SHARJAH ENGLISH SCHOOL June 2014
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents, As the end of the school year is imminent, the school looks back on a very busy year, one that has seen the school grow and consolidate its reputation within UAE education. Another outstanding inspection report, from the Ministry of Education visit in February, has rated SES as being in the highest category possible in each of the areas assessed; a very pleasing result, and an endorsement of all the hard work by staff and students. The recent musical and drama events, which round off each year, have again shown the school’s strength in these areas. Well done to all who were involved in the Secondary Arts Evening, the Year 6 production of Cinderella and the key stage shows. There was some exceptional talent on display and it was delight to see so many parents and visitors attend. It is, as always, an uplifting way to end a school year, to see students take part in events which will stay in their memories for a lifetime. Another highlight of the term was the Graduation and Prize Day for senior students. Our school leavers are heading into the world with the assurance of high grades in their final exams; they also possess the confident and articulate manner and well-honed social awareness that will make them impressive ambassadors for the school wherever they end up.
The school has now been in existence for 40 years, and Mr Edward Hobart, the British Consul General, attended our Prize Day to mark that auspicious occasion. With our new alumni association, we will look to celebrate formally the school’s success during the coming year. Pressure on enrolment during the year has been intense – the school has turned away many applicants. Though our numbers will grow by just under 10% next year, our focus is on managed and gradual growth. New building plans will be announced in September, which will be an exciting time for the school. But we are very conscious of the need to preserve its intimate and personalised ethos as we expand. We will always remain quite a small school by UAE or international standards, and will not permit economic imperatives to compromise our educational approach and quality. On a personal note, I would like to thank the Board of Governors, the teaching and support staff, and the Parent Support Group for their efforts on behalf of the school this year. Good luck to all our GCSE and A Level students who receive their results in August; we expect some outstanding grades individually and overall. I hope that the vacation offers students and parents a period for relaxation, family, travel and trying out new experiences and activities. Stay safe and well in all that you do. Thank you to all our families and the community for the continuing support – it is a privilege and a pleasure to be entrusted with the education of your children. A reminder that the school opens again for the new academic year on Sunday August 31st. For the first week, school will finish for all students at 1:00pm. John Nolan.
As we fast approach the end of the academic year, I would like to thank parents, pupils and staff for all their hard work this year. My thanks also go to the PSG for their continued support of the school and the parents volunteering in classes, helping hearing reading, making resources and supporting on trips. Our school year has been filled with exciting events such as the International Picnic, bake sales, special assemblies, educational trips, Festive Fair, plus the visits from famous authors and grand productions which have made the time pass so quickly. Life at SES is incredibly busy but the one thing all our visitors take note of is the excellent behaviour, good manners and confidence of our children. They are happy pupils who enjoy, flourish and learn on a daily basis. The standards at SES continue to excel with our recent Ministry of Education inspection confirming our high standards. We could not have a higher rating than Highly Effective with Distinction. As we break for the summer please do not forget to continue the learning journey. Children: read, write, practise times tables, use every opportunity to explore and learn about the countries you may visit and after all that, enjoy your holiday! I look forward to seeing you all on 31st August for another exciting and amazing year at SES. Happy holidays, Nan McKeown. Head of Primary
What’s happening in Foundation1? Foundation Mrs Doublesin , Mrs Hornibrook , Mrs Herrmann-Bell, Mrs Passey
SWIM GALA
Foundation 1 made a splash in this year’s swim gala! Some of the children were already very experienced in the water, but for many, this was their first time taking swim lessons. Coach Scott and Coach Lindsay taught the children a lot of new techniques throughout the term, and the children made great progress. Everyone worked really hard on their ice cream scooping arms and kangaroo hops in the pool. The kids had a blast showing off their new swimming skills to friends and family, but all that hard work was very tiring! Our ice lolly picnic was just the thing to cool us off after a nice dip in the pool!
What’s happening in Foundation2 ? FOUNDATION 2 FUN SWIM DAY
It was a lovely day for Foundation’s Fun Swim Day. We were supported by so many fantastic parents and all children who took part had a great time. We had a variety of swimming races to cater for the varying abilities and everyone had a chance at success. First was the Ring Race, followed by the Noodle Race, then the Kickboard Race and finally the swimmers swimming a width of the pool. We finished the day with a treasure hunt where everyone had a go at finding the treasure in the pool and helping their team! The children were rewarded at the end of the day with a certificate to recognise their achievement in the pool and also a delicious ice lolly to cool themselves down after such a busy day.
FOUNDATION CONCERT THE RAINBOW FISH During the year the children in the Foundation Stage covered the topic ‘Water’. As part of their topic the children read the story ‘The Rainbow Fish’, which teaches the children the important virtues of sharing and making friends. The story proved such a success with the children that we decided to use this book as our end of year concert. On the 5th June the children in the Foundation Stage staged ‘The Rainbow Fish’. The children had been looking forward to their concert for weeks and had worked really hard to learn a wide range of songs and lines. On the day they were really excited and impressed us all with their brilliant performance and really did this wonderful story justice.
We would like to thank our ever supportive audience and all those that helped with costumes, art work and make-up.
