HEADTEACHER’S WELCOME
Dear Parents,
On behalf of our whole school community, I am very proud to welcome you to the Qetaf programme, located at Sherborne Qatar Preparatory School Bani Hajer, a member of the Sherborne Qatar family of schools. Sherborne Qetaf is a place where your child will flourish and be at the heart of everything we do. Your child will laugh, learn, explore and succeed as cherished members of our school community.
Our commitment is to support your child by providing a Curriculum for Life and ensuring that they fulfil their potential, regardless of their additional needs. We promote communication, independence and the development of self-help skills with a focus on supporting mental health and wellbeing. We understand that this new learning journey can feel somewhat daunting for you and your child but we will be with you every step of the way. To ensure that your child is happy and settled within their new learning environment, we will plan this transition carefully in order to support your child’s individual needs.
Supporting our families is fundamental to our school community and we will work in partnership with you and the wider community to enhance your family’s life outside school. You are partners with us in your child’s educational journey and we encourage you to take an active role in his or her learning.
Our highly skilled and specialised staff are ready to welcome you and your child to Sherborne Qetaf and are excited to embark on the next steps with you. If there is anything you need or questions you have, please do get in touch - we are here to help you and your child from this moment onwards as they embark on their Sherborne Learning Journey.
With my very best wishes,
Richard Williams Principal
OUR VISION IS TO:
– INSPIRE our young people to dream big by providing role models and experiences that support their aspirations;
– BELIEVE that our pupils can fulfil their own potential by surrounding them with an opimistic, committed and creative team of staff who display an inclusive approach to teaching and learning;
– Help our young people to SUCCEED through a bespoke, individualised curriculum for life and by providing a stimulating, child centred and nurturing learning environment.
Senior Leadership Team
Richard Williams Principal rwilliams@sherborneqatar.org
Julie Foot Vice Principal jfoot@sherborneqatar.org
SPECIALIST SUPPORT
Specialist support is provided for your child regarding the development of their communication, sensory, social and emotional needs with the provision of Specialist Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Music Therapy as well as Educational Psychology. The therapists work with individuals and groups of children to support class teams in the delivery of the curriculum.
OUR CURRICULUM
We endorse a Curriculum for Life and provide a curriculum based on the National Curriculum for England, modified for the special educational needs of the pupils, as well as adaptations to support the teachings of Qatari heritage and culture.
Our curriculum is designed to inspire, motivate and nurture our children’s curiosity and love of learning as well as enabling them to make connections between areas of learning. Our curriculum promotes independence, key skills for life and facilitates the development of key communication skills. Our highly skilled teachers provide learning activities that are motivating, meaningful and bespoke to the individual needs of your child.
We use Read Write Inc. and White Rose Maths schemes of work and The Talk for Writing structure is followed. Our topics and themes, including the schemes of work, ensure we do not lose the British nature of our education.
ASSESSMENT
We believe that assessment is a powerful tool in understanding your child better and involves us supporting them in identifying their “next steps” in learning. Assessment is a continuous process and is carried out by all informed professionals supporting your child, e.g. teachers, teaching assistants, speech and language therapists, specialist occupational therapists.
Most day-to-day assessments are based on frequent and informal tasks and questions, which gives your child the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills. Your child’s progress is communicated regularly through written reports and online / in person parent meetings across the year. Your child’s Annual Learning Plan (ALP) will be shared with you by the October half term with progress meetings being held formally in the Spring and Summer terms.
We believe pupils should be involved in the assessment of their own work and progress as much as possible. All pupils will be encouraged to be involved in self assessment wherever possible by means of photographs, sharing learning objectives, ALP targets, comments on Annual Reports etc., using appropriate spoken language or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) that they can understand. Child friendly Learning Targets will be written in accordance with the pupil’s ALP.
