DCB Values: Learn Them, Sing Them and Now Hug Them!

At our last Head of College forum, our young DUCKS stole the show when, to the adoration of their own parents and the forum’s guests, the children stepped up to the stage and proudly performed their beloved Values song with great enthusiasm to the expectant crowd. 

The Dulwich College Beijing Values song – now with its own animated video – was part of a project conceived by Assistant Head of DUCKS Emma Kiely. It started when Ms Kiely came up with the idea of creating characters that embodied the DCB Values to help children better understand them. Ms Kiely explained that this was inspired by her experience at her old school. “At my old school, we had characters to help the children develop their agency and their understanding of their learning. It worked so well that I knew it could work for teaching the DCB Values, too.”

Together with former DUCKS Assistant Head Becky Bush, who prepared the lyrics and music, and Junior School Art’s Sally Corben, who illustrated the characters, the trio worked their magic to bring the project to life.

The characters’ names are a combination of English and Chinese. As DUCKS is a dual-language preschool, Ms Kiely intentionally wrote them that way to be inclusive and culturally diverse. “I wanted the names to be in English and in Chinese, so I thought of names that had the same initial sound as the values words, then asked for support from our previous Chinese Coordinator to check the Chinese names.” 

And the families love it. “Everyone from Nursery to Year 2, including our parents, can be heard talking about the values and noticing when others demonstrate the values every day! This is a huge improvement from before. In each Assembly, the children can give so many examples of what the values mean and look like. We also have values stickers now which we award when children have demonstrated a value in class, to help share this with families. Each sticker has a value and character and reads 'Ask me how I have been a (character name) today' in Chinese and in English. This encourages families to ask about the values at home. We also give out certificates every week for selected students who display the Dulwich Values.”

Shared Ella, one of our DUCKS parents:

“Dulwich Values characters make the values more concrete and deeply rooted in people’s hearts. When I first saw those lovely characters, I liked them very much, and they also made abstract words come alive.

My child is very proud whenever he gets a Values sticker. He would tell me what good things he had done, and which of those characters would have done the same.

These lovely characters have been very successful in bringing Dulwich values to children and helped Dulwich build a very solid foundation, planting the seeds of the Dulwich values in each of the children’s hearts.”

Now our DUCKS don’t just learn about these wonderful values – they can now take them home too, literally:  

These mini characters will be soon on sale at our upcoming Founder’s Day event for our families to take home. Stocks are limited, so make sure to get yours when it’s out!