 17 medals and Green House came last with 2 Gold , 12 Silver and 11 Bronze.

At Dowen College, Lagos as we celebrate our success and achievements, we also celebrate achievers in various fields of human endeavour, hence we invited for honours 2 sportsmen who had done this country proud at different International Sports for a. Messers Dosu Joseph the Goalkeeper and Chike Chukwumerije who won Gold Medal in Taekwando at the Beijin Olympics. The students had fun and were greatly excited at the event. Many thanks to Parents, Sponsors and friends of the school who contributed to the success of the event.

Worthy of mention is the massive support from Mr. & Mrs Modele Sarafu, Erelu Dr. (Mrs) Atanda, Head Brands  Communication, Sterling Bank, Intercontinental bank Plc, UBA Plc, C- Way etc.

The school is placing great emphasis on house system especially for sports and academics and will want to use this opportunity to inform parents that we would be initiating parents to own houses as PATRONS and PATRONESSES. We kindly ask that you partner with us to build the house system we are introducing to further develop the competitive spirits among the children.

The school Football teams (Junior & Senior) are participating in the Elite Soccer Tournament scheduled to begin on Friday May 22nd, 2009. The junior team will be defending the trophy they won at the 2008 edition of the tournament, while the Senior is poised for wining all their matches to clinch the coveted trophy. Other schools in the tournament include Whitesands Schools, Whitedove, British International School and many more. We are billed to play about 14 matches in this preliminary.

EXCURSIONS

 Space Science and Technology Education.

 The school participated in the Space Science and Technology Education Workshop organized by the University of Ife OAU to celebrate the 10th year of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education – English “Affiliated to the United Nations”.

Four of our students (Neji Victor, Jolomi Okorodudu, Adetunji Openiyi and Nneamaka Onukwe) witnessed the memorable event which serves as an eye opener to all in the application of physics principles and laws in the world of space science. Thus, they were able to recognize the usefulness and limitations of scientific methods and appreciate it’s applicability in other disciplines and in every day life.

In attendance were schools from different parts of the country. Dowen College stands out among the crowd for their unique and excellent performances. Hopefully, our school may host other schools in the next edition because we aspire to establish the first Space Science Technology Club in our territory.

Dowen College represented by the Head Girl of the school Morenikeji Abina won 1st prize at the Award of Excellence in the 2009 Vocational Day Debate Competition that was held at The Lagoon Secondary School, Lekki Lagos. Also Cheta Mbajekwe & Areola Araoye (both participated in the Award of Excellence where they came 3rd in Cake Baking) and Kikelomo Olajumoke showed how skillful she was by coming 2nd in the Visual Arts.

We wish all of us a wonderful Children’s Day Celebration !.

FOR : MANAGEMENT

DR. (MRS.). A. ADEPOJU

PRINCIPAL