News from FS

As some of you may already be aware, Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee is coming up on the 2nd June. We will be celebrating this momentous event and you will receive notes about this via your child’s Communication Books next week.

Tamara Keenan
EYFS Coordinator

News from KS 2

Key Stage 2 has been a busy place this week with lots of special events taking place. Themed days, year group productions, assemblies and excursions are very important in providing children with a well rounded educational experience which suits a variety of learning styles. The children are able to consolidate skills they have previously learned, have authentic experiences, try out new skills and knowledge and put into practice things they have learnt in the classroom in a different environment. Many of these experiences are also about having fun whilst learning, which makes the learning that much easier.

Year 5 visit the Victorian Era
The Year 5 children came to school looking like typical children from the 1900 ‘s, some in their finery, some in rags and some covered in soot. The day began with a morning assembly conducted by a very strict school ma’am, Miss Robbins (from the secondary school), who laid down the rules for the day and made examples of naughty children, to demonstrate the kinds of punishments they would have had to endure. In keeping with the schooling of the times the girls and then boys seperated, to study lessons preparing them for their futures in the workplace and home respectively.

                                           

The boys learnt about Brunel, how to build simple beam and suspension bridges, and completed some technical drawings of the Clifton suspension bridge, while the girls polished their housekeeping skills in the form of crochet work and making marzipan. After break however, the children swapped activities. The girls at times proved more adept than the boys at their subjects and vice versa!

After a hearty lunch of scones, sandwiches, cake and lemonade the children were shown games that Victorian boys and girls would play outside on the street or in the playground, with no electricity required whatsoever. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves nonetheless. Thanks to Mrs. Prince for the sepia photography and help with the lunch and of course to all those parents and children who prepared such tasty treats for us to eat.

Mr Parker
Year 5 Teacher

The Peace Child - Year 4 Production
Year 4 truly shone as stars this week in their production. All the Year 4 teachers were extremely proud of the hard work that had been put into learning lines for speaking parts, learning 8 songs with actions and rounds and the preparation of the artwork for the background. The Peace Child is based on a story of two tribes and linked well with Year 4’s India topic about villages and village life. Well done Year 4 for a truly spectacular vision which defines how the staff and children worked as a team to add another forte to BISAD’s talents.

                                                                 

Mrs. Tickley
Year 4 Teacher

Looking to the future
As a child it feels like school will last forever, but we all know that isn’t the case! Therefore it’s really important that all of our students get a really clear sense of what they might like to do next. With that in mind, we are going to be taking our Year 9 students to the Sorbonne University on Monday. The aim of the visit is to get students thinking about their options after school and to provide them with a goal that will motivate them during their studies.

The Sorbonne is a prestigious university, with its main campus in Paris but with its satellite now here in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi campus is on Reem Island; it’s a beautiful building and is the host to some fascinating courses. It has students currently studying law, history, archaeology and a variety of history of art courses.

Our students have been invited to look around the campus, attend some seminars about university life, and look at the student residences. We hope they will find the visit inspiring and that it will help them begin to focus on the university they would ultimately like to attend.

Global Classroom
Fletcher, in Year 9, who wrote about the Global Classroom last week, is continuing with his evangelical work by talking to all the tutor groups about the project. Each tutor group is going to get an overview of the Global Classroom and Fletcher is also going to talk about the projects he has been involved with.
As parents please do look at the Global Classroom, it is a great vehicle for extending your child with interesting and challenging projects. Well worth a browse.

New to Secondary
All Year 6 parents should have received a letter inviting them to our Transition Morning on May 29th. The morning will begin at 7.30am in the school library. Year 6 parents are welcome to attend, after dropping off primary children. There will be refreshments available and we will give a brief overview about the Secondary school experience.

On the radio today we have:
Clearly news is getting out about how wonderful our Secondary students are, as we have been invited to participate in a radio show which is being broadcast in Abu Dhabi this week; we are the only school to receive an invitation.

Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, in partnership with Etihad Ireland and Etihad Jumeirah Hotel, are hosting the Moncrieff Show on NewsTalk 106FM from 12-19 May. NewsTalk 106FM (82,000 listeners) is Ireland’s national radio station. The show will be broadcast for three hours each day from Abu Dhabi. The presenter is Sean Moncrieff. Sean is a celebrity in Ireland as he has been a TV and radio presenter for many years. Ten of our students will be talking about their experiences of life in Abu Dhabi; well worth a listen!

