Week three - September 17th 2020

Secondary school

From the Head of Secondary

I found myself reflecting upon the journey of our school this week, as I sat and watched the curriculum night workshops. It's great that we had to differentiate our approach to ensure that the 'veteran' GIS families were able to engage in sessions that deepened their knowledge of our programs as well as ensuring we inducted our newest families.

I visited DP1 students during a study period and found them maturely reviewing material, collaborating on upcoming presentations and discussing subjects; this is learned behavior that they have brought forward from MYP. In Grade 10, I spoke numerous of students about personal projects and not one of them was in a panic, anxious or nervy about the process. Instead I saw confidence and clarity of purpose; something that is a result of guidance and support from teachers. Younger grades have discussed their upcoming deadlines and assignments with me this week. They spoke with knowledge and understanding of their work and the purpose behind what was being asked of them.

None of this is developed overnight and is the result of dedication, hard work and partnerships between teachers, students and families. We worked to broaden this further during the curriculum night and we have shared the videos to these workshops in this newsletter (please see below).

Thank you for another wonderful week!

Goal setting Parent Teacher Conferences (PTCs)

Goal setting PTCs

We will be connecting with parents and students next week for our goal setting PTCs and the link for PTCFast (to book meetings with teachers) has been sent by email this week. If you struggle to find openings then please reach out to teachers directly to find a suitable and mutually convenient slot to meet.

In your meeting with teachers, your child should be taking the lead and explaining the targets that they have set in each of their subject areas. You can 'front load' the meeting by discussing this with your child before the meeting. Your child should be reviewing their target tracking sheet (Example shown below) through the year as they accrue assessment outcomes in each subject area. Checking in with them on this periodically will help to keep your conversation going in relation to their targets.

Our PTCs will take place through the evening of the 23rd (4:00pm - 8:00pm) and the school day of the 24th (8:00am - 4:00pm). This obviously means that there will be no classes on 24th of September for Grade 6 - Grade 11 students; Grade 12 lessons will take place as normal.

During her 8 years at GIS, Dalida has established herself as an active member of the social committee, is involved with the Smiles4Zayed team, she is a school ambassador and is heavily involved in TheLink with both the student magazine and student TV.
She played Princess Jasmine in the school production in 2018 and has performed musically on many occasions over the years.
Dalida has been awarded honor role every year since the inception of the award and has picked up multiple academic awards each year of her school life.

Setting high expectations for ourselves

Dalida Froemel (Grade 8)

Throughout the year, I always strive to give my best, one of my personality that I believe helps me to achieve each year. I do not aim at being top of the class, my goal is always to be better than I was last year, month or even last week.

I was awarded Honor Roll for the second year now at GIS and I am so proud of this achievement. The Honor Roll is a highly coveted recognition, attributed at the end of the academic year based on the work, commitment, and results achieved by students.

To achieve Honor Roll, students are not only required to meet highly demanding academic expectations but they must also engage in initiatives and projects to satisfy MYP service as action; something that I have always done within our school community.

I have always been a committed student with high expectations for myself as I know that my learning is precious and essential as a foundation for my whole life. I have never done anything in school for the recognition or reward, but I am grateful for any award and recognition that comes my way. I feel fortunate to have the privilege of attending a school that appreciates the hard work and achievement of students.

Sarim joined GIS this year in Grade 10 and has made a great start to a critical MYP year.
We're all excited to see what Sarim will achieve at GIS and can't wait to see his personal project exhibition later this year

Personal Project, the start of a lifelong journey

Sarim Shah (Grade 10)

The personal project will be a learning curve for me, as this is my first year as an IB student. It’s going to be the start of what it seems like a life-long journey and it will require a lot of skills of different variations like communication, research skills, etc. All these skills will represent key aspects of the project that I am going to create. This project is going to push boundaries and connect me to an audience through mutual interests. It will allow me to show the skills that I have developed over the years as a learner and apply it to the topic I decide my project is about.

Finding news ways of working

This week, it became clear that the innovative and creative side of teachers (and students) is bubbling to the surface. We have spent the first few weeks getting to grips with what we are not permitted to do; now we start to work out what is possible within the constraints of social distanced education.

