SummeRISe - Issue 95

89 Thursday, Thursday 29 October 21 May 2015 Issue 95 GENERAL GENERAL

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SECONDARY SECONDARY

GENERAL Innoventures Anthem Recording

PARIS SCHOOL CLINIC

IMPORTANT DATES DATE

EVENTS NOVEMBER

Sunday, 01 November Monday, 09 November Wednesday, 11 November Thursday, 12 November Sunday, 15 - Thursday, 19 November Sunday, 15 - Thursday, 19 November Monday, 16 November Monday, 16 - Tuesday, 17 November Tuesday, 17 - Wednesday, 18 November Thursday, 19 November Thursday, 19 November Monday 23 - Thursday, 26 November

Parent-Student Conference RIS Open Day - 9:00 - 10:30 am RIS Nursery Open Day - 9:30 - 11:00 am Staff Professional Development Day - noon dismissal Anti-Bullying Week Joint Inspection Grade 3 Field Trip KG1 Field Trip KG1 Planting Days GIVE Walkathon (Beach Run) Blue Day - Nursery Art Exhibition

Tuesday, 24 - Thursday, 26 November Wednesday, 25 November Thursday, 26 November Thursday, 26 November

Grade 1 Field Trip IVEI Academic Olympiad at CAS Dental talk - Nursery National Day Celebration

DECEMBER Tuesday, 01 – Thursday, 03 December Sunday, 06 - Wednesday, 09 December Tuesday, 08 - Thursday, 10 December Wednesday, 09 December Thursday, 10 - Saturday, 12 December Friday, 11 - Friday, 18 December Wednesday, 16 December Thursday, 17 December Thursday, 17 December Friday, 18 December - Saturday, 02 January

Martyrs’ Day and National Day KG2 Field Trip Nursery Field Trip RIS Open Day - 9:00 - 10:30 am Cambridge World Schools Conference No school for students on Thursday, 10 December Ski Trip KG1 Winter Concert Nursery Reports End of Term and dismissal for Winter Break - Full day school Winter Break

JANUARY Sunday, 03 January Sunday. 10 January Wednesday, 13 January Thursday, 14 January Thursday, 14 January Monday, 18 January Monday, 18 January Tuesday, 19 January—Thursday, 21 January Thursday, 21 January Sunday, 24 January Wednesday, 27 January

Students and Teachers Return to School Football @ RWA U12, 14, 16 Art Trip Grade 1 and Grade 2 Orange Day—Nursery Grade 2 Field Trip KG1 Field Trip RIS Open Day KG 1 Field Trip Nursery Sports Day Cross Country at DIA U8-U18 X-Factor at DIA (5 top performers—SS)

Message from the Principal Dear Parents, Many returning students will remember the creation of the GIVE Initiative last year. This charity was created to help provide clean water and education to impoverished areas of the world. The aim of this initiative is to provide the students at our institutions with a unique possibility of actually seeing how their contributions and hard work are helping certain parts of the world year after year. With regular trips to these parts of the world and exchange programmes with children from these regions, we hope to give our students a front row, if not centre stage, on this philanthropic journey.

GIVE has decided to team up with Dubai Cares and more specifically with the branches dedicated to bringing education to lesser privileged parts of the world. This cooperation will help our community gain greater access to some very noble projects that have already been created and also help us make a real difference with all the contributions that have been collected so far. Our input however will not just come in the form of fundraising but will see our students witness first hand the growth and benefits of their hard work.

Starting from Sunday, 01st November, students of Innoventures Education will play an active role in sponsoring the construction and development of schools in Nepal. All funds collected so far will go towards these two important projects. A select group of Grade 11 and 12 students from each school will go to this region to witness the work being done on our specific projects on a yearly basis.

One upcoming event to pencil in will be the GIVE Walkathon taking place at RIS, RWA, CAS and DIA on Thursday, 19th November. Each school will be selecting specific age groups to take part and will be sending more information about the event closer to the date.

We hope that all of you will support us in this exciting journey ahead. We look forward to making a difference together.

Mr Michael William Clack Principal

Joint Inspection This week I received formal notification from the DSIB/ KHDA regarding the dates for our forthcoming inspection. Please note this is a Joint Inspection- the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau and the British Schools Overseas* and will commence the week beginning Sunday, 15th November.

The underlying principle of any inspection process is to drive improvement through raising awareness of current strengths and areas for development. Inspection should generate a professional two-way discussion around identified issues and points of interest, but also pinpoint and highlight areas for development and improvement. I am confident that we are on the road, ‘Towards Excellence’.

The core purpose of the UAE inspection process is to support the education statement in the UAE Vision 2021.

“Education is a fundamental element for the development of a nation and the best investment in its youth.”

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achieve a world-class education system apply a high quality evaluation system measure the quality of school performance support school improvement support students’ outcomes

I have recently received the KHDA link for the parental questionnaire and this will be circulated shortly.

As a community, supporting each other in order to deliver the very best education for all our children, we are certainly on an exciting journey, ‘Towards Excellence’.

Joint inspections with British Schools Overseas (BSO) and Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) 2015.

If our school fulfils the necessary conditions (we follow the English National and Cambridge Curriculum) and successfully completes such an inspection, it would be afforded recognition as a 'British' school, with standards equivalent to those of independent schools in the UK. In order to retain our status as a 'British' school on the KHDA Permit w e must apply for a BSO inspection. The inspections are carried out by CfBT Education Trust, an authorized BSO provider, in tandem with the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) inspection.

