VOLUME 2
OCTOBER 2022
SZPAB NEWSLETTER HONORING THE PAST. EDUCATING FOR THE FUTURE.
OUR MISSION The Sheikh Zayed Private Academy aims to honor the past and educate for the future by developing confident, responsible and caring young people of integrity who are well educated and prepared to meet the challenges in an ever-changing world.
OUR VALUES To achieve our mission, we will work to our core values which are: Pursue excellence in all that we do Celebrate achievement and participation of all Appreciate and foster UAE National Identity Cherish the community and the environment Promote Emirati culture and ethical values Promote respect, responsibility, belonging and caring Develop leadership capacity and global citizenship
www.szpag.com
Table of Contents 01
Principal’s Welcome
02
Early Years News
03
Elementary Update
04
Secondary Focus
05
Inclusion Insight
OCT 31ST, 2022
SZPAB NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 2
Principal’s Welcome Dear Parents, I hope that you and your families enjoyed a restful mid-term break. Our students and staff were very much in need of the break after the incredibly busy first half-term of the year. We now look ahead to the second half of Term 1 and to the wonderful learning that will take place together with the activities and events that we have planned. We are very much looking forward to our first Progress Meetings with parents which take place after-school from Monday 31st October to Wednesday 2nd November. These are the first opportunity of the year for parents to meet with their child’s teachers to discuss how well the year has started, the progress they have made so far and future targets in their learning. Parents are strongly encouraged to book appointments to meet our teachers and we are very excited to welcome parents back into school to attend these meetings. Given the number of students our teachers teach, time is always limited and I would ask parents to please arrive promptly to ensure that meetings keep to schedule. As always, if at any time parents would like to meet with a teacher, please do not hesitate to contact our Main Reception to arrange this. Thank you to the many parents who attended our first Parent Coffee & Tour event at the beginning of October. It was great to receive such positive feedback about the opportunity to hear about our future plans and to see students in action during a tour of the school. Our next Parent Coffee & Tour is taking place on Tuesday 1st November – this will begin with a short presentation followed by an opportunity to visit our classrooms. We look forward to welcoming parents to this event. A highlight of the second half of Term 1 is always our UAE National Day celebrations. We are very much looking forward to the opportunity to bring our school community together to celebrate the 51st anniversary of the seven emirates coming together. Further details of our celebrations will be shared in due course. Thank you for your continued support of our school. Yours sincerely, Neil Matthews Principal
Early Years Newsletter OCTOBER 2022 It has been yet another busy month, here in the Early Years, and as we draw near towards the end of the first unit, the children have reflected on all they have done and learnt during these important first few weeks of the new school year. It was great to see so many parents attending either the ‘ Coffee and Tour” earlier this month and also the end of unit celebrations that we had during the last few days of this half term. We look forward to having you attend lots more events in the future… the children love it when their parents visit the school too. This month has seen the relaxing of some of the recent COVID 19 protocols, namely mask wearing, and this has meant that we get to see all the wonderful smiles from the children once more. How to ensure your child is successful in school: For some young children, learning to cope with a new environment, as well as separating from their parents, can either be overwhelming, or it can go quite smoothly. How a student reacts emotionally and socially may have more to do with their temperament, needs, interests, and experiences. To continue to support your child's school experience and ensure they gain the most from the school day we suggest the following advice: Make sure your child gets to bed at a reasonable hour: This means around 7:30 to 8pm. Children who regularly go to bed later on school nights have a hard time keeping up in school. They end up being tired and irritable and they are more likely to have behavioral problems, and possibly not be able to fulfill their academic potential. Make sure your child eats a nutritious breakfast and has plenty of lunch: Children who do not eat breakfast may not feel hungry when they first get to school, but they usually hit a slump around mid-morning and may find it difficult to keep their minds on schoolwork. KG1 and KG2 students have one break for eating at 9:35am. They will normally eat all of their snack at this time, however teachers can and do give students a chance to eat before home time if students need this.
