The Wave - September 2018

TKS Saudi National Day Celebrations

This year TKS celebrated the 88th Saudi National Day with a week full of special activities across all divisions Kindergarten, Elementary and Secondary, by showcasing the Kingdom’s history, regions, food, clothes, and Saudi culture.

Tents were set up in the foyers as photo booths, students dressed up in traditional Saudi clothes and took part in traditional dances, fashion shows and more. In Kindergarten special assemblies took place in both the East and West gymnasiums. Our youngest students excitedly shared their love and pride for the Kingdom, enthusiatically waving ags and dressing in green and white and students from many diverse backgrounds came together to sing the National anthem. K3 performed several traditional dances as well as providing a visual display of Saudi’s royal heritage (above.) A group of Secondary students also performed a lively traditional dance for KG students.

(More photos inside on page 4-5.)

September 27, 2018

From the Director Since the start of school these five weeks have passed by quickly and smoothly. It feels like it was yesterday when we welcomed 137 three-year-olds starting out on their school journey to K1; 58 new students throughout the school; and all our returning students.

At TKS we value our home school partnerships and we are committed to collaboration with parents. An important element of this parent school collaboration is our Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), and we are delighted to introduce this year’s Committees to you here on page three.

The newly selected PAC had their first meeting on September 19. This initial meeting gave new members an opportunity to meet our Leadership team and listen to a brief overview of where we are midway with our three-year strategic plan. A list of names for the parent board member was also drawn up. Selection is to be confirmed by the Board Chair.

During the meeting members also volunteered for the TKS Calendar Committee to give feedback on the school calendar for the next 2019/20 school year. Once endorsed by the Board of Education, the calendar will be shared with you.

As we continue to provide an exceptional International Baccalaureate education, we look forward to sharing our news and stories each month with you here.

Leny de Ruijter

Contents Meet the PAC

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From Kindergarten

6

From Secondary From Elementary

9 2

11

Counselors’ Corner

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Meet your Kindergarten PAC

Back Row (L-R): Mani Sarathy, Justin Somerville (Principal), Front Row (L-R) Shuyu Sun, Shan Yang, Sagar P. Parajuli, Jessica Dalton (Associate Principal), Hind Aljohani (not present: Mashael Alsalem, Xiaohe Miao)

Meet your Elementary PAC

Back Row (L-R): Jeff Woodcock (Principal), Romi Nayef, Anna Rautek Front Row (L-R): Peter Richtarik, Hadeel Alsulaimany, Claire Manchon, Kathy Farrell (not present: Chye de Ryckel, Caroline Knowles)

Meet your Secondary PAC

Back Row (L-R): Alexandra Aguiar Gomes, Marleen Stuyck, Brian Ross, David Tigchelaar (Principal) Front Row (L-R) Niveen Khashab, Ming Ming Chou, Dwane Harris (Associate Principal), Cherine Fayed 3

Saudi National Day Celebrations

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia celebrated the 88th National Day last week and so did we at TKS. Lots of preparations went into the week long festivities organized by Alanud Alfaqir, Ahmed AlZahrani (KG), Rawdhah Radwan (GES) and Nada Alhegali (GSS).

Photo by: Ahmed Alzahrani, KG Arabic

National Day is celebrated to commemorate the renaming of the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by a royal decree from King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud in 1932.

By Safanah Alkadi, TKS Communications Assistant

Photos by: Rawdhah Radwan, GES Islamic Studies Teacher 4

Saudi National Day Celebrations

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Photos by Ibrahim Younis, G12 student

from Justin Somerville, KG Principal Dear Parents, We have had a wonderful start to the 2018/2019 school year. Children have settled well and are now fully engaged in all of the KG learning experiences and opportunities.

Teachers have spent the last few weeks building relationships and establishing a culture for learning in the classroom.

Children who develop warm, positive relationships with teachers are more excited about learning, more positive about coming to school, more self-confident, and achieve more in the classroom.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for supporting your child’s transition to school through routines at home. Assisting children with consistent sleeping patterns, including early bedtimes, and providing healthy snacks and water are some of the ways you can ensure that your child has a positive experience at Kindergarten each day. Here is an https://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/sleep/Pages/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-How-Many-Hours-Does-Your-Child-Need.aspx article that you may find of interest regarding healthy sleeping habits.

We look forward to seeing you all next week, at the KG Parent Teacher Conferences.

