Good Day GAA Families,

It has been a warm welcome from the GAA families and staff as the new elementary principal. After 4 years in the UAE and 25 years in education, I am still excited and curious about what a new school year will bring. Smiles and excitement from our new and returning students are the best indicators that our year is off to the right start! The first two weeks have gone well, and our students and teachers are jumping right into a strong program of learning, after school activities, and well being.

As a critical partner in your child’s learning journey, I encourage you to get involved at home and at school in order to connect the links between teacher, child, and parent. YOU are a partner in your child’s learning and we need your support and involvement in order to make the best of the year. School is the opportunity to learn but learning is where the connections to life happen. Be a positive part of your child’s school and learning by being a strong GAA parent partner with us!

You can reach our parent association via email gaa.parentsteam@gmail.com OR or school Parent Relations Executive, Ms.Fatma Chabanova pre_gaa@gemsedu.com to learn more about how to get involved. We are excited about what is possible for the new school year! Thank you for your continued support of GAA!

Sincerely,

Leia Kraeuter

Elementary Principal

Greetings KG Families -

Welcome back to an amazing new school year! We are excited to welcome PK to our KG team. Our classrooms are already filled with smiles, excitement, and learning.

The start of school can be a big transition for children and families and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our families, new and returning, who have done a great job adjusting to a new school year. Thank you for your patience, support, and commitment to making the start of school great. We are committed to ensuring our KG vision for learning and look forward to a new school year with Covid restrictions lifted, allowing us to provide the best experiences for your children.

In KG we embrace a play-based approach to learning through our Primary Years Programme. Through inquiry, we provide student-led learning in an engaging and collaborative process where children learn at their own pace through our learner profiles, attitudes, and concepts. We strive to cultivate internationally minded global citizens who are able to communicate, reflect, and interact effectively with the world around them.

We are so excited to watch your students grow this year and thank you in advance for the great partnerships we will establish.

Sincerely,

Lauren Sargent Alkhalifa

VP Pk-2

Our annual Back to School Night will be taking place this coming Wednesday, September 14th from 5 pm to 7 pm. The evening will begin at 5:00pm with general presentation for all families in the Auditorium.

Following that, there will be three repeated 20 minute sessions (5:30, 6:00 & 6:30). This should allow for families with multiple children to attend each of their child’s teacher’s session.

This evening is planned as an opportunity for families to come and meet your child’s teacher and learn about what to expect for this school year as far as curriculum, expectations and events. This is not planned for teachers and individual parents to discuss a student’s progress so far.

We understand that you may need to bring your child(ren) if childcare is not available to you at that time of the day, but we do not expect that children join as this is more for families to learn about this year.

Please see the below schedule for a full summary of timings and locations.

PreK Presentations will be happening in your PreK child's classroom.

Students in 1A are busy learning the routines of school. They are working on building stamina during reading workshop time. (First we had to learn what stamina means!) We talked about the role and responsibility of the students and the teacher during this time of the day. Students practiced choosing a spot in the room to read, stacking their books, and reading quietly and independently. What great readers we are!

A Journey into Memoir Writing

This week the students 5E had a deep dive into memoir writing. The aim of memoir writing is to explore the meaning of an event or series of events from your past. A memoir is a personal narrative that is focused on one singular moment in time, like a snapshot from your past. This writing exercise explores multiple parts of the IB profile including, reflection, caring and empathy.

As an added bonus, memoirs bridge the gap between fiction and informative texts and compels the students to apply a range of reading strategies.By choosing an interesting incident from their life, students are able to explore personal events in a greater depth. They can uncover the meaning of this event for their readers and themselves.

Since 1967, International Literacy Day (ILD) celebrations have taken place annually around the world to remind the humanity of the importance of literacy as a matter of dignity and human rights, and to advance the literacy agenda towards a more literate and sustainable society. This Thursday and Friday GAA celebrated World Literacy Day and you can find some amazing photos in the link below. Thank you Secondary English Department and GAALibraries for raising awareness on such an important global issue.

Elementary Performing Arts department announces auditions for the Elementary Musical:

• Monday, September 12th

• Tuesday, September 13th

• Wednesday, September 14th

• Thursday, September 15th.

Auditions are open to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students only! Students must sign-up with Mr. Warwick or Ms. Pugh.

Be prepared to sing your favorite song that shows your vocal range and read from a script! Auditions will be held during the school day:

• at recess (9:40 – 10:20) and

• lunch (12:20 – 1:00).

• September 12-15: Elementary Musical Tryouts for Grades 3, 4, 5 (please refer to flyer below for details)

• September 14: Elementary (PreK-Grade 5) Back To School Night (please check out Elementary Section of the GAAzette for details)

• September 16: International Dot Day - PreK-Grade 5 dress down theme: anything with dots (optional)

• September 19-22: Elementary (PreK-Grade 5) School Photoshoot by Stu Williamson Photography Studio

• October 17-19: Half-Term Break (No School)

• September 26- October 7: MAP Testing (Grades 1-5)