2021/2022
THE BRITISH SCHOOL AL KHUBAIRAT
PRIMARY NEWSLETTER britishschool.sch.ae
A MESSAGE FROM THE
HEAD OF PRIMARY Dear Parents, Despite the many ongoing challenges I am so very proud of all that we have achieved this term. Importantly we are moving towards more normality for the good of our children and their wellbeing. It has been wonderful to see so many events return to BSAK. I hope that you find our newsletter both informative and indicative of our ongoing developments and activities. The videos will give an insight into our curriculum and pastoral news, and I hope that the photographs convey some of our fun and creative moments. Both aspects have filled me with pride and joy! Thank you for your endless support in numerous ways. Enjoy the break and take care of yourselves and your family. Kindest wishes Elaine Rawlings | Head of Primary
PRIMARY INSIGHTS Each morning you send your child into school and entrust us, BSAK, with their care and education, but what actually happens behind the doors that they walk through? It does seem a long time since we have been able to welcome parents to walk our corridors and take a peek inside our vibrant learning environments because of the Covid restrictions. Therefore we would like to give you an insight into some of the learning and wellbeing opportunities that your child experiences on a daily basis. So please take a moment to watch some of these videos which share what and how your child has been learning at BSAK this term, and why your child goes home smiling every day.
CUSP CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
Mr Collings Deputy Head of Primary
Curriculum Overview
Mrs McDowell Assistant Head of Primary
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
Ms Bailey Assistant Head of Primary
KNOWLEDGE NOTES AND ORGANISERS
PRIMARY INSIGHTS
EYFS CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENTS
Mrs Jones Nursery Leader
Miss Turnbull Reception Year Leader
CUSP OVERVIEW - YEAR 1
Mrs Crockett Year 1 Leader
CUSP OVERVIEW - YEAR 5
Mr Payne Year 5 Leader
WELLBEING TERM 1 FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH A year after commencing our focus on introducing emotional literacy to all our children, we are delighted to see the use of our Little Spots of Emotion being embedded into all our Primary classes from Nursery to Year 6. Our children have the opportunity, on a daily basis, to share how they are feeling, check in with the adults in their classes and with each other. The children are becoming increasingly aware of how their feeling can change throughout the day and that this is completely normal. Now that all our children are familiar with the 8 different emotions, in our teams, we are now looking at developing and broadening everyone’s vocabulary to speak more fluently about how they are feeling. Being able to express ourselves and communicate effectively about how we feel, enables us to self regulate more easily and reduce feelings of frustration. Having worked with each year group, the lead teachers decided that they wanted to have a key set of vocabulary for every 2 year groups. This way it allows all our children to be introduced to the new target language, practice it and retrieve and recall it over a 2 year period. We would like to share the vocabulary with you, so that you as parents have an awareness of what words we’re focussing on and using within school and you can help consolidate at home if you wish.
EMOTIONS VOCABULARY Click here to see the relevant vocabulary for your child’s year group. Within the document (in the top row of the table) click on the link to the resources that you can print off and display at home.
Exciting new developments: Our Wellbeing Wheel: At BSAK Wellbeing is... Over the last year the wellbeing team have been working with children, staff and parents across the school to ascertain what wellbeing means to and for us at BSAK. After conducting surveys and seeking feedback from our key stakeholders we are delighted to have created our very own, bespoke Wellbeing Wheel which highlights the 5 key elements of what Wellbeing is to us at BSAK. The Primary Student Leadership team are excited to share our Wellbeing Wheel with you at the start of Term 2. So look out for it in our new Primary Wellbeing Parent Magazine launch.
