Week Thirty Five - May 20th 2022

#WeRGIS Weekly

From the Head of School's Desk

Dear Parents,

It has been a wonderful week at GIS, with some key events taking place which would not have been possible just a few months ago.

A second university fair (Gulf EDU) was organized for Thursday and we welcomed seventeen more universities from around the world (Europe, Canada, US, UAE). We were excited to have one of our GIS parents, Ms. Carolina Carrillo, representing UCAM (Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia) to our students. Without exception, the reps were highly appreciative of our students’ engagement and astute questions! We encourage GIS secondary families to attend larger in-person and online fairs that are published on ManageBac, with a view to better understanding costs, entry requirements and opportunities associated with each university destination.

There was also a new event, called ‘GIS Gourmet’. Rather like ‘MasterChef’, this involved teams of students creating delectable culinary treats and being assessed across a number of categories. Ms Amanda and I were honored to be asked by Diya M to be judges for the final, alongside Student Executive President and Vice-President, Nourhan and Jana, and Student Head of Academics, Om N. I have never eaten so well on a Thursday afternoon! The quality was extraordinary and the three teams in the final excelled. The theme was ‘Breakfast’ and the judging categories were Presentation, Taste, Cleanliness, and Adherence to Theme. The six finalists (two members per team) all deserve a mention: Radin T and Jaylen C (G11), known as ‘Supa Hot Fire’, produced a delightful mix of steak, hashbrowns, muffin and egg; team ‘Saya’ (a merge of their names) consisted of Grade 11 girls Sarah B and Aya A, and they created a delicious sourdough bread topped with avocado, tomato, ham and egg with chili flakes, alongside chia and mango with strawberries and fresh orange juice; finally, Afra S and Maryam M, both in Grade 6, and known as the ‘Masterchefs’ came top in the taste category with their Bangladeshi kedgeree, Algerian pancakes, Italian scrambled egg and black coffee. Please see the photos below. In the end, after a very difficult choice, the winners of the first ever GIS ‘Golden Whisk’ were ‘Saya’!

This week also saw the return of the Primary School ‘Student-Led Conferences; these have not been able to take place in school for three years. I am so proud of our younger students for describing their learning and progress to parents so well. The school was a real buzz and our parents were really delighted to be able to be here in-person. Thank you to the teachers and leaders for preparing the students so well for this and to our parents for your strong support.

Another exciting event on the horizon is the school musical, Alice in Wonderful, which plays from 24^th – 26^th May. I do hope you will be able to support the huge effort that has gone into the production.

Finally, may I point you in the direction of the upcoming GEMS parent survey. This will come out from Monday 23^rd May and we hope you will take a few moments to complete this. Our school jumped to its highest promoter score ever last time, and we hope to maintain or even exceed this and also take note of your constructive comments. Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Simon Herbert

CIS Survey

Click here

*The survey will close next this weekend*

ECA News

We had a busy week of fixtures across our secondary school. We started off the week hosting our first secondary competitive swim gala in over two years. It was a hugely successful event with all student athletes performing admirably to finish 2^nd overall out of the 4 participating schools.

Our U14 Boys Basketball team had a fantastic 51-29 victory over Nibras International School on Wednesday in their first game of the season. It was a great, sportsmanlike team performance from our boys with Jaguar of the match going to Omer E in Grade 8.

Our cricketers had a busy week with their first fixture taking place on Wednesday against GEMS Wellington Al Khail. The boys were very unlucky to have been narrowly defeated in this one. On Thursday they took on a strong GEMS Wellington Silicon Oasis side, and again were narrowly beaten, this time by only 3 runs! Our boys did great in what was our first year entering this competition and can take a lot from it moving forward.

Our U14 girls basketball squad had their first game of the season against Southview School on Thursday afternoon. Our girls started very strong, but were narrowly beaten in the end by a strong Southview team.

Please find match reports written by our students on the Jaguars website here.

From the clinic...

Dear Parents,

As you are aware, we are expecting high temperatures this coming months, we would like to ensure your child is well protected from the heat while at school.

Summer time in Dubai is quite hot and requires specific processes to be considered by students, staff and parents in order to cope with the extreme weather conditions and stay safe. GIS Clinic is advising you of the below:

Encourage your children to drink water frequently and throughout the day to prevent dehydration.
Recognize early signs of heat illness such as dizziness, heavy sweating ,muscle cramps and headache.
Provide spare water bottles with your children and ensure that water should be the main drink avoiding fruit juices, fruit based drinks and fizzy drinks.
Provide more fruits and salads for snack/lunch, and keep an ice pack in the lunch box to make sure the food doesn’t spoil.
Ensure that your children wear loose fitting clothes.
Encourage your children to shower at least twice a day.
Do not leave children or infants in parked cars.
Leave the windows of the car open for a few minutes when starting the car AC.
Use insect repellent to prevent mosquitoes and insects bite.
Make sure children wear hats/caps.

At GIS we:

Promote/plan indoor activities where students stay in air conditioned areas as much as possible.
GIS follows Gems Hot Weather policy and closely monitor heat index daily.
We encourage the students to stay in the shade during playtime and lunch, and keep them inside the class according to the weather/heat index.
Plan all physical activities (PE) indoors, avoiding strenuous activities.
Encourage students to wash their hands properly and more often.
Remind students to drink water to keep them well hydrated.

GIS Presents Alice in Wonderland

GIS Community Calendar 21/22

If you would like to subscribe to the the GIS Community Calendar, please click HERE for the link.

This calendar will be continually updated to reflect key dates and events.

A kind reminder to students that use the bus service on the Covid protocols when riding the bus to and from school. Click HERE.

STS_Parents as Partners_2022.pdf

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