Al Sedra Newsletter 1

6th September 2018

Here We Go!

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

6th September 2018

WHOLE SCHOOL Dear GES families, It is a great pleasure to welcome new and returning parents to the 2018/2019 school year!

We hope that the summer months have provided you with some rest, relaxation, and an opportunity to rejuvenate.

Please join us in welcoming our new staff members!

6th September 2018

WHOLE SCHOOL

6th September 2018

WHOLE SCHOOL

NEW SCHOOL TIMINGS: In order to better support our vision and mission of allowing all individuals to achieve their personal best and following further consultation with school community, it has been decided to follow the timings below as of the first day of school for the Academic Year 2018/2019:

BREAKFAST CLUB: The school will run a breakfast club on daily basis from 6:40a.m. for further information and registration please contact us on info@gulfenglishschool. com New Branch: Exciting times lie ahead.

We are extremely proud and honored to announce the opening of our new Infants and primary branch, The Gulf English School Bin Omran. The site is ready and will go live to students on Sunday 2nd of September 2018.

The new branch will open itself to children starting from Pre-school and up to year 3. I am extremely delighted to work with my team of staff consisting of new and existing members transferring from our main campuses. We are all extremely excited about working with our GES students and embarking on this journey of learning.

The site will operate a two form entry from Pre-school to Y3 and potentially growing as we progress through the academic year. The school will follow and work parallel to main campus and therefore will aim to deliver all aspects of teaching and learning that takes place at the main campuses.

Attendance Student success is the goal of every staff member at GES. We ask for your support and participation in this effort by sending your child to school every day, encouraging him/her to read for pleasure for at least 30 minutes every night, monitoring homework and progress, and asking your child to share what they learned at school each day.

Children are expected to have an attendance record of at least 90% which means that they should not miss more than 16 days during an academic year. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their child catches up with missed lessons and work through the parent and student portals and Firefly. It is also important to note that we do not differentiate between authorised or unauthorised absences.

All our Year 7-13 students should not miss more than 6 classes of any subject per term. Students who fail to meet the minimum attendance requirement may not be entered for the final year examination for the subject. If student absence exceeds 20 school days they will automatically lose their place at GES. We would like to also remind parents that students will not be allowed to leave the school during the school day unless we receive a written confirmation via Email or signed by one of the parents: Infants school: infants@gulfenglishschool.com Juniors school: juniors@gulfenglishschool.com Secondary school: Secondary@gulfenglishschool. com

6th September 2018

WHOLE SCHOOL Access to school: We respectfully remind all parents that any access to the site during the school day will be limited to parents with appointments and any person with a designated identity card which allows them to collect a child. No-one will be allowed onto the site during the school day unless they are in possession of a school identity card which shows clearly the students they may collect and the school has been notified, in advance, of the need for a student to leave the school early. The identity cards can be obtained from the main reception area if needed and must be updated as required.

School fees 2018/2019: The school fees policy is available on our website, you are kindly asked to ensure that term fees are paid on time.

Parent portal: We would like to remind all parents that they should activate their parent portal account. The parent portal allows parents to track their children on regular basis and is a tool of communication with the school. We have invested in developing an app for the parent portal to facilitate our school-home communication and make it easier for parents to access the portal.

Firefly: This year GES is continuing the use of the virtual learning environment called ‘Firefly’. This system allows students and parents to take a look at what has been going on in class with regards to teaching and learning, as well as providing information for parents and students. Printable and online resources will be available to enhance each student’s learning. This is still being developed with students and parents in mind to ensure a rich online experience. Further information about Firefly will be sent out to parents throughout the school year and will include parent workshops, log in information, and any updates.

Student portal: Our student portal is in full use this year, you will receive an email and a letter on students’ portal accounts. It is very important that you help your child to log onto the portal on a daily basis to check the homework, timetable and any upcoming events and activities.

School website: The School website has been updated and we hope you like the new look! This is the main way of ensuring you keep up to date with all of the school policies and events. Please make sure you do keep checking it as there will be updates to all of the areas on a regular basis. You will also be able to see all of the handbooks etc. which the school publishes here.

Student handbooks: All updated student handbooks are now available on the school website. It is very important that you read our student handbooks with your children and to ensure that they understand our policies and procedures.

Al-Sedra: our weekly newsletter is sent home via email, the parent portal and will also be available on the school website. We ask all parents to read the newsletter as it contains important information and dates.

Parents Teachers Associations: The Gulf English School invites all parents to take an active role within our PTA. The Parent and Teacher Association (PTA) whose aim is to make all parents feel included and enthusiastic about school events and school life. The PTA acts as an additional channel of communication between parents, teachers and the Leadership Team. Parental support and involvement plays an important role in building school community. By working alongside parents and their children, the school can forge an effective means for open communication and forward progress.