ATTENDANCE & ABSENCE REPORTING
Please note that our target attendance is 90% and this matches the Ministry of Education’s requirements for pupils attending Qatari Independent schools. Attendance is something which Form Teachers and the Senior Leadership Team monitor closely. Allowing for periodic illness and any authorised absence, Form Teachers will send a warning letter to the parents of any pupil whose attendance is significantly below the target figure. This letter will state the current attendance % and say that the school is looking for a significant improvement. We would hope that this will be sufficient but, for those pupils whose attendance does not improve, there will be further periodic letters, which will escalate in seriousness and which will also be logged with the Ministry.
Parents are reminded that whenever a child is absent an email should be sent to the Form Teacher with an explanation so that the correct entry can be made in the Register. Please note that all applications for leave of absence should be made, in writing and in advance, to the Deputy Head, Dr Lee at mlee@ sherborneqatar.org. Applications are judged on a case-by-case basis and parents will be notified of the decision. Making an application does not guarantee that any absence will be an authorised absence and leave will normally only be granted in exceptional circumstances.
COMMUNICATION
Now that you are part of the Sherborne family it is vital that we have open lines of communication between us, yourselves and your child/ren. Form Teachers will remain your key points of contacts throughout your time with the school. We greatly value face-to-face meetings and there are numerous formal and informal opportunities for this to happen.
We use the Class Dojo Application to share messages and information with parents through ‘Class / School Story.’ We also use email to share important letters or key details when necessary. As well as our social media platforms, we also have Parent Notices which are shared weekly, providing brief overviews from the week just gone, important reminders of what’s coming up, as well as other useful pieces of information.
Finally, all parents have access to the Parent Portal which is part of our management information system. This portal allows for all policies, documents, reports, grades to be accessible at any point while a pupil is registered at the school. All parents will receive an activation email when their child joins the school and this will include guidance on how to access reports. If you do not receive the email kindly contact our IT Engineer Sami Dahbour on sdahbour@sherborneqatar.org.
We consider ourselves to be an open and friendly school, so if you have anything on your mind, please pick up the phone, send an email or come into school, we are always here to help.
DROP OFF & COLLECTION
For the safety of the whole community we ask you to please take a note of the information listed below, so that at the busy times of the day, we are all working together.
KEY POLICIES
At Sherborne Qatar we have a comprehensive range of policies that cover all facets of school life. Many of these are readily available on our website or on the parent portal. Other useful information, including up-to-date inspection reports can be found on the website too.
Parents will be asked to complete and submit an online Home School Agreement and relevant ICT Child & Parent User Agreement before their children start school. Our Admissions Department will send you the link separately.
MEDICAL FORMS
The health and wellbeing of our pupils is so important. To ensure we are giving your child the appropriate care and advice, it is essential that our medical records are up to date. As such, all new parents are asked to complete and submit an online medical form before their children start school. It is your responsibility as parents to keep us informed of any changes to the medical needs of your child or medication. Failure to keep us informed may result in your child not being able to enter school.
If you have any queries relating to the medical care provided at our schools, kindly email our Lead Nurse Mrs Baron at rbaron@sherborneqatar.org.
SCHOOL FEES
All parents will be asked to read and sign the Fees Policy as well as both the SEN & Intervention Provision Terms and Conditions Agreements when they accept the offer of a place. Sherborne Qatar Schools have 3 terms per year. Invoices will be emailed to parents by no later than one month prior to the payment due date. We do not currently have a cashier on site at Prep School Bani Hajer but the Finance Offices at the Prep School Al Rayyan, at the Girls’ School in Al Ebb and at the Senior School by the Mall of Qatar are open Sunday to Thursday from 7.00am to 3.00pm. Holiday opening hours may differ. For any queries relating to the payment of fees and the Qatari education voucher scheme, kindly email Mrs Amilasan on aamilasan@sherborneqatar.org.
All visitors should enter through Gate 1 and report to reception.
Sherborne Qetaf pupils may enter school via Gate 1. Siblings of our Qetaf children at the Prep School Bani Hajer may also enter via Gate 1. Sherborne Qetaf pupils may be collected at the end of the day via Gate 3.
There is plenty of parking close to the entrance and we politely request that you find a space and walk a short distance to school rather than parking immediately outside the gate or in the central reservation. Doing this improves the safety of children and road users.