Kind regards Justin Somerville Principal

Welcome new KG staff members

Kate Couling K1 Teacher

Janelle Simpkins K3 Teacher

Matteo Dietz K3 Teacher

Inna Polianska Individual Learning Program

Jorge Roderiguez K3 PE Teacher

Barbara Carranza K1 Teacher

Joe Guerrieri KG Learning Support 6

Julia Ramble KG Learning Support

Nicola Antoniuk K1 Teacher

Making Our Mark in the World On or around September 15th, over 13 million people in 179 countries around the world celebrated International Dot Day, which was also a part of Global Collaboration Week. This was a day where students around the world engaged in globally connected projects--in our case, International Dot Day. Children brought their imagination, creativity, and expression to life through celebrations of the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. Here in TKS Kindergarten, many K3 students participated in this global activity, as a part of their current unit: Imagination can help us to create and express ourselves.

Children read the book and made their mark in a collaborative display shared in the KG libraries as well as on social media. #DotDay2018 #GlobalEd18

By Candace Taylor-Weber Kindergarten Librarian and Technology Coach

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Digital Magazines for TKS Community Did you know: A wide selection of digital magazines are available to the KAUST community through RBDigital and Flipster.

Information on getting set up in RBDigital and Flipster is available on the http://libguides.kaust.edu.sa/business/popular University Library Libguides Site.

QRRB Digital

QRFlipster

Mother Tongue Language Tutors Needed Our Mother Tongue Language program has been in operation for four years now. This program provides students at TKS with the valuable opportunity to be tutored in their Mother Tongue languages during school time.

We are currently seeking tutors who are able to provide Mother Tongue language tuition for the following Mother Tongue languages:

French Turkish German Portuguese Urdu Indonesian

If you are interested in providing tuition in the above languages, or have any queries about the Mother Tongue program, please contact me as soon as possible at: andrew.wright@kaust.edu.sa

By Andrew Wright, Mother Tongue Language Coordinator

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from Jeff Woodcock, Last week Gardens Elementary School celebrated Saudi National Day with our most elaborate and exciting festivities in the short history of our elementary school.

The week was filled with activities to celebrate and show appreciation towards Saudi Arabia, and also educate our students regarding the culture, geography and history of our host nation. Part of the activities included a photo booth inside a traditional tent in our front foyer with customary clothing from Saudi Arabia that students could try on and have class photos taken. The front foyer also contained displays with information regarding different regions of Saudi Arabia. Students could also contribute to a giant mural where they could write messages of thanks to Saudi Arabia.

At our school assembly at the end of the week we welcomed a performance group from Jeddah to present traditional dances. Our teachers also participated in a fashion show displaying typical clothing from the different parts of the country.

These excellent festivities were thanks to the efforts of our teachers from the host country. We would like to express particular thanks to Rawdhah Radwan for her leadership and planning of these events.

Welcome new GES staff members

Rupal Joshi G4 Teacher

Naomi Scarrott G1 Teacher

Emma White Learning Support

Marwa Qadrai Arabic Teacher 9

Wayne Bartelink PE & Arts

Betsy Ryan G5 Teacher

G3 Art Appreciation Field Trip

For several weeks the G3 students have been examining how art can evoke different emotions.

Many students went on field trips to extend their examination and appreciation of art to the surrounding community. Some of the visited pieces included the recycled material camel in front of the Recycling Centre, the tile mosaic and anchor statue at Al Marsa and the large camel sculpture by the KAUST Inn. Emotional responses ranged from joyful and happy to excited and curious, although the most common response was, “I feel HOT!!!”.

“I think the purpose of the recycled material camel statue is for the artist to show how they care about how their city looks.” - Lara 3DD “This art makes me feel amazed that they made it out of cans and it makes me feel happy because they are saving the environment.” - Sissi 3DD

By Dania Daum and Adam Reid, G3 Teachers 10

from David Tigchelaar, GSS Principal The year started well with students pleased to be back at school and teachers feeling refreshed after a holiday. GSS is growing in student numbers and we are now at 418 students. As an organization, we are also growing and maturing with many systems and structures in place.

We appreciate parent interest in the G6 information meetings at the University, the Back To School Night, the G11 / 12 Parent Information Sessions and the G12 Parent Dinner.

We are also pleased with the ongoing interest of parents to serve on the Parent Advisory Committee which met for the first time on 19 September. At this meeting, a few concerns and questions were raised for us to explore this year, including: school Digital Platforms, how Ramadan will affect teaching and exam schedules, and food quality and menu options in the school cafeteria. If you would like to suggest a topic to be discussed with the PAC, please contact Marleen Stuyck, the PAC liaison, at marleen.stuyck@kaust.edu.sa. In previous years, we have implemented several measures suggested by the PAC. We believe that we can learn from student and parent feedback and look forward to continued collaboration.