RAFFLES INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL UPDATE The objectives of the Advisory Council are to drive school improvement, guide development, monitor progress and hold the school accountable for the quality of education delivered. The Advisory Council includes all stakeholders namely, parents, professionals from the community, members of higher education, RIS senior leadership, Innoventures Education group management and a Board Director. Students and teachers are invited to participate at each meeting. The Advisory Council meets formally three to four times a year. The Advisory Council is also informed about various internal and external reports related to the school’s progress including reports by accreditation bodies, external consultants, summary of parent surveys, the school improvement plan, and academic results. Established in 2011, the Advisory Council continues to play a significant role in the improvement of the school through its contribution to the school RIS parents interacting with members of the Advisory Council

Some significant recommendations of the Council that have been implemented include the following: - Islamic Education and Arabic  Enhance Islamic Education and Arabic by providing higher levels of challenge and engaging students to raise attainment  Make a Group level appointment to support and develop Arabic and Islamic studies - Teaching and Learning  Improve the use of assessment information to inform lesson planning and set appropriate targets for students’ progress  Include student progress in lesson evaluation and performance management system, as any improvement in teaching/assessment needs to reflect in attainment and progress of students in lessons and over time. Lesson evaluation should have a way to indicate the student progress.

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Raising teaching and assessment standards through the leaders of learning programme.

Consultants from Incyte spent a week in school earlier this year to support the school specifically in the areas of analysis and use of data, raising teaching quality, special education needs and Arabic studies - Parental engagement and Communication  Take advantage of parental and community expertise to enrich the curriculum  Improve parent communication - Infrastructure, Facilities and Resources  Expand facilities - add rooms for more subject options and shade play areas  Increased security and surveillance – 39 security cameras added  Better acoustic solution in the cafeteria and more space  New additional IT equipment including 3 laptop trolleys, upgraded hardware in IT labs, 75 iPads desktop computers and 4 printers  Wi-fi network upgraded with new switches and access points to support the BYOD programme All members of the Advisory Council had an opportunity to visit classes and observe not only teaching and learning but also the various facilities provided to students for holistic learning.

A profile of the Advisory Council members is appended in the following section for your reference.

Raffles International School Advisory Council October 2015 Please note that the CEO, Ms Poonam Bhojani and the Principal, will be meeting be meeting with parents the week beginning, Sunday, 08 November 2015.

RAFFLES INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL MEMBERS AVISHESHA BHOJANI Avi's professional career spans Marketing Services, Media, Private Equity, Investments and Government sectors. At the helm of the BPG Group (www.batespangulf.com) since 1991, Avi consolidates the Group's interests across advertising, public advocacy, public relations, design, activation, media asset management and digital verticals, in the Middle East and North Africa regions. He has also assisted in the conceptualization and execution of a number of strategic Dubai initiatives and has served the Government of Dubai while assisting with the development of Knowledge Economy hubs in Dubai. An Alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Avi is a founding Director of Endeavor UAE, PanIIM Alumni Network Gulf and the Advisory Board of Abu Dhabi Capital Management. Avi is also the Managing Director of Innoventures Education, General Partner of Montana Capital and AMEA Ventures Ltd, and is Chairman of International Management Ventures FZ LLC. HAMDI OSMAN Hamdi is the Chairman of Solitaire IGT. He graduated in physical education from Helwan University, Cairo, in 1976. He then moved to the US to pursue his interest in professional soccer and in 1978 joined FedEx, an organization he served for 33 years. He is on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Freights and Logistics, the American Business Council and the Supply Chain & Logistics Group (SCLG) of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He was also a member of the International Advisory Council and the School of Business and Management, American University of Sharjah from 2002 to 2005, and on the Board of Trustees of the American School of Dubai between 1998 and 2006. He is a former CEO of FedEx for the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa.

POONAM BHOJANI Poonam is an Economics Honours Graduate with an MBA from India's premier business school, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Prior to envisioning and cofounding Dubai International Academy, Poonam has had significant industry experience working on leading edge technology solutions with a range of organizations across India, Hong Kong, USA, Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands, Oman and UAE. She is the CEO of Innoventures Education and has served as the President of the Middle East IB Association of Schools and is the Secretary of the Dubai Private Schools Group.

DR. SEHAMUDDIN GALADARI Dr. Galadari graduated with Ph.D. from Imperial College, London. He joined the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAE University in 1991. He has served as Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Studies and on the Advisory Boards of Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research, Emirates Foundation, Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Medical Research Grant Committee of Sheikh Hamdan Award for Medical Sciences. He has been a visiting Professor at Imperial College, University of Glasgow, Duke University Medical Centre, Medical University of South Carolina and POSTECH in South Korea.

ALEJANDRO CARBON Alejandro is the Executive Director of Alternative Products and Analytics at Majid Al Futtaim Finance.

Alejandro is in charge of prepaid cards, remittances and mobile wallet businesses as well as running the analytics function for the entire business. Prior to that he has spent 10 years in consulting with McKinsey & Company, working across multiple industries. An MBA with distinction from University of Michigan – School of Business, he brings a keen understanding of strategy, stakeholder engagement and processes to the council.

NASSER TALIB IBRAHIM NASSER Nasser studied at the prestigious Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai. After stints with Pepsi (Dubai Refreshments) and Ghandi Electronics (Philips) he joined the Desert Group in 2006 and currently serves as its CEO. He has led the diversification and expansion of the group in trading, commercial, interior landscapes and golf and set up a potting soil manufacturing factory. He has been on the Boards of Nasser Group and Al Islami since 1996.

TÉRÈSE PELTOFF VIIRA Tess Viira has been with RIS since the school opened in September 2007. She has 2 daughters in the school, now in grades 5 and 6. Her family is from Sweden with an Estonian background. In 2009, she along with two other mothers at RIS started PARIS to get more involved and contribute to RIS. Tess has earlier been a board member for the Swedish School at DIA and is currently working as an Account Manager at the Norwegian Seamen's Centre in Dubai.

