2016-17: December

KEY DATES 6th-8th December “Sharing because we are caring” 7th December Inter school cluster meeting 8th December WeAreOne@ABBS t-shirts wc 11th December Anti-bullying week 12th December Prophet’s Birthday (subject to change) 13th December PTT General Meeting 6 pm 14th December HAAD Smart Shopping Talk: 6pm Register with - volunteers@albasmaschool.ae 15th December PTT Coffee Morning: 9 am 15th December Term 1 reports issued 15th December Term ends + weareone@abbs 8th January Children return to school ATTENDANCE/PUNCTUALITY Best attendance: 1st Place: G6D – Ms Nicola 2nd Place: G6C – Ms Rabeya 3rd Place: G9A – Mr Cian Best punctuality: 1st Place: G2B – Ms Rochelle 2nd Place: G1B – Ms Katie 3rd Place: KG2A – Ms Denise

FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dear Parents and Guardians Thank you to all of the parents who attended our family celebration on National Day and a very big thank you to our PTT who worked very hard to organise the event. The children from KG1 to G9 were an absolute credit to all parents and themselves during our assemblies to remember the sacrifice of the UAE Martyrs. They showed great respect for the Martyrs by standing up in absolute silence during morning assembly when we lowered the flags to half mast. They again acted with great respect during our assembly at 11.30 standing in silence for one minute and then singing the National Anthem with great meaning as we raised the flag at 11.31am. I was very proud of them. Sharing because we are caring. Please encourage your child to support less fortunate members of our Abu Dhabi community by donating items like: deodorant, pens, shower gel, soap, shampoo, notebooks, razors, shaving cream, adult t-shirts, phone cards & adult socks. Attendance and punctuality until the end of term are very important if your children are to make the maximum progress and fulfill their potential. Please note early pick up can have an equally negative impact on progress and attainment as poor attendance and poor punctuality. Lessons are organised on a strict timetable so if your child leaves early on the same day each week it will always impact on learning in the same subject. Percentage attendance will be reported on the termly reports from this term. You should be receiving daily absence and late texts in addition to phone calls from reception if you are late 3 or more times a week. Grade leaders are calling those children who are late 3 or more times in two or more weeks in a month to discuss the reason and impact with parents. Mr Sinto will be calling all children who have had 3 days consecutive absence from Sunday. In line with our positive behaviour policy we will be rewarding those with excellent attendance and punctuality at the end of term with all of those children with 98% attendance receiving a certificate in assembly together with those with no late marks and those with no early pickups. Punctuality and attendance can be a major barrier to learning for children. Please see the curriculum guides for December which detail what the children will be studying for the next two weeks.

Mrs Allison McDonald (allison@albasmaschool.ae)

Issue No. 5

Camel and Falcon The children enjoyed visiting with the camel and falcon which were in school throughout the day.

Assemblies Small groups of children performed national dances, speeches and poems in assemblies planned to enhance the children's understanding of UAE traditions and culture. I was incredibly proud of the children's behaviour throughout the day and the pride with which they represented their country.

UAE National Day Parade The children from KG1 to G9 thoroughly enjoyed the parade. They looked resplendent in their UAE national dress and UAE colours and enthusiastically waved their flags. Thank you to the secondary boys who played the drums throughout the parade, they did a great job. Cookery Competition winners Thank you to all of the parents who sent in entries for the cookery competition; we all thoroughly enjoyed judging and sharing the food after the competition. The winner was a strawberry pudding created by Ayesha Majeed, mother of Afsheen G2E. If you left your dishes, please contact Ms Wilesse - volunteers@albasmaschool.ae to arrange collection. Civil Defence Visit Civil Defence sent a fire engine and a police car which the children had a great time visiting with their homeroom teacher throughout the morning. The Police sounded the siren whilst the firemen switched on the fire hose and both allowed the children to sit in the vehicles.

Henna, and nail art Thank you to Dr Maria for sending the ladies from her salon to set up the salon for staff again in the boardroom the day before our celebrations so that all of the staff could have their henna applied ready for the celebration. The ladies from Queen's Salon visited again to do complimentary henna and nail art for the children, staff and parents during our National Day celebrations care of Dr Maria again. Thank you to the staff and parents who also did face painting, henna and nail art. Parent feedback showed parents would like our celebrations to include performances for parents. We will take this on board and plan this into next years celebrations. This will require performances over a number of days before our main celebration day. Video The day's activities were filmed by a professional videographer and captured by a professional photographer. DVDs will be made available for a nominal cost so that parents can share the events of the morning. Factory & Sand Art The children who participated in these activities produced some fantastic arts and crafts, well done!

