Al Sedra Newsletter 2019/20 Issue 29

16th April 2020

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

16th April 2020

INFANTS This term in Reception the students have use ICT to enhancing their classroom learning. They have accessed website and apps to support with letter formation, number recognition and addition.

They have enjoyed playing games on ‘happyclicks. net’ which you could also use at home. During this time the students have continued to develop their mouse control, selecting, clicking and dragging objects across the screen.

The students have worked well when playing interactive games by showing excellent taking turns skills.

This term, the students in Year 1 have had lots of fun programming a Bee-Bot robot.

Programming involved the students learning about algorithms (instructions for a computer) and debugging (fixing errors).

They also learnt about direction language such as left, right, forward and backwards. The students enjoyed directing the Bee-Bots in lots of different ways; sending them to their partners across a room, directing them around maps of towns, farms and schools, and also programmed them to go around in a circle.

When the Bee-Bot was instructed to go around in circles, a pen was attached so that the students could see the results - it looked like bubbles. Year 1 students had great success in their learning.

16th April 2020

JUNIORS Why is it important to have a positive digital footprint?

A digital footprint is your unique online identity. Your digital footprint can be traced and used by others to form an image about who you are.

Future employers, schools and law enforcement offices can use the information about everyone from this trail, so it is crucial to make sure there is no inappropriate content about us online and that our digital footprint is positive. Also, the information we provide could be used for identity theft.

How to manage your digital footprint?

Avoid sharing personal information online on various social media platforms.

Use privacy settings to protect your data.

Delete online accounts you do not use.

Google yourself to see your online image and reputation.

Keep track of your passwords and never share them online.

Regularly change your passwords.

Log off from accounts after use, especially if you are not using your own computer.

What makes up a digital footprint?

Your digital footprint is made up of every piece of information you provide online. These include your name, age, email address, websites you visit and things you say or do on social media. Our activity online says a lot about us, and it is essential to pay attention to our digital footprint.

Year 5 have been learning about their digital footprints and have created some amazing posters!

16th April 2020

SECONDARY Maths with Mr Ebrahim My students and I are now really enjoying the online lessons. At first, I had to think outside the box to make these lessons fun, effective, differentiated and easy to understand. However, my students adapted very rapidly to the new way of learning; they asked their own questions and I allowed them to search for possible answers by collaborating with their peers. This method made them realise that they are in control of their own learning. The quality of their tasks has been of a high standard, and since we started with the virtual learning lessons I have received over 200 tasks from my students, which is an amazing achievement.

The students also worked in groups on more collaborative tasks, which increased group interaction. This made me feel like a guide, because, again, they took control of their own learning; which was entertaining to observe. I believe the students saw me in a different light, due to this, yet they were still respectful and came to have an appreciation of the way I conducted the flow of the lessons. Increased emphasis on students as independent and team learners of their own learning was also great to see. The pupils really seem to like the feedback given and the instant contact available with me via Firefly.

The positive communication between students, parents and myself via email, or Firefly, made it clear that, even during these hard times, the students were still eager to learn even though the experience was very different from the norm. My students have shown a great commitment to the virtual lessons and it has really been a great journey with both my students and their parents, and, I feel, extremely rewarding for all concerned.

Change is hard, but as a team, we can unite and conquer just about anything in education! It has been a great pleasure to teach my students!

English with Ms Aniko & Ms Jenny The students in Learning Support have been signed up to the 'ReadTheory' website to help them continue improving their reading comprehension skills in a fun way; which keeps them attentive and motivated. This website offers an unlimited variety of reading comprehension texts.

After completing the initial test, depending on how many answers they get correct, students are set at a level. When they start working on the tasks, the level keeps changing based on the number of correct answers. The program provides an in-depth explanation of why students got certain questions wrong, which helps them when doing the next task. To attain full marks, and thus go up to the next level, they must take their time and focus fully.

To help students improve their writing skills, we provide them weekly paragraph editing tasks. It helps them focus on basic skills, like using capital letters and punctuation accurately, as well as identifying and correcting spelling and grammar mistakes.

16th April 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