Al Sedra Newsletter 2020/21 Issue 11

19th November 2020

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

19th November 2020

WHOLE SCHOOL This week our staff have been active and exercising as part of our service learning programme. Our service learning theme this term is ‘ourselves’ where we emphasise the importance of living a healthy lifestyle. As our learners explore this concept, they understand the connection between, a healthy mind and healthy body. The two must be sustained together and given the attention they deserve. As adults, it can become easy to forget the importance of being healthy, however our future generations must realise it’s importance as we approach a more automated world. We have less reason to move as everything it being brought to us.

We will be showcasing all our teachers as they demonstrate how they have been able to stay healthy at home. We hope this will encourage our learners and families to do the same. Last week, we had our healthy breakfast morning to share the importance of a healthy breakfast for healthy minds and healthy bodies.

These principles are so important for young learners so they can grow and learn most effectively. They are also wonderful opportunities for parents to connect with their children. Find opportunities to walk together or enjoy a healthy breakfast this weekend.

19th November 2020

INFANTS

We’ve had a great few weeks here in Year 1. First of all, we have had lots of students who have been learning online since September come back into school, welcome back!

Both last week and this week, we have been writing a retell in Literacy lessons of our key text, ‘Wild’ by Emily Hughes. The students have been exceptional at improving their vocabulary in their writing, and they have also been trying very hard to use their best cursive handwriting. Well done, Year 1! We have also had a great time creating the woodland setting from Wild in the Year 1 corridor.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the parents and adults at home, supporting online learning.

We appreciate this teamwork, and we would like to thank you for your continued support. Have a great few weeks, everyone!

19th November 2020

JUNIORS Year 5 have nearly completed their first full term of this academic year! With assessment weeks approaching, Year 5 will have the opportunity to showcase their fantastic skills and learning from this term.

Here’s what Year 5 have been up to over the last few weeks: In writing, Year 5 have just finished reading ‘Kaspar – The Prince of Cats’, a fascinating book by the world-renowned author, Michael Morpurgo. The book features the tragic event of the sinking of the Titanic so Year 5 will use this event as an opportunity to travel back in time and write their newspaper report about the sinking of this incredible cruiseliner!

In our reading lessons, Year 5 have just finished their initial exposure to their reading skills for this year - ‘VIPERS’ (Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explain, Retrieve and Summarise). The students have put in a lot of effort, and hard work into their reading lessons, applying their skills to a whole range of contexts including videos, images and different texts.

In maths, Year 5 have been using their times table knowledge to explore multiples, factors, prime numbers and square numbers. The teachers have been very impressed with those students who have been trying hard at home to learn their times tables and would encourage them to keep up the great work!

Furthermore, Year 5 have been learning about Weather and Climate in their IPC topic this term. They have taken part in exploring many different landscapes and have learnt a lot of mind-blowing facts regarding this topic! Maybe you could ask them why Antarctica is classed as a 'desert' or what the minimum amount of rainfall is required to be classed as a 'desert'?

The children have embodied many praiseworthy characteristics this term, they have persevered with their work, adapted to change and have shown that even whilst there is a worldwide pandemic, learning NEVER stops!

19th November 2020

SECONDARY Bonjour, ¡Hola!

Greetings from the MfL Department, It has been a rather interesting beginning of the year, but positive for the teachers Mr. Andre Battah and Miss Heidi Goodall, in the Modern Foreign Languages Department.

At this time of the year, the pressure of End of Term exams becomes only too real so can we take this opportunity to say “Bonne Chance, Buena Suerte, Buona Fortuna, Viel Glück, allah yewvfikim, Powodzenia & Good luck”.

Miss Heidi and I are encouraged by the progress of our KS3 French and KS3 and year Y10 Spanish students who have been successfully learning online this term. Our Y11 Spanish linguists (Sakinah, Asma & Adulaziz) and our French Y11 students (Abdulaziz, Nawaf, Saeed, Al Dana, Shaikha and Dhabya) have certainly put extra effort in getting familiar with the exam skills required and have been taking part in interactive online lessons this term. We are confident of seeing their hard work pay off when the IGCSE Mocks results come out in January 2021.

In addition, we are proud to say that our French & Spanish learners are also doing their best to keep on top of the workload by following their online lessons on Microsoft Teams & Firefly and by completing exercises to consolidate their learning on Linguascope.

Remember that when learning a language, repetition is all. Experts suggest that most people need to repeat a word at least seven times to fix it in their long-term memory, so remember, lots of practise!

19th November 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