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Week Thirteen - November 29th, 2024
29 November 2024
PYP Sports Week
What an incredible week! Sports week was jam packed with joy, excitement, courage and some friendly competition. Students were able to run, jump and throw their way to glory as houses also competed for the prestigious Sports Week Championship Cup.
Initiatives and events like Sports Week offer more than memories and triumphs. With the support of our P.E. department and grade-five House Captains, students learn valuable lessons in perseverance, grit and living a healthy lifestyle through sports activities. They get to see the joy that can come from getting healthy, strong and fit. Moreover, they grow in their understanding of what it means to work as a team while creating and reinforcing social bonds.
Next week, we will count up the PYP Sports Week points an announce the house winners. That said, it seems everyone is a winner after such an amazing event.
22 November 2024
30x30 Fitness Challenge
The Dubai Fitness Challenge has been a great wellbeing success at GIS. The event, formally run 26 October – 24 November, was well attended through the many interhouse school competitions and at-home challenges. The month saw a great many families taking to the sidewalks, gyms, playgrounds, pools and dance studios, among many other fitness-centered locations. Though the DFC will end this week, the PYP will celebrate with its own culminating event: the iconic PYP Sports Week that will run through next week. So get in those last sprints and lifts because it's going to be a good old-fashioned throw-down as house teams compete for the PYP Sports Week Championship!
15 November 2024
World Kindness Day
Students and teachers took part in an incredible celebration of kindness during World Kindness Day, November 13th. Classes and departments engaged in activities that promoted wellbeing through kindness. Many students spent time discovering how to "fill their buckets" and learned ways to fill those of others in acts of kindness. For our upper primary students, many explored the ways we can resolve conflict and how to leverage kindness to solve problems and build relationships.
Mr. Simon Singing About Good Habits
Our grade-two students have begun to explore good habits during their morning meeting. 2C and 2D got a special appearance from Mr. Simon who picked up a guitar and started singing with our students about good habits! A unique and fun way for students to delve into ways to remember all the good habits they can use.
8 November 2024
Student Leaders Taking Action
Our student leaders have been busy at work preparing for a vast array of initiatives. Whether it's a healthy eating campaign, the 30x30 fitness challenge, World Kindness Day or our winter spirit week, much is going on and we are proud to see our student leaders taking action and hard at work in bringing exciting learning and community-building to GIS.
The Eco Warriors are currently gardening! They are finding ways to grow plants in the school garden that product fruits or vegetables. Students are researching ways to make the most of our environment as well as the school property. They are working with our stellar facilities crew on ways to catch opportunities to collaborate and become more sustainable.
Our Wellbeing Ambassadors are elbows deep into our Kindness Day campaign. They are creating "kindness boxes" that will be shared with the PYP along with and activity that will help promote kindness and wellbeing. They have also begun work on our PYP healthy-eating campaign that will see students across the school trying to develop strategies for better eating habits.
1 November 2024
Dubai Fitness 30x30 Launch
The launch of the Dubai Fitness Challenge 30x30 was an incredible success! This city-wide initiative was supported by our GIS community and, in PYP, began with HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the Pitch. House Captains and P.E. teachers led students from our upper primary in a large-scale workout on the pitch. The action continued through the week with a culminating workout with the DFC maskots in the New Indoor Sports Hall.
We were and are elated at the enthusiasm that the GIS community brings to so many events, especially our physical fitness events. We enjoy seeing students working towards a healthy lifestyle with practical and engaging activities that students and families can take home. A HUGE "thank you" to our P.E., Events and Facilities departments for putting together an incredible line-up of events.
18 October 2024
The Importance of Tracking Emotional Data
We are incredibly pleased with the day-to-day data we are receiving through Upstrive, our social and emotional tracking and reflection program. We have seen the vast majority of students coming to school in good spirits, largely due to their family, school and friends. We have also been able to analyze other trends in order to better target interventions with students, classes and grades.
Student arriving to school lethargic has offerred the greatest opporutnity for growth and reflection. Through the data from Upstrive, students throughout the PYP will spend assemblies and class meetings reflecting on and improving sleep and resting habits. Please see the tips below for agreements to share with your children in order to get more rest.
Here are five child-friendly tips for getting more sleep
Set a bedtime – Go to bed at the same time every night to help your body get used to a routine.
Create a calm bedtime routine – Read a story, listen to soft music, or take a warm bath to relax before bed.
Turn off screens early – Put away tablets, TVs, and phones at least 30 minutes before bedtime so your brain can relax.
Make your room cozy – Keep your bedroom quiet, cool, and dark to make it a peaceful place to sleep.
Get plenty of exercise – Play and run around during the day to help your body feel tired and ready for sleep at night!
11 October 2024
GIS Mental Wellness Week in Action
Wellness Week was a smashing success! The week contained something for everyone. Students across all of the PYP homerooms entered into a variety of themes that explored mental wellness. From self affirmation, to the "Power of Yet", students found great depth in exploring self in their class meetings.