YEAR 1 EVENTS
Year 1 have been very busy learning about Arabs in the UAE. As part of this topic we went on a school trip to the Dubai Heritage Village and Dubai Museum. At the Heritage Village we learnt about how Arabs used to live and how they used to make their own bread and cook food. At Dubai Museum we saw lots of displays which showed us what it was like in the UAE many years ago. It was very interesCng as it felt like we had been transported back in Cme to the early days of the UAE. We even had Cme to eat our snack next to the creek! We have been making decoraCve heads of Arab men and women by using different materials to create the face and the head clothes. We really enjoyed making these as we learned all about the naConal dress that people wear in the UAE.
Art We have been very busy making and decoraCng paper-‐mache fish. It took us a long Cme to put the different layers of paper on before we were ready to paint as we had to let the fish dry aKer each layer. We really enjoyed geLng messy when using the paper-‐ mache to sCck the paper over the fish. We had so much fun decoraCng our fish with really bright colours.
Trip to the Banyan Tree Shreeya won a naConal t-‐shirt design compeCCon and the prize was a trip for her class to visit the Banyan Tree AcCvity Centre. We got to see a falcon display where a hawk was flying around our heads. Some of us even got to wear a special glove and the hawk landed on our hand! We went on a nature walk in the desert where we saw wild Oryx and Gazelles. We saw a baby owl that the owners called Shreeya! We had a go at archery where we had to shoot arrows at a target in front of us. We even had Cme to play in the fantasCc adventure playground. We all had a great day. It was so much fun!
More photos at
hUp://goo.gl/AUPDha Password: y1
YEAR 2 TERM 3 Book Character Day Year 2 have had quite an exciting third term. Back in April we all had great fun dressing up as our favourite book characters, even the teachers. There were princesses and superheroes, wizards and witches, ninjas and pirates; everyone participated. During the day we had a visit from our Year Six students who kindly came to read to Year Two: everyone enjoyed the experience.
Aquarium and Maritime Museum We actually went on this trip twice this term. On the first occasion a power failure meant we had to come back to school so everyone was excited to go back a second time. The students had a chance to decorate a little pot or two in the Maritime Museum after they had seen some wonderful artefacts from the region. There were dhows , canoes, tools, ropes, papers and a very tiny, very old
pearl. The sharks were definitely the highlight of the aquarium trip, though the diver got a lot of attention and plenty of waves. The children were amazed by the variety of colourful fish to be found in our warm waters.
Art This term in art we have been making puppets and dolls. We started off making copies of a 4,000 year old Egyptian doll and then a model of a Victorian toy called a Jumping Jack.
Finally everyone had a chance to design and make their own glove puppet. As you can see from the pictures we made a wonderful collection of colours and designs. There are some talented artists in Year Two.
KEY STAGE 1 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
The children in Year 1 and Year 2 took part in an assembly on the 12th June. The assembly was all about the Commonwealth Games and the children enjoyed learning about the countries in the Commonwealth. Flags were made to represent each country and the children did a great job of announcing all the different countries of the Commonwealth. They had a lot of fun learning lines and songs as well as pretending to take part in lots of different sports. Perhaps there are some future sports competitors amongst our students! Well done Key Stage One!
YEAR 3 DESIGN TECHNOLOGY This term, in Design Technology, Year 3 have been designing their own Viking Longships. First, they researched Viking Longships learning lots of interesting facts, including what the ships were made of and typical sail designs. Then, using a template, they created the base of their boat and the oars. Once these had been cut out, they had to create designs for their shields and paint their boat. The next step was slightly trickier as the children had to sew their boat together using wool! They really enjoyed doing this and supported each other if they got stuck or a bit tangled in the wool! Finally, they added the mast and sail to their Viking Longships and then they were ready to set sail!
YEAR 4 RAINFOREST COCKTAILS As an end to their rainforest topic work Year 4 got to make some delicious rainforest cocktails, using fruits and flavours that originated in the rainforest. Where would we be without chocolate?
Year 5 HEALTHY LIFESTYLES The Year 5 assembly was a huge success! Not only was it entertaining, but it was also very informative. We focused on the importance of a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle!
Year 6 by Mr O’Brien & Mrs Baggaley CINDERELLA On Wednesday, 18th June, Year 6 demonstrated outstanding acting skills in their version of ‘Cinderella’. You only have to read the synopsis below to know that the audience was in for a wonderful performance and a few surprise twists. As you’d expect, Cindy defies her Ugly Sisters, meets a magic fairy and lands a dance with the prince at the Palace Ball. So far, so good! But far from being the perfect gentleman, the prince turns out to a perfect beast and a dab hand at chopping off heads. The magic fairy grants Cindy one more wish but what or more accurately, whom will she choose? Quotes “The choreography was fantastic.” “I loved the songs, they were amazing!” “I liked how everyone pulled together and worked as a team.” “I thought the costumes were awesome.” More photos at http://goo.gl/lxOJzW Password: cinderella
ROUNDERS For the first time in SES history we entered the Primary Rounders League. It was a mixed team where 5 girls and 4 boys made up the team. We played 3 very strong games, scoring lots of rounders each time but never quite winning the game. Our victory came in our very last match against Silicon Oasis where we won by just 1 rounder. Well done to all the Year 6 students involved in the team – you played very well!
