Secondary Newsletter - Term 1 2019/2020

NOVEMBER 2019

POS@RAHA Positive

Opportunity

Spirit

Please join me in celebrating some of the fantastic events and activities that have taken place over the first two months of the school year. We cannot begin to showcase all of the wonderful parent, staff and student led initiatives that happen around campus each day, but the following pages should give us all an appreciation of the levels of positive engagement, opportunity and spirit that defines our community.

Mr. Paul

Important Dates:

NOVEMBER 11TH PARENT OPEN FORUM (9:00AM - 10:30AM) NOVEMBER 12TH & 13TH SECONDARY THREE WAY CONFERENCES (12:00PM - 8:00PM) NOVEMBER 26TH NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATIONS DECEMBER 1ST - 3RD COMMEMORATION DAY AND NATIONAL DAY HOLIDAY DECEMBER 10TH PARENT TEAM ANNUAL HOLIDAY BAZAAR (5:00PM - 8:00PM) DECEMBER 12TH LAST DAY OF TERM - 12:00PM DISMISSAL

ATHLETICS

On Saturday October 26th, the U19 volleyball teams, both boys and girls, represented Raha at the Canadian International School's Varsity volleyball tournament and they did so with class. Not only did they show true resilience and perseverance on the court, they exemplified the meaning of sportsmanship and team spirit by supporting each other from the sidelines between their own matches. The gentlemen fought hard and demonstrated veracious valour. The ladies, without a single sub for relief, came out on top and left with the gold medal! It was a memorable day for the Raha Volleyball books.

U19 Boys Cricket Team won their 1st match against BSAK – The U15 and U19 cricket teams have been dedicated to training hard this season!

The Raha Triathlon Team have been training hard in preparation for their upcoming open swim events and Triathlons.

Ms. Andrea

ATHLETICS

Our Water Polo team has been busy training their core and endurance in preparation for their first tournament. Good luck!

The Raha Golf Team had several winners in both the A and B categories in their 1st tournament. Good luck in the upcoming season.

Our MYP Swim squad has shown fantastic teamwork and spirit at the swim galas to cover for those injured and ill. Keep up the dedication to training – can't wait to watch the next gala!

Raha’s football teams have been training hard learning to have fewer touches, and to move more – which has resulted in some excellent game play and results in the ADISSA leagues.

Raha’s netball teams are continuing to make great progress.

Good luck for your next game!

Ms. Andrea

ARTS UPDATE

October in Creative Arts A busy month of October in the Arts Department!

Grade 9 completed the design phase and are now starting the production of their clay pieces. Lots of thinking, discussing and planning has gone into these pieces - now it's time to get our hands dirty. Let the mess commence!

Grade 9 Media Arts students have graduated from semi-automatic modes to fully manual shooting mode! Last month they had to complete 16 different exercises on compositional elements. Look out for the highlights on the school TVs over the next couple of days!

ARTS UPDATE On October 30th we had the great pleasure of hosting the founder of New Line Cinema and producer Robert Shay for a forum session with G10 and G11 students.

In order to prepare for this, students watched and discussed New Line's first Blockbuster, The Mask, and then came up with questions for Mr. Shay. In speaking to him afterwards, he mentioned how impressed he was with the insightful questions our students asked. At the same time, we have had very positive feedback from the participating students.

This was a great real-life opportunity to introduce what the DP Film Studies is about to the Grade 10s.

Drama : Grade 9 Drama classes have been hard at work studying acting through Stanislavski's Naturalism techniques. Students were challenged to transfer their knowledge and understanding of naturalism to create believable performances with a new performance piece.

Here, Asya and Keren show off their naturalism practices in a tense scene between former friends. http://gg.gg/fp8cg

Mr. Carlos

PERFORMING ARTS COMMUNITY UPDATE

Global IB Conference This past weekend, the Raha Singers did us all proud by performing at the prestigious IB Global Conference at ADNEC. We received many compliments not only for their singing but for their professionalism.

