Week Nineteen - February 4th 2021

Secondary School

As you all know, we have a new timetable that will begin on Sunday 7th. A timetable change mid-year is not a decision that is taken lightly and it certainly wasn't in this instance. This year is obviously a strange year for us all and it has brought about considerations that would never be factors in a 'normal year' but they became significant this year for all stakeholders.

We very much began this year the year with an expectation of regulations and restrictions gradually relaxing and allowing us to shift towards normality; this has obviously not happened. Our initial timetable is therefore not fit for purpose as we move forward and we needed to address some of the feedback that we have received.

We have also grown in numbers beyond what we expected this year. This has been more significant in a couple of grade levels and has resulted in us feeling that it is necessary to open new classes in those grades. I have written to Grade 6 and Grade 8 families today with more information on this. As a result of our growth, we have hired additional teachers into our teams as growth positions. These teachers are predominantly teaching in MYP and this does mean that there will be teacher changes across all grade levels in some subject areas.

As I said at the beginning of this message, we have not taken this decision lightly and we understand the impact of changing teachers and classes in the middle of the year. However, when we balanced the impact of maintaining status quo versus making changes, we felt that the positives of the new timetable far outweigh the negatives.

We will be extending homeroom on Sunday for all students so that we can go through the new timetable and help to manage the logistical transition. All teachers have been reminded of the importance of the initial relationship building with their classes and they will be taking time to do this next week.

GIS Community Calendar

Global projects week - 22nd Feb - 25th Feb

As most of you will know, each year at GIS we run a Week Without Walls week. This includes travel all over the world and allows students to learn about new cultures, new languages, collaborate with different people or complete service based activities.

Unfortunately, our week without walls is another omission from our calendar due to COVID19. But we don't want that to stop us completely. Therefore, from Monday 22nd February - Thursday 25th February, students will take part in project based learning experiences in their homeroom classes.\

What is the program?

We are delighted to be working with CAMPS International on this as they have been a longstanding partner of GIS for our international service based trips in previous years. CAMPS have provided us with some wonderful connections and materials to use for our project based learning activities and will also be supporting via zoom calls to target countries to give some first person, primary research based input.

Grade 6 & 7 will be focussing on Housing & Welfare with Tanzania as a case study

Grade 8 & 9 will be considering Water and Food security with Cambodia as a case study

Grade 10 will inquire into Animal Welfare with Kenya as their case study

Grade 11 & Grade 12 students have DP based activities and expectations to complete through the week

It is hoped that these countries (or the project focus) will form the basis of WWW trips next year.

MAP testing & Languages Day

You will notice that this project week coincides with MAP testing and International Languages Day. This has been a conscious decision as we try to avoid curriculum disruption being spread over longer periods of the year. We will be stepping away from curriculum based instruction for the entire week.

Remote Access Learners

The whole week has been planned with remote access to learning in mind. Students that are currently accessing remotely (or any that move to remote learning between now and then) will have access to all of the global projects work and can also now complete MAP testing online (thanks to policy changes at NWEA and KHDA).

Upcoming Key Dates

February 7th - new secondary school schedule launches

February 11th - Semester 1 report cards published

February 11th - PTCFast link shared with parents to sign up for PTC appointments

February 14th - Secondary school appreciation day (student event - information to follow)

February 16th - online PTC afternoon/evening - 4:00pm - 8:00pm

February 17th & 18th - online daytime PTC - 8:00am - 4:00pm

February 21st - Grade 12 mock exams begin

February 21st - International languages day at GIS

February 22nd - Week of global projects begin (more information above)

February 22nd - MAP testing begins

Please share your feedback about the sessions by completing this Google Form.

Workshop Recordings

Following last week's prevention workshops, facilitated by prevention specialist Ian Groves, I'm delighted to share with you some of the session recordings, which may be revisited at your leisure. We have received great feedback, regarding these sessions and we encourage families to revisit the following video recordings and to maintain open dialogue on the matter of healthy lifestyle choices:

*viewers must be logged into a @gemsisak email account.

Please note that the above videos were pre-recorded. As per FCD Prevention Works policies and procedures, the live session for Grade 8-10 students could not be recorded.

Further resources will be shared with parents, once received from the FCD. Additional support and information can also be requested by emailing schools@fcd.org

Monday 22nd FebruaryLanguage8:15 - 10:30am50 to 53 questions
Tuesday 23rd FebruaryMath8:15 - 10:30am50 to 53 questions
Wednesday 24th FebruaryReading8:15 - 10:30am40 to 43 questions
Thursday 25th FebruaryScience8:15 - 10:30am40 to 43 questions

MAP Testing

The next round of MAP Testing will take place from February 22-25th (students will undertake one MAP Test per day)

Testing will take place alongside the activities planned for 'Global Projects Week' and we are excited to share that NWEA has now piloted and approved remote testing procedures, which means that we are able to accommodate remote access learners within the same test sessions as in-school learners.

Parents of remote access learners

We request that you create an environment at home that is conducive to testing and in which students are supervised. Students should feel encouraged to uphold academic integrity while completing the battery of tests, in order to ensure test validity and to ensure that the data can be used to accurately determine the support required for students to maintain an appropriate learning trajectory.

Remote access learners will also be proctored via Zoom and via the NWEA platform, which provides live information about student activity throughout each test session.

In-school learners

Throughout the week, students must bring the following items with them to school:

A fully charged laptop (Students should also fully power down and restart their laptop each evening)
A laptop charger or power bank
Headphones that are compatible with their BYOD laptop
A book (in case they finish the test before the end of the allotted time)

What Next?

A lovely surprise greeted us this week as we walked through the school to find Grade 10 Math Extended students inquiring into the application of math to calculate measurements on the pirate ship play area using trigonometry.

In Grade 9, Arabic B students in phase one were exploring the conjugation of the present tense verb with pronouns in lessons this week. The activities seemed so engaging and students really looked to be enjoying what they were doing.

Grade 6 students showed us some lovely cell models in science as well. Very impressive work Grade 6. So nice to see the learners accessing remotely also producing models at home.

Mr Vikas updated us on the aviation elective and gave us a good run down on the activities that they've engaged in. He told us:

"Aviation students are heading to learn the advanced flying mission of A320 Emergency Landing in Hudson River. Students were flying A320 in their mission from LaGuardia to Charlotte, North Carolina. They experienced the engine failure after taking off and had to react quickly to land in Hudson River. Most of then were able to reach to Hudson River, but landing in the river remains the challenge for the rest of the week. Young pilots learned about the Auxillary Power Unit functions on the ground and during emergency procedures.

Drone Pilots students acquired certificates in simulation flying task of DJI Phantom, DJI-F450 and Discovery drones. Beginner students trained themselves to fly the drone creating shape eight around two poles in practical sessions while maintaining the same height. Advanced students were preparing themselves for drone racing around hurdles."

Aviation students practicing their drone & aircraft piloting

Math Extended students applying trigonometry

Conjugation of the present tense verb with pronouns in Arabic B lessons

Grade 6 cell modeling

Read aloud day at GIS

Mr Hole gets the tweet of the week this week. Well done to Sage Wessel for stepping up during read aloud day and sharing a story with our PYP students. One of the best things about being in an all through school is the older students role modeling for the younger ones.