Year 6 BUNSEN BURNERS Year 6 have been coming up to Secondary for some introductory Science lessons. They have test driven and passed a Bunsen Burner Driving Test. This allows them now to safely use a Bunsen Burner in Science classes. They have made a device that lands an egg without it breaking with some success! They have investigated light, splitting white light into spectra and learning where rainbows come from. They have also discovered that different types of wire have different abilities at carrying electricity. They had lots of fun and are looking forward to learning more about the world and universe next year!
PRIMARY SCIENCE FORCES Over the last two weeks we have invited the Year 6 pupils to join us in the secondary science labs for some bespoke science lessons. They have all successfully taken and passed their Bunsen Burner Driving License. They had to light the Bunsen burner and change the flame from safety to roaring! The following week they used their knowledge of forces to stop Mr. Brain’s eggs from breaking when falling from a height. Five of the eight teams in 6O managed to retain a whole egg after the “egg-streme fall”, so only three teams were left with egg on their face! Primary Science G&T Club The Primary Science G&T Club had an exciting day out on their trip to the Sharjah Science Museum this term. They learnt and investigated many scientific principles, whilst having great fun with the hands-on experiments and a couple of illuminating workshops
PRIMARY MUSIC DRUMMING PATTERNS Primary children have been honing their skills on various musical instruments. Years 3 and 4 have been learning the recorder. Year 5 students have been learning all about cyclic drumming patterns and Year 6 have been learning some chords on the ukulele.
PRIMARY PE by Mrs Garrett WATER POLO CLUB Students who opted for the Water Polo Club were given the chance to play in a full sized pool up at the Hamden Centre for the first and last week of their club. They had coaching by George Polychronopolos who is the Water Polo Competition Manager at UAE Swimming Federation. The students were taught how to move in the water and the best way to throw the ball and played a game with full sized goals. A brilliant experience for them and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
BUSINESS STUDIES DRAGONS’ DEN COMPETITION
Year 8 PSHE & Year 10 Business Studies To end the school year with a bit of excitement, the PSHE team and myself decided to set up a ‘Dragons’ Den Competition’. The students had to come up with an exciting product or service that the Dragons may wish to invest in. They then had to pitch their idea to the fiery dragons in front of an audience and hope to secure enough finance to start their own business. Not an easy task! Well done to all the students involved; some very impressive pitches were seen. Also a big thank you to the Year 8 Dragons: Mr. Nolan, Mrs. Oakley and Mr. Cowan and the Year 10 Dragons: Ms. Ockenden, Mr. Halligan and Mr. Cowan. The winners will be announced and given their prizes in assembly on the last day of term. Ms. Liston Head of Business Studies
Nolan, Mr. Cowan and Mrs.Oakley. Our pitch consisted of the ingredients of the drinks and how we plan to make a profit from this venture. We believe our pitch went well. Written by: Dernas Suhail ‘Our company goes by the name ‘Dimensions’ and we have 4 members: Joshua, Sameer, Chloe and Megan. We are looking to see our 3D pens become a famous product within our school and further. We are confident that with help from the Dragons we will make a huge profit!
Student comments: Written by: Joshua Vaughan Year 8 ‘Our company consists of 5 ingenious creators who go by the names of: Dernas, Joseph, Euan, Jennifer and Malaika. We made two delicious drinks under our company name, ‘Enliven’. The names of these drinks are ‘Awaken’ and ‘Exposed’. We had to present to three dragons, Mr.
FRENCH FRENCH CUISINE As we were doing work on French cafés, we made a sandwich for Mr Doyle and the French class. Some other people made sandwiches as well. Trying out odd combinations of ingredients , each person had to say in French what they put on it. Our sandwich consisted of cinnamon, onion, flour, water, banana, salsa, green food colouring, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, maple syrup, honey, chilli, lemon, cream, salt and pepper. Mr Doyle really liked it, so did a lot of other students. Comme nous faisions le travail sur les cafés français, nous avons fait un sandwich pour M. Doyle et la classe de français. D'autres personnes ont fait des sandwichs aussi. Essayer des combinaisons bizarres d'ingrédients, chaque personne a dit en français ce qu'ils avaient mis dedans. Dans notre sandwich nous avons mis de la cannelle, de l'oignon, de la farine, de l'eau, de la banane, de la salsa, du colorant alimentaire vert, la mayonnaise, la moutarde, le ketchup, le sirop d'érable, le miel, le piment, le citron, la crème, le sel et le poivre. M. Doyle a vraiment aimé, tout comme beaucoup d'autres étudiants. Eliott Sistac and Bilal Rahman 8CE
KEY STAGE 3 TRANSITION TRIP •Effective target setting •Diet •Healthy mind and body •Stress •Stress management In recent weeks our Year 9 students attended a three day trip with a focus of preparing them for the challenges ahead in Year 10 and their GCSEs. Pupils spent a day at SES and two days at Wadi Adventure, Al Ain, where they were put through their paces and tested in a variety of areas.
