an international community of learners striving for

Mid term break Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22 October

End of Term 1 Thursday 17th December

Start of term 2 Sunday 3rd January

NBS Muraikh School Newsletter June 2020 Edition 9

An International community of learners striving for excellence and celebrating success

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents,

Nobody could ever have imagined that we would face the incredible challenges presented by Covid – 19. We have all had to adapt to a new way of working and learning in a very short space of time. At times this has been challenging and those of us that are not as skilled in technology as others have had to learn vey quickly. There have been challenges, firstly using the VLE and adapting to a new form of communication. We have tried to give out the right amount of work to students but we know that parents have had to manage the own professional responsibilities as well as support their children. This has not been easy.

The most re-assuring aspect has been the resilience of our children. They are living in a challenging situation and yet they have found the strength and courage to adapt to new circumstances. Students have responded to the live lessons well and the assessments and classwork tasks demonstrate that they have made progress.

I have never experienced a year quite like this but there are positives. The use of online technology will form a more integral part of our education in the future. The VLE will support learning and parents have a much better understanding as to what this can offer. Hopefully, as the situation regains normality, we will indulge and enjoy learning and share the learning experiences with others.

It only remains for me to wish you all a very pleasant and safe vacation.

Sincerely,

Mr. Wilson

Upcoming dates for your diary:

Uniform sales at NBS Muraikh - details should be announced in July Student learning begins Tuesday 1st September Mid term break Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22 October End of Term 1 Thursday 17th December Start of term 2 Sunday 3rd January


F1 We have had a very interesting and unique term 3. Our little ones have been champs at adjusting to the new circumstances and have been working so very hard from home. It has been exciting and encouraging to see the children enjoying many different activities and lessons from home. The children continued learning about Transport and Under the Sea this term, expanding their knowledge and skills. They have made excellent progress. We still enjoyed special weeks like art week; made even more special since our parents were so intimately involved in the creative process. The children especially enjoyed celebrating International week together. They got to learn about many different cultures and what makes each one special. It was such a privilege to be able to learn about each child's own home and culture, from their home! Thank you to each parent and child that has worked hard this term and joined us in the activities and lessons.

F2

Wow! What a busy term we have had in F2! This term, school has been very different for us because we haven’t been in school at all. We miss seeing our friends, our teachers and playing outside in the playground, but our teachers told us it was very important to stay at home and keep safe with our families. Luckily, our teachers sent us videos to teach us lots of new things, and they zoom call us everyday so that we can still learn at home (it is a little bit funny to see our teachers on our laptops and ipads though!). We have been working really hard on reading and writing this term, there are so many words that we can now read using all the sounds we have learnt this year. We have also been using these sounds to write super sentences, this can be tricky but we are getting really good at it! In Maths, we have learnt so many new big words. We have learnt that ‘estimation’ means to make a sensible guess, that ‘capacity’ is how much a container can hold and that ‘subtraction’ is when we take away a smaller number from a bigger number! At times, it felt like we were in school because we still had fun weeks like Art Week and International Week! Our teachers sent lots of different activities to our mummies and daddies so they could help us with this. We learnt all about experimenting with different types of art and then we got to learn about different countries. I think our favourite part was when we got to tell all our friends on zoom about our own home country, it was really special! I think you will agree that we have learnt so much this year and are ready to move to Year One! We are so excited, but we will never forget all the fun we have had this year F2


Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

Year 1 Term 3 has seen Year 1 working hard with online learning. It has been wonderful to see so many smiling faces on MLTV and everyone doing their best in very unusual teaching environment. This term we have used story maps to help us learn about traditional tales in English lessons. We have enjoyed carrying out simple tests in science to determine the properties of materials and in geography we have learnt about compass points and how to navigate our way around simple maps. The Year 1 team would like to take this opportunity to thank all the children in our classes. You have been a pleasure to teach and you have provided us with great memories from a fantastic year. We have enjoyed watching each of you grow and progress throughout Year 1 and we wish you every success as you move to Year 2.

Year 2 This term Year Two have had lots of fun and made lots of progress. In our English lessons we have been using descriptive language to talk about characters and settings from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have also enjoyed engaging in poetry and exploring their interesting features. In Mathematics we have been learning about describing movement and rotation of objects and shapes, reading and writing times on the clock in five minute intervals and finding fractions of numbers (1/2, ¼ , ¾, 1/3 and 2/3). We can also read and write numbers in numerals and words and solved addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. In our Science lessons we have been learning about animal lifecycles. For Humanities we have learnt about the continents and oceans in Geography and in History, we have learnt about the history of transportation such as cars, trains, water transport and flight. We had so much fun during Art week, completing lots of interesting projects and expressing our imagination and creativity. For International week we are going to be taking part in lots of fun activities such as getting to dress in traditional clothing, creating interesting fact files on people who have changed the world and lots more.

