Week Twenty Seven - March 4th 2022

Secondary School

Whole School Newsletter

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Secondary Curriculum Information

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I do hope that you managed to find some time to rest with family and friends during the recent mid-term break. Upon school’s return, a lot has happened!

Firstly, we are delighted to receive news that we will commence our partnership with Embry Riddle this coming academic year. This is such an exciting opportunity for our students in Grade 10 and below. While more detailed information can be read elsewhere in the newsletter, I do want to thank the huge effort Ms Mariona put in to have this agreement reached. She has worked tirelessly to ensure that the partnership is in the best interests of our students. The dual programme will add such wide-ranging prospects to our already extensive opportunities available in the senior school.

While last week was very brief, it was wonderful to hear the vast array of languages being spoken throughout the school. Ms Alice and the Language Acquisition team produced a mammoth effort to ensure that many of our mother tongue languages were represented. During the day, students taught language lessons to classes, as did teachers who are not traditionally language teachers. The IB, and GIS, place such importance on language learning, it was a marvelous way to celebrate the diversity of languages within our own school - such a wonderful school event!

This week, we also celebrated all things books, with the GIS Lit Fest. Our Academic Student Leaders very competently organized a series of events that ran throughout the week. Students wore wacky socks or hats to celebrate Dr Seuss, wrote wonderful pieces of poetry at speed and participated in a literary quiz to name a few events. We have all been whisked off to another world through the pages of a book at some point, and treasuring the experiences that this brings is a great tradition to have at school. Well done to all involved.

Also this week GIS was very well represented at the LeadHERship Conference last weekend. Ms Alice was well impressed with our students who took part in workshops to develop their leadership skills, networked with other students and staff as well as attended panels of experts from different sectors discussing how we can help women and girls thrive. With International Women’s Day right around the corner, it was very fitting for our female students to participate and to interact with such wonderful role models.

Finally, this week our older students participated in a University Fair organized by Ms Malin. Representatives from 34 universities and colleges from around the world were on hand to answer our students queries regarding entry to university, what the various universities and colleges can offer our students, and what university life is like (to name but a few). A second mini fair was also on offer after school on Wednesday where Cambridge University and Imperial College spoke at length regarding the application process into their institutions. This event is linked closely to our Subject Fair which took place on Friday. This fair, again organized by students, was an opportunity for teachers & students to promote the various subjects available in the DP and CP pathways. With a number of new subjects potentially being available this coming academic year, it was very informative for our Grade 9 & 10 students. Well done to all involved.

With that, I wish your family well for the upcoming week.

Stay safe and best wishes

Amanda Murphy

Head of Secondary

Exciting news! GIS to become the first school in the UAE to offer the prestigious Embry Riddle Aeronautical University program in Grade 11 and 12.

We are proud to announce the launch of new IB Career-related Programme pathways at GIS for our incoming Grade 11 cohort. As you know, we currently have 23 students enrolled into our IBCP Business and Creative Media pathways. Students enrolling into Grade 11 for 2022-23 will also have the possibility of choosing the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Dual Enrollment Program at GIS. Through ERAU, students will be able to specialize in Aeronautics and Aviation or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Students will also be able to specialize in Business combined with either of the two previous pathways (Business with Aeronautics and Aviation or Business with STEM).

Given GIS’s current Center for Aviation, Aeronautics and Space provision for MYP students, it was a natural step to develop our students’ passion for Aeronautics, Aviation and STEM in their last two years prior to university. We know that many GIS families have either personal or professional connections to the aviation industry in Dubai and hope that these pathways enable our students to continue this legacy.

ERAU’s history goes back over 90 years and is currently one of the most prestigious aviation and aeronautical universities in the world. ERAU currently offers a wide variety of science-related programs that range from Applied Science, Aviation, Business, Computers & Technology, Engineering, Space and Security, Intelligence and Safety, amongst others. If you would like to learn more about ERAU, please visit their website here.

In the meantime, we would like to invite you to join our ConnectEd session in collaboration with ERAU this coming Wednesday, March 9th at 11.00 am. During the session, you will learn details about the program and you will have the chance to ask burning questions.

Support During A Time of Crisis

Counselors Article - Supporting your children (and yourself) in times of crisis March 2022.pdf

Upcoming Dates

Feb 18th Last day of term

Feb 24th New term begins

Feb 28th - March 25th GIS Sports & Health Month

Mar 12th GIS Expo (3-7pm)

Mar 14-18th Diversity Awareness Week

Mar 25th Last day of term 2

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January 12th - Keeping a Big School Small

January 26th - DP/CP Pathways

While we work to make this available via YouTube, please access this session recording by logging in with your child's gemselearning credentials.

