P O Box 8020, Masaken Nasr City – Cairo, Egypt

Tel: +202 24483433, Fax: +202 240916 Email: info@cesegypt.com

BTB NEWS

May 2nd2013

MISSION:

To nurture a globally- minded

community of learners who demonstrate

high levels of achievement in the

National Curriculum of England and

other recognized International

Programmes of Study

BELIEFS:

The CES community believes and

promotes the principle, “Together

Achieving Personal Excellence”.

We aim to:

1. be BETTER THAN

BEFORE (BTB) in

everything we do and

achieve a culture where

personal excellence is

paramount

2. show kindness and respect

for others through

demonstrating strong

ethical values and

character

3. reach our full potential

through active

engagement in lessons and

co-curricular activities

4. understand and respect

others cultural beliefs and

belief structures

5. be effective

communicators,

recognising English as the

common language both

socially and academically

6. experience success and

have it recognised

7. identify talents through

the programme of co-

curricular activities and

events

8. promote a holistic

approach to health and

well-being

9. develop open-minded

reflective learners

10. promote the principle that

differences define, not

divide

11. take pride in the richness

of the Egyptian culture,

language and curriculum

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

From Our Headmaster Dear Parents

Following on from my last piece on assisting your child to succeed in their studies, I wish to add the following pieces of advice: 1. Support is more important than knowledge. Schools, no doubt, have changed so much since you were a student. Subject matter and teaching methods are different and unclear to parents and student learning patterns have also become much more visual and fast-paced. If this is too different for you, that is fine; support them in providing care and attention to conditions that make it easier to learn. 2. Have a place to keep all communications from school. At CES we work hard at communicating well with home, whether it be news (like this newsletter), letters home about matters that affect you, or on reporting of efforts/attainment. After you have read them, save them all in a box, basket, or easy-to-find location. This system takes some effort to make this plan work, but it also lets your student know that these communications from school are important to you. 3. Help your child succeed at school – work with the teacher! Remember the three-legged stool analogy. It is staff, parents and students working hand in hand that produces the very best results. 4. Share your ideas about the importance of education with your child – talk to your child about their studies. A study of students who get good grades showed that children whose parents talk to them almost every night at dinner do better in school than children who rarely talk to their parents except to argue. Talk about ties between what your child is learning today and how that knowledge might be used in the future. 5. Begin to talk about possible education goals for your child. Set short-term and long-term goals and model these with your child. A short-term goal may be finishing a writing assignment by Sunday night. A long-term goal could be attending a trade school, the local community college or a university after high school. 6. A positive attitude about school is perhaps the most important gift you can give your child. I hope you enjoy this edition of the CES newsletter. Yours educationally Craig Monaghan Headmaster

Events coming in the two tweeks

5th May

Eastern Easter

6th May Sham El Nessim

13th May FS: End of Year Assembly

16th May After School Year 5-6 Wet/Wild

20th May Parent Meeting Primary All Day

22nd May Year 6 Transition Day

23rd May After School Year 3-4 Wet/Wild

School Newsletter Published3

MISSION:

To nurture a globally- minded

community of learners who demonstrate

high levels of achievement in the

National Curriculum of England and

other recognized International

Programmes of Study

BELIEFS:

The CES community believes and

promotes the principle, “Together

Achieving Personal Excellence”.

We aim to:

1. be BETTER THAN

BEFORE (BTB) in

everything we do and

achieve a culture where

personal excellence is

paramount

2. show kindness and respect for

others through demonstrating

strong ethical values and

character

3. reach our full potential

through active engagement in

lessons and co-curricular

activities

4. understand and respect others

cultural beliefs and belief

structures

5. be effective communicators,

recognising English as the

common language both

socially and academically

6. experience success and have it

recognised

7. identify talents through the

programme of co-curricular

activities and events

8. promote a holistic approach

to health and well-being

9. develop open-minded

reflective learners

10. promote the principle that

differences define, not divide

11. take pride in the richness of

the Egyptian culture, language

and curriculum

Students in Ms. Cochlin’s class receiving their badges from Mr. Monaghan after their amazing effort in class: Wedad Alkhaliel, Daniel El Sayed, Yassin El Taher (absent), Mariam Bunkheila and Seif Al Motassem (with Ms Cochlin and the class TA)

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

From our Head of Foundation Stage

Dear Parents,

FS2 have been busy learning about planting seeds that will grow both flowers and foods. They have also been looking

at Healthy Foods and had great fun making fruit milkshakes or fruit salads: yummy! The children are currently

completing a project on creating miniature gardens using their own ideas as to what type of garden they will create.

