The Wave Aug 2016

Inspiration

Integrity

Achievement

Welcome back!

Photograph: Ginger Lisanti

A scene from the ďŹ rst day back in GES. Grace Gruendler (Teacher) welcomes G1 student Lily Lisanti.

Teacher smiling in the background: Peter Diglen (Teacher) and Genevieve Band (TA)

August 2016

A warm TKS welcome to all students, parents and teachers for the new year!

Communicators IB learner characteristic for the month

the.wave@kaust.edu.sa

Take a look at our new buildings Harbour West Kindergarten

The Gardens Elementary School expansion Phase 1

Design and Technology Hub - Gardens

Note from the ECC Principal Dear parents, We have had an extremely smooth start to the school year in Kindergarten, and we thank you for helping your child(ren) to re-establish routines for school including sleeping patterns, healthy snacks and a fostering of independence.

We have received positive feedback from both parents and teachers regarding the drop-in sessions held before the start of school. Undoubtedly, this has had a positive effect on the transition back to school. We also had a wonderful turnout at the Back to School Nights held last week, and we hope you enjoyed the opportunity to connect once again with your child’s teacher and to learn more about the classroom programs.

Since the classroom blogs are the main form of communication about what is happening at school, please ensure you are receiving these updates and check with your child’s teacher if you are not.

Marvelous Morning Moves!

The youngest of our learners at the KAUST school, who have just begun their school journey are getting ready for their day of learning, with some physical movement to help engage their brains and bodies.

Mr Zack our PE teacher and Miss Katie our PA teacher in K1 have put together a video of movement and song to get our day started.

Miss Rebecca’s K1 class are loving it!

By Rebecca Somerville, K1 Teacher

Meet our new sta members

Peter Diglin Music Teacher G3-5

Alanoud Jammal Classroom Teacher G2

Louise Knight Classroom Teacher G5

Ben Mullens Classroom Teacher G3

Marie Kececioglu Learning Support G1

Patrick Horgan Classroom Teacher G2

Michael Parkin Classroom Teacher G5

Niela Steele Learning Support G2

Hamish Annear Classroom Teacher G1

Rhena Bowie Classroom Teacher G1

Gardens Elementary

Alanud Alfaqir TDP Coordinator

Alyssha Parkin Classroom Teacher G4

Scott Ferrare Music Teacher G1-2

Adam Reid Classroom Teacher G3

Ashley Rowell Classroom Teacher G1

Mohammed AlhalaďŹƒ Islamic Studies Teacher

Cesar Weston Classroom Teacher G2

Andy Vasily Pedagogical Coordinator

Kindergarten

Rie Sasbandayani Classroom Teacher K3

Megan McKay Classroom Teacher K2

Wed Alsulaimani Candace Taylor-Weber Teacher Development Program K1 IT Integration

Gardens Secondary

Kris Fering MYP Science Teacher

Brian Thorburn Jerrod Moore MYP Design and Math Teacher MYP/DP Chemistry Teacher

Hannah GreenďŹ eld MYP English Teacher

Robyn Collins Talent Coach

Aaron Thompson MYP/DP Maths & Science Teacher

Season starts: GES Youth Sports and Enrichment Programs GES Season 1 Youth Sports and Enrichment programs have kicked off and what an amazing start! Thank you to all Season 1 coaches for your time and contribution. Season 1 Youth Sports and Enrichment Activities will run from Sunday 28th August to Thursday 13th October.

Youth Sports and Enrichment Philosophy: Youth Sports: The GES Youth Sports Program is a volunteer program sponsored by teachers and members of the community. The program provides elementary students the opportunity to experience and develop skills in a range of indoor and outdoor sporting activities. Youth Sports covers a range of activities from core sports skills. During the program, students learn and develop the required skills to participate in sport developing leadership and positive social skills, contributing to a balanced lifestyle.

Enrichment Activities: The GES Enrichment Activities offer a variety of programs sponsored by teachers and members of the community. These enhance childrens creativity with a wide variety of arts and crafts, puzzles, games, and outdoor activities that build critical thinking skills, listening, memory, visualization, concentration through singing, hands-on experiments, physical movement, word puzzles, art projects and more!