Please respect the instructions of teaching staff on duty and our security team.
Mrs Rebecca Baron Lead Nurse
THE PARENT TEACHER ASSOCIATION (PTA)
Dear Parents,
THE SCHOOL DAY
A warm welcome to Sherborne Qatar Schools! On behalf of the Sherborne Qatar Parent Teacher Association (PTA), I am delighted to introduce you to the PTA. We are a group of parents and teachers, whose priority is the wellbeing of our children and supporting the school community.
Throughout the year we have various fundraisers and events designed to provide funds to enrich our children’s educational experience, over and above what the school would be expected to provide from fees. We are excited to build community across all of the schools within the Sherborne Qatar family. We are proud to bring those schools together and create connections across the schools and foster community amongst our parents and children.
In March 2023, we were thrilled to welcome over 2,000 people from the Sherborne Qatar community to the Spring Fair, hosted at the Senior School. It was the first time since 2019 we have been able to host such an event and it was a huge success. This is just one of the events we have planned for the year to come.
Your involvement and support are highly valued and greatly appreciated. If you would like to know more then please contact us on SherborneqatarPTA@gmail.com. Please keep an eye on regular notices from the PTA.
Kind Regards
Lucy Fowlie
Chair Sherborne Qatar PTA
For all pupils, the school day every Tuesday is 7.30am to 12.00pm to allow for staff CPD. On Tuesdays, a paid club may be available for after school activities.
Please note:
• The times have been designed for curricular needs and to help with traffic flow
• Pupils must be in their classrooms in time for Registration
• Pupils who arrive late for Registration must ensure they register with their Form Teacher. This is to ensure that we have an accurate record of who is in school
• Families will be informed when After School Clubs start at the beginning of each term.
UNIFORM
Sitting alongside our high expectations of attendance are our standards of school uniform. We are very proud of our school and the high expectations we set ourselves. A visible sign of these high standards is our school uniform. We believe wearing the Sherborne uniform:
• Promotes pride in ‘The Penny’,
• Engenders a sense of community and belonging towards the school and each other,
• Identifies the children with our school, with the Penny, which in turn, symbolises all the values and learning dispositions that we stand for.
EYFS
GIRLS’ DAYWEAR
Pre School / Reception
YEAR 3 TO YEAR 6
GIRLS’ DAYWEAR
YEAR 1 TO YEAR 2 GIRLS’ DAYWEAR
PRE-SCHOOL TO YEAR 6
Parents have a duty to send their children to school correctly dressed and ready for their daily schoolwork. One of the responsibilities of parents is to ensure that their child has the correct uniform, and that it is clean and in good repair. Thank you for your support.
All items on our uniform list are available to purchase from Noble House at www.noblehouse.qa and our unique school code is SG0805
Here is the uniform list and Noble House’s items can be viewed here.
We appreciate that for some of our children wearing certain clothing can be challenging due to their sensory needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us if this applies to your child as we will support you in managing their individual needs.
EYFS BOYS’ DAYWEAR
Pre School / Reception
PRE-SCHOOL TO YEAR 6
HOUSE SHIRT
YEAR 1 TO YEAR 2
BOYS’ DAYWEAR
YEAR 3 TO YEAR 6
BOYS’ DAYWEAR
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING YOUR
CHILD’S FIRST FEW WEEK?
Our first aim is to work with you to make the transition from home to school a happy and positive one for your child at whatever age they join Sherborne Qetaf. Before your child starts with us they will be given a transition book so that he or she can share this with family members at home.
You and your child will then be invited to transition events during the first week of term when you will meet the class and therapy teams as well as exploring the areas around school. Together, we will plan for your child’s transition into school the following week, ensuring a happy and settled start to their learning journey with us.
Our teachers and support staff will be in contact with you on a regular basis during the transition phase so that you will be informed of how your child is settling in.
LOCATION MAP
www.sherborneqatar.org Contact us at office@sherborneqatar.org