We can’t wait to see the results! Just a reminder regarding Healthy Eating, please remember that potato chips (crisps),

nachos from the cafeteria, chocolate bars and candy (sweets) etc. are not allowed in FS. Please do not request

classroom nannies or older siblings to buy foods from the cafeteria for your FS child.

As part of their topic ‘Let’s Pretend’, the FS1 children were surprised in the garden by a visit from two very odd

pirates! One pirate was very jolly but the other was not too friendly at all and wouldn’t share his treasure but he soon

changed his mind (thanks to Mr. Craig Monaghan and Mr. Sean D’Hondt for such great entertainment!)…

Kind regards,

Valerie Awad

Head of Foundation Stage

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From our Head of Primary Year Six and the Cambridge Primary Checkpoint

Tests Dear Parents, Our year six pupils have just completed sitting the Cambridge Checkpoint Tests. Cambridge Primary Checkpoint offers feedback on learners’ strengths and weaknesses in the key curriculum areas of English, Mathematics and Science. The tests are marked by Cambridge (not us) and provide us with an external international benchmark for learner performance. The feedback gained from Cambridge Primary Checkpoint is an invaluable source of information for learners, parents and teachers. Learners and parents will have a transferable indication of academic progress and achievement. Our school will be able to make strategic decisions, drawing upon a pool of information and specialist reporting tools built into Cambridge Primary Checkpoint. However to give information about the Cambridge Primary Checkpoint exams is not the aim of what I am writing to you about today. The aim is to congratulate our children and their teachers in the way they went about preparing for the tests and their excellent attitude in the way they conducted themselves on the day. After the exam I spent time each day with the children asking them about how the found the test. The majority of the children felt they were well prepared for the tests. When I asked them why, they gave a number of replies saying in effect, that it was a combination of what they were taught, the preparation for the tests, e.g. doing practice exams, and their own personal preparation at home. To me this is a good example of the three-legged stool: home, school and the pupil working together toward a shared aim. These are not exams that test a set body of memorize-able knowledge; there is not an expectation that students will know and answer every question with a perfect answer. The results will not be returned to the school until the end of the academic year (probably after school finishes) and this will of course give a better judgment of our success. However, when most students report that they were able to attempt if not all, then most questions with a confident degree of understanding, I am quietly confident. Well done year six: teachers, pupils and parents.

Yours educationally, Mark Thompson Head of Primary

May 2nd 2013

Twenty-four Year 4&5 Girl Scouts from Cairo English School

Troop 23 joined Daisy, Brownie, Junior, and Cadet Scouts at

CAC on Saturday for a full day of Camping Skills training. The

girls participated in learning the basic camping skills of knot tying,

tent set-up, fire building, compass reading, and first aid. They

completed the training by making s’mores and singing campfire

songs. All of the girls had a great time and earned the Camping

Skills patch.

Dale Carberry

Girl Scout Team Leader

Year 4 and 5 Girls Scout

From our Head of Secondary

Dear Parents, The end of the year is approaching very rapidly. Many of our senior students have already started their exams and are well into the hard study. Please refer to my email from last month giving useful advice on how to help your children through this very stressful time. The year 7 & 8 exams are held on the first week of June and students should have started their revision for these. Remind your son/daughter that these exams cover the whole year’s work so they should be revising their work from the beginning of the year. Year 9 start their study leave this week also. Please note that this study leave is not for the rest of the year as we still have subject material to teach to prepare year 9 students for next year’s course. We require all year 9 students to be at school for normal teaching classes on the following weeks: 26th – 30th May and 9th – 19th June. Students not present will be counted as absent and this can prevent students from graduating to year 10. The final week of school for all students is the 16th – 19th of June. Year 10, AS & IB2 students will only be required at school on 18th & 19th of June. Please remind them that they must wear correct uniform at all times. Kind regards, David Hayden Head of Secondary

The BTB News

May 2nd 2013 The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

House Competition Brain Quest 2013

This year the students in year 7 and 8 took part in an entirely new kind of house competition – a battle of minds. Brain quest 2013 was an attempt to find the brightest, smartest, cleverest, most intelligent house in Secondary. Each house submitted a team of five students who then took part in a competition to answer questions from subjects as varied as the sciences, history, flags of countries, famous people, sports, geography, etc. The competition was a knockout tournament in two rounds. The first round victors were Tutankhamen and Ramses who then went on to meet each other in the final. Cleopatra just missed out on a place in the final. Better luck next year Cleo. The final of Brain Quest was held in front of a live audience of students and teachers during the year 7 and 8 assembly. Teams from Ramses and Tutankhamen battled it out, taking turns to answer some tricky questions, but after 40 questions and four rounds Tutankhamen were finally named as the Brain Quest champions. Congratulations Tut, you can now call yourselves the cleverest house in Secondary – until next year that is. James Mitchell Head of House

Front row (L to R): Joseph, Rommie, Assil, Abdullahi, Tamer Back row (L to R): Mr. J. Mitchell, Marco, Eyad, Omar, Abssi and Mr.