MICHAEL STEPHEN Michael Stephen is a Chartered Accountant and has a Diploma in Portfolio Management with over 20 years' experience in consulting and industry. He was part of the core team of Innoventures Education that set up Dubai International Academy in 2005. Michael started his career in an accounting firm focused on audit, tax, corporate law, and business and investment advisory services. He is a Fellow of the Association of International Accountants, UK and has been on the faculty of a business school in Dubai.

MESSAGE FROM OUR DEAN OF STUDENTS The Importance of School Attendance Research has proven that there is a high correlation between school attendance and academic performance and success, while absence from school is often the greatest single cause of poor performance.

Why is it so Important to attend every day?  Learning is a progressive activity; each day's lessons build upon those of the previous day (s).  Reading the material and completing work independently does not compensate for the loss of insight gained during class discussion or the loss of competency acquired through explanation or supervised drill.  Many classes use lectures, discussions, demonstrations, experiments and participation as part of the daily learning activities, and these cannot be made up by those who are absent.  Regular student participation in daily classroom activities plays a significant role in a student's school success.

Are there other benefits to my child?  Students with good attendance records generally achieve higher grades and enjoy school more.  Having a good education will help to give your child the best possible start in life.  Regular school attendance patterns encourage the development of other responsible patterns of behaviour.  Students who develop an "on the job" attitude toward school will be more desirable to future employers.

What are the risks of frequent absences?  A child who does not attend school regularly will be unlikely to keep up with the work.  The more students miss school, the lower their grades; the lower their grades, the less they want to stay in school; the less they want to stay in school, the more likely they will drop out of school.  Students who miss school are more likely to be at-risk for anti-social or criminal behaviour.

What can parents do to help?  Parents must model the value of education, including the importance of regular attendance.  Make sure that your child goes to school regularly and arrives on time-you will establish a good habit that will carry through life.  If your child starts missing school, work with the school to put things right. Make sure your child understands that you do not approve of him/her missing school.  If your child is ill or must miss school for some other reason, contact the school immediately. If you ask for homework, make sure your child completes it.

Gary Williams Dean of Students

ICT @RIS Our Grade 4 students have been assigned school Gmail ids which will be used strictly for school related activities. Students will be introduced to emails and mail etiquette. All students from will receive assignment related feedback through mail . This has already been implemented in Grades 5-9.

All students have also filled up self-analysis forms that gives the teachers a fair idea of skill related competency of each student.

ICT @ Secondary School Grade 6 Students did a self-analysis on their competencies in Thinglink and Prezi by filling in Google forms on both the modules. They continued building their websites using either Google sites, Weebly or Wix. They added images, pages, videos and did a preview of their website.

Grade 7 Students generated a web page based on the various festivals celebrated across the world. They had to first research on the topic and then create the page. These webpages will be used for learning the table properties in FrontPage.

Grade 8 Students applied various types of validation in the data structure that they had learnt and created in the previous lesson in MS Access. They used data validation to test by using various forms of data in the data table.

Grade 9 Students used the various function option effectively for validation, calculations and logical operations in MS Excel They learnt about the different forms of storage devices. Students researched on the topic and discussed about the usage, advantages and disadvantages of these storage devices.

ICT Team

Primary School Learning and Student Council We are pleased to announce that the Primary School ‘Learning’ and ‘Student Council’ have been formed.

Students were asked to give a ‘one minute’ speech in their classes. From every class one student representative was chosen by means of voting. Eighteen student representatives for each Council, Grade 3 to Grade 5 were elected.

Learning Council - Ms Zeba attended the meeting with the Learning Council and had an interactive session with regards to teaching and learning within the school. The students were able to give valuable feedback and have also started with their first assignment ‘Lesson of the day’. Student’s views and opinions are recorded and will be evaluated by the management.

Student Council - The meeting was opened by a welcome note from Mr. Mattew Barrett - Deputy Head (Grade 3-5), followed by a motivational session titled ‘Why Student Council?’ by Ms Mitchelle Carvalho. The students discussed different activities that they could help out with both within the school and the larger community. They started with their first activity the collection of oranges for “Kids Who Share’ in conjunction with “Mums Who Share”.

The Learning Council meets every Monday and the Student Council meets every Tuesday.

To accomplish their goals, these student bodies will need the help and support of many others like their classmates, teachers and parents. We wish them all the best and a successful year 2015 – 2016.

Football The U9s, U10s and U11s played in the first football tournament of the year.

RIS TS R O P S

The U9s captained by Muhammed, finished 3rd place overall. Some stand out performances by Miguel and Taewang in both defense and attack. The U10s were very unlucky not to win the competition but unfortunately we conceded a late goal with the last kick of the game against DIA. The team bounced back to beat CAS by 4-1 finishing 2nd overall. Liro and his brother Visa grew with confidence as the tournament progressed with some excellent attacking play. Visa scored two goals in the game and was instrumental in the lead up to the third goal scored by Matteo who was vice-captain of the U10s.

Mohamed Sadek secured a fourth goal to seal the win and to make sure the boys went on to finish runners-up in the tournament. Amru led an excellent defensive display with many brave tackles and clearances. The U11s finished third with a brave display for all three games. Federico was the captain for the side who played extremely well and led his team to collect the medals on the podium.

The U8s and U11s will have a game this week at Safa Private. Mr Aeham and Mr O’ Brien are now focusing on the DESSA league for Netball.

Netball Miss Tara will be taking over 20 RIS girls, for the first netball tournament on the 25th October in RWA. Both the U12 and U14 team face a significant challenge playing against a well-established DIA team.

The RIS girls are looking forward to starting the season off gaining valuable match experience that will be a big positive to lots of our new netball players. The netball club has been a huge success and close to 40 girls in Secondary have been regularly training each week. All players need to remember that if they were not chosen this time round they will be opportunities to play in future tournaments.

