2020/2021
THE BRITISH SCHOOL AL KHUBAIRAT
PRIMARY NEWSLETTER britishschool.sch.ae
CONTENT A Message From Head Of Primary EYFS at BSAK Nursery at BSAK Reception at BSAK Year 1 at BSAK Year 2 at BSAK KS2 at BSAK Primary Wellbeing
A MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF PRIMARY What a Year! The year has been one full of ups and downs, ins and outs. Yet we have achieved so much and gained many positives. As we look forward to the new academic year we wish to embrace some of the best initiatives from our experience to make our community stronger and more productive. Over the last few weeks children in school have been taking part in GL assessments. These assessments in English, Maths and Science give the school an externally standardised insight into the children’s attainment and progress. It allows us to analyse our strengths, areas for development and to adjust our teaching and curriculum where and if appropriate. I am delighted to say that the results are impressive considering the past two years of disrupted education. I have shared the results below to give some reassurance.
Children meeting or above UK Curriculum expectations: English across Years 1 to 6: 94% Mathematics across Years 1 to 6: 96% Science across Years 4 to 6: 96% The average for UK schools for children meeting and above is 77%. This shows our performance to be significantly above UK schools in all areas. Please find the Parent Handbook here: Primary Handbook 2021/2022
Elaine Rawlings Head of Primary
EYFS HIGHLIGHTS 2020/21 As the end of the year draws to a close, we reflect on the wonderful achievements of our children in our Early Years. Our youngest learners have impressed with their high levels of engagement, enthusiasm and successes throughout the year. Who would have thought that the youngest children in the school would be able to achieve so much through a blended approach of face to face and online learning? Amazing.
“We are incredibly proud of each and every one of our Nursery and Reception students.” Ms Bailey
Our Early Years curriculum has enabled our students to be explorers, discoverers, be challenged, consolidate and achieve their very best whilst developing their resilience and independence. Throughout all of the areas of learning, and at the heart of the EYFS Curriculum, are the “Characteristics of Effective Learning”. We have strived to develop these key characteristics of “Playing and Learning”, “Active Learning” and “Creating and Thinking Critically” in order to provide the children with the skills that they will continue to draw upon throughout their development.
BSAK NURSERY In Nursery, the children settled in very quickly, showing great independence in their learning and getting to know their new environment - on either side of a bubble. Our Nursery children have been intrepid explorers crawling through dens in the deepest jungles, palaeontologists discovering new breeds of dinosaurs, volcanologists creating amazing eruptions, incredible artists, magnificent musicians and much much, more on their exciting journey through the In The Moment Planning curriculum where our wonderful team have provided exciting learning opportunities for every child.
BSAK RECEPTION In Reception, we have adapted our provision in response to ADEK regulations, developing new woodwork areas, play dough stations, plus a rainbow room full of new physical and creative learning areas. During the year, children in Reception have developed their love and confidence in reading, have been creative and had lots and lots of fun outside as the weather improved! The children have continued to join in with so many different learning experiences - PE, Music, writing, Art, Maths and so much more. They have also enjoyed many special days such as Oceans Day, International Picnic Day and Spotty Day. Great fun!
BSAK YEAR 1 What a year it has been for our wonderful children in both Year 1 and 2. The resilience, bravery and enthusiasm that they have demonstrated has been a pleasure to witness. At the beginning of the year, when the students took their first steps back into school, waving goodbye to their parents at the front door, rather than at the classroom door, the pride that the teachers felt was one of joy. As the end of the year draws to a close, we reflect on the wonderful achievements of every one of our children.
Year 1 began at a whirlwind pace with children experiencing "Continuous provision" where they immersed themselves in activities from across the curriculum and became experts on our theme of Living Things. The children have become intrepid global travellers, discovering capital cities, oceans and new continents. Zoologists unearthing new found animals in their environments. Super scientists investigated which Materials were most suitable for a mysterious Alien who visited Year 1 to build a fit for purpose factory for Space Explorers.