Monaghan

House Competition Update As we are coming to the end of the school year I thought I would share with you the current house scores:

Ramses (Joint 1st): 90 points

Tutankhamen (joint 1st): 90 points

Cleopatra (3rd): 70 points

Khufu (4th): 52 points As you can see it is VERY tight at the top and could go either way. Every point counts now. Recently, Tutankhamen won the year 7 and 8 Brain quest and Cleopatra won the inter-house Dodgeball which moved them closer to the leaders. The remaining house competitions are Athletics and the Secondary BTB reward scores, and between them these events are worth 80 points so there is everything to play for: the winner has not yet been decided. All the best and thanks for your continued support. We look forward to announcing our winning House in the final House assembly at year’s end. James Mitchell Head of House

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

CES’ 3rd annual Non-Uniform Pyjama Day marked yet another fantastic contribution to our 5-

figure total money raised thus far for our charities last week. Students and teachers from FS1 all

the way up to Year 5 all came to school dressed-down in their pyjamas last week, on Wednesday,

April 24, 2013.

Primary students and teachers who participated in Wednesday’s Non-Uniform event each

donated 20LE to wear their pyjamas to school for the day, a wonderfully relaxing way that

helped us kick off our long holiday weekend! Foundation Stage classes raised a total of 2,765LE

and our Key Stage 1 & 2 classes raised a total of 9,820LE, giving us a grand total donation of

12,585LE raised last Wednesday – WAY TO GO PRIMARY TEAM!

This total will be added to CES’ accumulated raised funds of over 71,000LE, putting our grand

total just over 83,585LE to-date. We are definitely on our way to reaching our 6-figure goal before

year-end, thanks to your generous donations and continued support in helping us give back to

our local community. These funds are surely going to make an outstanding difference in the

lives of those within our “Awlady Orphanage” and “Move Foundation” organizations.

Pyjama Day

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

Cambridge International Primary Checkpoint

examinations Over the past weeks Year 6 have been working on preparations towards the Cambridge examinations in English, Mathematics and Science. The curriculum was almost entirely dedicated towards these examinations. The students came away from the examinations with smiles and jubilation saying how well prepared they were and how hard that had worked in the lead up to these exams. A few students had this to say about their experiences with the exams. Mohamed: “It was hard but ok, because I studied. Some questions I didn’t understand but I tried my best. The packs we were given helped me.” Verenna had similar comments: “It was easy, and the questions were easier than our practice tasks. The science pack helped me with exams.” Carol spoke about the relative ease of the exams: “The exams were really easy except for some tricky maths and science questions. If you thought about it you can get it right. English was really easy.” Halla made connections between prior class learning: “We had studied the author in class and it was the same in the exam. In maths there were some tricky questions. In science I didn’t understand everything but I made connections.” My thanks to Mohamed, Vereena, Carol and Halla from 6MJ for sharing their thoughts about the exams held last week. Vivien Thompson Assistant Head Ks2

ARABIC AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE - PRIMARY

During our Arabic as a Foreign Language classes we teach our students how to listen, speak, read & write in Arabic. As the year progresses, the students move from being able to read & write Arabic letters, to words & then short sentences. This gradually allows them to be able to read, understand & use words that they have never seen before as they get used to the patterns that exist in the language. Kinaesthetic activities are a very important part of this process. Students learn through touch, practice & activity-based learning.

Our ministry final Arabic exams are very soon, and we wish all the best for our lovely students .

