GEMS Education will be launching the Parent Summer Survey on Sunday 30th May. This will be a great opportunity for the school to evaluate the success of progress and improvements that have been made this year.

The feedback of our parents is valued dearly. Throughout the year, leaders and teachers have worked hard to respond to the suggestions and comments of our parents to provide the very best standards across all areas of school life and, in particular: Student Well-being; Preparing learners for the future; Personalised learning and Student Voice.

The survey seeks to evaluate parent satisfaction with school performance with scores of 9-10 considered as positive promoter scores.

Our period 6 lessons provide a wonderful opportunity for primary students to understand the importance of these end of year GL progress tests, which will contribute to their target grade for next academic year. If your child is currently collected at 14:00 and you would like them to stay in period 6 till 14:40 please contact their class teachers to confirm this arrangement.

We are currently investigating how we can best support the administration of the GL Progress tests at home for remote learners who wish to take these assessments. Further information will be provided in the coming weeks.

As we as a school prepare for what we hope will be a return to more normal school routines for the next academic year, we have started a consultation process on the proposal to return to on-site learning on Thursdays during this term.

A huge thank you to Foundation Stage parents who completed last week’s survey. 87% of parents expressed a preference for their children to be able to return to on-site learning on Thursdays. We are now seeking approval from the KHDA to implement this change to our operating model and will update parents as soon as the KHDA inform us of their decision.

The school day on Thursdays would run from 8.00am to 12.00pm with options provided for sibling supervision for parents with other children in the primary phase.

On-site learning on Thursday would be optional and the provision would be designed to enrich learning from the week through language consolidation, mindfulness and PE.

If you would like more information about the plans for provision on Thursday please contact Mrs. Sarah Leonard, Head of FS and Primary: s.leonard_gns@gemsedu.com

This week FS2 and KS1 parents received an update on their class dojo page about the preparation taking place for our mixed gender education model in Year 1 – 3 next academic year. Our teachers are keen to provide an opportunity for students to share who they would like to be in their class, so have shared a student voice activity on Seesaw. Parents should help students complete this activity at home and ensure that they have submitted their selection by Monday 31^st May.

Next week students in Year 1 will take part in a special lesson led by Ms Katy, who is our pastoral lead, and our Year 2 students will take part in a special session led by Ms Serena and Ms Anisa, who are our Key Stage 1 leaders. During these lessons boys and girls will be supervised in the same area and will be able to see each other, but will not be asked to mix. The school will continue to follow DHA guidelines with health and safety prioritised. We look forward to sharing images of this special lesson with you and encourage you to speak to your child about their experience. For more information please check the class dojo page and speak to the class teacher.

Today we concluded a week full of activities ranging from different competitions and events during which our dear students were able to show their abilities and love for their language. Competitions included Spelling Bee competition, handwriting competition and story animation.

“Teach the Teacher” was the competition that reaped most enthusiasm amongst students and teachers. The idea of this competition came through our daily dealing with non-Arabic speaking colleagues, and our attempts to integrate them into the surrounding environment, as their presence in an Arab country creates the need to learn some words that can help them in their daily lives and bring them closer to us in our school community. The enthusiasm of expatriate teachers and their keenness to learn Arabic aroused the enthusiasm of students, to lend a helping hand to their teachers and give them the opportunity to teach their teachers.

We also had many events in Arabic, including our participation in the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, and filming different clips to provide daily tips such as “Say and Don’t Say”. It has been one of the most successful events for our students, developing their ability to speak and discuss in traditional Arabic during the meeting with renowned Emirati author Nassiba Alaazibi. During the event, the author discussed with students and asked them what they thought about her story, what impressed them, their feedback. Students also asked the writer questions that highlighted their awareness, understanding, strong observation skills, and the ability to communicate in traditional Arabic.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to our dear students for their participation, as well as a huge thank you to the Arabic Language teachers and all participating subject teachers for the efforts towards this week's success.

Y11 and Y12 Teacher Assessed Grades

A teacher-assessed grade (TAG) will be generated for each of your child’s subjects, with the teachers using a range of evidence to support their judgment. As we move through the final term teachers will be providing students opportunities in lesson to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding through Key Pieces of Work and this will be used as evidence for the exam boards to justify the teacher assessed grades. Therefore, attendance to school and completion of the Key Pieces of Work are extremely important in the final GCSE (year 11) & International A’Level grade (year 12).

We are running a final set of assessments to support with the TAG process commencing from the 23^rd May. It is vitally important students attend school to take these assessments. Arrangements will be made for students on remote learning and this will involve having cameras and mics on. A copy of the timetable for these assessments can be found below and information on the final assessments, including remote learning administration for these assessments can be found here:

Code:

· iGCSE = Year 11

· IAL = Year 12

Click here for some ‘frequently asked questions’ and key dates that we feel might help initially answer some questions you may have.

Please also find below the links to the examination board websites where you can obtain additional information directly.

· Pearson (Edexcel) - https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/campaigns/summer-2021support/support-for-students-parents-and-carers.html (please note this is UK based)

· Oxford AQA / AQA - https://i.emlfiles4.com/cmpdoc/1/4/6/7/8/1/files/56199_oxfordaqastudents-exam-cancellation-final.pdf?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0

I was delighted this week to join Miss Serena and Miss Anisa for our Parent Workshops on phonics and the upcoming GL assessments. They gave so much advice which will really support your child in assessment week. I am so proud of how we use a range of information to accurately pinpoint where your child is on their reading journey and how we can support them to be lifelong readers.

Please join me next week:

Wednesday 2nd June 11:00am

Join Miss Lucy Astwood for a workshop on how you can prepare your child for their Maths GL assessments.

Suitable for Year 4-6

Link : Join Miss Lucy Astwood for a workshop on how you can prepare your child for their Maths GL assessments

Wednesday 2nd June 11:30am

Join Miss Tabitha Dickson for a workshop on how you can prepare your child for their Science GL assessments.

Suitable for Year 4-6

Link : Join Miss Tabatha Dickson for a workshop on how you can prepare your child for their Science GL assessments

Following the mock exams’ period, Year 11 students will take part in daily academic and pastoral activities that will bridge their way to post 16. During the month of June, Year 11 girls and boys will attend taster lessons and engage in bridging units for the selected subjects. These lessons are designed to consolidate Year 11 learning and give the students a clear idea about the content of the options they have selected for Year 12. Mrs Paola, our school counsellor, will provide pastoral guidance that is needed at this critical stage. We look forward to making the coming weeks highly beneficial and informative for our students. A calendar of events will be shared next week that will highlight all deadlines and activities. Celebrating our Year 11 students’ hard work remains on top of our plans this term. Year11 graduation will take place at the end of June. Details will follow in future communication.

Next week we will be celebrating world environment day and we are excited to invite you to take part in a new competition sponsored by DELL and Emirates NBD to design and Eco message for an Eco T-shirt! The closing date for this competition is the 13th June and the winning prize is 150 t-shirts made from recycled plastic with the winning design printed! To take part complete linked form and send your entry to ella.clemits@dgrade.com. The DGrade team will post the t-shirt design on their Facebook page with the name of our school and the student who entered. Their judging board will select the most inspirational t-shirt that meets ALL of the following requirements; used the attached form, drawn design in designated area, the design theme is recycling plastic to motivate people to recycle and the design includes the #SimplyBottles. Judges will be looking for creativity, an eco message, eye appeal and originality. Good luck and we look forward to seeing your entries!