Week Four - September 20th, 2024

#WeRGIS Weekly

From the Head of School's Desk

Dear Parents,

Making a Splash!

As I had hoped, good news! Our swimming pool is now open again. The water quality has been officially tested (a ten-day process which has had a successful result) and our students can use the pool again from Monday. I am delighted that we shall have use of this facility again and thank you for your pastience.

The pool was closed as a safety precaution due to the construction of the new sports hall. I’m happy to report that the sports hall will be available for use soon—pending the installation of acoustic panels. I’ll inform you once it's ready, likely by next week!

On Monday this week, we thoroughly enjoyed the celebration of Prophet Mohammed’s birthday (PBUH). My thanks to Ms Nomah, Ms Rasha and their Islamic teams for organising such a meaningful and fun event, with quizzes, Arabic coffee and snacks, student recitations and even visits to classrooms with treats.

Our Arabic teams were also very active again this week, engaging in superb professional development on classroom practice, thanks to our visiting provider Mr Youssef. The secondary team also offered an Arabic A coffee and information morning for parents. Well done all and thank you parents for your support for this event.

This week, it was the turn of our Primary Team to present their Back-to-School mornings. What a superb turnout of parents on each of the three days! Perhaps this was because Ms Sarah and team organised classroom visits after the initial presentations in the MPH. I think the events showed great organisation, clarity and a very warm reception from parents. My thanks to all in Primary – this was a great way for parents to meet the teachers and leaders and to catch a glimpse of learning.

We were delighted to receive another visitor this week. Ms Hannah King, Senior Lecturer in English language at London Metropolitan University, is working on a project between universities and schools in the UK to promote multilingualism. Ms King heard about our primary school library, with its multilingual approach, its resources in so many languages, and wanted to know how this promoted confidence, wellbeing and cognitive challenge. Ms Louise provided insightful answers to Ms King’s questions and we were proud to be so cutting-edge in this direction. Thank you Ms Louise.

Traffic update: although our options are limited within the area available, you will notice a few adaptations on Monday. There will be five more marshals, supplied by GEMS, on the incoming road leading to the school. You will see more cones also and lane clarity. These measures will prevent any further dangerous driving. Please report any dangerous or aggressive driving to Mr Ranjit, our Manager of School Operations.

Finally, I would like to thank Mr Hfu from GEMS Communications Team for providing a wonderful opportunity for our Grade 4 and 5 students this week, with a visit from Dubai 92 radio! Ms Aamna was quick to grab at the opportunity and our students enjoyed a fun time in the MPH with large scale quizzes from the famous DJs!