Dear New GAA Secondary School Student,

Welcome to GAA, we are glad that you have selected our school to be part of your child’s academic journey.  We are cordially inviting you to join us on 6 January at 8:00 am to meet in the MPR with counselors and administrative staff to share with you helpful information to aid in creating a successful and positive school year for you and your child. Please meet us in the lobby and we will show you how to get to the MPR. 

Key topics that we will review are as follows:

• School handbook 

• School culture 

• Policies (including attendance, behavior and uniform)

• What is Standards Based Grading and feedback 

• After School Activities available to scholars

• Learning Support/ Accommodations on assessments 

• Who are the people in your school that can help (counselors, Deans, Activities Director, SST Director)

Welcome GAA Families!

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year at GEMS American Academy of Abu Dhabi.  

As we gear up for the new school year, I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you. We are excited to see our returning students and to meet those of you who are new to our school community. Our team has been working diligently to prepare for a successful and enriching year, and I am thrilled to share our key priorities for the year ahead:

1. Engaged Learners

Our foremost goal is to cultivate an environment where students are actively engaged in their learning. We believe that engaged learners are more likely to succeed academically and develop a lifelong love for learning. This year, we will be focusing on interactive and collaborative teaching methods and providing hands-on learning experiences that make education dynamic and relevant. Our focus on Project Based Learning will continue throughout the Secondary learning experience.

2. School-Home Partnership

We recognize that a strong partnership between school and home is crucial for student success. We are committed to fostering open communication and collaboration with parents and guardians. Throughout the year, we will provide various opportunities for you to be involved in your child’s education, including regular updates, parent-teacher conferences, and workshops designed to support your role in the educational process. Your engagement and feedback are invaluable, and we look forward to working closely with you to ensure the best outcomes for our students.

3. Academic Rigor

We are dedicated to maintaining high academic standards and challenging our students to reach their full potential. This year, we will continue to offer a rigorous curriculum that fosters students to develop passion and demonstrate their achievements to future schools. Our focus will be on critical thinking, problem-solving, and developing the skills necessary for success in the 21st century. We will also provide additional support and resources for students who need extra help, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to excel.

In conclusion, we are excited about the opportunities that this new school year brings. By focusing on engaged learners, strengthening our school-home partnership, and maintaining academic rigor for all students, we are confident that we can provide a supportive and challenging educational environment for all our students.

Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Together, we will make this school year a resounding success.

Garth Wyncoll

Secondary Principal

Parents will receive an email with a link to electives (via Google form) once their student is enrolled at GAA. If you have not received an email for your 7th or 8th grader to select your elective classes, please contact our registrar at registrar_gaa@gemsedu.com 

Grade 11:

• American Diploma option: If you choose the American Diploma, please complete this google form.

• American Diploma IB Hybrid option: If you choose the American Diploma with some IB Courses, kindly use the links below (You need to complete BOTH links at it is a hybrid):

1. American Diploma Link

2. IB Course Link 

• American Diploma AP Hybrid option: If you choose the American Diploma with AP Courses, kindly use the links below (You need to complete BOTH links at it is a hybrid):

1. American Diploma link

2. AP Course Link

• Full IB - If you choose the Full IB Diploma (2-year program), please complete this google form. 

Grade 12:

• American Diploma option: If you choose the American Diploma, please to complete this google form. 

• American Diploma AP Hybrid option: If you choose the American Diploma with AP Courses, kindly use the links below (You need to complete BOTH links at it is a hybrid):

1. American Diploma link.

2. AP Course Link

In education, the term standards-based refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating understanding or mastery of the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education. These knowledge and skills are known as standards - concise, written descriptions of what students are expected to know and be able to do at a specific stage of their education. In schools that use standards-based approaches the standards determine the goals of a lesson or course. Teachers then determine how and what to teach students so they achieve the learning expectations described in the standards. At GAA, curriculum standards are defined for each course and specifically indicate what the student is expected to learn and demonstrate on assessments.

Throughout each course, the completed assessments help the teacher provide feedback and learning targets as well as track progress toward proficiency of each curriculum standard. When assessments target multiple curriculum standards, a proficiency level is determined for each one. Our proficiency levels are:

• Mastery

• Proficient

• Developing

• Emerging.

Please see below presentation to help you understand Standard Based Grading:

For Students

Setting up your school accounts:

At the time of enrollment, each student is assigned a school google account and email. Parents will receive an email with the instructions and student login credentials by the end of August

Once new student logs in to his/her school gmail account (ending with @gaa-ad.com), they will find emails from support_gaa@gemsedu.com regarding:

• School Wi-Fi network connection information

• Google classroom invitations from each of their subject teachers (NOTE: This will be sent at the beginning of school year, once their individual schedules are finalized).

Digital Platforms

PowerSchool is the platform used by our secondary teachers to take assignments, standards-based grading and attendance for each Period/ Block.

Google Classroom is the Learning Management System that simplifies creating, distributing, posting class work and engaging students in learning online. The primary purpose of Google Classroom is to streamline the process of sharing files between teachers and students. 

The below link has a short video to take you through the initial steps. Further details would be shared to the students by their teachers. Please check student School Google emails regularly to get the latest updates from the teachers.

If you have any difficulties in logging into the systems, please contact us by our email support : support_gaa@gemsedu.com 

For Parents

PowerSchool is the platform used by our secondary teachers to take assignments, standards-based grading and attendance for each Period/ Block.

There is a parent portal login available, which will be sent WITHIN TWO WEEKS by email through support_gaa@gemsedu.com AT THE START OF THE NEW YEAR. If you do not receive the credentials within two weeks, please contact support team at support_gaa@gemsedu.com 

We would recommend to use Mobile App as well to get instant notifications on Absence Attendance. Login credentials will be the same both for mobile app and website.

Google Classroom - There is an option for Parents to receive Summaries of teachers for your students classes. Parents could select to either receive the summaries on a Daily, Weekly or Monthly if you have a google email. If the your email is a non-gmail account, by default it gives the option to receive summaries on a weekly base only. You will receive an invite on the primary contact email address registered with GAA, from the respective teachers of the student. Watch this video for guidelines: https://youtu.be/0WxGwUUlawo 

Teacher emails: Middle and High School parents can also expect to receive direct emails from teachers. NOTE: we strongly recommend creating a separate email account for school communication only. 

To know more about parent digital platforms, please check out Communication Page of Welcome Pack.