Innovation Week The children and staff embraced innovation week. I was stunned with the quality and quantity of innovation which took place throughout the week. Children from KG1 to G5 built models from recycled junk on a range of themes. Children engaged in marshmallow and spaghetti tower building competitions in science embracing their inner architects and engineers. Grade 4 to 8 presented their work in Robotics to parents and the grade 1 to 3 students. They were able to communicate their understanding of their learning very well. G7 students presented their computer games, programmed using scratch, to the G4 and 5 students. Teams of G9 business studies students created business models for innovative business ideas, they presented to an assembly of their peers with G5 to 9 girls judging the girls' businesses and G5 to 9 boys judging the boys' businesses in a dragons den style. Grade 9 Media students created posters to advertise Innovation Week drawing on their learning around what makes a good DVD cover. Grade 9 engaged in aero modelling sessions earlier this year. They took their learning and the boys shared it with G7B and the girls shared it with G5E. The younger children designed and built their own model aeroplanes with the guidance of G9 students. The children launched their aero planes in the hall, for each class the one which flew the furthest and the best design won prizes. Ms Manal attended the ADEC Innovation conference on both days presenting Al Basma's work in robotics and aero modelling to leaders from schools across Abu Dhabi. She presented to Arabic delegates on one day and English delegates on the second day.

Innovation will be a strand which runs

throughout the curriculum throughout

the year.

 

Student Council Two representatives attend a meeting with the Principal. Ms Allison following each student council meeting to feedback on the points discussed. The meeting is minuted and Ms Allison’s response to the points raised is then fed back to the councillors who feedback to their homeroom groups. In their last meeting the students raised the issue of breaks. In discussion we agreed to trial adding 5 minutes to morning break. Ms Allison took the proposal to SLT who agreed. The morning registration period will now be 5 minutes shorter and will end at 8am so lessons 3 & 4 ends 5 minutes earlier allowing another 5 minutes for break. This will be trialled from 4/12/16 for two weeks after which it will be reviewed. Supporting our community Left-over food from our National Day celebration was redistributed to less fortunate members of our community. Our “sharing because we are caring” initiative is launched this week. On 6th to 8th December children can bring their donations from the list of appropriate items for distribution to those less fortunate members of our Abu Dhabi society in the labour camps. The children can wear their WeAreOne@Abbs t-shirts with their school pants, short, skirts or culottes on the 8th to celebrate our efforts in working together to support our community.

BriC Please ensure that you are regularly checking BriC for homework and for resources to support the children's learning at home. Homeworks which are past their submission date are automatically moved to the archive folder for later reference if necessary. We will launch the timetable, attendance and update contact details modules in January when BriC moves to a new host which will make it much quicker.

GENERAL INFORMATION Drama Performances Some of the children who have been studying drama this term on the carousel will perform their pieces for parents over the next two weeks. You will receive or will have already received an invitation if your child's class is involved in one for the performances. We hope you enjoy the event. NMC - Diabetes awareness event Thank you to NMC nurses, physiotherapist, dentist, and optician who visited school to run diabetes and related tests and offer advice for staff and parents to mark Diabetes awareness month in November. The day was a great success. This follows on from our work with NMC to raise awareness and provide complimentary mammograms for staff and parents during October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and AED100 mammograms in November, This relationship supports our healthy schools initiative and forms part of our community outreach. We will inform you of future events arranged with NMC. Preparation for life Our business studies students have been applying for theoretical job vacancies and undertaking mock interviews. We will be embarking on a series of careers talks in term 2 for G8 and 9 to prepare G9 to consider their future choices and to prepare g8 for their coming elective choices. Sharing good practice Representatives from Belvedere, Reach, ICS and Amity will visit Al Bamsa on the 7th December to moderate assessments in English and Maths across the schools and share good practice in the areas of Inclusion, Innovation, H&S and buildings, EYFS. Parking Please park considerately of our neighbours and ensure you observe traffic and highway regulations. The traffic police do visit at the end of the day and do ticket cars parked illegally.

Anti bullying week Al Basma will host its first anti bullying week beginning 11th December. Throughout the week children will engage in a series of assemblies and activities to raise awareness of what constitutes bullying, tackle the underlying causes and encourage reporting. This is a development of our work on tolerance in November. The children can wear their WeAreOne@Abbs t-shirts on 13th December with their school pants, shorts, skirt or culottes to mark the unity of our community in the middle of our anti bullying week. WeAreOne@Abbs T-shirts If you wish to purchase a t-shirt please contact - volunteers@albasmaschool.ae Parent communication Please contact - volunteers@albasmaschool.ae for more information about grade whatsapp groups and the PTT facebook page. Answers to questions asked at the coffee morning are posted on the PTT facebook page. Please check the facebook page monthly for up to date information about the school. Please submit any questions to be posed to the Principal during coffee morning to - volunteers@albasmaschool.ae up to two days before the coffee morning. Contact details It is very important that we have the correct contact details. If your details are not correct you will not receive our text messages or emails. Please contact - reception@albasmaschool.ae with your email address and mobile phone number if you are not receiving text messages or emails so that we can check and update your contact details.

CORE COMPETENCIES

The focus is on

Caring