Basketball The U16s basketball team recorded victories in the first two games against to stay at the top at the Dubai League. Tayano Neto 9A was a standout performer during the game against Emirates International School. The team lost their first game by a very narrow margin 43-42. Mr Alex said “the team is now focused on the next league game against Dubai British School this week”. Good luck to all our sports teams in the very busy sporting calendar.

Learn

Learning Sup-

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with Dyslexia Did you know that dyslexia is the most common cause of spelling, reading, and writing problems?

How do you help children overcome and/or manage these difficulties for school success? The following information is to help you understand dyslexia and what you can do to help your children develop a love of reading and writing.

What is Dyslexia and what causes it?

Dyslexia is a learning disability. This means it affects one’s ability to adequately learn, process, and retain information. Dyslexia, specifically, causes problems in spelling, reading, and writing by affecting word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness and recognition, and decoding of words.

This inhibits a child’s ability to learn to read, even with normal intelligence and classroom instruction.

Dyslexia affects 15-20% of the population and occurs twice as often in males.

The causes of dyslexia are usually genetic in nature; however, a much less common cause is head injury or trauma. Some children with dyslexia appear to process information using a different area of the brain than children without a learning disability: However, this is not characteristic of all children diagnosed with dyslexia. Some types of dyslexia may decrease in severity as a child ages.

Identification of dyslexia may be difficult to make as a parent or classroom teacher. Parents and teachers can become aware of some signs and symptoms of dyslexia, possibly warranting an evaluation by a health professional.

I Think I Know a Child Who May Have Dyslexia. What Should I Do? Identification of dyslexia may be difficult to make as a parent. Parents and teachers can become aware of some signs and symptoms of dyslexia, possibly warranting an evaluation by a health professional. Take note of the following basic symptoms: 

Difficulty associating a letter with its sound

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Reversals of letters (dig for big) or words (tac for cat)

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Difficulty reading single words

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Difficulty spelling single words

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Difficulty copying letters/words from the board or a book

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Difficulty understanding what they hear (auditory)

If a child exhibits a number of these signs and symptoms of dyslexia, you can refer the child to the Special Education Needs department or paediatrician to coordinate an evaluation with a team of professionals familiar with dyslexia. (Please note: The above is not an inclusive list of signs and symptoms of dyslexia) Use this list as a general guideline only, not as a basis for diagnosis.

Edited extract from Dyslexia: A Common Childhood Learning Disability - By Keri Spielvogle, M.C.D., CCC-SLP Super Duper Publications: http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pdf/49_Dyslexia.pdf FREE Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Screening for Schools IT’S DYSLEXIA AWARENESS WEEK. FREE Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Screening for Schools IT’S DYSLEXIA AWARENESS WEEK. Dear Educators, On the occasion of this year’s Dyslexia Awareness Week we would very much appreciate your collaboration in helping us to contribute to this year’s Dyslexia awareness raising campaign (October and November are Dyslexia awareness months in the USA, UK, Scotland, and Europe).

Dyslexia affects around 10% of the population and it is recognized as a disability in the UK, the USA and most European countries. However, many students are still struggling with little to no support, having been failed by the education system or not identified.

Lexicon Reading Centre is contributing to the raising of awareness through a number of workshops and by offering schools free screening for dyslexia of students with reading and/ or writing difficulties (8th to 11th of November).

Lexicon Reading Centre also contributes to support students in schools, in collaboration with school administrations, by providing individualized targeted interventions using multisensory dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia approaches.

This service targets the students who need support at the Third Wave Level in UK curriculum (or Third Tier Level US curriculum) of support need.

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Dear Parents, Grandparents and Extended family, Our Montessori environment puts a lot of emphasis on the ‘holistic’ development of the child. Between the ages of 2-4years, a child personality, self-esteem and confidence begins to take shape and children build a self-image. There are big ideas which need to be introduced to little ones in simple ways. Back in the 70’s there was a Broadway show and then a television sitcom titled “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

The lighthearted story was about the trials of family life with three young children. The title came from an occasion when the mother was preparing her home and children to be on their best behavior for guests. She had given her kids a long list of do’s and don’ts. Much to her shock, one of the boys got hold of the flower centerpiece and nibbled it to a collection of stems. She moaned that hereafter, her list of behavior standards would include “Please don’t eat the daisies.” Alas, there is just no way to make a list long enough or sufficiently complete to prepare our children for everything they will encounter in the days and years ahead of them. If we were to keep adding to the list of prohibitions and rules as our children grow, one could imagine it being a mile long by the time they were teenagers. Nor is it useful to engage in the style of parenting that discovers afterwards what the problems are, and then makes up rules to match. Playing catch up with guidance can only be frustrating for children and parents alike.

Rather, it is important that parents understand that the guidance they are giving now to their young children contains the vital limits that will control their actions through life. That is, they are teaching four basic principles, or Big Ideas, that can be applied to fit particular situations as they occur, no matter the age of the individual. These really are the important values that should help them make important decisions as they learn to control their actions and behave appropriately. The four Big Ideas to teach your children are:

Casa G makes Orange juice to keep the sneezes away (Healthy Eating topic)

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1. Keep yourself (and others) safe. This applies to behavior on the playground or running into the street, as well as when you get your first driver’s license or are tempted into risky behaviors by teenage peers.

Parents should frequently ask the question, “Is that a safe behavior?” This helps even the youngest children learn to consider and control their actions.

2. Take care of the things around you. Even toddlers have to learn the limit of not destroying their toys or messing with the property of others. But this same principle later applies to environmental stewardship, managing family resources, and neighborhood relations.

3. Take responsibility for your actions. Even with your youngest children, they must learn that their choices are followed by results. As children learn that their behavior has consequences, they begin to modify their behavior to avoid undesirable consequences. As a toddler, this means learning that if I make a mess, I have to clean it up, or if I hurt someone, I must make amends.

Later in life, this principle means living with the consequences of choices in relationships and job situations.