                                                                 

As I continue with my Arabic lessons, I really do appreciate on a daily basis how difficult, and yet rewarding, learning a new language can be. The IB ensures that every student experiences the benefits of learning a language, as it is a requirement of the programme that students study at least one subject from Group 2.

The main emphasis of the modern language courses is on the acquisition and use of language in a range of contexts and for different purposes while, at the same time, promoting an understanding of another culture through the study of its language. Language learning is available to accommodate students’ interest in and previous experience of language study.

Students can study either of the following:

• Language Ab initio course which is for beginners (that is, students who have little or no previous experience of learning the language they have chosen). These courses are only available at standard level. We will be offering Ab initio Spanish to our IB learners.
• Language B courses which are intended for students who have had some previous experience of learning the language. They may be studied at either higher level or standard level. We will be offering French and Arabic.

Learning a language is the key to success in the international environment we live in and students who study the IB will get the chance to have that success.

Peom Published

It’s been another week of celebrating achievement here in the English department. On Sunday, I received a huge box of magazines from One8One magazine and I was delighted to see read Shannon Lienert’s poem ‘Some Day’. It’s was a wonderful moment to witness Shannon’s eyes light up and she was overwhelmed to see her work transferred from her exercise book to the silky-smooth pages of a glossy magazine!
Well done, Shannon!

Dazzled by Dhabblers!
Catriona Doherty, the editor from Abu Dhabi Week magazine, was invited to our secondary assembly this week to present ‘The Dhabblers’ with a bag of treats and certificates. The Dhabblers were responsible for writing for the Abu Dhabi Week website for one month and wrote a myriad of thought provoking articles. Catriona was particularly impressed with the insightful and creative contributions from all of the students who participated. Well done to all of the Dhabblers – you did us proud!

An Inspector Calls
And this time, we don’t mean ADEC! Year 10 have had several fun-filled lessons this week exploring the play by J.B Priestley. ‘An Inspector Calls’ is one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and is considered to be one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre. The students acted out all three acts which is centered around a prosperous middle-class family. Iman Jafri (who played the part of Inspector Goole incredibly well) interrogated Grace, Harry, Batrisha and Omar, who were all responsible for the young woman's exploitation, abandonment and social ruin. There were several priceless moments - the wit of Eric, played by Harry Stott, and fine comedy gold acting from the house maid, played by Andrei Manolache.

Such fun and unanimous laughter had by all!

                     

Mrs. A. C Mack
Head of English

Science Club

Ninjas come to visit Science Club
An action packed Science club this week! Not only did the boys make Ninjitsu smoke bombs out of tin foil and ping pong balls, they also made more bombs out of paper towels, bangers and sugar. Not content with making the weapons of a Ninja, Miss Thomson also taught them how to roll and fall like a Ninja too. Unfortunately the Ninjas’ plans were ‘foiled’ by faulty lighters, so they will attempt to try it again on Sunday – watch this space!

                                           

Fiona Thomson
Science Teacher

Welcome to GSCE History – Moodle
This week has seen the launch of the GCSE History Moodle Page. Students can now log-on to get reminders about key revision and exam dates, see galleries of photos of lesson activities, set up their own forum discussions and get help from each other and Miss Robbins. There is also a link to videos that the students have made of the Renaissance Boxing Matches, Enquiry vs. Conservatism, and a Living Essay of the Importance of Anaesthetics. Podcasts offer a great way to revise and student’s can access a range of MP3 files on the different aspects of their Medicine Through Time course. To access the page go to moodle.bisad.ae and then ‘Secondary History’. Similar pages to follow for Year 7, 8 and 9.

Civil Rights Board games
This term in History, Year 8 have been producing our own board games based on the Civil Rights Movement. The main aim of this project was to help us to revise the Civil Rights Movement and help us to reach our own conclusions on the extent of its success. Once in groups, we had a number of steps to complete to create the game. The most important step was researching the information needed, which included having details on at least five events in the Civil Rights Campaign in America, including the successes and the failures.

                                           

We then had to create our own success criteria and set about the creative task of designing the game. When they were completed we had the opportunity to play and evaluate our own and our peers’ games.
Overall, this was a successful project as it provided a fun way to revise and helps us to remember the events that changed the history of citizens in America.
Becca Evans and Izzy Wall, Year 8