Long after children forget some of the finer points of what they have learned at school, they remember their friends. Making friends at school is one of the most important things that can happen to anyone, and is something that we try very hard to assist when students first arrive through the school's buddy system. As part of our ideal to be a supportive and welcoming school, new students "learn the ropes" from an old hand assigned to them to steer them through their first weeks, which are always some of the trickiest to deal with. Sometimes buddies go on become long term friends. Sometimes, the system serves its purpose as the new arrivals find their own feet and the buddies eventually just go their own way.

I was reflecting on what friendship is all about when I spent the afternoon the other weekend with a group of DBS students whose friendship had led to some very significant achievements in the world of competitive sailing. Their skipper, Freddie Jacobs of Year 10, had over the years developed a real interest in sailing, and found he not only enjoyed it, but was good at it. As a successful Laser skipper, he had aspired to sail larger boats, and, quite naturally, turned to his friends to form a crew - even if they had had no previous experience on the water. Freddie and his coaches trained the new crew, the ropes were mastered - literally - and the result was a winning team - competing against more experienced adult crews, and beating them! By January 2009, this team - the DuBoats U-18 level crew, had carried off the Jumeirah Regatta trophy for Class 3 boats, a feat they repeated and I witnessed in 2010, when they crossed the line as the winning boat in all four races over the regatta weekend and also taking the overall title on handicap! You can read more about this team - and others - in a special edition of the DBS Dispatch, published after half term,

Andrew Homden,

Principal.

Please click here for the gallery to view other DUBOATS pictures.