The children created habitats, became coding experts and historians travelling back in time to find out about life in the UAE. Their engagement and enthusiasm has demonstrated what fantastic learners our Year One children are. They have amazed us all by demonstrating independent skills, knowledge and technological prowess. Children have been busy documenting world travels, coding games, becoming masters of time and writing like true authors. The children, staff and parents have enjoyed PJ dress up days, a plethora of independent learning activities, kahoot year groups quizzes and so much more.
BSAK YEAR 2 In Year 2, the children have had some fantastic new experiences, developing their love of Languages, learning French and continuing our focus on Arabic and UAE subjects. Our students in Year 2 have been busy learning and making comparisons between life here in the fantastic capital city Abu Dhabi in the UAE and life in London. We also made some brilliant news reports about the Great Fire of London as well as Superhero puppets learning new sewing skills. Of course, the grand finale of the Term 1 was the fantastic festive show. Social distancing did not stop our wonderful children, Year 2 team and fantastic music teachers putting on an outstanding performance, recorded and shared on Seesaw.
I think we all agree that the songs were truly brilliant! Term 2 was amazing fun where the children became explorers in the Amazon rainforest and celebrated at home via Distance learning in the culmination of our topic dressing up on ‘Amazing Animals Day’. We Zoomed and Seesawed our way through Term 3 enjoying lots of different activities, especially the appearance of Willy Wonka to answer our questions. Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their support. We are so proud of all that the children have achieved in such different circumstances and know they will continue to shine as they move into the next year group to continue their educational journey.
KS2 CURRICULUM HIGHLIGHTS It has been another stimulating and engaging year in Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6), with our students developing their love of learning through a breadth of experiences and opportunities. Our students have deepened their knowledge and understanding by becoming inquisitive scientists, global explorers, curious historians, computer scientists, exquisite artists, talented linguists, marvellous mathematicians and roving reporters (and so much more) all from their socially distanced seats! We have walked the path of our Ancient ancestors when learning about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece; passing through South America to meet Aztecs and Mayan civilizations; learning the art of jewellery making with Stone Age artisans; sinking the Titanic and settling into the swamps of the murky World War One trenches to witness the battle of the Somme.
We have been curious about the world around us as we have explored our physical surroundings and natural phenomena; exploring natural disasters, rocks and soils, a range of forces, inheritance and adaptation to name but a few. We delighted in music and the arts, learning to paint and draw in the style of the great artists and those who have influenced our modern culture. We have read extensively and have learnt to use our love of reading to promote our own interests and develop our own writing abilities. We recognise ourselves as local and global citizens as we reflect upon current affairs and the changes and developments in the UAE over the past 49 years. We conversed in languages beyond our mother tongue; learning to communicate more fluently in Arabic, French and Spanish. This year we have galloped ahead in our ability to use a range of digital tools to enhance our learning and our growth in digital literacy skills are apparent across the entire curriculum. Thankfully, in Term 3, we were once again able to move more freely from our seats and take part in Physical Education, developing our fitness and fundamental skills related to a range of sports. We have learnt to be kind to each other, ourselves and the world around us; how to recycle, care for animals, habitats and our bodies. We have learnt to adapt, to reflect, to be ourselves.
PRIMARY WELLBEING The wellbeing of our children is always important to us as teachers, however never more so than this year, with the challenges we have all faced. With the appointment of a new Assistant Head of Wellbeing and Pastoral care for the Primary School, we have focussed on making wellbeing a priority and area of development. We have adopted a whole primary school approach and have successfully trialled and now introduced A Little Spot of Emotion by Diana Alber (a Box set of 8 Books) as a starting point for having conversations with all our children about their Emotional Health and Wellbeing. What is being taught and how, looks different in each year group, with the resources being adapted to best meet the needs of the children, however the same resource has been extremely positively received by all our children from Nursery to Year 6. Your children will recognise these Little Spots and different emotions wheels from around the school.
FESTIVITIES IN 2020
PYJAMA DAY
DATA DEMONS
PINK DAY
WORLD OCEANS DAY