PRIMARY INSIGHTS
LITTLE SPOTS OF EMOTIONS Mrs Walter Assistant Head Primary Wellbeing & Pastoral Care View here: Little Spots of Emotions used in PE Pre Gymnastic Sequence Post Gymnastic Sequence
MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT 2021 AND EYFS OUTCOMES
Mrs Dodds Primary Music Coordinator
RETURN TO PE AT BSAK PRIMARY
Mr Kirkland Head of Primary PE
PRIMARY INSIGHTS
ARABIC AND MFL Mrs Singleton Head of Primary MFL
French: the introduction of Linguist Points Arabic B: Arabee in Year 1 and 2 Arabic B: Advanced/Mixed ability and Development groups in Years 3-6
Mrs Hammoudeh Head of Primary Arabic/Native Primary Arabic Teacher
Arabic A: Scheme of reading for Y1-3 , Ministry book and activities, Using Abjadiyat and kutubee for Y1-6. 21 century skill
DYSLEXIA AWARENESS WEEK Mrs Emery Head of Primary SEN
Click here to read more and view galleries for each year group
DYSLEXIA AWARENESS 2021
BSAK NURSERY
Our Nursery children have had a wonderful start to their very first year at BSAK !
They have made lots of new friends and had so much fun exploring our fantastic indoor and outdoor learning environments. Our In The Moment Planning approach has enabled the children to really develop their creativity and independence. As the weather starts to cool, we have recently been enjoying taking lots of our learning outside, where physical development and messy play are always popular. The children have been practising swinging on the monkey bars every day - they are determined to learn how to swing from one end to the other and it has been so wonderful to see their faces when they achieve this for the first time! This term we have had some very memorable special days, such as our UAE Hat Parade and our Dot Day. We have also been finding out about our emotions through our Little Spot of Emotion characters and stories. During Phonics sessions we have been developing our speaking and listening skills and in Maths we have had lots of fun finding out all about numbers to 5.
NURSERY - HAT PARADE
BSAK RECEPTION Reception have had a truly magnificent start to the year. Not only have they started Arabic and Swimming lessons but they have finally been able to access the Primary Library and choose their own books! Sprinkled throughout this term we have enjoyed celebrating many important occasions through special days such as: Dot Day, Odd Socks for Anti Bullying and most recently our spectacular UAE hat parade!
PHONICS
In Reception, we continue to follow our children’s interests whilst seamlessly weaving Maths and Phonics into their day. It has been magical to embark on this Reception journey with our children and we cannot wait to see each and every child continue to flourish at BSAK. Learning through play is what we do best and we’re already excited to see what next term will bring!
MATHS
SWIMMING
BSAK YEAR 1 Wow! What a first term Year 1 have had. The children have adapted to the new curriculum with enthusiasm and excitement. From discovering capital cities, oceans and continents to investigating and growing their own plants the children have thrived in their learning. Through continuous provision, group work and challenges, the children have demonstrated independence, creativity, problem solving, initiative and teamwork - the list is endless! This term we have also enjoyed celebrating the UAE’s 50th National Day, learning about different seasons (and helping the teaching understand the correct clothes to wear for each season!), looking at how we have changed from when we were babies and designing our own gardens! We can’t wait to see what Term 2 will bring!
WINTER TOPIC
UAE 50TH ACTIVITIES
CUSP
BSAK YEAR 2 What an exciting time to be in Year 2! Lots has happened since starting in September. From learning about The Great Fire of London, to London landmarks and having a great time during London Day! We have also taken our learning outside of the classroom to the Food Technology Room, Science Garden and Science Lab.
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON
This term, Year 2 has been looking at materials and their properties. Each class visited the Science Lab to twist, bend, stretch and squash different materials. We were surprised to learn that we can bend some types of metals! From this learning we found out if the materials were durable, flexible and versatile. The children are becoming more confident in using this new vocabulary to describe and explain their learning. Coming up soon! Look out for the recording of the Year 2 Festive Performance of Penguin Pete!
YEAR 2 LONDON DAY
BSAK YEAR 3
With a cohort of resilient, enthusiastic and creative learners it is no wonder Year 3 have had such a fantastic term. As we step closer towards complete normality in school, it has been a pleasure to watch the children blossom socially; demonstrating collaboration, kindness and empathy along the way. We have focused on becoming ‘Brave Learners,’ instilling a growth mindset and reassuring the children that making mistakes is part of the learning process.