6th September 2018

WHOLE SCHOOL This year the PTA will be organizing a number of school events, we invite all interested parents to contact us on pta@gulfenglishschool.com Council of International School accreditation: The school gained CIS accreditation in 2012, since the accreditation we have been implementing recommendations given by the CIS team and reporting to the CIS evaluation department on our progress over the past years.

This year is an exciting year for GES community as we expect the re-accreditation visit in February 2019. This will involve all areas of the school community working in committees for a school self-study so please help us if you can. More information will come later in the year.

As you can see, the school has been continuously developing, improving, and working hard to develop our services in order to support our students in their journey at The Gulf English School. We wish you all a successful academic year.

GES Leadership Team

6th September 2018

JUNIORS Welcome to the Junior School

e-mails and SchoolBase regularly for any information that will be communicated to you.

Dear Parents, Have a wonderful year.

Welcome back to all of the pupils and families who have returned to a new academic year in the Junior School. I would also like to give a warm welcome to the new children and their families who have joined GES this year. I hope that you settle quickly into the school routines and our school community.

It is a new academic year with new teachers, new classmates and new starting and finishing times.

Please help us to settle the children into this new schedule by following the times below: Breakfast Club: 6.40 a.m.

Gates open for all pupils at: 7.10 a.m.

School begins: 07.30 a.m.

School ends: 2.00 p.m. except on Tuesdays, when we end at 1.10 p.m.

Junior School teachers have been busy preparing their classrooms and planning lessons for the first weeks of school. The class teachers have spent time getting to know the pupils, their personalities and their abilities. It is our aim that all students achieve their personal best at GES, and we feel that the best way to achieve this is when parents and teachers work together to support and encourage the children. We will do our best to communicate with parents and value their input into school life. The year ahead will be busy as our school calendar includes a variety of activities, special events and celebrations, and we hope that you will support us in making this year exciting and memorable for the children. Please check your

Yours faithfully, Kerry Hillan

6th September 2018

INFANTS Dear Parents,

to develop lifelong learning.

Welcome back to school, it has been wonderful seeing all the pupils return happy and excited to start the new academic year.

As always, Mr. Steve Crellin, Mrs. Samar Yanis and I are here to help and support both you and your children. Please feel free to contact us at any point if you require any help.

As we start this new year it would be wrong not to celebrate the success of the year gone by. We are so proud of our pupils’ outstanding achievement in phonics last academic year. The combined drive and commitment of staff, pupils and family support resulted in greater phonic knowledge development across all year groups and therefore improved results in our reading and writing levels. Our pupils should be proud of their hard work and achievement!

As we begin this new year, we aim to use that success as a launch pad for further improvement in our academic achievements, all the while striving to deliver our GES vision of providing a caring, motivating environment.

Our pupils and the achievement of their personal best is at the centre of all we do and how we plan activities and learning. As we start this year we are excited about the planned year ahead, trusting that each lesson and learning opportunity will continue

We look forward to working with you as we inspire your children to explore and discover the world around them through learning.

Mrs. Carol de Jongh Head of Infants

6th September 2018

SECONDARY We would like to welcome everyone back to the secondary school and it promises to be an exciting year. We have changed our school timings for students and staff and this seems to be helping everyone get to school on time. I hope that the positive start continues throughout the year. It is also great to see so many students coming prepared to learn and in the correct uniform. We do appreciate the efforts made and hope to see this effort continue in all areas this year.

We have, once again had successful external examinations in the summer and we wish all the students who graduated this year every success in the future. We have seen many of them back in school for documents and results and we are proud that so many of our students can now go on to challenging post-school pathways. We hope to see them back during the year to share their continued learning experiences.

The secondary school is also looking to ensure that students have as many opportunities to succeed this year as possible.

Success is always something we strive for in any arena, and this year there are a lot of possible activities for students to be involved in. We hope that we can support

our students in improving both in our curriculum areas and in their interests outside of the classroom.

We also welcome new students in all year groups but give a particular welcome to our new Year 7 and their parents. Please let us know if we can help you in any way to settle into your new school environment.

We hope that you are enjoying the experience so far but we know that it can be a little daunting. So far I have only seen really positive behaviour from Year 7 and I hope this continues.

We hope to invite all of the parents into school regularly this year, both for formal parent meetings and also to be involved in some of the projects we are running as a school. We look forward to seeing as many parents as possible throughout the year and welcome your contribution to our events.

David Frame Head of Secondary

6th September 2018

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