Murray Ikihele, PE Teacher / GES Activities Coordinator

“Communicators,” The IB Learner profile includes this important attribute. The dictionary defines the word: Communication is from a Latin word meaning "to share“, "It is the act of conveying intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules.”

Reflections

from the Director of TKS

It may come as no surprise that the Gallop Poll identifies this attribute as one of the top ten 21st century skills for our students, and that Companies, Institutes and NGOs’ worldwide identify the attribute again and again as they conduct searches for the finest employees. Indeed, Communication skills are perceived as most important in all four levels of organizations that researchers measured. “Communication" was one of the top ten competencies selected as most important for supervisors, middle managers, and senior managers alike. Six out of the seven topped the list for top executives, the attribute Communication among them.* At TKS we teach, model and critique communication as a vital part of our programme of inquiry from Pre-K through Grade 12. We look forward to facilitating lots of communication throughout the year for our students.

In Partnership,

Maddy * http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/643/communication.aspx

Welcome from the Activities Office The Activities Office offers dynamic and varied co-curricular program for the children and young adults of our school community. Programs include arts, sports and service.

At GES this takes shape in the Youth Sports and Enrichment Program scheduled over five seasons throughout the year. Murray Ikihele coordinates the program, supported by the expertise, experience and enthusiasm of GES faculty and staff.

In addition to our own Arts Team that delivers the annual musical, concerts, talent shows and festivals, co-curricular programming at GSS centers around the School’s membership to three different organizations.

Alongside membership to these organizations, the School partners with world class educational tour companies to offer students exciting cultural, service and adventure trips outside of the Kingdom.

GSS staff and faculty sponsor special interest groups and clubs that in past years have included exciting opportunities like School of Rock, coding, photography, Spirit Team, robotics, board games to name a few.

“Like” the TKS Sharks Activities Facebook Page and keep up to date with all our awesome co-curricular programs at The KAUST School.

Scott Herrington, Activities Director

www.facebook.com/TKS-Sharks-Activities

Note from the GSS Principal

Secondary faculty and staff felt very good when the students arrived on 16 August. A school building without students is a bit strange. The buzz of the first day of school is an uplifting experience. We love seeing the students’ excitement to be reunited with their classmates. After the holidays, they are refreshed and curious to learn about their new schedule, new subjects, new classmates and new teachers.

I am also very pleased to work at a school with such committed teachers.

Our teachers believe in the IB philosophy and take curriculum design and collaborative planning very seriously. We will keep on reflecting on our teaching with the ultimate goal of presenting the best possible programme for our students.

We appreciate student engagement in a wide range of co-curricular activities. The Student Council Association elections demonstrated the continued interest of our students in student governance. Candidates for the executive council presented themselves on Wednesday 24th August in an assembly in which they were interviewed by a panel. Electronic elections took place later that day. General Council elections took place on 30 August. Each House (Pegasus, Orion, Hydra and Aquila) elected representatives to serve on the general council and results were published the next day.

Auditions for the musical “Into the Woods” took place during the second week of the school year. There was an enormous interest in all roles in the musical both as performers and backstage. We tried to accommodate as many students as possible in different capacities. Rehearsals for the musical started this week.

We are looking forward to a year full of curricular and co-curricular activities for our students.

David Tigchelaar Secondary School Principal

TKS students attend the prestigious SRSI This year, Preksha, Tanya, and I, had the privilege to join the Saudi Research Science Institute (SRSI) with 39 other students from the Kingdom. The program allowed us to meet inspirational people from the scientific community, practice our Arabic, and perform some astonishing research. Being part of the SRSI family gave us the opportunity to share the passion, dedication and hard work with others in the research community. We were very fortunate to meet some of the nicest and most dedicated people.

This experience has shown our willingness to help each other through various obstacles, be it academic or personal.

As the sun rose each day, I woke up knowing the rays of friendship enlightened us further. It was also with the sight of illuminating stars that we forged new bonds of trust and fondness. In the end, our pledge to create a brighter future still binds our journey of life.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank TKS, KAUST, and SRSI for allowing us to participate in this very prestigious program.

