THE RAPTOR
REPORTER
IN THIS ISSUE Message from the Principal Khalifa City Campus Plans Term 1 Highlights
Look at the great learning this term!
IMPORTANT DATES 10 December: Last Day of Term 3 January: Term 2 Starts
WINTER BREAK REMINDER Admissions and administration offices will remain open over the break. Office hours will be: Sunday - Thursday 8:00am - 4:00pm Families should contact the school via email or by calling 02 556 1567 (Gardens) or 02 550 5271 (Khalifa). The campus will be closed to Raha families until further notice.
From the Office of the Principal
FROM MR IAIN This has certainly been a term like no other. I am delighted that we have made it to the end
reasonably unscathed and with a relative sense of normality and rhythm.
We are looking forward to expanding on this normality further in Term 2, when we will have
many distance learners returning to campus and our MYP students being allowed back into school for face-to-face learning. I imagine most of us look
towards the next six months with a cautious sense of optimism, and for us at Raha, we hope
for the day when we can get all our students back on campus full-time with few or no
restrictions. Those days aren’t here yet and we are planning ahead with the expectation
that there will still be challenges and limitations in Term 2, but to just be sitting here in my office and hearing the students playing and laughing outside is a joy!
As one of the few schools in Abu Dhabi to provide full time, five days a week, face-to-
face education, I am enormously proud of all the effort, hard work and problem solving from the entire school team. I am most grateful that we have made all this happen with energy and a smile, and that our students have had the best possible provision that we
could provide under the current limitations. Also, a big thank you goes to you, our parents and students, for your positivity and support. We could not have done this without the huge team effort of the whole community.
From the Office of the Principal
There have been so many memorable moments this term, the immense professionalism of Gardens Campus EY1 staff and the support and attitude of parents and students who had to provide a two-week return to distance
learning with no notice. How our Primary team had to adapt quickly to ensure the school was set up appropriately, or the successful return of our DP students
and the continued immense efforts of MYP staff and students to distance learning. In amongst all this we should not forget that we have opened the first phase of a brand-new Khalifa City campus (KCC), on time and full of new students. This would have been a considerable achievement at the best of times but to do it during a pandemic with no delays or major issues is
testament to the tremendous effort of all the Taaleem project staff and the
Raha teams to deliver such an outstanding facility. Phase 2 is now being constructed and is going up very fast. Please see our feature story later in this newsletter.
It just leaves me to say a massive thank you to our entire community for its continued support and encouragement over the past few months. Never has our ‘big school-small family’ mantra been more important and pertinent than now.
I would like to wish all families a relaxing and enjoyable break Happy holidays!
- Mr. Iain
Senior Management Team from August 2021 Plans are well underway for our continued expansion of our second campus ready for August 2021. We anticipate adding students in all grades up to Grade 8 at the Khalifa City Campus, though we will keep our plans flexible and dependent on demand. As a result of our plans we have started with Senior Management recruitment and will be moving to middle leaders and teachers over the coming months. It is critical that we maintain our one-vision approach to expanding the new campus to ensure we maintain the culture, ethos and educational standards across Raha as one school. This will result in some staff moving across from Gardens campus to Khalifa City as we look to provide a balanced approach to our recruitment. We are delighted to announce our new Heads of School for next year, two of whom you may know as they are internal appointments, and one is an external appointment. The process for this recruitment involved a wide range of stakeholders, including staff, parents, student and Taaleem representatives and we are very excited to have these new team members join the SMT: Primary Gardens Campus – Matt O’Dowda Early Years Khalifa City Campus – Anna Lacey Primary Khalifa City Campus – Anne Watkins We will have other senior leadership appointments to announce in Term 2, and later in the year we will provide a more detailed overview of how the leadership structure will work across both campuses.