4. Treat everyone fairly, with respect. Learning that others’ feelings, needs and rights must be taken into account is an important idea that governs moral and right actions. Helping even the youngest children understand this idea lays the foundation for all productive relationships.

Only four big ideas, but if you think about it, these are the ideas behind all our laws and codes for behavior. Working with young children to help them understand and apply these principles in individual situations is far more positive parenting than making “please don’t eat the daisies” list.

Our Culture topic over the last fortnight was ‘Healthy Eating’ and there was a lot of pointed discussion (even debate!) about what we should be eating as well as the effects different kinds of food has on our bodies. The little ones were introduced to the concept of the ‘Food Pyramid’ and we have enjoyed some colourful, educational craft related to the topic.

In support of the ‘Awareness of Breast Cancer’ program we wore pink on the 21 st October. Thank you for the donations you made to support this cause. Our children may be young to understand the importance of this campaign, but they are not young to know the importance of staying healthy. We spent time in the classrooms talking about taking care of ourselves and appreciating the doctors who do a lot of work to help us and that there is no reason to be frightened of them.

Garima Kapoor Nursery Coordinator

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KG NEWS Dear Parents, This month we had the pleasure of welcoming the Advisory Council into our school.

During their visit we held a meet and great with some parents in the Dance Studio.

This meeting also gave me the opportunity to speak to some of our KG parents and get their opinion on this year so far. After speaking to a few of our parents I noticed there are some confusions with the curriculum in KG2, therefore I would like to take this opportunity to briefly explain how the curriculum runs in KG2.

As you know, in the Kindergarten we follow the method of the Montessori programme for teaching and learning. Montessori is a programme that does not have benchmarks and the teachers follow the child at their own plane of development. However in KG2, the children are working towards the benchmarks of the Cambridge Programme, Stage 1.

What does this mean? And why did the school decide to do this?

Four years ago we brought Stage 1 of the CP into KG2 as the programme starts from the age of 5 years old. A lot of time was spent with myself, Ms. Zeba and my team to see how the Montessori programme can adapt benchmarking. This proved to be easy as we discovered a majority of each of the Montessori material would cover at least 6 CP benchmarks, once the child had mastered the material. We then took this information to the teachers for their guidance. We also found out there was a small gap to fill for continuum into Grade 1 with regards to writing skills, creative writing, connectives and grammar.

Therefore, we brought in the introduction to creative writing and more abstract work. When we brought the benchmarks into the Montessori programme, in KG2 we wanted to achieve 2 things: 1. The children will be prepared by the end of the year for Stage 2.

2. Montessori was not taken away.

These goals have been achieved and I would like to say, the KG2 teachers have done a fantastic job adapting the CP benchmarks into the Montessori programme. Teaching and learning has not been affected. Children are still learning concepts through the concrete material then progressing onto abstract. I hope this information has helped you to understand how the children are learning and how the teachers are teaching in KG2. If you would like more details, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Child Safety It has been nice greeting many of the parents in the parking area this week. Whilst my time was spent greeting parents and children in this area I noticed a few safety issues I would like to highlight.  Please do not double park or block another parent in.  We do not have a drop off area in the KG parking area.  Children should not be dropped at the gate to make their own way to the class rooms; children are to be handed over to the teacher by the parents or a career.  Please follow the road safety procedures are all times.  It is strongly advised all children should wear their seat belts when in any vehicle.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Susie Mcshane KG Coordinator

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KG1 News During the month of October, the little explorers were busy absorbing information from the prepared environment at their own pace. They all periodically displayed their interests while working with various Montessori materials. They are slowly demonstrating more self-confidence while working independently with the lessons that have been presented to them.

In the art room, the children have been exploring various art techniques such as finger painting, sponge printing, bubble wrap printing, mono prints and blow painting. They enjoy getting messy while expressing themselves through their art in a controlled environment. The art smocks sent in by each parent have helped maintain the children’s uniform and kept them presentable throughout the day in Kindergarten, thus reinforcing care of oneself in Practical Life.

The children were invited to the Book fair opening on Sunday, 18 October and the highlight was Ms. Susie dressed as Snow-white and dancing. They were able to visit the Book Fair during their library period and some of them were excited to purchase various books according to their interests. We look forward to the Book Character Dress up Day – watch this space.

The Science room has kept the children busy, experimenting and observing on daily basis. Experiments are an awesome part of science that allow students to engage in fun and exciting hands on learning experiences that they are sure to enjoy.

“Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening to words but by experiences in the environment.” Maria Montessori KG1 Team

KG2 News After the long weekend, the children of KG2 have shifted their gear back into learning mode. The children have shown enthusiasm towards their work and are settling back into their routines.

This week we had the book fair. The children were very excitedly browsing through books before selecting and buying. They had an amazing time at the book fair. The idea behind the book fair is to develop the love of books and reading. We would like to take this opportunity to inculcate the habit of daily reading in our children and look for your support.

We had the Pink Day where the children were made aware of the importance of being healthy and how we can help others.

The weather has become pleasant so the children have started enjoying outdoor play time. We would like to remind you of no hat no play policy of the school.

The Weekly Chronicle gives you an overview of the topics covered during the coming week. We would request that you check it on regular basis and it would be wonderful if you could contribute towards the science topics.

Homework is on the Study Ladder—please do work with the children on the same. Every Thursday we have the spelling quiz.

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PRIMARY SCHOOL Message from the Deputy Head of Primary School (KG2,G1 and G2) Dear Parents, What a busy time we have in school! There has been a real focus on reading this month. We have had enormous success in our book fair last week where the children had the opportunity to explore and buy a fantastic range of nonfiction and fiction books. The children were very excited by all the literature in our main foyer and so many children were able to look through the full range available as well as purchase them during the week.

