GPS Newsletter

10th November 2023

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents

An absolutely fabulous week this week. The children worked hard and we ended the week with Dressing Up Bright to Spread the Light! An amazing assembly by years 3, 4 and 5. Well done everyone!

Finally, we had a Tiger Come to Tea - yes that's right a tiger! FS has been reading the book and the tiger joined us on Friday and joined in the shared reading session. Thank you sooooo much for bringing the book alive for the children! If you haven't figured it out already, raising the reading standard in school is one of the major focus areas for this year so, if you too would like to volunteer to read to any age group, do please let your class teacher know. Reading is so important as it is the basis for all we do and learning.

Save the date: Monday 13th November - Odd Socks Day - Anti-bullying week kicks off

Monday 13th November - End of term Assessments will start

Wed/Thur 22nd/23rd - Field trips to Heritage Express (more information coming soon)

Wednesday 29th November - National Day Celebrations for all (hoping you can join us and even participate! Looking for volunteers 😁)

Friday 8th December - Winter Festival and Report Card Day (and again, hoping you can join us)

Please note we will be giving hard copies of the Progress Report on Friday 8th December and not before. Thank you for your understanding.

As Always, have a great weekend!

Ms Jan

Wellbeing

Dear Parents,

This week I felt Like sharing a story which my grand mom told me. It’s all about Value of Life. How do you value your life? What do you think makes the value of your life higher? The story below will explain it better.

A man went to God and asked, “What’s the value of life?” God gave him one stone and said, “Find out the value of this stone, but don’t sell it.” The man took the stone to a fruit seller and asked him what it’s cost would be. The fruit seller saw the shiny stone and said, “You can choose any 5 fruits and give me the stone.” The man apologized and said sorry I can’t sell this. He went ahead and found a vegetable seller and asked him “What could be the value of this stone?”. The seller saw the shiny stone and said, “Take one sack of potatoes and give me the stone.” The man again apologized and said he can’t sell it. Further ahead, he went into a jewellery shop and asked the value of the stone. The jeweller saw the stone under a lens and said, “I’ll give you I million for this stone.” The man explained that he can’t sell the stone. Further ahead, the man saw a precious stone’s shop and asked the seller the value of this stone. When the precious stone’s seller saw the big Blue Diamond he asked, “From where you got this priceless Blue Diamond from?” he asked. “Even if I sell my whole possession, I won’t be able to purchase this priceless stone.

Stunned and confused, the man returned to the God and told him what had happened. “Now tell me what the value of life is, God asked him.

God said, “The answers you got from the Orange Seller, the Vegetable Seller, the jeweller & the Precious Stone’s Seller explain the value of our life… You may be a precious stone, even priceless, but people may value you based on their level of information, their belief in you, their motives, their ambition, and their risk-taking ability. But don’t get disappointed, you will surely find someone who will discern your true value.”

In the eyes of God, you are very precious. Respect yourself. You are Unique. No one can Replace you!

Respect yourself. Don’t undermine yourself.

You are Unique……..No one can Replace you

We need to be place ourselves in the correct place to get maximum value out of our life.

Have a lovely weekend

Ms Jikku

FS 1 & 2

What we've done

This week we began a new project. The children came into class to discover a magic beanstalk growing out of the floor and into the classroom ceiling. We discussed the things that we might find at the top of the beanstalk if we went on an adventure with some interesting ideas such as ice cream, monsters, a house, flag, toys and a tree! We reflected on some stories that we know that have a beanstalk in them and compared the beanstalk to things we see in the UAE such as the Burj Khalifa and the Date Palm Trees. In science we looked at the what a plant needs to survive and researched some of the stages of growth. We began our school garden by planting the pumpkin seeds we dried out from Halloween and some flowers. We also began preparations for our Winter concert, introducing the children to their songs and dances. In Maths, we have been exploring circles and triangles and practising our mathematical vocabulary to describe them.

Discovering the magic beanstalk

Planting those pumpkin seeds!

The beginnings of our garden

Year 1

What we've done

Year 1 had another fabulous and busy week. In phonics we have been learning the digraphs 'oo' and 'ar', the children are becoming more independent writing simple words by sounding them out. In maths, we have started subtraction and have been exploring how to find a part by taking away from the biggest number. In science, we had so much fun learning about the different senses. We done a taste test blindfolded and were describing the foods using our sense 'taste', the children identified sour, sweet, salty, bitter. In IPC, we were discussing different modes of transport and categorising them and lastly in geography we were introduced to the four countries in the UK. Lastly, the children thoroughly enjoyed going to the hall to paint small oil lamps to celebrate the festival of lights Diwali.