Anna Lacey
Anne Watkins
Khalifa City Campus We are extremely proud to have successfully opened our doors at KCC within the projected timeframe. This was a monumental task with the challenges that the pandemic presented and is a testament to the hard work of so many of our team at Raha and Taaleem. In September, we welcomed 280 fabulous learners and their families. To see KCC transform from an empty building to a flourishing community in such a short span of time has been incredible! We are fortunate to have an experienced and passionate group of staff. Having teachers move from our Gardens campus has helped us bring across the ‘Raha family’ feeling, as well as the values, ethos and curriculum of Raha. In addition to this, we have had a high caliber of staff join us this year. They bring with them a wealth of experience from leading international schools and complement our team with their passion for teaching and learning. Thank you to the parents who had the trust in Raha to become our founding community at KCC. We are proud of what we have all achieved and can’t wait to grow our KCC family even further when we open up to Grade 8, in the new academic year.
KCC's first day!
Nicola Neethling Vice-Principal
KCC Phase 2
We are delighted to share that Phase two of the new Khalifa City Campus (KCC) is right on schedule with the planned expansion of facilities ready for students from Early Years through to Secondary in September 2021.
This enhancement in provisions and educational facilities will benefit all of our (current and future) Raha students as well as creating the
space and environment in which our staff and community will flourish.
From an 8 lane swimming pool, to state-of-the-art science labs, we
PYP Library
are so excited to welcome to Phase 2 of the Khalifa City Campus next year!
Digital Design Lab
DP Common Area
Spotlight on Performing Arts We are so pleased to have been overwhelmed with submissions for our Taaleem
Spotlight on Performing Arts from both the Gardens campus and Khalifa campus! Check
out
the
hashtag
#TaaleemPerforms
on
and
you
will
see
performances as varied as singing, piano, magic shows, acting, and much more from all grades.
We are proud to have participated in this initiative which we share with all our fellow Taaleem schools. Thank you to Greenfield for leading the way, Mr. Ivan for doing much of the filming and Ms. Abby for making sure everything runs smoothly online.
This will run until the winter break, so continue to look at #TaaleemPerforms on Twitter, and check out some highlights on our Facebook!
Aaron's magic show really amazed us!
Farida's dancing is astounding!
Tamanna's monologue gave us chills!
National Day Happy 49th National Day!
Our National Day celebrations may have looked a little different this year but we still enjoyed celebrating as a school! It was wonderful to see students and staff dressed for the occasion in National Day colours and outfits, determined to celebrate this proud and historic event in whatever way possible. This year’s classroom activities included National Day crafts, sing-a-longs and some even took a virtual tour of the Grand Mosque and other UAE highlights! What a delight to see both campuses transformed for the festivities with an abundance of balloons, lights and flags. Thank you to Ms. Wafaa and the facilities team for the outstanding campus decorations.
Voice Of Future Generations Award
Grade 4 student Ioana was shortlisted for the Voices of Future Generations award! Her story ‘Emily and Her Extraordinary Adventure’ won the category for Most Inclusion of a Theme. We are so proud, and excited to see more outstanding work in Term 2!
Inside Out Project We love to see our students CAS projects every year, including this one focused on portraits ofthe Raha Community! Thank you to the Parent Team for sponosoring this Inside Out Project
We can't wait to see this again soon!
Sports at Raha The break in competitive sport has given us an opportunity to review our very own Raptors program across both campuses. Having had the chance to reflect on our ‘why’ for competitive sport we felt the need to clarify our vision of sport. Raha students have been resilient, positive, and above all creative as they have had to come to terms with the safety measures. We have witnessed them seeking every available minute to dance, move, jump, run and embrace the delights that Abu Dhabi has to offer whilst increasing their heart rate. Observing the energy levels around school and listening to how families are maintaining active lifestyles is truly inspirational. When things get tough, we either win or learn! The Raha community will certainly be doing both in 2021. We are incredibly excited for Term 2 with the possibility of competitive sport and physical education resuming soon!
Folk Art Challenge We love these artworks inspired by traditional handicrafts in the form of Folk Art. Grade 5 students worked with a Round Square partnership school in India to join in a collaboration to keep folk art practices alive.
BETT Learning Strategy Award We’ve been nominated for the BETT Online Learning Strategy Award! This award is for the school or university who has demonstrated exceptional strategic thinking in developing e-learning, blended learning and distance learning. Keep your fingers crossed for us! You can see the list of nominees here Richard Ballard Head of Technology and Innovation
THE RAPTOR REPORTER | WINTER 2020