15 JANUARY 2017
VOLUME 7 ISSUE 10
ISG Jubail School Administration Newsletter
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Principal’s Corner Dear ISG Jubail Community, It is great to welcome everyone back from winter break and to also welcome in the New Year! Please note that Skyward Family and Student Access will be closed tomorrow as the end of the first semester is fast approaching and grading needs to be completed. Elementary report cards will be published in Skyward next Thursday, January 26th. Middle and high school students will get their reports posted on January 30th. The second semester officially begins on January 29th. You might have noticed some changes on the campus that were made over the winter break. There have been several security upgrades at the entrance, as well as in the building. Some repair work has been completed as well. We want to thank our Operations department and MCC custodial team for all this hard work. As we head into the second half of the school year we have a few important items to keep aware of. I would like to share with the community that our IB Diploma program implementation is currently on schedule. We are hosting a virtual consultation with our consultant on February 27th and 28th. This check in is essential as we plan for an August 2018 implementation. Our school continues to work on improving in all areas, but primarily in the area of teaching and learning. We are in our third year of initiating a writers workshop initiative to improve the writing skills of our students KG - grade 8. Next August we will follow this up with a Reader's Workshop initiative where teachers will be able to utilize best practices to help improve the reading levels of our students as they progress through our school. This short video will allow you to get some insight into what the Readers Workshop model is all about. Please keep be aware that International day is coming up on 23 February 2017. The organizers of this event will be in providing information to the community about what we can expect on this day when we celebrate our international mindedness. It will prove to be a wonderful event. I wish everyone a great week! Dan Mock, Principal ISG Jubail Follow me on Twitter
Quick Notes January 16: Skyward Family & Student Access Closed (for grading) January 18: StuCo BBQ @ 3:00 PM January 19-20: SAIKAC Middle School Model United Nations January 26: Last day of Semester 1 January 26: ES Report Cards sent out January 26: U16/19 Boys & Girls Football in DHS January 27-28: DHAMUN in Dhahran January 27-28: MEUC Basketball in Bahrain January 28: DAHRUN in DHS January 29: First day of Semester 2 January 30: MS/HS Report Cards published Follow us on Instagram Stay tuned with our Events Calendar
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Announcements Skyward Closed Dear Parents of MS/HS children, Please note that Skyward access will be closed from Monday, January 16 at 3:00 PM until Monday, January 30 at 3:00 PM. Access is closed so teachers can prepare final reports and peer edit. This time allows us to present professional reports with substantive comments that can help your child's learning. Alexander Pethan, MS/HS Vice Principal
MS/HS Winter BBQ The MS and HS Student Councils will be hosting a winter barbecue on Wednesday, January 18th from 3:00-4:30 p.m. Students who want to eat at the BBQ must purchase their hamburger, chicken or veggie burger ahead of time - they will be sold at lunch until Tuesday, January 17th. Burgers cost 10 SAR each and include a Pepsi or 7up. Each additional burger costs 5 SAR. The usual after school buses will be leaving at the regular times.
International Day The date of the International Day for all school has been confirmed. The event will take place on February 23rd. It will involve a parade for students to participate in across elementary and middle/high school. For the day itself, we will be encouraging the children to represent the country or culture they have a close connection with, as many children may have been raised with a connection to one country but may hold a passport to another country they have spent less time in. This is a common theme for children who grow up abroad and is one that we should encourage children to be comfortable with.
AP Exams Payment Please note that the deadline to pay for AP exams has been set for Wednesday, March 15. The fee is SAR 450 per exam and can be paid to Ms. Angela Jucal, the school accountant.
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Library News Happy New Year! The library is happy to announce the following reading promotion programs: Newbery Challenge Grades: 4th-5th Dates: January 8th -March 8th Goal: Promote reading by challenging each student to read as many Newbery Award winning books as possible starting January 8th and ending March 8th Winner Celebration Dates - Library provides pizza for everyone (students may bring treats to share with their class) Grade 4: March 15th (12:00-12:45 p.m.) Grade 5: March 16th (12:00-12:45 p.m.)
Book Challenge Grade: 6th-12th Dates: January15th - April 27th Goal: Promote reading by encouraging each student to read as many books as possible starting January 15th and ending March 27th (library books read since August also count). A majority of the books should be from the school library. Prize Awarded: May 4th Friendly Reminder MS/HS students please be reminded that access to Skyward/Report Card, for semester 1, will be blocked until fines and/or overdue books are paid/returned. Thank you kindly for your attention to this matter. Phelia Weir, Librarian
PTO Spirit T-Shirt Contest Winners! This year the PTO hosted a spirit shirt design contest for all ISG Jubail students. We have received over fifty unique and creative entries. The student body voted and selected a design from both ES and MS/HS to represent them this year. Congratulations to our ES winner, Sarvin Suryakumar from 1st grade, and to our MS/HS winner, Hanisah Hajhari from 10th grade. A full gallery of all the submissions can be viewed on the ISG Jubail PTO Facebook page. Pre-order forms to purchase these shirts will be coming out this week.
Sarvin Suryakumar, Grade 1
Hanisah Hajhari, Grade 10
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ME to WE News When asked, club member, Arina, shared, "The mesmerizing smell of popcorn had attracted many students to come to our booth for three consecutive days. It was fun to hear the popping corn make tapping music continuously. We were delighted to spend our recess time in helping a successful fundraiser for our soon to be on campus 'buddy bench!" We were pleased to have many of our students' moms help with popping and selling popcorn. When asked how they felt about the popcorn for peace fundraiser: Carly's mom shared, "I thought it was a great event that not only raised money for the club, but was fun for all the students and built spirit in the school. My favorite part was how all the Me to We club members were so excited to help even if they had to give up their own time. I was proud to be involved with such a good cause when I can see it meant so much to the club." Yara's mom shared, "It felt really nice! I would love to do it again. I feel happy to be part of the Me to We club. It was a nice and good experience because I got to meet new people and seeing the kids working together and they looked so excited to raise money." Nadiyah's mom said, "It was a very busy and exciting experience. I would do it again because I helped contribute towards a very good cause." We would like to thank everyone who supported our popcorn for peace fundraiser. The money raised will go to our buddy bench. Please keep an eye open for its arrival.
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Winter Projects Update On behalf of our Operations department team, welcome back after the winter break!
Over the three weeks period, Mathew George and Vinaya Babu, supported by the amazing MCC team have been diligently working through the winter projects list. We hope you have already seen some of these upgrades and we are biased in our opinion that the campus is looking rather spruced up for the next six months before our summer break. We shall keep working on maintenance projects as they form part of our continuous improvement efforts. Russell Rein, Director of Operations
Fixed Early Learning Center’s playground tiles
Added extra safety hump between main building & car park
Manufactured purpose built ES tables
Upgrade of integrated alarm system
Installation of perimeter access gates
Lines repainted on courts in cage
Paving at emergency exit near MPR
Installed stage in drama room
Removal of tree stumps outside MPR
Repainted wooden benches
Leveling of concrete pathway
Repainted exterior of fine arts