2023/24 VERSION 1
Issue 1: November 2023
MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF PRIMARY MRS ELAINE RAWLINGS Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Belonging - EDIB We are always looking for ways to ensure that our children feel like they belong and are part of our school. To help strengthen feelings of belonging, as a whole primary school last year, year groups either created culture quilts or took inspiration from Wendy Ewald’s work The Best Part of Me book. Elaine Rawlings
Moving forward we are setting up an area of our school library to showcase our wonderfully diverse community. If you wish to contribute to a display that celebrates your culture then please do get in touch with our library team. Akhwaja@britishschool.sch.ae. This will be done on a rotational basis and we hope to hear from parents wishing to share aspects of their countries, languages, festivals etc.
Display of A Culture Quilt
MESSAGE FROM THE ASSISTANT HEAD Wellbeing & Pastoral Care I am delighted to share our first edition of our wellbeing magazine for this academic year with you. For our existing parents, you will know that we have introduced a number of wellbeing initiatives over the last few years. This year, our focus is on embedding these programmes and monitoring impact.
In this edition we will give the following updates:
Sam Walter
swalter@britishschool.sch.ae
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Girls on Board Our EAL department, what they do and who they work with What inclusion is Hear from our new Head Girl/Boy and Student Leaders Share how to access our Wellbeing One Stop Shop more easily Library Update
Building on last year’s work, when we introduced Girls on Board to Year 4,5 and 6, a new year and new term sees Year 4 being introduced to Girls on Board for the first time. For those parents who are new to the School, Girls on Board (Click on this link to give you further information) is an approach that empowers girls to navigate the choppy waters of friendships, for themselves. Feedback from children, parents and teachers last year was really positive. Children said they had developed a common, shared language to use when talking to teachers and their parents, when experiencing upheaval within friendships. Calling responsive sessions as and when necessary helped the class to adapt to the changes that were taking place amongst the girls. As a school, we see this approach as vital in equipping our girls to deal with inevitable conflict that arises. With this in mind we have invested in another 10 Primary Staff who have been trained up, to be able to deliver the training, and hold subsequent responses.
Issue 1: November 2023
SPOTLIGHT ON EAL
Debbie Digby-Johns
ddjohns@britishschool.sch.ae
Bridie McDonnell
bmcdonnell@britishschool.sch.ae
SUPPORTING CHILDREN FROM FS1 TO YEAR 6 Our EAL department supports children from FS1 all the way through to Year 6. Supporting EAL children in school is essential to ensure their academic success and overall well-being. All our EAL students have individualised learning plans that take into account their specific needs and goals and help incorporate activities that promote all four language skills. Our children can receive 1:1 support, where we are able to address specific language needs. We also support small groups of children, this not only helps them with their language needs and development but also encourages peer-to-peer interaction and helps build their confidence and communication skills. Finally, we support children in class and assist them with their curriculum work. USING VISUAL AIDS We use a lot of visual aids, such as realia, story sacks, diagrams and flash cards etc to aid their understanding of the topic. We have EAL vocabulary groups, where we introduce the key vocabulary words and concepts before they appear in their lessons. This can help EAL students understand and engage with the curriculum more effectively. INCORPORATING FUN We really believe in incorporating elements of fun, play and creativity into our EAL sessions to make it more enjoyable for the students and creating a positive, engaging atmosphere to encourage active participation from them.
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THERE ARE WAYS TO ACCESS ALL THINGS BSAK WELLBEING ONE STOP SHOP
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Click on the image above for updates to our recommended resources for all things wellbeing. This Whole School BSAK Wellbeing One Stop Shop for Parents will be updated monthly with contributions from our Inclusion departments, school counsellors, digital leaders and Assistant Heads of Wellbeing and Pastoral care.
At the bottom of any email you receive from staff in school you will find a live link to our BSAK Wellbeing One Stop Shop. Hover your mouse over the link and then click, this will take you to your Parent Portal where this resource is saved.
Click here, on any email to access link
Issue 1: November 2023
INCLUSION DEPARTMENT WHAT IS INCLUSION? As part of our ongoing conversations about Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) at BSAK we asked some of our children and staff: What does Inclusion mean? How does it feel to be included and how do you know that you’re included? Here are some of their responses.
Inclusion Means: “Not being left out” “To feel part of something without being judged or labelled” “Having a level playing field” “Adaptive teaching” “Strength in differences not similarities” “Enabling everyone to access the curriculum at school” “not being sad” “When you are a part of something. I know I’m included because I have friends that play with me and teachers that like me” “including people who want to be included” “cultivating an environment for people to learn and grow together whilst developing their unique strengths” “not being discriminated against” “being able to just be” “to be included regardless of race, ability or ethnicity” “feeling important because everyone cares about you” “to be part of a community” “being part of the BSAK team” What do you and your children think? Do the images on this page make it easier to understand Inclusion?