Good luck Noura Yousif Head of Arabic, Foundation Stage and Primary

Year 6 exams will take place as follow :

لغة عربية و الخط و اإلمالء

0000— 11030

ساعتان و نصف

االثنين13/5/3013

تربية دينية 11000 -- 13030

ساعة و نصف

األربعاء15/5/3013

الدراسات اإلجتماعية0099 -- 09009

ساعة و نصف

الخميس01/5/3900

January 17th 2013

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

CIS Update The Visiting Team from the Council of International Schools (CIS) will be arriving in Cairo on May 24th and will be in the school from May 25th until May 30th. The Steering Committee has recently sent CIS the self-study reports which the staff have written over the last 18 months, along with our curriculum documentation, policies and procedures. The Visiting Team, made up from 10 school leaders from schools in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, will spend a week in the school, scrutinizing our policies, curriculum and procedures. They will also be visiting every classroom to see how our Guiding Statements are reflected in the day-to-day teaching and learning throughout the school. The Team will want to speak to students, staff and parents during their visit and we are currently finalizing the timetable for the week. We will write to you with more information closer to the visit as we know you will want to give our visitors that lovely, warm welcome from the CES community. The Steering Committee

Tips From Dr. Sally Living with Difficult Child Are you living with a difficult child? Here are some general strategies and solutions to help you live with a difficult youngster: 1. Establish a neutral or objective emotional climate in which to deal with your child. Try not to respond in an emotional and instinctive manner, which is unproductive. 2. Don’t take your child’s behavior personally. Temperament is innate, and your child is not purposely trying to be difficult or irritating. Don’t blame him or yourself. 3. Try to prioritize the issues and problems surrounding your child. Some are more important and deserve greater attention. Others are not as relevant and can be either ignored or put “way down the list.” 4. Focus on the issues of the moment. Do not project into the future. 5. Consider your own temperament and behavior, and how they might also be difficult. Think how you might need to adjust yourself a bit to encourage a better fit with your child. 6. Anticipate impending high-risk situations, and try to avoid or minimize them. Accept the possibility that this may be a difficult day or circumstance, and be prepared to make the best of it. 7. Review your expectations of your child. Are they realistic and appropriate? When your youngster does something right, praise him and reinforce the specific behaviors that you like. School Pediatrician Dr. Sally Magdy Selim

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

Staff 2013-14 With many of our most talented staff returning, I thought you may find it useful to hear about some of our vastly experienced and wonderful new teachers that will join us in 2013-14. We are very excited in welcoming them here and I am sure after you see their backgrounds you too will be enthused in what is shaping up to be one of the best years the school has seen in relation to quality of learning and teaching. Primary School Jacobus Dee Leeuw

Year 5 Teacher

South African with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education

Vast experience includes classroom teacher, Key Stage 2 coordinator

and Assistant Deputy Principal

Has also coached cricket and squash

Laura Romney

Year 3 Teacher

British citizen with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours and a PGCE

Excellent class teacher with three years-experience in Britain

Interests includes creative writing, singing with her group Voice Shop, where they have held many

concerts to raise money for charity

Angelique Dee Leeuw

Year 2 Teacher

South African with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education in Early Childhood

Development with specialization in Special Educational Needs

Vast experience includes Year 2 Team Leader, Key Stage 1 Coordinator

and Head of Primary

Melaina Talamahina

Year 4 Teacher

New Zealand citizen and a graduate in Elementary Education from

Auckland University of Technology, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education

in Primary

Experience includes primary teaching, and has a real passion for children

Personal interests include art, college counselling, community service,

fashion, netball, cricket and basketball

Secondary School Helen Szelesi

Chemistry Teacher

British citizen and a graduate of University of Bradford, with a BSc

from Bristol Polytechnic.

Her vast Chemistry experience includes teaching of chemistry and science as

well as a role as Assistant Head of Science.

Enjoys sports including coaching Badminton, skiing snow-boarding, field

hockey and squash.

The BTB News Our CES Newsletter

May 2nd 2013

David Szelesi

Design Technology Teacher

British citizen and a graduate of University of Leeds with a BA from

Bradford and Ilkley College.

He has vast experience in DT including Teacher and Head of

Design Technology

Enjoys sports, has coached skiing, snow-boarding and swimming, and

enjoys hiking, photography and chess.

Specialist Teachers Nathan Talamahina,

PE Teacher

New Zealand citizenship and a graduate of Auckland University of

technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport and Recreation.

Experience includes Physical Education and as a health teacher, as well

as Head of Health.

Personal interests include hiking, community service, magic and art.

Morgan Lewis

Music Teacher

British citizenship and a graduate of Waikato University in ICT and Music,

as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Arts

Experience includes as a music teacher, specialist team teacher and

Head of Music department

Enjoys activities including coaching, field hockey, volleyball, cinema,

and film-making.

We have significant work and are excited with the remaining weeks with Graduations, prize-givings and the completion of the curriculum. At the time of writing the school is nearly completely-staffed for 2013-14, which is a first for CES at this time, and we are set for an outstanding year next year. With quality staff like the above teachers, your children will greatly benefit!

Our Next edition comes 23rd

May, 2013