• Anxiety control methods
students ‘toolkits’ to deal with the pressures of their personal life alongside the demands of education. I hope they took some useful lessons from this trip and apply the strategies they learnt in the future. Congratulations Year 9 on your consistent and regular achievements throughout Key Stage Three. I wish you the best of luck in your GCSEs and all the challenges that you will meet in the future.
• Relaxation techniques • Developing a growth mindset.
The classroom based sessions were complemented with plenty of practical Unlike trips in previous years, where activities. Students were students would focus on social purposely put under interaction and team building, the stressful situations to see underlying theme of this trip was the how they coped with application and awareness of the 4 themselves and others. Cs – Challenge, Control, Commitment Not only were these and Confidence. Through these activities challenging, they also words the students took part in developed critical thinking, decision classroom sessions that focused on a making, teamwork and evaluation variety of areas. skills. Some of the activities included:
Mr Mosley Head of Key Stage Three SEE THE VIDEO USING THE QRCODE
•Problem solving games •Team building games •White water rafting – Olympic standard rapids •High ropes course • Zip lining • Surfing and body boarding The students’ conduct and engagement with all aspects of the trip were excellent. They were highly complimented by the Wadi Adventure staff and the trip facilitators, Spirit of Adventure. The objective of the trip was to develop
MORE PHOTOS AT: http://goo.gl/QB73Vk PASSWORD: KS3
MATHEMATICS by Mr S DAWOODBHAI ••• JUNIOR MATHS CHALLENGE RESULTS
Congratulations to all the participants from SES who sat the Challenge organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics trust on 1st May 2014. Year 7 Jenna Ali (Gold) Year 8 Joseph Babu(Gold), Rohaan Imran (Silver), Jade Sillere(Silver),Joshua Vaughan (Silver), Lanya Faiq (Silver), Amir Dawoodbhai (Silver), Dernas Suhail (Bronze), Patrick O’Connell (Bronze), , Sibba Abdelhadi (Silver),Bilal Rahman (Bronze), Malika Reiser, Gareth Mallinson and Amina Ahmed.
number of DIFFERENT solutions, (rotating the triangle does not count). A-Level Maths For Dummies On Tuesday the 10th of June, 2014, the Year 7 classes held a fair that they had set up in a few days during their Mathematics lessons. This was to mark their comprehension and employment of A-Level mathematics. According to research, the main barrier to learning is lack of interest. Jessica Ockenden and Daniel Kendal of the Mathematics Department metaphorically opened the gates to A-Level probability to a group of more than 40 year seven students by increasing their willingness to learn.
The classes learned how to calculate expectation for winnings in any situation and managed to figure out how to do so faster than a group of Year 11 students they had Mr Dawoodbhai challenged during a lesson in the ICT suite! They were sorted into groups and given a few days to build a fairground game. The fair lasted for There are many solutions to this thirty minutes and in those thirty puzzle. The winner will be the person minutes they caught the attention of that comes up with the highest sixth formers and other staff, including Mrs Razvi, Mr
Dawoodbhai, Mr Hartridge, Mr Webb, Mr Nolan, Mr Egan, Mr Doyle, Ms Evette and Ms Marlene. They used their knowledge of calculating expectation to ensure that they would gain tokens. The tokens were called Ockendals, the symbol for which was ‘’. Extra tokens were awarded to the team with the best mathematical explanation, prettiest stall and most original game. The winning team would be that which collected the most tokens in total. The team that was awarded the prize for Mathematics was also the team that had collected the most tokens by the end of the half-hour. They had collected 204 Ockendals. Their group consisted of four students: Yamna Aamir, Luisa Miles, Patrick Bozetarnik and Omar Abdul-Karim. The year group put in an immense amount of effort to make their fairground especially entertaining, yet still managed to learn maths in the process. This is how we learn at Sharjah English School! By Ayesha Sultan, Tristan Porter and Jenna Ali (7AE).
SCIENCE AT SES EDIBLE CELLS In Year 7 we have been learning about plant and animal cells and so our teacher Mr Kendal had an idea to help us show off our skills. We had to pick a specialised cell and make an edible model, savoury or sweet. We had six days to do this. All the hard work was done before the day came. We sat in groups on our tables and discussed how the parts of the cells were represented by our models. After this we chose a winner from each table. The winners had to present their model cells to the rest of the class. There could only be one winner, decided by a vote. The person with the most votes was Patrick Bozetarnik for his ciliated cell cake and poster to explain his work. After we all gave him a round of applause we shared our goodies. In conclusion, the whole class had learned more about cells they already knew of and also some that they hadn’t previously heard of, e.g. nerve, egg, sperm, ciliated and even blood cells. We gained learning and
understanding of new things but also new ways of presenting to people. This will all come in handy when we are older. No matter how much fun we had, we still were learning! By Megan White and Giorgina Mowat.