Year 2

What we've done

Year 2 have had another fun and exciting week. This week in English we have been learning about adjectives and continuing to develop our reading comprehension skills. In science we are continuing with our topic animals including humans and learning about the different stages of the human lifecycle. In maths we have been continuing with addition and subtraction.

practising words for phonics

using adjectives

Year 3

What we've done

Year 3 have had another fantastic week. In English they have started to identify, understand and follow instructional texts and created their own bookmarks after following the steps. In Maths we have been wrapping up addition and subtraction by using different methods such as number bonds, whole parts and column method. They also mastered the concept of inverse operations and used this concept to figure out sums. For Science Year 3 put on their science hats and made up their own investigations by creating scientific questions, methods and predictions on a specific part of a human skeleton of their choice.

Following an instructional text (written by Year 3) and showcasing their lovely bookmarks. Scientists investigating the human body.

Year 4

What we've done

We have had a fabulous week of learning in Year 4. As mini mathematicians, this week we started our new topic of area. We looked at how we can measure the area within a shape, compared the area of different shapes and incorporated our prior learning of greater/less than to work out which shape has a larger area.

In English we started looking at non-chronological reports. We identified and highlighted features of a report, reconstructed it and will be planning our own very soon.

In science this week, we linked our knowledge of solids, liquids and gases and moved onto learning about the water cycle. We looked at how water evaporates and can be recycled on Earth!

Highlighting and reconstructing features of a non-chronological report .

Playing 'Dictionary Dig' during library time.

Working on our final project for our IPC topic.

Year 5

What we've done

It was a busy week of learning in Year 5. Using our story map and actions, we started learning Theseus and the Minotaur myth in English. We have learnt the beginning and build-up. In Maths, we explored the factors of numbers and prime numbers to 100. In Science, we investigated which materials were flexible, magnetic, transparent, permeable and the hardness of each material. In IPC, we got our thinking caps on and thought about the different types of weather and climate for each alphabet letter.

Karim performed the hardness test.

Griffin looked to see which materials were transparent.

Matvii checked how flexible each material was.

Jacob explored which materials were magnetic.

Year 7/8

What we've done

A great week of celebrations of Diwali, STEAM, revisions and preparations for our term 1 assessments next week. In english we've been completing our SPAG activity sheets recapping all our topics. In maths we've been fractioning our word problems. Science saw a practical on blood contents and an experiment on diet and exercise as we measured our heart rate. During IPC we learnt about the diffferent weather instruments that have been used over the years. MSC we looked into our moral responsibilities, duties and rights in school towards students and teachers.

Arabic

What we've done

This week was awesome! We learned a lot, discovered new things about Arabian culture, and had so much fun. Let's take a moment to think about all the cool stuff we did. Our students did really well in learning to write and say Arabic letters. They felt confident talking in Arabic and had fun learning colours. As we finish our Arabic week, try to practice Arabic at home and learn more about the culture. Remember, learning a language takes time, and being excited to learn like your child this week is the key to getting better!

Spanish(ESPAÑOL)

What we've done

Hola Everyone ,

This week we had so many activities and in which including activities based on Festival of lights in which students colour oil lamps also we did peer assessment in the class .

Muchas Gracias

STEAM

What we've done

It's a fun week for everyone in our STREAM class! This week, we began a new project in different year levels. The children in FS enjoyed our Tangram Steam challenge. They compete with one another in groups to create tangram patterns. Years 1 and 2 designed and built modes of transportation using recyclable materials for their IPC topic "From A to B"'. This week, years 3 and 4 have been busy planning in groups how to construct their model landmarks from around the world to conclude the "Gateways to the World" unit topic. Years 5 to 8 started designing and creating weather instruments and charts for our weather station as we began the IPC unit topic "Weather and Climate".

This week, we also celebrated "STEAM WEEK"! Years 3 to 8 worked in pairs and took the STEAM Challenge to build a balloon-powered car using recyclable materials. Year 5, represented by Aya and Matvii won the competition. Congratulations!