Al Sedra Newsletter 2020/21 Issue 7

15th October 2020

YOUR WEEKLY UPDATE ON ALL THAT’S GOING ON AT THE GULF ENGLISH SCHOOL

15th October 2020

WHOLE SCHOOL As we approach our mid-term break, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of our school community for an extremely successful half term. From our parent, students and teachers to our administration and support staff. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked as janitor working in NASA, what he was doing. His response was “Well, Mr President. I’m helping put a man on the moon.” This response goes down as a pivotal statement in history as a reminder of the value in each member of a community. Everyone, is a key member in the development or our learners.

We have been able to make progress in all aspects of our operations, while maintaining the highest regard for the safety of our students and staff. We have been working closely with the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Public Health to ensure our students are learning effectively within the safety guideline. As we approach our second half term, we are driving a range of initiatives so that our students can learn even more effectively. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage our families to rest well during this break. Enjoy your time together and use this period to ensure your child is happy and content. These breaks are a chance for our children to refresh and recharge so that they can resume learning effectively.

15th October 2020

BIN OMRAN In Bin Omran school, students have enjoyed participating in Learning Support sessions, both face-to-face and online. During these lessons, the main focus has been to develop phonic knowledge and early writing skills.

The students have focused on blending and segmenting set 1 and set 2 sounds and are becoming more confident in recognising these. The students have applied their phonic knowledge by practising reading books matched to their ability. They have also been learning how to hold a sentence and write this from memory, ensuring they are using a capital letter and ending with a full stop. Students have also been learning to retrieve information from the book they have been reading to answer questions. As Learning Support sessions are taught with small groups of students, when progress is made within each session, the teaching is adapted so that there is always challenge. All students have been working very hard and shown great effort in school and online.

15th October 2020

INFANTS

In Infant Learning Support, we have taken some time to get to know the students by assessing their strengths and areas for development. Students have been focusing on closing gaps in their sound knowledge, as well as working on their ability to blend words independently. They have enjoyed taking part in listening games and activities to improve their ability to work with spoken sounds. All of the lessons have been enjoyable, helping to keep the students motivated.

15th October 2020

JUNIORS The Year 3 Learning Support students have attended Maths and Reading sessions. In Reading, the students have worked on improving letter-sound knowledge and word recognition. They have also worked on reading for meaning, improving their fluency and developing memory recall. In Maths, the students have spent time working on number and place value. They have practised counting, reading and writing numbers, recognised the value of numbers, estimated number position on number lines, ordered numbers to 1000 and found 10 and 100 more or less than a number within 1000. All students have worked hard and can be proud of the progress they have made.

15th October 2020

SECONDARY Students on Maths Learning Support have been working hard whilst having a great deal of fun. Mr Ebrahim enjoys the challenge of thinking outside of the box to make lessons fun, effective, and easily accessible so that understanding, skills and knowledge improves for all. Students have shown their resilience by adapted very rapidly to a new way of learning. They have been encouraged and challenged in creating their own questions and have enjoyed collaborating with peers to search for answers and solutions. This approach has enabled students to realise that they can have some control over their learning. Students have expressed their gratitude for instant feedback given via Firefly and Teams as they have seen how this can have an impact on learning. Positive feedback from parents has made it clear that during these challenging times, students remain eager to learn. Students have shown a commitment to virtual and face-to-face lessons and are completing tasks in good time. Change is often difficult, but our students are demonstrating a united front and are not fazed by the challenging circumstances.

15th October 2020

CONTACT The Gulf English School PO Box 2440, Doha, Qatar Main School: Tel: +974 44578777 Main School: Fax: +974 44861256 Infant Unit: Tel: +974 44886791/90 +974 44886201/93 Infant Unit: Fax: +974 44876821

Email: info@gulfenglishschool.com

Website: www.gulfenglishschool.com