30th March 2020

Dear Parents,

The school was fortunate to have the opportunity of Asten Photography to take professional individual photographs of your child (Early Years, Year 1, Year 2, year 3, year 4, Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 only) , as well as with the rest of their class. If you are interested in purchasing the photographs as a keepsake, a payment to the school can be made online using the following link:

Payment Gateway link: https://payment.newtonschools.qa/login

You will need your child's QID to do this.

For further guidance, there is also a video in English that details the steps for accessing and processing the payment on the gateway.

English video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCGsYOh81cI&feature=youtu.be

Please indicate your child's name, class and how many copies you require. Please see an example copy attached. The price is QR 120 for each photograph booklet. This will include a large individual photograph of your child, 8 smaller individual photographs and 2 whole class photographs.

This is a great keepsake and memory, to have a professional individual photograph of your child, as well as a photograph with their whole class.

Once the order and payment has been made, Asten Photography will be informed and the photograph booklet of your child will be produced for your collection at the school. Please place orders by Sunday 12th April.

Kind regards,

Newton British Academy, Barwa City

12^th March 2020

Virtual Learning Online Lessons

Despite these exceptional circumstances, we are committed to providing a quality education to our students. Teaching and learning will move fully onto the My Learning VLE platform. The Virtual Learning Programme provides a full-time online or recorded programme of instruction for students

During virtual lessons, students work according to live and recorded lessons and meet activity and assignment deadlines. A combination of quizzes, tests, projects, and portfolio submissions will be used to evaluate student performance, and students will also be required to take standardized tests.

The use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) should facilitate enhancement of the Newton Group student learning experience by providing each student with ongoing access to curriculum information, activities and learning resources outside formal timetables and class time. We will deliver this programme to our students and to ensure that their education is affected as little as possible given the circumstances.

Students will be held to the same academic standards as students participating in face-to-face instruction, and are subject to the Student Behaviour Policy, and also to expectations regarding academic honesty.

Parent Support

Through emailed correspondence and links on social media, different videos, links and guidelines are provided to parents on :

1. How to prepare your child?
2. What to expect?
3. How to support your child?

Parents will be communicated with and kept updated through a Class Dojo/VLE and regularly through emails and on Social Media

The Plan

• Lessons will be live streamed, recorded and uploaded on the classes ‘learning space’ or ‘class website’ sections on the VLE.
• Other lessons will be pre-recorded and uploaded on the classes ‘learning space’ or ‘class website’ sections on the VLE.
• The live streamed and recorded lessons will be supplemented with pre-recorded video clips and clips from learning schemes like Bug Club, ActiveLearn, Doddle, etc.
• Students will be required to watch the live lesson streams or recording and complete all set activities, homework and assessments.

Students Activities

• Students are expected to complete all online activities, homework and assessment tasks.
• Students who do not complete the aforementioned tasks will be considered absent and may not be allowed to sit their end of year exams.
• Besides uploaded activities, students will be given homework tasks.
• All activities, homework and assessments must be marked with feedback given to the students.
• All attendance, marking and grades are to be done on My Learning as these will be used as part of the students’ results.
• Teachers will mark according to the Marking and feedback Policy and return marked work to the students.

Attendance

• Whilst using the VLE, schools will measure attendance by active participation in the lessons provided and also by the amount of work completed. Each week, in each subject, students are expected to complete all set work. This work is submitted through the VLE.
• We continue to uphold and implement the attendance (online), homework and assessment policies across the group
• Attendance is compulsory and a register will be kept. Students must attend all online sessions on each day to be registered as present for the day.

Protection Clauses

Before accessing material Parents need to agree to the following :

1. No pdf documents, worksheets or any attachments may be copied, shared or used in any way other than supporting the learning of the intended student.
2. All material provided for online study produced for The Newton Group students by employees of the Newton Group is the sole and exclusive property of the Newton Group who assert this as their intellectual property with copyright protection.
3. Any online material and recorded lessons are issued with the explicit requirement that there is no onward use of the material to defame or disparage the providers.
4. No material may be used for any other purpose than the needs of registered students of Newton Schools within their home as part of their programme of on-line study
5. No material may be used for commercial purposes

Please email your agreement to these clauses to your child’s class teacher / form tutor.

11.3.2020

Closure of Schools

Due to the current situation regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19), and for the health and wellbeing of our students, we have been instructed by the MOE to close the school until further notice.

Newton schools will deliver lessons through our virtual learning platform 'My Learning Fusion'. A guide of how to use this will be shared with all parents in English and Arabic. This will ensure the continuity of teaching and learning for students who will be in direct contact with their teachers on a daily basis from Sunday, 15th March. Attendance to the on-line lessons are compulsory and students must be engaged with their learning and complete all activities and homework that is set.

Our commitment to providing a robust virtual learning program to ensure that our students are affected as little as possible. Our plan includes and is not limited to the following.

• Live lessons which will be conducted starting from Sunday 15th March for all year groups for all Newton schools.
• The lessons will be streamed, recorded and uploaded on My Learning
• The lesson schedules will be shared with parents on Thursday
• Activities, homework and assessments will be set and marked
• Tutorials on how to access the live lessons on My Learning must be attached in the letter/email: https://wiki.mylearningltd.com/?ht_kb=mltv ,
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYnryIM0Uw
• Attendance will be taken
• The grades and participation will contribute to the overall assessment grades for the Reports

We ask parents to communicate directly with the school in the case that they/their children need support with logging into My Learning and to continue checking their emails and our social media to stay updated. It is essential that your child has a space to study without disruptions. This includes:

• A suitable study desk, which is located in a quiet area, free of distractions, with plenty of natural light
• A device or computer with internet access, and a head set and web cam.
• A safe place to store all completed work (hard copy or electronic). Copies of all work should be made before submission
• A copy of their weekly timetable to ensure that both you and your child are aware of time allocations and work submission dates. (This will be provided as there will be modifications). Attendance to all sessions is compulsory.

This is going to be an exciting and rewarding time as we venture into Virtual Learning Environments.

As with any new venture, there will be challenges and we look forward to supporting your child and you through these. I am sure that we can rely on your support in return.

I would ask that you continue checking your emails and Newton Group social media to stay updated.

We will keep you informed of any developments and notify you as soon as we receive any further instructions from the Ministry of Education about reopening the school.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. L.A. McLoughlin

Principal of Newton British Academy

9.3.2020

It has been announced by the Ministry of Education in Qatar that all schools will be closed from tomorrow, the 10th of March and stay closed until further notice. We will keep you updated on when we are informed of further decisions.

Thank you all for your support with this issue.

Please stay safe and take appropriate precautions.

School Fayre Donations and Dress Up Competition

Newton Group Open Water Swim Event - 29 February 2020