Following on from this we are continuing to celebrate the love of reading this week. On Thursday 29 th October we will be celebrating Book Character day where all the children across the school will be dressed as their favourite book character. All proceeds collected on this day, will be given to charity.

We request a small donation of 5dhms per child which will be given to the charity, Dubai Cares http://dubaicares.ae/en Looking ahead, on Sunday, 01st November, you will have the opportunity to meet with your child’s Homeroom and specialist teachers. Please ensure you book your appointments online to be able to discuss your child’s progress and any other concerns you have.

Please note, the children will not be in school on this day. We look forward to meeting with you and to share your child’s learning journey. Please ensure children are dressed in the correct uniform and that children wear the correct black shoes when it is not the allocated PE day. The Raffles jumper and jacket is available to purchase for the winter and we do not allow any other coloured jacket.

Thank you in advance for your co-operation in this matter.

Jasmit Kang Deputy Head Teacher

Grade 1 News In Grade 1, we have been looking at place value in Mathematics. We have been partitioning numbers into Hundreds, Tens and Ones. We have also been looking at word problems and how to solve them using the technique CUBES (circle, underline, box, evaluate and solve). We have been working on the symbols for greater than, less than and equal to and the correct way to apply them to a Mathematics question.

In Science, we studied the seasons and the weather which has led us to the water cycle. We first looked at precipitation and its various forms and then we then turned to the story of Drippy the Raindrop. This story is an excellent example of how water has its own life cycle. The students are now able to explain key words such as: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection/ run off.

In English, we have covered nouns, verbs and adjectives (wow words). Whenever we do creative writing, we try to think of exciting sentence starters to make our writing more interesting. We have also been spending time on punctuation like full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. The students had fun with instructional writing. They gave instructions using key words such as: first, then, next, last, finally.

We had a book fair in school this week. The students had a great time choosing and purchasing their own books. We had Pink Day on October 21 st which was a great success. The children thought about the people in need of their money and agreed how lucky they all were to be healthy and happy. We donated oranges to the labour camps on October 22nd.

Grade 1 Team

Grade 2 News The students have been working really hard and showed a positive attitude towards achievement over these past weeks. In English, they learned about imperative verbs and speech marks. Students were also taught how to write their own recipe and had to create instructions for their own playground game. In Mathematics, students had to identify 2D shapes, learned about lines of symmetry and identifying different angles such as acute, right angle, obtuse and straight angles. A lot of practical activities were used for these topics to give students a better understanding of the concepts in science, topics such as texture and tasting were introduced. A few experiments were conducted where students had to feel and taste different objects and food. It was interesting to hear the fantastic discussions amongst students and to witness their enthusiasm and excellent teamwork. In Social Studies, different UAE states were explored.

Grade 2 also had an exciting event where they got to visit the Book Fair in the main atrium. Students were given the opportunity to explore a variety of books. We hope that they enjoy reading those books now on a daily basis and that they would share the stories with their friends.

Grade 3 News We had great support for our Pink Day which was celebrated on the Wednesday, 21 st October with the majority of the Grade 3 children showing their pink side and donating towards a very worthy cause.

In English, we have focused on describing settings and characters and creating an atmosphere within these settings. We are also looking at describing characters with attention to both physical characteristics and personality traits. We have now started learning about newspaper headlines and we are linking these headlines to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In Mathematics, we are working on different strategies and word problems in multiplication. We are encouraging students to practice their times tables at home as often as possible.

In Science, we have moved onto habitats. Within this topic, students have the opportunity to discover and learn about a variety of animal habitats. As an introduction to the topic we gave the students a range of ‘I can’ statements based on the topic. This helped students to understand their learning journey and what they are expected to have achieved by the end of the unit. We also asked students to brainstorm and come up with a range of potential activities we could undertake over the course of the unit in order to achieve these I can statements. The students were fully engaged with this and came up with some very useful and interesting ideas and strategies.

In Social Studies ,students are learning about the U.A.E. Students are participating excellently in this topic and are gladly sharing their experience of Dubai with their peers. We have done many in - class activities related to U.A.E culture and clothing.

Grade 3 Team

Grade 4 News We have had an extremely busy, but exciting time in Grade 4 recently. In Science, we have investigated pollination in flowering plants and learned about the different parts of a flower. To help us remember how an insect pollinates a plant, we all pretended to be bees. We used bags of Cheetos to represent the flowers, the Cheeto dust was the pollen and sweets became nectar. It was a fun and interactive way to learn about insect pollination.

As part of our Mathematics topic we have been learning all about the properties of shapes. First we looked at 2-D shapes in our environment. We found perpendicular and parallel lines in our classrooms, around the school and at home. Next, we discovered how to classify triangles into equilateral, isosceles, scalene and right angled. Finally, we looked at 3-D shapes and created cubes and cuboids by cutting out their nets.

In English, we have been learning how to plan and write an explanation text. Firstly, we looked at all the features that should be included. We then invented a machine to solve a problem and began planning.

When we had finished planning we wrote the explanation text, making sure to include a title, an interesting opening, clear explanation, connectives and a diagram to help with understanding.

Our new Social Studies topic, ‘Inventions’ is proving to be very popular and interesting. So far, we have researched and found out about famous inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers. It has been fascinating for students to find out what inventions they created and how our lives have been impacted by them.

Grade 4 Team

Grade 5 News Grade 5 have just completed their first set of assessment for this year and have demonstrated that they are keeping up with the expectations of the Grade with encouraging results. The first progress Check report is sent out and we look forward to meeting you all in the first PTC next month.

In class, lessons continue with an emphasis on critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving. BYOD programme is picking up and students show maturity in their use for research and reinforcement. A new computer programme called “Thing Link” has been introduced in our lessons and ASAs where by students are learning through making presentations and sharing in the class.