The children have been busy exploring Rocks, which led to an abundance of fun in the Science Lab. They have mastered lots of tricky vocabulary, investigated how rocks can change, had a very tasty lesson exploring rock types with chocolate and even exploded a few volcanoes! In History, the children were transported back to Prehistoric times as they explored the Stone Age through to the Iron Age. They had lots of fun becoming Hunter Gatherers, creating pottery, baking Neolithic treats and designing Bronze Age jewellery. Reading lessons focused on recall, inference and environmental issues, while writing lessons saw the children creating non-chronological reports, setting descriptions and a few heated lessons writing letters of complaint!
Of course, all of this wonderful learning would not be possible without the support and encouragement of parents at home; thank you!
NURSERY TO YEAR 6
YEAR 3
ODD SOCKS DAY
STONE AGE DAY
BSAK YEAR 4
The Year 4 children have achieved so much this term and have really risen to the challenges and the changed expectations of moving on another Year. We have managed to keep the learning interesting and we hope fun, whilst covering the objectives in the Year 4 curriculum.
The children have experienced using the Science Lab for the first time, ever, and have thoroughly enjoyed the practical aspects of Science and in particular making circuits with electrical components. We have made the curriculum as practical and enjoyable as we possibly can within the current restrictions and were so proud of the papier mache helmets that the children produced - messy but fun - and not a horned helmet in sight - ask your child why!! Anglo-saxons, Vikings, Rivers, Story writing, newspaper writing, coding, classification of animals, learning our times tables, spelling and the list goes on of all the things that have been taught just in this term. We would like to take the opportunity to thank you all once again for everything that you have done to help and support us and your children this term and we are already looking forward to next term.
We hope you enjoyed our Human flag for National Day!
BSAK YEAR 5 As we approach the end of term, it is a real pleasure to reflect upon both the progress the children have made and the enthusiasm they have displayed. Despite the disruption of recent years, our Year 5 children show us their BSAK values of resilience, endeavour and care on a daily basis.
The Year 5 curriculum has presented a challenging and rewarding learning experience for our students and it is very heartening to see them become motivated and successful learners. Some of our stand out moments this term were our “50 years the UAE” museum, our progress as independent and confident writers, where we have uncovered many budding poets, authors and campaigners; and the return of physical education, swimming and Extra Curricular Activities. In addition, the children are reminding us of the importance of sharing and collaborating in lessons and how powerful those interactions can be in the learning process. We thank you for your partnership and ongoing encouragement and support.
As always we could not possibly provide the children with the learning experience we strive towards, without the support of you, the parents and caregivers.
BSAK YEAR 6 UAE 50TH | POETRY COMPETITION
The children have enjoyed a brilliant term in Year 6 and have continued to build on their learning from Year 5. They have had to adapt to many changes throughout the last few years but it is excellent to witness the children in Year 6 are thriving as the school gradually returns to normality. So far, we have managed to use the Food Technology room for the first time since Covid restrictions. This was linked to our reading unit “Oliver Twist” as we made some gruel. It is fair to say that after tasting the original workhouse recipe not many asked for “more”!! They did get the chance to improve the gruel recipe by adding their own healthy twist and I’m pleased to report that this went down a treat.
AISHA | Sapphire
ABRA | Oxford
As well as Oliver Twist, the children have learnt about the experiences of the Windrush generation, compared the Lake District in the UK to the the Rocky mountains of Jebel Jais in the UAE, classified living things and carried out several investigations into light. They have had a lot of fun but worked extremely hard and deserve a lot of praise. I know we are all extremely proud of their achievements this term.
NATIONAL DAY - NURSERY TO Y6
Click here to view the full album of
National Day Celebration Pictures on Flickr.