Al Sedra Newsletter 2019 Issue 12

21st November 2019

Fun All Year Long

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

21st November 2019

INFANTS Infants Music November 2019 Students in the Infant School are having fun playing, singing and moving to music, learning the basic musical concepts without even realising it!

Pre-School children have been singing about wild and domesticated animals, moving like animals and creating animal noises. Their favourite is ‘The Elephant Dance’. They jumped like ‘Five Little Monkeys’ and acted out the song.

They sang and moved to ‘Five Little Ducks’ and ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’. They love their new warm-up song, ‘Shake Out Your Hands’.

Children in Reception have been learning nursery rhymes with lots of actions to accompany the songs. They learnt the ‘Please Mr. Noah’ rap and had great fun acting out the animal parts. They listened to the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and performed the bear growls in the ‘Three Bear Rap’. They are currently learning about high and low sounds and are reacting to ‘Jack in the box’ music to demonstrate this.

Year One students have been exploring the duration of sound. They have used a variety of instruments and sorted the instruments into two groups- one group that makes sustained sounds and the other that makes short sounds. They have learnt ‘Ho! Jake Frost’ and have used instruments to demonstrate winter sounds- snowflakes, frost, wind and have looked at and discussed what winter looks like in different countries.

Year Two have been learning about beat and rhythm, and have been performing, at the same time, the beat in one group and the rhythm in another group. They have learnt ‘A Plate of Potatoes’, a fun chant, and have invented new words for the second verse. They are now learning what a melody is, and how it is shaped.

They performed ‘Looby Loo’ and traced the shape of the melody with their hands.

21st November 2019

JUNIORS This half term in music all students have been learning new skills on the ukulele. This has been so exciting for everyone, as many students haven’t played one before. Throughout the term we have been learning the 5 main chords used in most popular music.

6GU have worked very hard and are now able to play 2 songs in full. We are starting to look at a third song in preparation for assessment in the coming weeks. The girls have had a lot of fun trying different strumming patterns and love to play along with the backing tracks.

Year 3 have surprisingly taken really well to the ukulele and are also singing ‘row your boat’ and ‘the CDE song’. The fact that they are all able to play the ukulele and sing at the same time is an amazing achievement. They should be so proud of themselves. I really look forward to their assessment lessons in the coming weeks.

This term we have introduced the school choir.

This has been exciting for all of the boys and girls throughout school. In the first meeting we had a total of 91 keen singers, with more asking to join.

Shortly after writing the school anthem, we started rehearsing it. All students were able to sing the anthem after the first rehearsal.

We now have the exciting opportunity to use the recording studio facilities at the Qatar National Library. This experience will be amazing for everyone involved including the teaching staff. Students will get an insight into how a song is professionally recorded and edited to industry standard, before being released on CD. There will be another article in the coming weeks to keep you updated on the progress and outcome of the time in the recording studio.

Congratulations to all the music classes of the week this term. Keep up the hard work and keep making music! Remember it is a beautiful universal language we can interact with and use all over the world.

21st November 2019

JUNIORS Week Without Walls During ‘Week Without Walls’, Year 5 thought it would be a fantastic idea to combine their academic and culinary skills to enrich their learning!

The students used their scientific knowledge of ‘Changing States’ to bake bread and applied their historical research skills to learn about the origins of stew. Additionally, they used their mathematics skills to convert metric measures to imperial measures. Combining all the knowledge and skills learnt, they made their own stew, affectionately known in Liverpool, England as ‘Scouse!' Dessert was delicious truffles, which went down a treat!

Using their artistic flair, they created beautiful placemats and settings. The menu was enriched by beautiful expanded noun phrases to describe the lunch.

The lucky guests to be invited to this extravaganza were members of the Senior Leadership Team. When asked if they had any questions, Mr. Chris Goodchild wanted to know if they were on ‘Talabat!’

A sure indicator of a roaring success!

21st November 2019

LIBRARY GES Library News Bin Omran- Infants- Primary- Secondary December in the Library Book Repair Workshop Our GES libraries invite you to participate in floating workshop ‘Book Repair’. Please contact your home library to schedule a workshop to be delivered to your library location.

Like what you see, or have a suggestion to make it better? Stop by any library location Reference Desk and let our library staff know.

7:30AM-2:30PM

21st November 2019

SECONDARY It has been an exciting and a very busy term for both students and teachers. October brought the mid – term assessments; in the English department the focus for all Key Stage 3 assessments was reading and comprehension skills.

Year 7 students, who had overcome the initial maze of corridors and stairwells, now found themselves facing their first secondary assessment. Two Roald Dahl books, Matilda for the Year 7 Girls and Danny Champion of the World for Year 7 Boys, both containing children as the main characters, didn’t disappoint the student readers.

October and November were not all about preparing for assessments, as Miss Maz Rubbani organised the annual Year 7 trip to the National Library. Likewise, Mr John Pritchard travelled with the senior CAS students, to Turkey. During their visit they participated in wall building, trekking, fishing and they got the opportunity to teach in a local primary school.

The senior boys’ football season kicked off at the beginning of October and Years 8 and 9 boys have started their training in preparation for the new season. Eight Year 9 boys signed up for the challenge of this year’s Duke of Edinburgh International Award. The boys are preparing for their Adventurous Journey section and attended a presentation

by Miss Karen, the school nurse. The boys were taught lifesaving skills and how to prepare for surviving in the desert.

Miss Jenny Celebi made a presentation on ‘Caring for Animals in the Local Community’, for the boys. The boys now feed and look after the cats in the school, and local area, every Wednesday after school. This is the Community Service Section of the award.

The beginning of November welcomed the opportunity for all GES students to attend, ‘Fitness at The Farm’ with the opportunity to participate in activities and stay healthy, organised by the P.E Department. The girls

attended the farm on the Monday while the boys enjoyed a range of activities organised across the school. Thursday saw the roles reversed, as the boys made their way to the farm. There was an excellent turn out for both the 5 km and 10km races. Mohammed Al Hemidi from Year 9 put in an excellent performance in the 5km, leading from the front and coming first in a personal best time. In the games hall the Year 10s dominated the volleyball with some excellent individual performances. A special mention must be made for another Year 9 student, Eid Al Thani, who served five successive winning points against the highly rated Year 10 team. Basketball and indoor hockey also proved very popular with both Year 7 and 8.

The girls introduced a range of different activities for their time in the school. The, ‘Treasure Trail’ proved very popular and the drama activity was a real success as well. The girls also had a picnic and were encouraged to bring in a variety of healthy food, along with plenty of water.

A big ‘thank you’ to all staff and students for making, ‘Fitness at the Farm’ a huge success.

21st November 2019

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