We are encouraging students to look through the marked work and reflect on their learning by responding to teachers’ comments. We feel this is an effective way to reinforce and review skills that may require to be revisited. In the next few weeks we will be covering data handling in Mathematics, Environment in Science, more about Australia and writing various types of reports in English.

On another note, students are being guided by the core values of school i.e. Achievement, Collaboration, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility as they collected oranges for the construction workers as well as donating funds for breast cancer research. “Kids Who Share” was an initiative that was taken up by Grade 5 for the past two years has now become a whole school drive. We are happy to see our students lead this noble cause.

There was an overwhelming response and participation of students in the World Education Games online competition and some of our students looked to win a spot among the winners. Results are awaited.

In Circle of Culture study, we continue to engage parents to come to our classrooms and share interesting facts and information on the country being studied in the classroom. This has made all of us more aware of richness and diversity of the countries represented in the classrooms.

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SECONDARY SCHOOL Message from the Deputy Head—Secondary School I have recently been reading a book called Outliers: The Stories of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. In his book he tells stories and looks closely at the factors that play a part in highly successful people and teams. One common theme running throughout is the 10,000 hour rule which is based on a study by Anders Ericsson. Gladwell explains that one of the common characteristics of highly successful people is the fact that they all have spent at least 10,000 hours of time working at their specific profession/skill/sport/talent. Needless to say, effort and practice pay off – but when you think about how long 10,000 hours is, these people have had to be afforded unique opportunities in their lives to amass such time. Reflecting upon this book has made me think more about the opportunities our students receive at RIS. We offer a wide range of activities, both during school time and beyond to help encourage our students to find something they truly love. Many then continue to pursue their talents at home in the evenings and on weekends, whereas others do not have such opportunities. My point is that although all students have some form of talent, it requires immense dedication, time and effort for great results to show.

In recent weeks, Secondary School staff have been very busy preparing for our joint inspection in November. I am delighted that the school will be inspected by both the KHDA and British Schools Oversees, and very much look forward to showing off the wonderful talent we have in both the student and teaching body. Inspections are ultimately designed to help raise standards and I am convinced that we are heading in the right direction with everything we do in Secondary.

On Thursday, 29th October you will receive your child’s first school progress report. This is a numerical based report indicating the gains in learning your child has made in all subjects. It will also provide you with information regarding your child’s achievement towards our Core Values. Please take time to look at the report with your child and bring it with you to the Parent Teacher Conference on Sunday, 01 st November. The initial feedback from our students suggests they are enjoying and understanding our new assessment structure. Being able to track their learning is a fundamental and essential skill on the journey to academic success.

Great progress is also being made in the construction of our new classrooms. I am sure many of you have seen the building work and we are very excited to move into the new part of the building in the near future. More space for our students is of great importance in the development of our Secondary School.

In recent weeks, many of our students have enjoyed success on the Sports Field as we continue to raise standards and compete with schools across Dubai. The boys’ basketball team is currently at the very top of their game and have certainly enjoyed playing on a court with our new baskets. They even have a small fan base now which is pleasing to see. Perhaps the new school mascot (The RIS Falcon) has spurred them on too.

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Finally, I will be launching the Young Apprentice project again in the coming weeks. Last year, the project was a huge success with Family Fun Day as a culminating event. The students are excited and raring to go – so with a new concept behind the project, I am sure we will see innovation at its best in the classrooms.

As always, if you would like to communicate with me regarding anything related to the Secondary School at RIS, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail, give me a call or stop by the office.

Ian Plant Deputy Head of Secondary ianp@rafflesis.com

Grade 6 News Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself Natalie Reeves as Grade 6 Coordinator, a role I feel both honoured and excited to be taking on. As we move further into the academic year it is my desire to see each pupil flourish academically and as socially aware global citizens. The students have already been reflecting on and upholding the RIS Core Values over the past few weeks: A select number of Grade 6 students were able to represent their peers and the school as a whole when they attended the Dubai Science Festival, an experience they found enjoyable and engaging. The students have also risen to the challenge of organising themselves effectively in order to conduct their own weekly assemblies, where they themselves are reinforcing RIS standards. 6A spoke on integrity and in doing so challenged the rest of the Grade to develop and display admirable qualities such as honesty and trustworthiness. 6B spoke on responsibility and reminded the rest of the grade about the duty they each have to make certain they are consistently organised for school, on time for lessons and putting maximum effort into their studies. This week 6C, spoke about respect and demonstrated some practical examples of what respect is not, to further emphasise their points. Well done Grade 6.

Parents, I look forward to working with you to ensure that Grade 6 have an enjoyable, enlightening and productive school year.

Grade 7 News Dia Duit! My name is Marie Ryan. I am one of many Irish staff working at Raffles International School.

This is my second year working in the Secondary Mathematics Department at RIS. This year I have taken the role of Grade 7 Coordinator. I am lucky to be working alongside Ms. Lynette Botha, Ms. Maya Yaghi and Ms. Sajna Bhavi. These ladies make my job very easy.

The Grade 7 students have been very busy this past week across the curriculum.

In Humanities, students have been studying the British Empire (circa 1900) and the work that it did to help the people living within it. This will be the final topic they will take on Empire and next week they will start on Geography.

In Physical Education, students are involved in a healthy fitness week. This is promoting an active lifestyle outside of PE class also. Next week, they will be moving onto swimming, rounder’s and cricket.

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In Science, Grade 7 students have just finished Unit 10 ‘Measuring Motion’. In this unit students built on their previous knowledge of the effects of forces on movement to develop their knowledge of speed including calculating average speeds and interpreting simple distance/time graphs. This will link very well with mathematics. Students have now moved from Physics to Biology, learning what the constituents of a balanced diet are and the functions of various nutrients.

In ICT, Students have learned how to create websites using FrontPage. They are currently creating website for various festivals celebrated across the world.