SECONDARY PE SPORT RELIEF
In May, Mrs Garrett and the PE department organised a Sport Relief week as part of the curriculum in an effort to support the Sport Relief Charity. Sport Relief, which is coordinated and ran in the UK, uses sport as a means to raise money for the disadvantaged around the world. SES staff and students were set the challenge of collecting sponsorship to swim as many lengths as possible in the school pool in a certain amount of time depending on the year group. Both Primary and Secondary students were involved and collectively raised a staggering DHS 35,853!!!!. Many thanks for the support and kindness shown. This money will now have a significant impact on improving the quality of life for some people and children around the world.
Olympic medallist visits SES.
played against tutor groups in Primary and Secondary followed by a question and answer session with the Year 10 GCSE PE students. They asked questions to help support their knowledge and understanding of the GCSE PE course regarding training, nutrition, and performance. The international sprinter gave an insight into the lifestyle of an Olympic athlete, describing the commitment and determination needed to be successful at the elite level of athletics.
Under 16 & Under 18 Rugby Awards To recognise and celebrate the achievements of the U16 & U18 SES Rugby Team, Mr Garrett and Mr Mosley held an awards evening at Spur Restaurant, Festival City. All players attending were instructed to wear a white collared shirt as they received a special tie with the school colours along with a pin badge. The players themselves voted for most improved team member as well as player of the season, along with the captain of each team nominating their own player of the year.
1999 World Indoor 400m champion and Olympic 4x400m Silver U16 – Most Improved: Gabriel medallist, Jamie Baulch, kindly visited Sharjah English School whilst Doublesin on vacation. He participated in a one U18 – Most Improved: Akhil Pawa off volleyball tournament which was held during Sport Relief Week and
U16 – Player of the Year: David Bull (C) U18 – Player of the Year: Lucas Oakeley (C) U16 – Captain’s Player: Ross Hughes U18 – Captain’s Player: Patrick Smith The night ended with Mr Garrett & Mr Mosley taking both teams to Bowling City with Mr Garrett himself being the king pin beating Mr Mosley by 1 point.
SECONDARY PE - GIRLS SPORT based on goal difference, which was a good way to begin the season. In Term two has been very busy for term two, the squad was placed in Girls’ sports fixtures. In total there Division One of the DASSA have been 49 fixtures from our girls’ Developing Netball League, playing teams played by U12 to U18 age schools such as DBS, Wellington and groups in Athletics, Cross Country, Latifa. The girls had a few new Netball and Rounders. We have had players in the squad and a change in some immense success in Athletics, position for some key players due to finishing 5th out of 15 Dubai Schools, injury and commitments elsewhere. winning both primary and We finished in 4th place and look secondary Inter Sharjah Schools forward to the next season, hoping Athletics. We rounded the season off we will build on the solid with a double victory for U16 performances we have seen in Rounders to be DASSA Champions, 2013/14. beating Dubai College twice and U16 Netball Winners of the Year 10 Latifa Tournament. This season saw a change in league Special mention must go to Sarah structure and we were placed in Salama, Hennie Van-De-Byl, Hannah Division One in the DASSA Omari, Charlotte Thomas and Hind Developing League. The squad was a Abusnana who have competed in newly formed one, comprising two almost every sport at both U16 and different teams from last season, so U18 age groups. They have been it took some time to adjust to playing tremendous role models and together. In term one we played in achieved both team and personal the Sharjah League and finished success. Our recent trophies would overall winners, which was a not have been possible without their positive move going into the tougher contributions. Well done girls! Dubai League. Our first opposition was DBS, an accomplished netballing Miss Dickinson school. Sadly this was our first and only defeat of the season. The squad U14 Netball picked themselves up, committed to training and started playing flowing netball. We had some big results against Regent Intenational School, Cambridge International School and Emirates International School, Jumeriah. To finish the season off we played in the DASSA tournament at DESC and lost to Jumeirah College in the Bowl Final. Round Up
U18 Netball This season the U14 squad was comprised of Year 8 students. Both leagues the squad has entered are for Year 9 students, so having the chance to be challenged and play against older and tougher opposition has been demanding, yet enjoyable to watch. In Term One the squad played in the Inter-Sharjah League where they finished second place
Like the U16s the squad was placed into Division One of the new Developing League . They played under Team Captain, Samanatha Menzies’ direction, playing DBS in a tight game at the beginning of the seasons, losing in the last minute 19-18. Results against EIS Jumeirah and Cambridge International School
were impressive victories. The team finished in second place in the league U16 Rounders Playing in the top DASSA league the team managed to go undefeated throughout their league games and were placed in the cup semi-final against Dubai College ‘ A’ Team. The team were victorious, winning by 1 đ rounders to play Dubai College ‘B’ Team in the final. This was a very tense match where every ball counted. SES had to bat first and, therefore, were nervously trying to keep DC’s score in their second innings to a minimum. SES managed to hold on to be winners, beating DC by 1 Rounder. Year 10 Rounders After the victory in the U16 Rounders League, the Year10 team with some new recruits went to the annual Latifa Tournament, where they won 5 consecutive games. Players were hitting the balls on the roof, into doors and bushes to score rounders. We played English College in the final and won by đ rounder to take home the second Rounders trophy in 2 days. A fantastic performance by all of the girls!! Y8 Rounders – Term 3 Despite the tournament being postponed due to rain, the girls gathered together at the beginning of the Rounders season and put in a very strong performance. We played DIS, Repton, English College, WSO and won the semi final to face hosts Latif an the final. Our fielding had been very strong with all the girls working as a unit to prevent opposition schools from scoring many rounders at all. The final was a tense match with Latifa having a large support on the sidleines. Sadly, the atmosphere got to our young players and we made a couple of mistakes allowing Latifa to win overall.