We look forward to the following events: • Book Fest starts on 27 September • MAP testing in GSS takes place from 30 September - 4 October • TKS will host a MUN conference from 3 - 5 October • The MYP Certificate Ceremony will take place on 9 October • The Personal Project midpoint exhibition on Discovery square will take place on 18 October • The Parent Information Session on MYP and DP results and Digital Platforms will take place during lunchtime on 18 October at the University.

• 3-way conferences will take place on 22 October (G11 and 12) and 23 October (G6 - 10)

Welcome new GSS sta members

Mike Wooten English Language & Literature Teacher

Regina Rodrigues Math Teacher

Danielle Danaher Student Support

Kimberly Zatarga Student Support

Steven Hubbard Math Teacher

John Danaher Science Teacher

Kristina Sharma Math Teacher

Andrea Morris English Teacher

Kate Muschamp I&S and English Teacher

Mark Rossing Math Teacher

Daniel Hammack Student Support

KAUST Health and Community Life Youth Wellness Program KAUST Health and Community Life are providing a fun and interactive, a 9-session program targeting youth between 11-14 years-old. The program will teach skills for long-term resilience and aims to foster improvements in group members’ ability to cope with challenging situations.

If you are interested in registering your child, please contact fatmah.hadadi@kaust.edu.sa 12

Counselors Corner Welcome to Counselors’ Corner; the monthly counselling section in The Wave.

As this is our first issue of the new academic year, we wanted to share a little about what we do as a team and have our three new counselors introduce themselves to you.

The KAUST School’s Counselling Department is a team of eight people: two counsellors at KG (Miss Aisha and Miss Yasmeen), two at GES (Mr Steve and Miss Jennifer), two at GSS (Miss Mahri and Mr K), and the School Psychologist (Dr Paul) and the Student Support Director (Jill Page). We work with all staff at TKS to create a school which is open, friendly and supportive for all students.

Can You Guess the Team Members?

1. I’ve run the Honolulu marathon.

2. I have trained for and run a marathon in years past.

We also work with students individually, in small groups and in class. We are interested in helping students make and keep friends, develop good study habits and be prepared for life after TKS, wherever that may be. We teach personal and social skills in classes and offer help for students who may be struggling to settle in at KAUST. Although we can’t promise to fix all problems, we can promise you that you won’t face them alone. We’re here to help each student become the amazing people you were born to be.

by Paul O’Callaghan, School Psychologist

3. I swam with blind, pink dolphins in the Amazon.

4. I once drove from Michigan to Texas for 24 hours straight to go visit friends.

5. I survived an earthquake, a hurri cane and a volcanic eruption (Not all at the same time!)

6. I speak three languages and have three children.

7. I was a cheerleader during some of high school.

8. I was once charged by an elephant while on safari in Tanzania.

Hi, I’m Mr. Lamin Kamara (aka “Mr. K”). I’m originally from New York City. I’m the new G9 – 12 Counselor at TKS. I came to The KAUST School from China where I served as Head of University Guidance at an international school in Shanghai.

I’m an avid runner and tennis enthusiast.

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Hi, I’m Mahri Swan Wooten. I was born in Tokyo and lived my life in Japan until I was 18. I consider myself a TCK (Third Culture Kid) and enjoy traveling between many different worlds.

Hello, my name is Steve Otten and I’m the new G3-5 Counselor. I came from Atlanta Georgia in the United States where I’ve been a School Counselor for the last 13 years.

I’ve lived and worked in Morocco (as a Peace Corps Volunteer), China, Peru, and Hawaii.

I am here with my wife Rosa and our 2-year-old son James. We are very excited to be here!

Answers: 1-Jill, 2-Lamin, 3-Mahri, 4-Steve, 5-Jennifer, 6-Yasmeen, 7-Aisha, 8-Paul

Safety in Science

In the Science department, it is essential that all students in every grade understand how to keep themselves and their colleagues safe.

The ďŹ rst few classes at the beginning of the year focused on what clothing to wear, and how to behave in different lab situations. In some fun demonstrations, Jerrod Moore (Safety Liaison OfďŹ cer) and Dr Alan Treacy showed the Grade 10 students how to work with chemicals safely.

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