A Rapping Poet and the Fun of Messy Play: The Dulwich Voice

Each week, we share the successes, milestones, and special moments that make our Dulwich Pudong community so unique.

This week, famous poet and ‘Hip Hop Education’ PhD, Christian Foley, visited our DUCKS campus. He had our students clapping, moving, and seeing language in a whole new light.

In the Nursery, we hosted a fun 'Messy Play' Stay and Play event. It was a delight to welcome so many parents and family members to roll up their sleeves and dive into the sensory-rich world of purposeful play.

Christian Foley: 

Finding Your Voice, Finding Your Rhythm

During the morning, Christian led dynamic workshops for our Year 1 and Year 2 students. He provided a wonderful opportunity for them to explore language in a creative way through the use of rhyme, rhythm, and words. Later, he also led an assembly which was open to parents to participate in. 

Christian then challenged our students to become poets themselves, showing them how to build on their own reading and writing to craft unique verses and roaring stanzas. Soon, the room was filled with confident voices, each student performing their creations with a surprising sense of pride.

For our older students, meeting this international author who has travelled the world and edited fourteen anthologies of young people's voices showed how their own words could have an audience far beyond the classroom.

Nursery Messy Stay and Play: 

The Joy of Discovery

Our recent Nursery 'Messy Play' Stay and Play event welcomed parents and family members into our beautiful natural classrooms for a morning of shared discovery. Guided by a fun ‘passport challenge,’ families explored a range of engaging stations designed to spark curiosity.

Children and parents joined forces to make Halloween-themed creations, from crafting spooky mummies to carving surprisingly large and gooey pumpkins. A definite highlight was the "ice melt" station, where children patiently used the warmth of their hands to free toy insects. This was a simple yet powerful lesson in scientific properties.

In every squish, splash, and shared laugh, we guide our young learners to explore the world on their own, nurturing a spirit where they are not afraid to fail but are excited to try again. This mirrors the same adaptable, resilient approach we cultivate all the way through to our IB curriculum in Senior School.