Andre de Levay, G12 Student

The G6 Orientation

The class of 2023 had an excellent start to secondary school. The three day orientation program began with advisory time, followed by whole group activities led by a range of GSS staff, including an introduction to the IB Middle Years Programme, MYP Approaches to Learning Skills, and a presentation of the vast opportunities found in our Co-Curricular Activities Program. Students discovered the layout of school with a scavenger hunt, received laptop orientation and technology training, library introduction and a session on transitions and organization. They also took their place in the front row seats for their first secondary school assembly and had an enjoyable end to the orientation with a pool swim and BBQ. Most of us will remember our first day in the big school. Moving from elementary to secondary education is a major milestone in the life of a child and the transition process at TKS starts in grade 5 and culminates in the grade 6 orientation that is held for the first three days of secondary school. Our class of 2023 had a successful start to the Gardens Secondary School, with three days of advisory, whole group and smaller group sessions and some of their regular classes. The orientation helped to familiarize the 79 students into the new routines and school organization. To experience continuity and to introduce the new curriculum, sessions were held to orientate the students to the IB Middle Years Program. New friendships were formed and the students were excited to start their full schedule the following week.

By Katrina Englart, MYP Coordinator

G12 Attend a PhD Defense Grade 12 students at TKS were enthused by Hanan Almahasheer’s work and performance at the PhD dissertation defense ‘’Ecosystem Services of Avicennia marina in the Red Sea’’ ‘’It was an amazing experience, as it was my first time listening to someone at the PhD defence, and it is very interesting to see how long the projects actually take and make sure everything is good! We as seniors get an idea of how will it be when if we are planning to do a PhD in future.’’ ‘’I thoroughly enjoyed the organization of the topics, the way she explained was very clear and very understandable. Her graphs were stunning, and her connections between chapters were very well thought out. In fact, nothing in the presentation seemed out of place or unnecessary to the project she was working on. But more than anything, it was her tangible passion for the topic that really won me over, I could tell that she was extremely interested and extremely passionate about mangroves on a level of sincerity not approached often. Absolutely marvelous….’’ ‘’It was great to see the results of hundreds of hours of work, and to see a person with a passion for what she does.’’

Thank you to Hanan and the Red Sea Research Centre for allowing TKS students to be part of such an exciting event.

Euan Riddell, Secondar Teacher

DEAR gets going again for 2016 What does DEAR stand for?

Drop Everything and Read. Every Monday GSS students make the most of this 15 minutes to find a quiet place and read. The purpose of DEAR is to highlight the importance of reading as a school community.

EXCO and House Captains Elected This year started with a bang for the potential Student Council Students. A week into the school year TKS held their annual ExCo Candidate Showcase with special guests Patricia Hughes, Madeline Hewitt, David Tigchelaar, and Piotr Olczak.

During this event students were brought on stage by desired position and asked to discuss their experience in front of their classmates. After a successful showcase TKS welcomed the 2016-2017 representatives:

President: Colin Herrington Vice President: Andrew Norseth Secretary: Lana Alsulaimani Action Liaison: Abril Rivera Communications Officer: Aliya Al Uariachi Tech Officer: Nabiha Khan Recording Secretary: Neeka Ghodsi.

In the third week of the school year TKS split into it’s component houses to elect the remaining positions of SCA; the House Captains:

Orion House Captain: Eyad Banjar Pegasus House Captain: Ari Rivera Aquila House Captina: Sami Al Uaraichi Hydra House Captain: Arnaud Lery

Kevin Rees, G8-9 Individuals and Societies Teacher, Student Council Advisor

Congratulations to the winners and candidates!

SEPTEMBER EVENTS KG - Kindergarten

Date

KG Parent Teacher Conferences

Sept 25 - 29

GSS – Gardens Secondary School GSS G12 Parent Dinner

Sept 20

GSS Book Bowl Kick Off Assembly

Sept 28

TKS - Whole School Eid Al - Adha Holiday

Sept 11 - 15

National Day Holiday

Sept 22

Whole School PAC Meeting:

Sept 28

Co-Curriculum / Sports GSS SAIKAC Fall Meeting

Sept 7

Print and stick on the fridge Contacting ECC: K1 Receptionist: 808 6320 K1 Health Office: 808-6280 K2 Receptionist: 808 6267 K2 Health Office: 808-6212 K3 Receptionist: 808 6408 K3 Health Office: 808-6312 Contacting GES: Reception: 808-6363 Health Office: 808-6412 Contacting GSS: Reception: 808-6703 Principals offices: 808-6867