We are also proud to announce the official launch of Upstrive in the PYP, a social and emotional learning platform that we are currently using to monitor students' wellbeing. Each day, students in grades 3-5 are "checking in" using a list of emotion emojis. Using this data, we will be able to create bespoke learning for students to better develop social and emotional skills.
Parents also got into the action! Through our parent ConnectED sessions, parents were able to self-reflect on their own parenting skills as they explored resilience and the impact of technology on child development.
We are looking forward to futher expanding out social and emotional learning opportunities for all stakeholders. Please reach out to any of our staff with more ideas!
4 October 2024
GIS Mental Wellness Week
We are incredibly excited to share our upcoming GIS Mental Wellness Week. The week will include activities for everyone in the community. From digital wellness for parents to work balance for staff. Students will dig in the deepest as they engage in daily class meetings and activities that see them unpacking and developing strategies for mental wellness.
Don't forget to wear green on Thursday in support of Mental Wellness Week!
Power of Words Assembly
Counsellor, Ms. Rose, did a wonderful job in her assembly with student this week. She engaged the students in reflective and thoughful thinking routines that enabled the grades 4-5 student to see the power of the words.
In a truly international and inclusive school, language can become a powerful tool for connection and relationships. Ms. Rose did an incredible job guiding students through a reflective journey of word use. Through the presentation, students were able to gain new insites and strategies for thinking and speaking positively in order to grow in communication and speaking skill.
27 September 2024
Wellbeing takes many forms at GIS, oftentimes in creative and engaging ways. Above, our local principled pirate Captain Bluebeard is engaging our Pre-k students in conversations about being principled and balanced. He discussed the many ways to be kind to one another while learing to share. Students felt empowered and gave their best principled pirate roar!
Students also explored inclusivity through discussion about Captain Bluebeard's eye patch and how our differences are what make us unique and strong!
We are sure Captain Bluebeard will visit many more classes through the year as he helps to develop self-regulation skills and principled decision making in students.
20 September 2024
Students, parents and staff alike were over the moon with this week's Back-to-School Connection Event. This year, the primary team wanted to enhance our "Back-to School Night" with something exciting, new and innovation for GIS families. Indeed, it seems that new approach worked with hundreds of parents coming and taking part in their student's learning.
This event offered parents an opportunity to take part in class meetings and learning directly in the homeroom classes. With Positive Discipline, connection, and self-management skills as the central themes of class meetings, parents gave compliments, spoke in the foreign tongues and had the opportunity to see their own children in the midst of learning and community building.
As a staff, we are more than pleased to see the community members growing tighter through events like this. Sharing our truly international nature only benefits the children, and intimately families, at GIS. We hope to continue developing more ambitious, interactive and meaningful events with GIS families as we strive to help children grow and learn.
13 September 2024
Classroom Meetings:
Classroom Meetings:
Scenarios to Solve
Scenarios to Solve
Class meetings offer students and whole classes the opportunity to develop a variety of social, communication and self-management skills through the Positive Discipline framework. We are very fortunate that time has been allocated in all PYP homerooms each day for students and teachers to connect through class meetings. Each meeting is like a fingerprint, very different in the learning and connection it contains due to its adaptive nature.
In the photo above, students from Mrs. Maya's 4F homeroom are using scenarios to develop skills. This example has students discussing school procedures and how to participate in them safely and kindly. In the early part of the school year, class meeting are often focused on routines and procedures with deeper dives into problem solving once the basics are covered. Through class meetings, classes can use the power of "us" to work their way through most any problem.
September 6th, 2024
In our commitment to student wellbeing and safeguarding, the GIS PYP has rolled out an interesting, unique and transformational class space called the “Calm Corner.” As part of our Positive Discipline initiative towards students’ social and emotional learning, each classroom now hosts a Calm Corner where students can practice self-management skills.
In our commitment to student wellbeing and safeguarding, the GIS PYP has rolled out an interesting, unique and transformational class space called the “Calm Corner.” As part of our Positive Discipline initiative towards students’ social and emotional learning, each classroom now hosts a Calm Corner where students can practice self-management skills.
Calm Corners are designed to create a space and moment for students to process thoughts and emotions using skills gained during “Class Meetings,” another of our major Positive Discipline initiatives.
Calm Corners are designed to create a space and moment for students to process thoughts and emotions using skills gained during “Class Meetings,” another of our major Positive Discipline initiatives.
Calm Corners are centered around the idea that students learn and develop skills to work and problem-solve their way through common, unique or complex situations, moments or emotions.
Calm Corners are centered around the idea that students learn and develop skills to work and problem-solve their way through common, unique or complex situations, moments or emotions.
Finally, Calm Corners will contain an increasing set of universal emotions graphics in a various translations, along with practical skills developed by classes to grow in social, self-management and communication skills.
Finally, Calm Corners will contain an increasing set of universal emotions graphics in a various translations, along with practical skills developed by classes to grow in social, self-management and communication skills.
We look forward to sharing much more in our Positive Discipline journey throughout the year.
We look forward to sharing much more in our Positive Discipline journey throughout the year.
30th August 2024
PASTORAL CARE TEAM 24-25
PASTORAL CARE TEAM 24-25
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