Greetings GAA High School Parents,

Please join our High School Counselors & special guest Ms. Bene Katabua (Child & Educational Psychologist at KidsFirst) for a virtual parent coffee on Tuesday, February 9th at 10:30 am: "Coping During Challenging Times: Supporting Your Teens and the Importance of Self Care".

If you are interested in joining us, please sign-up here to receive an invitation to the Zoom meeting. Please do not hesitate to contact us via email should you have any questions.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday, February 9th at 10:30am.

Kind regards,

The GAA High School Counseling Team

Ms. Bradford, k.bradford_gaa@gemsedu.com (Students with Last Names A-D)

Ms. Brown, l.brown2_gaa@gemsedu.com (Students with Last Names E-Z)

Dear Middle School Parents,

Thank you to those who were able to join the Parent Coffee on 27-January. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with all of you and provide support/insight on how we can support each other and our students through these changing times. I look forward to seeing you all at future conversations. Linked below are a copy of the slides that you may use as a resource. Your feedback for the past parent coffee would be greatly appreciated. Furthermore, I would like to receive your input on topics you would like to discuss at future coffees. Please complete this feedback form. I plan to schedule a Parent Coffee 1x per month this semester and will be sending out information on upcoming Middle School Counselor Parent Coffees soon.

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