‘The greatness of a community’

The late, great, Coretta Scott King once stated that “the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members”. These powerful words were used to empower and inspire generations of people of the importance of collective responsibility in moving forward. We can learn much, as a community of teachers, students and parents from such thoughts as they reflect the necessity of working together to make a difference.

As a community, we’ve faced extraordinary challenges and uncertainty in the last two years but we have experienced the power of community like never before. From the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic, barely missing a beat, our community has come together to support each other. It’s why I feel there is genuine excitement as we look forward to next week’s Festive Fayre. Our incredible PTA continue to go ‘above and beyond’ in creating a special, dare I say, magical, day for our community. They do so because it makes us happy. They do so because they all believe in a shared goal that they want to achieve together. It’s what makes Jebel Ali School unique. We understand that happiness comes from authentic, rich social bonds and meaningful relationships. We understand that the strength of our community enables personal development, friendships that add joy to life, and potential to collaborate with others to generate greater impact for our school and beyond.

Being able to return to rituals like the Festive Fayre is important. It creates an opportunity for all members of our community to come together, and reinforce the values of our culture as a whole. It allows us to connect, collaborate and demonstrate care. It shows the trust we have for each other. Without this, the awareness of opportunities for collaboration and mutual support would never be acted upon. Organising a Festive Fayre is incredibly challenging, but it’s what binds and builds bonds between us. It is one of many ways that our community is able to come together. This idea; that of building a community, might appear ‘soft’ or ‘abstract’. I disagree. When we have deep and meaningful relationships with other people in our community, it enhances happiness, and in so doing, allows us to be in a better place to collaborate with and support each other to achieve more than any one of us could achieve alone.

I cannot thank our PTA, our staff, our students, our parents, our sponsors enough. If you haven’t yet bought your tickets or your tokens or simply made a date in your diary, I’d ask you to do so straight away. It's going to be an amazing day and a wonderful celebration of our special community. I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Belong. Believe. Become.

Maths

Year 8 students have been finding the Nth Term for Quadratic Sequences in Maths. Here you can see students in 8EC building sequence patterns to understand how the quadratic, linear and constant elements combine to form patterns.

Business

Dubai Fitness Challenge

A phenomenal week of distance covered, especially in the pool. We smashed the 20km half way mark early in the week and ended on 29,532km. As a school and community we travelled almost 6km in the water alone this week meaning we need one big push in the final week. We need all students, staff and parents to help us get that final distance. Don’t forget to submit your distances on the google form here (please insert from last week).

7 days to go and we need 10,543km to get the whole way round the world, we are so close!

Music Mondays

Looking Ahead

Virtual Parent Teacher Consultations

Please see the dates for the upcoming virtual Parent Teacher Consultations. Information on how to book appointments will be emailed to parents in due course.

Year 10 - Wednesday 24 November

Year 12 - Monday 29 November

Please note that on Wednesday 24 November due to parent consultations the following extracurricular activities after school are cancelled:

Coding Club

Arabic Calligraphy

Options Information Evenings

A Level Options Evening - Sunday 28 November

GCSE Options Evening - Tuesday 7 December

Prayer Rooms

Secondary Student Access Times:

12:40 pm – 1:25 pm (Sun - Wed secondary break time)

1.55 pm – 2.15 pm (Thurs)

Students and staff cannot use these facilities together. Please wear a face mask inside and bring any garments and prayer mats from home and do not leave in the facility. Prayer rooms will be locked at the end of the school day as per times indicated for safeguarding purposes. Access times will be reviewed periodically and any changes made accordingly.

Lost Property

All student property should be labelled with the child's name, year and class.

Lost property boxes have been placed outside each of the reception areas. Any items found will be placed in the nearest box. Valuables will be held in a safe place by Security and will be handed over directly to the owner. If you have any queries regarding lost property, please email our Security team Jas.security@securitas.ae for further assistance.

