There has been such an excitement this week for World Book Day, but of course each and every day in school we celebrate the joy of reading. We have also always shared the importance of reading with your child at home, children hugely benefit from family members reading aloud to them. It is important for your children to see how the whole family selects books and reads for pleasure, a visit to a bookshop can be so inspiring, I know I can get lost in all the texts if I visit. Indeed, researchers have looked at the impact of parents reading with their children. Here’s how many words children have heard by the time they are 5 years old.

Never read to 4,652 words; 1-2 times per week, 63,570 words; 3-5 times a week 169,520, daily 296,660 and five books a day 1,483,300! Together as a partnership we can embed a true lifelong love of reading.

Our activities continue in the Ministerial Subjects Department during the blessed month of Ramadan. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and the participation of our students in these activities. May Allah reward you well and make it in the balance of your good deeds.

This week, we witnessed the completion of the Holy Qur’an competition, which was launched at the beginning of the first term. External judges visited and results will be announced by the end of this blessed month.

We are pleased to inform you that you are cordially invited to the Emirati Etiquette session that will be held on April 26. The school will host His Excellency Mr. Abdullah Hamdan bin Dalmouk, CEO of The Hamdan Bin Muhammad Center for Heritage Revival. Mr. Abduallah will meet with our students in Years 7-9 to address the Emirati “Al-Sanaa", an introduction to the etiquette of Emirati culture and the rules of social life. We look forward to welcoming such a prominent figure to our school.

Finally, we extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to the dear parents for all their generous donations. Please be advised that we will still continue to receive your donations, especially in the last ten nights of Ramadan, during which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, used to exert himself in devotion to a greater extent than at any other time.

PE Focus

In the foundation phase, students have been working in teams to develop their awareness of others and learning how to take turns in races whilst balancing on different body parts and balancing bean bags on their head to develop good posture and core strength.

In the primary phase, students have been working on their teamwork, positioning and communication in volleyball.

In the secondary phase, students have continued to take part in net/wall games, learning skills such as the table tennis backhand/forehand push shots and in volleyball learning the rules of rotation.

Term 3 ECA Registration Link

We are back! Here at GEMS Al Barsha National School, we aim to offer an excellent extra-curricular and enrichment programme to provide students with the opportunity to access new skills, enhance their talent and develop their independence. Following the Eid celebrations, ECA’s for term 3 will last for a 7 week block, commencing Monday 9^th May and finishing on Friday 24^th June. To enroll, please click on the link here:

Term 3 ECA Registration Link

Three tips to help students get the most out of their studying hours:

1. Space Study Sessions

Spacing out study sessions over a longer period of time improves long-term memory. In other words, if you have 12 hours to spend on a subject, it's better to study it for three hours each week for four weeks than to cram all 12 hours into the last week.

2. Interweave Your Subjects

Mixing tasks and topics is a better for learning. The key is that learning, forgetting and relearning helps the brain cement the new information for the long-term.

3. Test Yourself

Making yourself recall information helps strengthen your long-term learning. You might not enjoy taking a quiz at the end of every class or testing yourself every time you finish reading a chapter, but doing so will help you remember the material.

Operations – Traffic Management

Thank you to our families for sharing your ongoing feedback with regards to the traffic around school. We are in communication with our neighbouring schools to work together as best as possible for a positive outcome for all.

It has been noted that some of our family vehicles have cut the line of traffic to enter school, parked in areas reserved for pedestrian access, left vehicles unattended or blocking the traffic flow. Thankfully, this is a very small number. However, we ask all of our families – Parents, Guardians, Drivers and Nannies to be respectful of each other and show courtesy to other road users and to the Security and Support teams available in the car park who are there to help you navigate, safety, through the car park.

Operations – FS Pick Up

Our FS students are to be collected from door 1 at the side of the building or from the from courtyard / play area. Access from the main reception for FS pick up is not possible in order to ensure our security doors remain closed, ensuring the safety of our FS and Primary students as they enjoy their lessons. We thank you for your support in this.

Health and Safety – Hats for Outdoors

The temperatures are rising and we would like to ask all families to please send your child to school with a school hat. Sun hats protect your child from exposure to the direct sunlight. We also ask families to please put suncream on your child before they come to school in the morning to protect their skin against the harsh av sun rays.