In Mathematics, students have completed a project involving making a mathematics board game. There have been some very creative ideas involving various areas of mathematics. Some of these games could certainly make it to the shelves of a toy store near you. This week the students have been working on the topic of number and are finding out lots about indices, exponents and powers.

Grade 7 French are beginning to explore the past tense, looking for patterns and trying to figure out how we contrast sentences in the past, as well as recognising it in spoken/written form. In Mandarin beginner students are learning how to introduce themselves. Intermediate level students are exploring how to say different jobs in Mandarin. Another very productive few weeks for Grade 7 students as a whole and they look forward to an exciting few weeks ahead also.

Grade 8 and 9 News I would like to introduce myself, Andreas Lambrias the new Coordinator for Grades 8 and 9. I am excited to take over new challenges and new responsibilities. I pledge to put in all my energy and passion to serve you and your children to the best of my abilities. This is my third year working at Raffles International School and it is great to see that year by year the school is moving “Towards Excellence” as our school motto says.

First, let me introduce you the team - Grades 8/9 Form Tutors are: Grade 8A: Mr. Adam Crossley (adamc@rafflesis.com) Grade 8B: Mr. Michael Scott (michaelscott@rafflesis.com) Grade 8C: Mrs. Eeram Manzoor (eerama@rafflesis.com) Grade 9A: Mr Andreas Lambrias (andreasl@rafflesis.com) Grade 9B: Mr Andreas Lambrias (andreasl@rafflesis.com) As a Grade Coordinator, among other responsibilities, I will be responsible for establishing open and ongoing conversations to address the unique social/ emotional needs of the students and serve as a contact for academic and pastoral care matters.

As a first request, I would like to remind you to inform the Form Tutor of your child in case of absence and also to recommend that you sign up for a Parent Account on Edmodo, where you will be able to see teacher announcements, assignments, your child’s Grades etc. You can follow this link for more info (https://support.edmodo.com/hc/en-us/articles/205008584-How-Parents-sign-upfor-Parent-Accounts).

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In Humanities this week, Grades 6, 7 and 8 are starting new modules. Grade 6 students will be introduced to the idea of empire and empire-building. They will study the Romans as an early example of this and go on to look at Roman life in greater detail over the next few weeks. Grades 7 and 8 will be starting their first Geography modules of the year. For Grade 7, population is the focus from a global and more localized perspective as we consider the world we live in and the issues created by rapid population changes. Grade 8 students are learning about physical geography and how these natural resources impact our daily lives.

Arabic A

) ‫قسم اللغة العربية ( للناطقين بها‬

‫يتمنى للجميع عاما دراسيا ناجحا‬ ‫ يعتمد على أحدث المعايير العالمية والممارسات‬، ‫في قسم اللغة العربية (للناطقين بها) نسعى إلى تقديم تعليم متميز‬ .‫المثلى في تعليم وتعلم اللغات‬ . ‫ إنّ الحفاظ على اللغة العربية هو حفاظ على الثقافة والتراث العربي‬: ‫رؤيتنا‬ . ‫ ويستمتع بدراستها‬، ‫ ويشعر بقيمتها‬، ‫ أن يحب الطالب اللغة العربية‬: ‫هدفنا‬ The week ahead For all Arabic A students (Secondary), the department will focus on creative writing and debate in order to promote the writing and speaking skills.

Homework All Arabic A (Secondary), students have to explain one verse daily through the use of the internet.

Arabic B Grade 6 In Grade 6 students have been learning Unit 2 (Me and my world) including the following:  define their family members in Arabic  writing simple sentences using the present tense  using possessive pronouns  Descriptive writing: To describe a member of their family in Arabic  To compare using adjectives and opposites Highlights of the week: we are spending 10 minutes every Arabic lesson to improve the reading skills Grade 7 In Grade 7 students have been learning Unit 2 (Me and my world) including the following: writing simple sentences using the present tense writing short paragraphs describing family members in Arabic using adjectives and possessive pronouns Descriptive writing: To describe a member of their family and their houses in Arabic Highlights of the week: we are spending 10 minutes every Arabic lesson to improve the reading skills with the students, as well as to encourage students to borrow Arabic books from the school library.

Grade 8 In Grade 8 students have been learning Unit 2 (Me and my world) including the following:  writing simple sentences using present tense.  writing paragraphs describing family members in Arabic using adjectives and possessive pronouns  Descriptive writing: To describe a member of their family and their houses in Arabic.  learn the name of the professions in Arabic and write about their family jobs and professions Highlights of the week: we are spending 10 minutes every Arabic lesson to improve the reading skills with the students, as well as to encourage students to borrow Arabic books from the school library.

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Grade 9 In Grade 9 students have been learning Unit 2 (Me and my world) including the following:  writing text using present tense- writing paragraphs describing family member in Arabic using a adjectives and possessive pronouns- Descriptive writing: To describe a member of their family and their houses in Arabic.

Islamic News Grade 6 In Grade 6 students have been learning Unit A: The Ninety Nine Names of Allah –One Creator -Includes the Nasheed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrcoYTGCXvc -They learnt the Hadith related to the Lesson Grade 7 In Grade 7 students have been learning Unit A: About the Belief in Unseen and The first Pillar of Iman.

This includes the memorization of Ayatul Kursi (The Greatest Ayat of the Holy Quran) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKO_NEfBXY Grade 8 In Grade 8 students have been learning Unit A: The world of Angels and The Greatest Angel Jibreel .

- The students are also learning Surah Kahf Grade 9 In Grade 9 students have been learning Unit A: Prophets and Messengers and Prophets are the Best of Mankind -The Students are also learning Surah Kahf

Art News In art students were challenged to draw a still-life composition from observation using their knowledge and understanding of the formal elements of art: line, shape, form, texture, tone and space. Here are some example of work by Grade 6, 7 and 8.