PROGRAMMING AT SES BY MR HICKS In light of the recent UK government proposals to introduce Computing into schools. All our Key Stage 3 students have been given the chance to learn about programming. Most students have created an online account at Codecademy.com, and have completed tutorials and learnt how to program using either Python or Ruby. Year 7 and Year 8 students have also been programming simple games using Scratch, and understand how to use conditional statements to control what happens in their game.
allows them to access their school work both in and out of school. So from now on forgetting to bring in their USB stick is no longer an acceptable excuse for not having homework to hand in. Bring your own device. I have been delighted with the enthusiasm and progress shown by our students. We have some gifted and hard-working students in Year 8 and Year 9 who have produced work equivalent to a grade A* for the programming section of the Computing GCSE by creating a prototype of the Battleships game. SES is looking to deliver Computer Science GCSE starting in September 2015 as an alternative option to GCSE ICT. We believe our students will be well prepared for the demands of the course, having had the chance to become acquainted with some of the programming concepts required by the course. Google Drive Over the last year SES students have now regularly started to use their SES Google Drive which is linked to their school email account. This
Since launching BYOD in April, over 150 mobile devices have been registered with the school. Both teachers and students are looking forward to using these devices in their teaching and learning.
Summer Break Computing Challenge: Year 8 students have been using a program called Logo where they learnt how to build procedures. At the end of the course nearly all students were able to use a set of procedures to create the UAE Flag. Dionysios Tanteles then went onto create the Turkish flag, impressive work. The computing challenge for students is to create a national flag of their choice using procedures they created in Logo. Logo can be downloaded at http://goo.gl/ aN5zJM. Various tutorials can also be found online.
WHOLE SCHOOL NEWS SCHOOL UNIFORM
We have changed our uniform company, in response to parental requests, and we are pleased to welcome Stitches, who will now be supplying school uniform to SES. Stitches will be operating from the school premises and the shop will be next to the swimming pool area. They will be open at the following times:
placed around the site and the school community has been fantastic in putting their waste into the correct bin. Each week the recycling team from Bee’ah, Sharjah’s waste management company, collect from outside the secondary gate and it is taken to the recycling facility on the Al Dhaid Road.
We have been monitoring the amount collected and the current total is 2690kg, averaging about 90kg each week. Next year we are hoping to improve on this, so if you Saturday 21st June to Thursday do not have access to recycling 26th June from 12.30 pm to 4.00 pm facilities at home, bring it in to school. We will place bins for paper Sunday 24th August to Sunday 31st and plastic by the main gates each August from 11.00 am to 4.00 pm, morning for everyone to use. It is (the shop will not be open on Friday important that waste goes in the 29th August). right bin. Paper and cardboard should be flattened and bottles must Thereafter, the shop will be open every Sunday from 11.00 am to 4.00 be empty. Thank you in anticipation of your help! pm. This year there will be a new PE kit for the whole school. The new uniform is made of breathable material, is easy to wash, smart and will enhance the strong identity of the school, especially when our teams compete. Recycling at Sharjah English School This year we have begun to separate our waste and recycle as much as we
can. Paper, cardboard, plastic and cans now all go for recycling. Blue wheelie bins have been strategically
DGrade T-shirt Design Competition
was chosen from each year group to go forward to the competition. Sharjah English School produced four prize winning entries. Elias Haj Hmida (Year 5) and Medha Misra (Year 2) were amongst the top 30 entries that were invited to Ski Dubai to meet the penguins. Josephine Dougan in Year 11 was the overall runner-up and her entry was made into a t-shirt, framed and presented to her by Mr. Kris Barber from DGrade. Shreeya Doshi in Year 1 was the overall winner. Her prize included a fantastic field trip to The Banyan Tree, Al Wadi for her whole class as well as a framed t-shirt for herself. Everyone in Shreeya’s class was also given one of her t-shirts. You can read about this trip in the Year 1 section of this newsletter. Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who entered and well done to our winners!
DGrade is a company based both in To see all the designs go to the UK and here in the UAE that manufactures clothing from recycled http://goo.gl/12l8fT plastic. They organised a UAE-wide competition to design an image for a password: tshirt t-shirt based on the theme of plastic waste. So back in March, many students in school (both primary and secondary) got to work. From the sixty or so entries handed in, one
PRIZE DAY AND GRADUATION CEREMONY – 8th May 2014 In previous years this event began with celebraCng the GCSE results from last summer.