Early Years Newsletter OCTOBER 2022 Make sure your child attends school every day: Attending school daily ensures that students do not fall behind in their learning and helps them to understand and follow routines independently. To encourage our student’s attendance, we have created an attendance tracker display in the early years corridor. Each week, Ms. Gill checks the class attendance percentage and then moves the race cars accordingly. At the end of each term, the class with the highest attendance in each grade will receive a trophy and a special class reward. Make sure your child gets to school on time — every day: Lateness is not only disruptive to the entire class, but it can also make a child feel out-ofstep all day. Plus, it may send a message that school is not important enough to be on time for. Make sure you ask your child about their day: Children have many experiences during the school day. Make a point to ask your child about their day, their teachers, and their friends. This is a great way for parents to share in the school day, check in on how students are feeling about school, and to show children that you value what happens when they are at school. If you have any questions or concerns on how you can best support your child and how to build a strong relationship between home and school, please feel free to contact me. Gillian.deane@zayedacademyboys.ae Miss Nicola Lavis Head of Early Childhood
Pre-KG - Unit highlights In October, we have been busy building our classroom community. We are learning how to make and keep friends as well as how to work in groups. We are also learning about the people who work at SZPAB and how they help us. The school nurse, Ms. Anisha, and the head of IT, Ms. Ala, have been guest speakers
in
our
classroom.
After
the
midterm break, we will be starting our first mini study. It will be based on sounds we hear at school. Our Teddy Bear’s Picnic in the Elementary library is on October 28th at 10:50am.
Pre-KG
parents
are
warmly
welcomed to join our celebration and read to us.
Pre-KG
KG 1 - Unit highlights Unit 1 has come to an end and it was certainly filled with so many smiles, friendships and of course lots of hands-on learning. KG1 students have enjoyed learning all about their community, what it is made up of and how we fit into it. In the last week of Unit 1 (All About Me), students came dressed up to celebrate the many community helpers who help us and chose what community helper they would like to be when they grow up. It was a very exciting day as we were able to welcome parents into our classes to show them all about our learning and showcase some of our unit songs. KG1 students demonstrated wonderful confidence and took such pride in showing their parents around their classes. We cannot wait to see what our next Unit holds.
KG2 Unit Highlights This month has been filled with fun and excitement in KG2. We have become accustomed to the routines and our role as SZPAB students. It has been so exciting getting into swimming lessons with Ms. Hannah and Ms. Jen, as well as Visual Performing Arts with Ms. Danica. Our Unit Celebration (People and Places of SZPAB), has filled us with enthusiasm as we dress up as firemen, police, army soldiers, doctors, teachers, nurses and so on. Not only are we becoming confident singing and talking in front of groups, but we are showcasing what we have learned about who helps us at SZPAB, and those people who help us in the wider community.
Grade 1 Highlights Grade 1 students have had a wonderful start to the school year with our first Unit, Growing and Changing. Our focus throughout this Unit has been to develop our understanding of the communities we represent, and how to show off our best selves. In writing we have been retelling and innovating the story, 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Students learned how to tell the story orally, using actions to help us. After creating story maps and retelling the original story, students changed the characters and setting and wrote their own story.
Grade 1 In reading, we have been reading books that help us settle into school and learn how to be positive members of our classroom and school community. The students are also enjoying being in their new phonics groups and are making pleasing progress with their reading and writing. We developed our comprehension skills by asking and answering questions about the characters, setting and main events. In Math, we have been adding to 20 using different strategies such as blocks, drawing, counting on, and using 10 frames. Children are also practicing recalling number bonds to help them with their fact fluency.
Pre-KG Arabic Highlights استمتع الطلبة بالّتعرف عىل مرافق المدرسة و أركان كما بدأوا بتتبع الخطوط ورسمها، الحجرة الصفّي ة وشكل، والرقم واحد، والّتعرف عىل اللون األحمر الُم ربع وتمييز حرف الّدال
The students enjoyed getting to know the school facilities and the corners of the classroom. They also began tracing and drawing lines and recognizing the red color, the number one, the shape of the square and the letter dal.
KG 1 Arabic Highlights قاَم طالب الروضة األوىل بالّتعرف عىل حروف اللغة ز ) من خالل األناشيد والقصص، ر، ب،العربية ( د كما أبدعوا في ُص نع مجسمات عىل. الحروف الّس ابقة KG1 students recognized the letters of the Arabic language (D, B, R, Z) through songs and stories. They also excelled in making models based on the previous letters.