Grade 9 drama students used improvisation as the spark of creativity and used their personal spaces to explore performance. DP Art students use their Art explorations to escape into their imagination; it was so inspiring to hear about their artistic processes and ideas.

Our DP2 students had exams to contend with this week. The outcomes from these exams really help students and teachers to identify the aspects of their courses that they have secure knowledge and what needs to be developed further.

DP art students described their processes. Early work is already impressive and we can't wait to see their portfolios in DP2.

Grade 9 drama working on 'improv'It is wonderful to see students being risk takers by getting fully involved in the action and showing their creativity while adhering to the social distancing rules.

DP1 Biology students acting as geneticists, decoding an electrppherogram and using BLAST database to identify the unknown gene.

DP2 students completed exams this week. Exam results provide wonderful feedback for students and teachers regarding the content coverage from DP1.

Curriculum night - just not as we know it

Thank you to all of the families that joined us on Wednesday evening for our curriculum night. It was a different approach this year for obvious reasons but we still enjoyed connecting with you all and we hope you found the sessions with our leaders insightful and helpful.

The recordings of the sessions can be found by clicking on the school logo to the left of this text.

TOK doesn't have to melt your brain

Our DP students have come a long way with their perceptions and attitudes toward TOK (Theory of Knowledge). We saw brilliant improvements in TOK outcomes in DP results this year. One of the key reasons for this is that students enjoy the lessons that are delivered by our wonderful TOK teachers.

One of our newest students has clearly absorbed this passion for TOK as shown by Mr Cunningham in this week's tweet of the week.

TOK really is one of the differentiating factors between IB graduates and those from other curricular. TOK challenges students to think more deeply, more critically and from differing perspectives.

Reminders & Updates

Absence

Please can we remind families that they must make contact with the absence email address on days where their child is sick and staying home from school. Any absence that is longer than 3 days requires a doctors certificate for this to be an authorised absence.

gis_secondaryleaverequest@gemsedu.com

Masks

Our entire community has done an amazing job with the social distancing requirements. Please remember your masks every day and please remember that our recommended masks are the surgical style masks

MAP Testing

In preparation for MAP testing, all students must:

Update your laptop's operating system to the latest available version. This update must be completed at home.
Install the latest version of the NWEA Lockdown Browser on your BYOD device.

The latest version (for Mac and Windows) can be found HERE

Mother Tongue languages

Mother Tongue (MT) languages are an important aspect of an international student's education. The mother tongue language is a critical aspect of maintaining a connection to a young person's heritage and family culture.

At GIS, we try to support families with the maintenance of their MT language and offer School Supported Self-Taught (SSST) pathways in IBDP. As an SSST candidate, an IBDP student takes on a tutor out of school and completes IBDP assessments in their MT language to gain an bi-lingual diploma when they graduate (providing passing grades are achieved for the IBDP). More information about SSST and bi-lingual diplomas can be sought out via our DP coordinator, Mr Ruairi Cunningham (r.cunningham_gis@gemsedu.com).

Headway institute provide MT languages programs that can, in some cases, be delivered within your child's curriculum time at GIS or as an ECA. They also offer one to one programs, programs within their facility at Academic City or via online sessions.

Parents that are interested in taking on a MT language program with Headway are encouraged to reach out via the contact information on the attached flyer.

MT language programs within the school curriculum are dependent on numbers of students per grade and tutor availability with Headway

The Student Magazine is calling for you!

Hello everyone!

My name is Eashani Sarup, and along with my deputy Dalida Froemel, I lead on the student magazine element of TheLink.

TheLink magazine has been an integral part of the GIS community since 2017 and has been growing steadily since then. It has amassed a community of creative writers, journalists, photographers and many more since its founding and is a critical part of the GIS student community.

We are happy to announce that TheLink magazine will return for the school year 2020-2021, with a new team of journalists, editors and photographers!

Sign up using this link, and do not hesitate to contact thelinkmagazine@gemsisak.com if you have any questions, inquiries or suggestions!

Thank you, and we look forward to working with you!"