A GCSE PresentaCon Evening was held on 26th November as was reported in a previous NewsleUer. The Head of Secondary, Mr Gary Hartridge, gave a summary of the year. He commended the academic successes and menConed that in the Cme that SES has been offering A-‐levels the pass rate has been 100%, and all students have gone on to a university of their choice. Extra-‐curricular acCviCes that have been offered by the secondary staff this year was an impressive list. The InternaConal Award Scheme has aUracted good numbers and in June last year our first ever InternaConal Award Gold Team travelled to the Maldives where they completed 5 days of community service on Narfu Island, followed by a 5 day expediCon which involved snorkelling, kayaking, trekking and camping on a deserted island. Also at the end of the summer term last year, 27 students from Years 9 to 11 went on a History trip to Vietnam for 10 days. SES now has 4 Houses: Burton, Doughty, Lawrence and Wentworth -‐ this has brought about a more balanced approach to inter-‐house compeCCons. None more so than Sports Day where the standard was just awesome this year with 20 school records being broken on the day. Burton won. The inter-‐House baUle of the bands compeCCon was another event that gained from having 4 Houses. Doughty was the winning House. At the Winter Fayre in November the school orchestra and a rock band entertained us. The Christmas Carol Concert was held in the auditorium; a very tradiConal Christmas show with more than 80 secondary students involved. The Primary choir joined the show, making it a nice whole-‐ school event. In February, 10 students took part in the Young Musicians of the Gulf CompeCCon, held in Bahrain. The vocal ensemble managed to get through to the grand final for the 2nd year running. Year 7 students went on a Desert Adventure Camp in November, spending 2 days in the desert. Year 8 did a similar camp in December at the Umm al-‐Quwain Marine Club. The Y9 TransiCon Trip takes place in June at Wadi Adventure. This is for 3 days with the acCviCes designed to help prepare the students for the demands of GCSEs. The foundaCon of the 3 days is the 4 C’s: Challenge, Commitment, Control and Confidence. DebaCng is an acCvity that SES is keen to do more of. We ventured over the border to take part in the Debate Dubai CompeCCon. Our Y8 team won the Under 14 compeCCon. There was a Sixth Form Geography field trip to Cyprus in March and in April, Year 10 students had a week of Work Experience. Mr Hartridge then talked about the many successes that SES has had on the sporCng front. A school evaluaCon by the Ministry of EducaCon took place in February. Sharjah English School was awarded ‘highly effecCve’ in all the 6 areas of focus, namely: leadership, the school as a community, student learning, the classroom climate, students’ personal development, student’s aUainment and progress -‐ these are the highest judgments that can be gained in each category. Together with the double inspecCon of last year by BSME – BriCsh Schools of The Middle East, and BSO – BriCsh School Overseas, we are confident that we are providing an outstanding educaCon for our students, but we are always aiming for beUer. The Principal of Sharjah English School, Mr. John Nolan and our guest of honour, The Bri=sh Consul General to Dubai, His Excellency, Mr. Edward Hobart, presented the prizes.
SUBJECT PRIZES FOR 2013 – 2014 Key Stage 3 English: Key stage 4 English: Key stage 5 English: Key Stage 5 Media Studies: Key Stage 5 Film Studies: Key Stage 3 MathemaCcs: Key Stage 4 MathemaCcs: Key Stage 5 MathemaCcs: Key Stage 3 Science: Key Stage 4 Science: Key Stage 5 Biology: Key Stage 5 Chemistry: Key Stage 5 Physics: Key Stage 3 Art: Key Stage 4 Art: Key Stage 5 Art: Key Stage 3 Design Technology: Key Stage 4 Design Technology -‐Product Design: Key Stage 4 Design Technology -‐Graphic Products: Key Stage 4 Design Technology –TexCles: Key Stage 5 Design Technology: Key Stage 3 Music: Key Stage 4 Music: Key Stage 5 Music: Key Stage 3 History: Key Stage 4 History: Key Stage 5 History: Key Stage 3 Geography: Key Stage 4 Geography: Key Stage 5 Geography: Heidenreich Key Stage 3 ICT: Key Stage 4 ICT(Mohammad Khan Award) Key Stage 5 ICT: Key Stage 3 French: Key Stage 4 French: Key Stage 5 French: Key Stage 3 Arabic: Key Stage 4 GCSE PE: Key Stage 5 GCE PE: Key Stage 4 Business Studies: Key Stage 5 Business Studies: Key Stage 3 Endeavour Prize (for outstanding effort and progress) Key Stage 4 Endeavour Prize Key Stage 5 Endeavour Prize
Sakina Surury Leila Hamza Lucas Oakeley Lucas Oakeley KrisCna Sergeeva Lucas Bley Bokang Jia Jonathan Vaughan CrisCna Contreras-‐Guiteirrez Bokang Jia Gabriela Toledo-‐Gavassa ConstanCnos Menelaou Hajira Habeeb Anna Lis Leila Hamza Robyn Thomas Joseph Babu Phoebe Jones Imran Khan Nour Ghosn Georgia Whiffen Nickey Van-‐Tooren Mathias Wilkinson Robyn Boulton Lukas Bley Leila Hamza Soyeon Lee Jade Sillere Eleanor Van-‐Der-‐Byl Vince Lara Adamson Jesse Kedzierski Rameen Iqbal Lukas Bley Veronica O’Connell Soyeon Lee Elyas Faiq Tori Whiffen Georgia Whiffen Siobhan D’Almeida Vincenz Heidenreich
Dana Elmankabady Charis Vaughan Sarah Tadros
SporCng Achievement for 2013 -‐ 2014 Key Stage 3 Girls: Key Stage 3 Boys: Key Stage 4 Girls: Key Stage 4 Boys: Key Stage 5 Girls: Key Stage 5 Boys:
Meara Siviter-‐Johnson Cris Clive Sarah Salama David Bull Taya Chase ScoU Hughes
Deputy Head Girl 2013-‐2014 Deputy Head Boy 2013-‐2014 Head Girl 2013-‐2014 Head Boy 2013-‐2014
Georgia Whiffen Jonathan Vaughan Gabriela Toledo-‐Gavassa Lucas Oakeley
Head Boy/Head Girl Prize
Sarah Zoubi
INTERNATIONAL AWARD InternaConal Award Gold CerCficates were given out to the following: Harini Kannangara, Nidi Kulkarni, Robyn Boulton, Gabriella Toledo-‐Gavassa, Cezanne Golley, Kleri Tanteles, Samia Jahangiri, ConstanCnos Menelaou, Laura Daniel, Hyung-‐Seok Kim,
Once all the prizes had been given out, the vocal group who competed in the Young Musician of the Gulf CompeCCon, sang La Poem de Fleurs by Massenet, accompanied on the piano by Michelle Delves.