KG 2 Arabic Highlights قاَم طالب الروضة الثانية بالّتعرف عىل حروف اللغة ز ) من خالل األناشيد والقصص، ر، ، ب،العربية ( د كما أبدعوا في ُص نع مجسمات عىل الحروف الّس ابقة. KG2 students recognized the letters of the Arabic language (D, B, R, Z) through songs and stories. They also excelled in making models based on the previous letters.
Grade 1 Arabic Highlights بدأ طالب الصف األول رحلتهم التعليمية مع قصص حروف اللغة العربية من ِخ الل االستماع إىل قصص و باإلضافة إىل الّتدرب عىل كتابة، أناشيد الحروف وقراءة ُجمل مختلفة Grade 1 students started their educational journey with the stories of the Arabic letters by listening to the stories and chants of the letters, in addition to practicing writing and reading different sentences
A message from the head of Elementary Welcome families to the second Elementary newsletter for this year. It has been such a busy month with many exciting things happening. The classroom programs have really started strongly and the students are producing some amazing work that we can share with you here. We have also had a number of events including tours and student-led assemblies that have invited parents back into the school and it has been great to share our program face to face with those who joined us.
Please enjoy the variety of activities we are sharing this month.
Mr. Rhys Flavell Principal of Elementary and Early Years
Teaching and Learning
Grade 4 One of our most important beliefs is building our students ownership of their learning. Students who can reflect on and explain their learning come away from this with a deeper and longer lasting understanding. We are teaching them that having a positive attitude to learning is one of the biggest foundations for success.
4E Ali Mohamed explaining how the human eye functions
Teaching and Learning
Grade 5 Last month I shared that we have started the introduction of Singapore Mathematics, one of the top ranking approaches to learning mathematics. This program uses manipulatives and thinking models to grasp complex concepts. Her are some of our students learning and exploring in Mathematics classes 5A Using manipulatives to break subtraction questions up into expanded form, and then solving the problem
5D Saif, Alasri, Mohamed and Zayed learning how we can use a Venn diagram to identify common factors during math class.
Using manipulatives to break subtraction questions up into expanded form, and then solving the problem.
Teaching and Learning 4B After mastering rounding to the hundred thousand place students are working on rounding centers
Assemblies
5A’s Assembly
This month has seen the return of Classroom Assemblies. Throughout the year each class get at least one chance to present during the assembly. The expectation is that all students are included and as many students as possible speak or sing or chat or perform on stage. This month saw two classroom assemblies and a specialist assembly.
This class assembly was about taking responsibility. Here is 5A using the security camera to keep boys responsible (not really but was very clever)
Assemblies
Grade 4
They taught us all about how to make SMART Goals
The next class Assembly was 4A
Visual and Performing Arts Music in Grade 5, with Ms Trudy Over the past few weeks, we have been composing our own musical compositions. We have learnt how composers compose their music and what we need to think about when we are composing. We have been creating rhythm pieces, using our knowledge of musical notation. We have been using 4/4 timing, with whole notes, quarter notes, half notes, sixteenth notes and triplets. We have been using rests as well, to give our composition space for the listener to take in what is being played. We have had to think about tempo, dynamics and tone of our compositions, as composer. We started off composing 4 bars of music….to 8 bars of music….to 16 bars of music to 32 bars of music! We have watched and explored famous composers, such as John Williams, who writes incredible pieces of music for movies like Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Superman. We have watched and reflected about orchestra musicians playing musical compositions. We are using higher order thinking routines for us to listen and write the words of what we see, hear, feel, in the performances. We have created amazing musical compositions which we have shared with each other, as well as we have got other people to play our musical compositions and received feedback about our music. We have used musical instruments, such as tambourines, maraca, bells and handdrums to compose and perform our compositions. We have made decisions about what instruments are best for us to use, for our musical compositions. We have created Vlogs (video logs) about how to compose music.
Visual and Performing Arts
Music in Grade 5, with Ms Trudy
We asked Dr Mark DeMareo from Al Ain Education, to play some of our compositions on the piano, as he is an amazing pianist, during our Elementary assembly, which was awesome!
Visual and Performing Arts Music in Grade 5 = We are musicians. We are composers.
Naser Khaled's musical composition
Musical composers, composing their own music pieces
Manes Almaqbali's musical composition - 5A
Elementary PE.