Festive Fayre

We are excited to invite you to our whole school community Festive Fayre on Thursday 25 November 2021 4.00pm - 8.00pm.

This will be an outdoor event led by our PTA held in our school grounds. We are incredibly grateful to have such dedicated members of our JAS family giving up their spare time to put together what I know will be a spectacular event.

There will be an array of activities including: a snow park, grotto, inflatable slides, bouncy castle, zorb balls, carousel, skating, maze, food trucks, activities, market vendors/stalls and much, much more.

COVID-19 safety protocols will of course be in place in order to keep everyone safe during this exciting event. On the day we will be operating a cashless system for activities and you will be able to purchase tokens in advance or from various stands on the day. Money raised during the event will be invested back into our school and your children, so please do spend generously.

This is a very special community event for us; the first time we have been able to come together as a JAS community for some time. Please support our amazing PTA members and school staff who make these sorts of events possible and look out for more information over the coming weeks.

We look forward to welcoming you all soon with some festive cheer!

Helpful Hints

Check your child’s work

Have a good look through your child’s books and note whether tasks are being completed and marked, comments are being acted on and progress made. What are the most recent marks or grades and how do they compare with those in the past? Also remind yourself of the contents of your son or daughter’s most recent school report. Chat to your child – without pressure – to find out how they feel lessons are going in each subject and ask if there are any worries they would like you to discuss.

Who’s invited?

In secondary (and some primary) schools it’s now common practice to invite the student along to parents’ evenings. But this isn’t the case in all schools, so it’s important to check beforehand. If your child is on the guest list, then it’s up to your family whether you take them along, but there can be great value in involving a secondary school student in discussions about their education – promoting a sense of ownership and emphasising the young person’s role in working with teachers and parents towards success.

Nasty surprises

Parents’ evenings are strictly an update on progress, not an opportunity for either parents or teachers to drop a bombshell. If you become aware of an issue, don’t wait for parents’ evening to roll around - contact the school as soon as possible and make an appointment with the relevant staff to discuss it specifically. By the same token, the school should let you know of any problems and work with you to deal with them as they arise.

Questions to ask at parents' evenings

Jot down a list of questions and/or observations (not too many, though) on each subject in advance so you’re your appointments are focused and make the most of the limited time.

Some useful questions might be:

• Is my child’s progress in line with the teacher’s expectations?

• Has he or she done anything particularly well, or badly?

• What can he or she do to improve?

• How can I help as a parent?

• How can you help as his or her teacher?

• How much time should my child’s homework for this subject take?

• What do his or her grades tell us about possible performance in important future exams?

• Does he or she contribute in lessons?

• How does my child get along with the other pupils in the class and the teachers?

• Make a note on the night of the teachers’ answers - after a couple of hours whisking from one subject to another, it can be easy to forget or muddle the comments.

...And more questions

Most teachers have a wealth of knowledge and experience, so ask for their guidance and suggestions on how you can help your child to do their best in the subject. If a teacher says something you don’t understand, ask for clarification. Parents are not expected to know all about a subject or a method of teaching.

Constructive criticism

Good teaching means identifying areas for improvement, so don’t be offended if you hear criticism of your child. This should always be constructive and designed to help them to achieve their potential in the subject. If your child is with you, try not to sound disappointed or negative – or tell your child off! Take the advice of the teacher as a positive step towards better marks in the future. Remember that it’s rarely helpful to compare your child’s performance to other members of the class, set or year group - what’s important is that they are achieving in line with their own capabilities, not those of others.

Follow-up

After the parents’ evening, keep in mind any action or targets you have agreed with teachers and check to see that the expected progress is being made in the timeframe. If not, then add the question to your list for the next parents’ evening – unless you feel your child is seriously slipping behind, in which case don’t wait, but ask to speak to the teacher again as soon as you can.

Also remember to mention to a teacher that your child particularly enjoys the subject (only if it’s the truth of course) – it will probably make that teacher’s evening!

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