STUDENT VOICE NEW HG/HB AND STUDENT LEADERS
We asked Lucy and James to tell us why they applied for this role. JAMES ‘I wanted to apply for the position of Head Boy to give back to my school and my community that taught me responsibility, resilience and respect. I know I can be an ambassador for BSAK, both inside and outside the school. I have represented the school in Primary Swim Squad, U11 Football and Biathlons. As Head Boy, I want to make sure every student enjoys school as much as I do - from making lifelong friends to being taught by the best teachers in the UAE’. LUCY ‘Hello, my name is Lucy and I am the Head girl of BSAK Primary. I have attended BSAK since Nursery and have loved it very much. I first wanted to become Head Girl because I am so proud of BSAK and I knew it would be such an honour to take on the Head Girl role. I think that the most important thing to be in life is to be kind. BSAK offers us many opportunities, so my advice to all my fellow students is to grab those opportunities and make the most of them’.
PRIMARY LIBRARY WHY WE DITCHED DEWEY We have been making some pretty major changes in the Primary Library over the last couple of years. We wanted to lean more towards enabling our students to have more independence when choosing their own books. We noticed many readers stuck in a rut, choosing the same series or authors time and again. It’s not so easy to find something new when you don’t know what to expect from all the other books in the library.
Anna McCormack
AMcCormack@britishschool.sch.ae
First we genrefied the downstairs Fiction collection, so now all the funny books are in one place and all the mystery books are together in another. It made such a significant impact to the breadth and depth of borrowing, not to mention the increased independence the students have shown in navigating the shelves, that we decided to try out a similar shift for the Non-Fiction section upstairs.
Previously the Non-Fiction books were catalogued and shelved according to the Dewey Decimal System. This is a numerical system, historically used by libraries to categorise and shelve their books. The Dewey Decimal System was created in the 1870s, and the world has changed significantly since then. So much so, that many of the categories no longer make sense or apply to our student’s lives (if you’d like to find out more about the issues with Dewey you can start here). We tackled the infant (KS1) books first and started with a big “weed” where we removed the old, dusty, never borrowed books from the catalogue. This was a necessary step to make room for new materials and so the shelves aren’t too crowded for the books to be seen. Then we grouped them by large categories such as Animals, Geography, History, Hobbies, STEM and experimented with how best to split those categories up into smaller sections that the younger children would be able to navigate.
Upstairs in our Non Fiction Section
Once we had our categories and subcategories, we updated their new location in the catalogue and stuck cute stickers on the spines to make it even easier for the students to find what they were looking for - and for us to return the books to the shelves! The biggest job was moving all the books to their new addresses on the shelves. We did this while the library was closed in order to minimise disruption to borrowing and finally we were ready to introduce the new layout to our students. Immediately we saw an effect. After only a little guidance at the start, students were able to navigate the library independently, borrowing a much greater variety of subjects than we had seen previously. Their confidence in exploring new sections was inspiring and exciting. It was definitely the right move to ditch Dewey. After only a short rest, we made a start on the junior (KS2) section. The process was mostly the same, but a little more complicated because we wanted to accommodate CUSP topics to support the curriculum. It was a big undertaking, but it was absolutely worth it.
Issue 1: November 2023
UPDATE STUDENT LEADERSHIP, LEADING GAMES CLUB
Dave Rutland drutland@britishschool.sch.ae
Nurturing Leadership
Kate Davies kdavies@britishschool.sch.ae (Maternity Cover for Fiz Mehmood)
Our student leadership after school club plays a crucial role in nurturing leadership skills among its members. Through its commitment to organisation, it provides a structured platform for students to develop their abilities in decision-making and teamwork. Emphasizing student voice, the club ensures that all members have a say in shaping its activities and goals, fostering a sense of ownership and inclusivity. Through its use of fun interactive playground games the club, reinforces the importance of effective leadership, teamwork and above all fun! Now that the weather is cooling down we are going to be able to bring these games to the KS2 playground during break times now. We can’t wait!
COMING UP … In the next Issue of our BSAK Primary Wellbeing Magazine for Parents we will share with you: ● Sharing Parenting Workshops ● Update from our Student Voice ● Vision Training from Cleveland Clinic and our New Outside Library ● Restorative Practices Update