Dear GAA Middle School Parents,

This school year has presented unique challenges that continues to push both families and schools to approach school differently. For our middle school community at GAA - we have not seen middle school students in the building since March 2020. Much of this has been out of our collective hands as the world explores different ways to respond to the pandemic with the hopes of keeping our communities safe. Most recently, our distance learning timeline has been extended for another 3 weeks. This has led to mixed feelings of frustration, disappointment, and anxiety throughout our school community. As school counselor I have had some very rich and supportive conversations with parents across the middle school on how to address this next wave and support each other as we move through it. As part of that support I invite all of you to join me on Wednesday, 27-January at 12PM for a parent coffee - "Balancing Act: Taking care of our students during the pandemic while looking after ourselves". Please complete this sign-up form to receive the Zoom link invitation - https://forms.gle/uob9FYwCiYebCxew9.

This conversation will be an opportunity for us to share successes and challenges as well as explore helpful tips/resources from the school counselor. To help guide our discussion, I have selected the articles below for us to review. This will help generate questions, wonderings, and ideas on how we can support our students while also looking out for our own self-care.

• How to Help Your Kids Handle Disappointment

• Brené Brown and Marc Brackett On Emotional Intelligence During the Pandemic

• Working Parents Are Angry. But What Can We Do?

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, 27-January at 12PM.

Kind regards,

Yvette Cuenco, LMSW

GAA Middle School Counselor

Dear 12th Grade Parents of students enrolled in IB Courses (Full Diploma or Individual Course)

First, thank you for the support that you offer as we continue to strive to offer the best education possible in these uncertain times. In our IB courses, teachers teach more than the curriculum of books, they also teach the curriculum of life. We do this by using the IB Learner Profiles and making connections to how these traits link to one being able to attain success. IB does not mean that a child is innately brilliant – it does speak to a child that is able to embody these traits and show mastery over time of the IB Standards. Your children are doing this – they frequently exhibit the traits of being Knowledgeable, Caring, Principled, Thinker, Open Minded and a Risk-Taker to name a few. We will encourage them to continue to utilize these traits to successfully navigate the second semester of their senior year. To this, I wanted to share updates (as I currently know them) in regards to World Exams and Exam fees.

All IB Coordinators in the Emirates are meeting with the IB in an ongoing manner. These meetings will continue to address the viability of sitting for the External Assessments (World Exams) in May. The current determination, per the IBO, is that as long as the Department of Education for the respective countries (MOE for Abu Dhabi) allows the exemption to sit for external exams; we will sit for the World Exams beginning April 30th. Please note that whether the external exams are sat or not, IB has provisions by which your child’s hard work (Internal and External Assessments as designated by the IB) will be invigilated and therefore an IB Diploma or Course certificate awarded as per the score awarded by the invigilation of IB trained examiners. The fees associated with this process will be applied to the invigilation of the assessments submitted by the students. If fees are not paid, then the child will not receive this important and necessary credential for their child’s university application.

It is therefore very important that your child adheres to all deadlines for Internal Assessment deadlines so that they are able to receive the salient feedback offered by the teacher. Missing and delaying the submission of these assessments greatly impacts the outcome of the final score whether or not the student sits for the World Exams or not.

When a university sees that a scholar is enrolled in IB courses the expectation is that there are Anticipated Grades (in most instances already submitted with every university application) submitted, later Predicted Grades submitted (as requested by individual schools) to the IB and the upload of Internal Assessments and ensuing external invigilation or the provisions proffered by the IB. This is applicable to both the partial or full IB scholar. Further, for those students for which legalization is sought for their home country, an IB Diploma must also be submitted to support the grades on the transcript. The hard copy documents from the IB are an additional non-negotiable for legalisation services.

If there is a change in the manner of assessment, it will not change the manner in which the IB will serve the student or the outcome of awarding scores for their individual student. These outcomes require fiscal support of the IB examiners and the score awarding process that is supported through these fees. There is not an option of not paying the fees yet receiving an IB Diploma/IB Course credentials. This is applicable for both the scholar that takes the full IB Course load or a few IB courses.

For those students that will need legalisation services for their home country, communication will go forth in February. The IB offers this service at an additional cost and it is affixed to the outcome of the child’s scores for the year as awarded by the invigilation department of the IB. If I can be of further service as we navigate the end of the year, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email: m.martin1_gaa@gemsedu.com

Celebrating the Class of 2021’s successes.

Monica Martin

IBDP Coordinator

Please join us Tuesday, January 26th from 4pm to 5pm for a live Q &A follow up session with questions you may have regarding the IB College Night presentation received last week.

GEMS American Academy is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: IB College Night Q&A Session

Time: Jan 26, 2021 04:00 PM Dubai

Join Zoom Meeting

https://gemseducation.zoom.us/j/81634281688

Meeting ID: 816 3428 1688