An international community of learners striving for excellence and celebrating success

Key Stage 2 (Years 3,4,5,6)

This term, Year 3 pupils have completed challenges across a variety of curriculum areas such as: non-chronological reports, letter writing, personal writing and play scripts. They have been encouraged to think creatively and imagine that they were various characters in the story which resulted in excellent writing pieces that discussed characters’ thoughts and feelings while using powerful written language. In mathematics, pupils have focussed on reinforcing our understanding of fractions. Year 3 have studied equivalent fractions of both shapes and numbers, as well as adding and subtracting simple fractions. In Science, they have investigated “light and shadow.” They have looked at the colours of the visible spectrum, discussed how They see different colours, and understood that darkness is the absence of light. Year 4 pupils have worked extremely hard participating in online lessons and completing activities on the VLE. In English and humanities, they have learned about the Victorian Era through the book 'Historian Hackers'. They have developed their understanding of writing diary entries and using Venn diagrams to make comparisons of their lives now to children who lived during the Victorian era. In science, the children enjoyed learning about our topic 'Electricity'. They learned about the dangers of electricity and how to draw and label open and closed electrical circuits. Year 5 have also been very busy. have been using ‘Talk for Write’ to create their own ending and writing diary entries. In mathematics they have been looking at the translations of shapes, calculating percentages and multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, 1000. In science, they have been focusing on materials and their properties including reversible and irreversible changes. Finally, in humanities they have studied the Anglo-Saxons and their journey to Britain, we also have been looking at our map skills and how to use grid references. Well done on all your wonderful work this term Year 5. Year 6 have been learning about different non-fiction texts. Year 6 were challenged to create their own invention and then had to write an explanation text to show Mr Smith and Miss Furness how to use it. They, also, created some excellent persuasive leaflets to sell their invention. In mathematics, pupils have been consolidating their understanding of measures and geometry. They have looked at the angles in triangles and quadrilaterals and have been challenged to find missing lengths by using only the perimeter and area of a rectilinear shape. In science, pupils have been producing beautiful presentations about the adaptations of different animals. They have researched animals and explained how they have adapted to different biomes. They have also created their own cladograms. Year 6 have been studying the topic ‘Stone Age to Iron Age’ this term. They have compared Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic housing. In this topic, they looked at Skara Brae and Star Carr. They have, also, looked at different climate zones and biomes. Mr Smith and Miss Furness are immensely proud of all their hard work for this and effort this term.


The secondary students have covered all subjects and have continued to progress and show application and maturity throughout the online learning. The vast majority of lessons were conducted by zoom and it was rewarding to see science topics in Year Seven and Eight ranging from acids and alkaline, neutralization and moving sounds, to the role of the ear in decoding sound. In Year 8 students studied the principles of different states of matter and different types of pressure in fluids. Clearly Year 10 students are progressing in preparation of GCSE topics. I was also impressed the ability of students to further develop their computer skills in areas such as virtual reality, web design and cyber security. Although this term has been unusual, the Secondary students have communicated well with their teachers and have been conscientious in their application of learning tasks. We are so looking forward to them all returning in the academic year.

Dear Parent During the third Term of online teaching, the Arabic Department contributed to the success of Arabic, Islamic Studies and Qatar History. I am so pleased to say that students have made very good progress during this period. Students have been very positive and they interacted well with their teachers and participated in completing their all the learning tasks. All the Arabic and Islamic teachers are very grateful to all our parents and students for their support during this challenging period, particularly regarding communication and feedback. We have benefited a lot from this unique experience. We wish our children a happy vacation and a good rest in preparation for a new academic year full of vigour and vitality and a positive learning.

Thank you, Ms Marwa, Arabic coordinator

An international community of learners striving for excellence and celebrating success

With PE being a practical subject, it was great to see the level of

enthusiasm displayed by so many of our students and their participation in the

Newton Muraikh daily brain break activities provided during the online learning

period. Thank you to so many of you who sent in your amazing photos and

videos. Keeping active and healthy is a lifestyle that we enjoy encouraging and

it was fantastic to see your approach to this. Ranging from F1 all the way to

Year 10, it was clear to see that these activities were well enjoyed. It was also

great to see some of the parents partaking and supporting the efforts of their

children. The exercises and skills learnt in the daily brain break activities were all

sport specific and beneficial to your future development and progression in PE.

Well done and we look forward to seeing you back in school so that you can put

your newly learnt skills to the test.

We are very pleased that two of our students won the first prizes in the foreign language sections of the School Stars Short film Competition that was organized by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in partnership with Doha Film Institute. The theme was “The Bright Side” and lasted between 30 and 60 seconds. Students Khaled Sherif and Miria Hassett, won category their age categories in the Foreign Language section and won 10,000 QAR. They have also received complimentary access to a DFI youth workshop and the opportunity to participate as an Ajyal Juror (age appropriate) for the annual cultural event’s next edition. All submissions were judged according to the following criteria: 1. the flow of the story and how it reflects the theme. 2. Quality of script structure 3. Cinematography & Production 4. Post-production 5. Use of original video content We are very proud of their achievements.

an international community of learners striving for

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