Our Student Voice

Make sure to check out our Website and Instagram!

@gis_elt

@gis__thelink

GIS SPORTS & HEALTH MONTH IS COMING!

The Sports Committee is very pleased to announce the upcoming Sport & Health Month which will take place during March. This event is in collaboration with the House Committee, which means that there will be many opportunities for students to win house points! Sports & Health Month will be packed with fun activities, some of which will even let you work collaboratively with other students as a team. You can check the Sports & Health Month Calendar and make sure to sign up for the team events, inter-house basketball and dodgeball tournaments, by filling out the google forms linked below before the 25th of February.

Inter-house tournament sign-ups:

Basketball: Link to the form

Dodgeball: Link to the form

60km Challenge: Link to Sign-Up

Take a look at this presentation for more detailed information regarding Sports & Health Month and the respective activities. We wish you a good day and an enjoyable break!

Cigdem Kavcar

Head of Sports Committee

This week, the amazing Student ELT launched the Secondary Student Hub to the MYP students during Advisory. This is an ongoing collaborative project between the Student ELT, Inclusion Team & Grade Leaders.

The Secondary Student Hub will be the students access point for the new social groups and peer mentoring, as well as signing up for the already established peer tutoring programme.

Students will also be able to find links to ECAs, student voice initiative, counsellor referral forms, mindset matters and homeroom information. We are really proud of the work that the Student ELT have put in to this so far and look forward to seeing their expansion of the site.

THE PERSONAL PROJECT

In the Personal Project Grade 10 students have the opportunity to showcase the skills they developed throughout the MYP. They have to choose something they want to learn about and decide on a product to create. Our Grade 10 students have now completed their products and what they have done is seriously impressive! We hope to be able to host an exhibition later on in the year to share their wonderful work with the whole community, but I would like to give you a sneak preview of some of their work over coming weeks.

Ms Sandy

Jana’s photo essay of the human impact on our local environment

Pre-order Food Through Slices

Students are encouraged to bring a packed lunch to school - particularly while COVID-19 restrictions are in place - as it ensures that they are able to eat and drink as required throughout the school day.

If you wish to make use of the Slices catering service, please note that:

Food deliveries will not be permitted from external restaurants/catering services.
Food orders must be ordered through Slices in advance by completing this GOOGLE FORM.

Orders for following weeks must be placed by 10am each Friday.
Orders must be placed in advance for the full week (Monday to Thursday).
Same-day orders/deliveries will not be possible.

Food orders will be delivered to the students' classroom.
Students will not be permitted to visit the canteen in order to purchase water or snacks throughout the day.

Please consider an appropriate quantity and variety of foods to sustain your child for the duration of the school day.
Students are encouraged to bring sufficient water with them to school to sustain them throughout the day.

From the Classroom (and beyond)

Please find results, scorers, action photos, match reports, Sports News and much more on our Jaguar Sports website

You can also read reviews of the latest GIS sporting action via the GIS PHE site, curtesy of our Head of Sports Committee, Cigdem Kavcar

Ayse Ece Ozgoren from Grade 11 competed in the Dubai Youth Fencing Championships on the 12th of February. She came away with a bronze medal in the U17 individuals category - congratulations Ayse!

Stars of the Week!

Pranay Mathur, Maliha Pathan, Hannah Anderson, Asma Duwaji, Lana Hiranandani, Sidonie Roux, Zeyad El-Dandarawy, Mazin Bayoumi, Alwy Badawy, Rudraksh Purohit, Anicia Rabemananjara, Can Ozgoren, Victoria Saintpierre, Aadit Chandrani, Laith Shubeilat, Riley Fisher, Omar Almheiri, Aahil Merali, Ahmed Idris, Chahine Ouchari, Sakhi Doshi, Sofia Herrara Dominguez, Rohan Jani, Dhruv Agarwal, Lara Elkabbany, Kashvi Ahuja & Sia Dhamecha

Mathematics

Grade 6 students have learned how to identify prime and composite numbers, and how to find factors and multiples of numbers. Some students solved riddles to check their answers and some enjoyed the color-by-number activities.

Individuals and Societies

This week, Mr Zulk’s I&S classes 7D and 7B took on the role of teachers and taught their fellow learners about the life, adventures and experiences of an explorer they chose to study. This was a part of their ‘Exploration’ unit in which students were given the task of creating a collaborative presentation/mini lesson focusing on the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where and why). Some of the explorers that were chosen were: Marco Polo, Vasco Da Gama, Sir Francis Drake, Christopher Columbus and Zhang He.

Grade 7 students really showed off their communication, investigation, research and group-work skills this week. Well done grade 7, carry on being great IB learners!