You can find a small clip of their performance on Taaleem’s twitter feed here:

https://twitter.com/taaleem/status/1187716135929765888?s=21 Shrek Our rehearsals for Shrek the Musical (grades 6-9) are in full swing and the students are really starting to sound great! Next Ms. Caitlin will be taking them from music rehearsal to staging, where they will be putting together the scenes between the songs. We can’t wait to see more!

Bands Ms. Lindsay’s bands have started their rehearsals and we are looking forward to the Concert Band’s first appearance at the Taaleem Winter Concert.

Improv Our improv club is meeting twice a week at lunch and we are having a TON of fun putting together short improvised scenes. They perform regularly at Arts in the Box and you are sure to see them around soon.

Raha Contemporary Choir Today is the first rehearsal of the Raha Contemporary Choir – our small auditioned ensemble of singers. You will be hearing from them very soon!

National Day Preparations for the National Day assembly have started with our Emirati Acting Ensemble, Dance Ensemble, Raha Singers, and others all being involved and ready to perform. Don’t miss it!

Abu Dhabi Choral Group Raha continues our partnership with the Abu Dhabi Choral Group who will be performing “Around the World in 80 Minutes”, a musical revue, on November 18th, 21st and 22nd in our Arts Centre. Tickets are normally 100aed but are available to Raha families for 70aed. Email abudhabichoralgroup@gmail.com for more information.

CONGRATULATIONS Last year, Sasha and Syahmi Idrus participated in a dance workshop at NYU with the world-renowned Camille Brown and her dance troupe. Another world-class dance troupe is at NYU this week, and the Idrus siblings were asked by NYU to return – thank you so much to these two for representing Raha so well and pursuing their skills so vigorously.

Upcoming Taaleem Winter Concert (the Raha Singers and Raha Concert Band) – November 21 National Day Assemblies – November 26

Mr. Stephen

OSRAH UPDATE

We have had a great start to Osrah this year with Flash Mobs being performed by students and staff and Dodgeball Intramurals underway. Lots of small competitions in tutorial time have begun and we look forward to preparing for the Math Challenge and Teacher Lip Sync Battle coming soon.

May the best Osrah win!

Ms. Vicky

MATT SMITH VISIT

Award winning cartoonist Matt Smith visited Raha to support Grade 9 students in developing their own comics focused on overcoming adversity. The workshops were entertaining and productive! Some of the most impressive work will be on display in the English Department corridor.

Mr. Michael

RAHA MODEL UNITED NATIONS

M.U.N is back in session!

Delegates gathered over a weekend to debate the threat of religious intolerance and Chinese re-educational provincial camps. With over sixty students in attendance, Raha’s MUN is well underway for the 2019-2020 academic year.

They are looking forward to participating in the upcoming Taaleem conference, as well as several university hosted events.

Mr. Michael

RAHA REPS

As a part of the well-being initiative to recognise the importance of our mental health, the Raha Reps organised and ran the second annual burn event. At the event, students were given the opportunity to burn their stresses, worries and woes written on paper. A sense of relief and satisfaction could be witnessed as negative emotions, thoughts and feelings burned in the flames.

Ms. Naomi

A MESSAGE FROM SAIF AND HAMZA...

Woah this sunny weather is INSANE! It’s getting good out here but you know what will make it even better !?

ICE POPS! Yes ladies and gentlemen it’s back again tomorrow lunchtime in front of the library! The G12s are back with fundraising the CAS Cambodia trip 2020 to help in getting school supplies for the little kids There, support the initiative and enjoy this weather and get your ICE POP ! And remember as always, Its all for the greater good!

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/0e4f32de-5373-4d45-89c0-677289757b64

CREATIVITY ACTIVITY SERVICE (DP)

Creepy Carniva Nightl The Senior Committee planned a spook-tacular night of fun, games and activity for the seniors — Creepy Carnival Night. October 29th, seniors came dressed in costume, released some stress and enjoyed some senior moments. This is the first of many other senior events being planned by the committee.