We then heard from Mr. Edward Hobart who talked about how the English curriculum and the BriCsh style of educaCon were held in high regard around the world and a ‘brand’ that was much in demand. He complimented SES on its academic achievements and the many acCviCes that staff offer the students. Mr Edward Hobart congratulated the school on the outstanding inspecCon reports over the last two years. A vote of thanks was proposed by the Head Boy and Head Girl.
The Principal of SES, Mr. John Nolan, gave a review of the school's history and reputaCon over the last 40 years. He spoke about how the challenge was always to preserve our essence and tradiCons, our community and family feel. At the same Cme we had to become more outward-‐looking, expose ourselves to the scruCny of inspecCons; we had to be able to state confidently to the UAE and the wider educaConal world: “We are here. We are outstanding. We have much to offer”. Mr John Nolan concluded by saying that our graduaCng students should go into the world confident, prepared and used to taking on challenges. The outgoing Head Boy and Head Girl introduced the new management team: Head Boy Adam Bates
Head Girl Shruthi Manivannan
Deputy Head Boy Sanil Chopra
Deputy Head Girl Samantha Menzies
It was then Cme to say ‘Goodbye’ to 37 of our Sixth Formers.
Mr. Paul Egan, Head of Sixth Form, talked about how well the students had prepared themselves for the next step in their academic career. When applying to university they had carried out extensive research and were very proacCve, with many making personal contact with universiCes. All our students received offers from universiCes. 80% gained 4 offers (UCAS average is 50%) and 65% gained 5 offers (UCAS average is 31%). Our students clearly have a lot to offer. Mr Paul Egan then introduced each student, saying what they were currently studying and were they hope to be in September. Each student was presented with a GraduaCon CerCficate. AKer the ceremony parents and friends were able to mingle over coffee and snacks provided by the PSG. Photos courtesy of Ophelie Sistac
BATTLE OF THE BANDS This year's competition was extremely overwhelming for me as it was my final year of having involvement with the annual Battle of the Bands competition. However, it really was one of the best BOTB’s we've had. It was amazing to finally have the 'House' system back as it made it even more of a competition and the audience could cheer for their team. Having Wentworth join the competition with a really strong band made it extra tough for everybody competing. The talent that has come through from all years in the school is absolutely phenomenal. Watching the bands work together with students they may not have ever spoken to, really showed the true spirit of what the competition is about. Some students were still new to their instrument and were pushing themselves to learn their part in time for the show and everybody who took part achieved this, which was musically amazing. Throughout the 6 years I have taken part in the competition, I've learned about all aspects of putting on the show, and just how difficult some of the jobs are for people who don't get seen on the show day. The backstage crew are an absolutely vital part of the show- the backstage crews we've had over the years have somehow always managed to pull together and make the show run as smoothly as possible. The sound and lights crew up in the box aren't ever seen as they are facedown working on a platform of numerous confusing buttons and lights. Without the guys in the box, the show would be dull, and not very loud! Finally, the teachers; they dedicate hours to make this show possible. Each band rehearses once or twice a week after school, but the teachers are there for each and every band at each and every rehearsal, even giving some of their weekend. The time and effort that is put into this event is incredible and I believe that it does get better every year as new ideas are born and the competitors get much more confident with their moves. I am really going to miss being a part of this event, and I hope that I have the opportunity to watch the show next year. I'd like to thank everybody who was involved in the years that I was as the competition has moulded me into the person that I am today, and has given me much more confidence on stage than I could ever imagine. Congratulations to Doughty for winning the competition this year- I may be bias in saying that it was a lovely farewell to watch my House win! However, every single team and individual performed absolutely wonderfully. Best of luck to the future years of Battle of the Bands! Robyn Boulton