For those looking for instrumental lessons for their children, we also invited the Centre for Musical Arts to the school this week. CMA partners with our activities provider, ESM, and offers instrumental lessons across the GEMS network. If interested, their website is www.cmadubai.com and email gems@cmadubai.com

I would like you to be aware of our Strategic Development Plan priorities for the next academic year, 2023-24. These priorities are the result of many conversations, from community feedback, evaluations by external accreditors and inspectors, and our professional judgement, based on knowledge of the GIS context and journey. I am delighted to share the below with you: 

Ambition for All

Culture of Learning at GIS

International Education: A Four Programme IB School

Community and Connections (Keeping a Big School Small)

Wellbeing

I would be very happy to discuss these priorities with parents. I shall be speaking to all staff at the beginning of the new school year, and we shall be planning with these over-arching aims in mind. We have clarity in our vision and we are so excited about the future! 

Finally, at the time of writing, I am very much looking forward to our Grade 12 Graduation and shall report on this next week. 

Kind regards and have a good weekend.

On Sunday for the first time ever we entered a squad team into the UDO Schools Dance Championships which took place at Gems Wellington Silicon Oasis. We also had some students compete in the solo competition with 3 students finishing in the top 10. Congratulations to Lana who finished 2nd overall in her age category and Isabella who finished 5th in her category. The squad were unlucky to just miss out on a top 3 finish after a brilliant performance. Please find a link to the team performance HERE.

On Monday our U15 boys cricket squad travelled to DIA for the quarter finals of the DASSA league. The boys came up against the favorites for the competition who in the end proved too strong for our boys. In only our second year of entering a competitive cricket squad it was an incredible achievement for the boys to top their group with 3 wins and make it to the quarter finals.

On Tuesday our U12 girls hosted Jumeirah Girls in the MPH. The girls put out a strong first 5 in the first quarter and grew a commanding lead that JC were never able to make up with the game finishing 32-22 in favor of GIS. Congratulations to Jennifer T, who was nominated for MVP of this fixture.

Well done to all the swimmers who participated in Hamdan Qualifier Competition. I would like to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to the success of the competition. Your support and dedication are truly appreciated. 

The competition was not about places or scores; it was just about timing the swimmers and seeing if they could make it to the final. I am pleased to announce that we have seen significant improvements in the swimmers' Personal Best (PB) times. Please find the list of 16 swimmers who improved their PB times below:

Sarp (IM and Fly)

Scareltt (IM and Fly)

Leo (IM, BK and Fly)

Emma (IM and Fly)

Tim (BK)

Vivien (BK and Fly)

Omar A (BK)

Varvara (BK)

Karim G.3 (Fly)

Roza (FR)

Dawood (BR)

Amir (BR)

Noah (BR)

Victoria T G.4 (BR and Fly)

Saeed (BR)

Alexa (BR)

Kareem G.5 (FR)

We look forward to seeing if the students effort and hard work has been enough to qualify them for the Hamdan finals.

On Wednesday our U4 boys basketball squad welcomed Hartland to the MPH for their last group stage game. This was an extremely entertaining between 2 very good teams. It was a fantastic team display with the boys emerging 54-41 victors. Well done to Mustafa I who was selected as MVP for this fixture.

On Thursday the U14 girls travelled to Dubai College for their last group stage game of the season. They came up a physically strong DC side and a lot of our younger players struggled with the physicality of the game. The final score of this fixture was 41-11 in favor of Dubai College.