G11 CAS Have you recorded your interview yet?

Just over half of the cohort managed to record their first CAS interview. The purpose of this interview is to ensure that students have a clear understanding about the CAS program and what is expected. This is recorded as a voice note and uploaded to ManageBac.

Students that have not started their CAS portfolios or recorded their interviews have received a personal message from me via ManageBac. I’m happy to report that many students have started uploading reflections and evidence to their portfolios. Some of the highlights include beach clean-ups, Triathlon practice, sports tournaments, speeches and art projects.

If you would like to be featured in our next newsletter, ask Mr. Carlos to have a look at your portfolio

G12 CAS It's time to get going with the reflections and evidence for all the wonderful initiatives listed in your portfolios! As soon as these are completed, we can begin closing them out. On April 3rd CAS portfolios will be locked! This is the time to close out the experiences and projects listed in your portfolios before the mock exams!

Mr. Carlos

HUMAN FRATERNITY

If you remember in February this year Abu Dhabi received, His holiness Pope Francis and The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Dr Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. They met to discuss and sign a document outlining a criterion for World peace and living together, with a focus on ‘The East’ and ‘The West’.

This ‘document’ has a large importance for international schools such as Raha who has such a diverse student body. With that in mind we took an opportunity to reflect on the impact this has on our students and ensure they understood the details within the document. Students spent a session reading the document and highlight key aspects of it before discussing the wider topic of tolerance and empathy towards others. Students reflected on the idea that two people can hold different opinions, but both be equally as right, with statements such as “you have to be tolerant of others no matter where they come from or religion they believe. Just be acceptant, you don’t have to argue, maybe they have a different perspective” [Houda Joudaane, Grade 7]. The students looked at an image of a dress that featured in the New York Times in February 2015 and split opinion, most people see either White and Gold or Blue and Black. The students really embraced the topic and discussions, with comments around whether in these scenarios the majority should be deemed to be right, but that would imply the minority are wrong, how can you be wrong with what you believe you see [Ibrahim Elgier, grade 7].

We encourage you to take some time at home and reflect on how students can be more tolerant of others and your thoughts on the Document and the meeting.

Mr. Will

SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2019 PARENTS AS PARTNERS IN REVIEW

Session 1 - 19th September https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLWJFXEHGMw&t=943s Introduction to the Secondary School: The Head of Secondary and the three Deputy Heads (DP, MYP, Wellbeing) explained many of the ‘must know’ aspects of the school. The Head of Technology Integration also explained the ins and outs of our parent communication tools and platforms.

Session 2 - 26th September https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiLZA8l69VI&t=192s MYP Curriculum details – Part 1: Unpacking in detail the structure of a unit of teaching and learning in the Middle Years Programme, including the aspects which make this programme unique.

Session 3 – 3rd October https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDrKQmPfYz0&t=2769s MYP Curriculum details – Part 2: A focus on ManageBac (the communication and assessment platform), from a student and parent perspective, as well as details of assessment and reporting in the Middle Years Programme. Also, a short presentation on the non-MYP courses in the middle years, namely Islamic Studies, Arabic Social Studies and Moral Education.

For the following three sessions, the Heads of Faculty for the subjects listed explained in more detail about their subject groups. These sessions included information relating to: The progression of skills and knowledge from

Grade 6 to 10

Explanation of the different assessment criteria How you can support your child through the

process

Question time

Session 4 - 17th October https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31PeeyjyByE&t=1851s • Mathematics • Language Acquisition (Arabic B, French, Spanish) • PHE

Session 5 - 24th October https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oamtl3OB06U&t=1s • English • Science • Arabic A

Session 6 - 31st October https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-cUQNKWdio&t=5s • Design • Arts • Individuals & Societies (Humanities) • Service as Action