Elementary PE. Over the past few weeks Grade 2-5 have been practising different ways to travel, balance and roll and linked them together to create their own sequences. Students then performed their sequences in their classes. We practised our patch and point balances and looked at how we could balance in the shape of UAE buildings. Students practised rolling in curled and stretched shapes and used their imagination to find different ways to travel along and over gymnastic equipment.
We have some amazing Gymnasts at SZPAB.
Elementary PE. Also the PE team is hosting fun class competitions at lunch time.
Here are the Grade 3 classes participating in a Team Problem Solving Challenge.
Library News This month in our two Libraries have been linked to the My Identity theme of ‘Respect’. Not only did students visit the library for reading activities linked to being respectful, we also hosted an Elementary dress up day. On the day the students were asked to dress up as one of their role models who they respect.
5C Role Models Day
Abdulla Saeed 2C Role Model day
Mohamed Ahmed 5C Role Models Day
amad 5C Abdullah H l Role Mode
Here are a few more of the different activities that happened this month
Grade 5B have been busy writing and converting their stories into clay animations.
Well Being- 2C have been exploring ways to share how they are feeling. They made Feeling Monsters.
Hazza and Abdulla Saeed Ahmed Darwish and Helal
Abdulla Ayedh
Talk for Writing
4D Read 3 Adventure Stories Saif Mohamed Saif Ahmed and Saif Abdulla
The writing program we introduced last year is really giving our students the skills and confidence to write longer and creative stories. We now want to start getting them to publish their work for others to read. 4D have started this already and over the year we will use this newsletter to share their writing with you.
Secondary Newsletter
Dear Respected Parents It has been an excellent half-term welcoming your children back to school. We have held our first parental coffee morning where parents had the opportunity to hear key information from Neil Matthews as well as receive a tour around the school and into lessons by the secondary leadership team. On Friday 14th October all secondary students had the opportunity to be part of our first wellbeing timetabled lessons and activities. Students received both theory and practical sessions to support mindfulness and focus entirely on how important this is for success in school and at home. Feedback from both staff and students has been extremely positive. We have an active half-term planned for our students and families. We have further parental engagement events planned as well as several exciting activities for students such as our National Day events, university visits and much more. We recently launched our planned ski trip to Italy and from the 24th October our Quran Club starts at 7am for students. For further information about the planned Ski Trip, please speak to Rhys Swales. We also look forward to welcoming parents and students to our progress meetings starting on the 31.10.22 and further information for booking times with teachers has been sent home. For our older students we have received informational university visits from NYUAD. We have lectures planned from ADNOC and look forward to welcoming back our SZPAB Careers Fair. Unaccompanied leave passes including sibling leave passes have now been distributed to students where parents have signed up their G9-12 student. Students must show this pass to leave the school unaccompanied. If you didn’t have the opportunity to sign-up your child, please contact your Pastoral Leader. I look forward to meeting you again this half-term through one of our many opportunities we have planned to work in partnership together.
Vincent Maiella Head of Secondary
Secondary Newsletter
Inclusion People of Determination Cards in The UAE The Card of People of Determination is a personal card issued by the Ministry of Community Development to People of Determination. It is considered to be an official document indicating that the holder is a person of determination to ensure the rights and services established in the Federal Persons with Disabilities Law No. 29 of 2006 and the regulations and decisions issued in implementation thereof.
Applications for the card can be made through this link to The Ministry of Community Development website.
For more information, please click on the following links: The Zayed Higher Organisation List of discount partners The Ministry of Community Development - how to apply and list of partners Inclusion Middle East - Discounts announced every Friday
inclusion Some Offers Available for People of Determination: AlAsmia Equestrian Club, Dubai Frame, Children’s City, Dolphinarium and Dubai Safari Park and many many more deals throughout the country including University scholarships and much more.
SALT , PARKERS , SWITCH , SOMEWHEREE: Free Entry with POD card
20% discount for all categories for the cardholder + family members
Free Entry for card holder and one other
15-55% off flights for card holders
50% discount on home packages
PLEASE CONTACT US
zayedacademyboys@zayedacademyboys.ae
02-203-3333
FOLLOW US TO SEE OUR DAILY ACTIVITES ACROSS THE SCHOOL
@SZPABOYS
The Sheikh Zayed Private Academy for Boys
@zayedacademyboys