BELVEDERE NEWSLETTER 4 February 2016 – Edition (89)

News and Events

Diary Dates

Week 4 Spring Term

Enrichment clubs continue

Board of Governors’ Meeting Monday 8 February

Half Term

Wednesday, 10 February to Saturday, 13 February

Return to school on Sunday, 14 February

MMR Vaccinations

Sunday, 14 February and Monday, 15 February

Re-registration Forms

return by Tuesday, 9 February

BBS International Day Saturday, 20 February

2—5pm (set up 1pm)

Donate a Book Day

Thursday, 25 February (Wear home clothes if

donating a book)

Dear Parents,

Firstly, thank you for your co-operation with regards to the early finish on Wednesday owing to road closures in Abu Dhabi. It is timely that we reflect on Heritage and how this has shaped our lives and where we live. I would recommend a visit to the Qasr Al Hosn festival as this is such a valuable insight into the heritage of the city and culture that we have chosen to live in. The Emirati heritage, culture and language is very rich with customs and celebration. This festival is a fine example of this.

International Day: You should all have received email information from your country representative regarding the organization for your country stall and/or performance. Please email Miss Jenny for contact information: j.domaya@belvederebritishschool.com

These are the registered countries:

Sudan UK Pakistan India Egypt Philippines Syria UAE

Tunisia Palestine Jordan Iraq Canada Brazil Lebanon

Fun Facts – two students will be able to represent their country in the parade of nations. Please see your form teacher for an entry form to complete with a fun fact about your country to be chosen as the representative.

Admission 2016-17: If you have other children for whom you are intending to apply for the 2016/17 admission, please collect a Siblings Enquiry Form from Ms Sherina at the reception.

Re-registration 2016-17: Please note that a re-registration form has been sent to you and this will need completing and returning to school no later than Tuesday, 9 February. If we do not receive your re-registration form by this date, your child may lose their place at BBS. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Absence: Please use the email absent@belvederebritishschool.com to report your child as absent. This will make our system operate more effectively. Your co-operation with this is appreciated.

Our attendance data is showing improvements across the school. Thank you for your efforts and support with this focus.

Mrs Kellie Jepsen

Principal

Mr Nick Garrett Head of Primary Communication and Behaviour We are working very hard with the pupils to encourage good behaviour and good manners and helping them to realize the importance of being able to share and be part of a team. Good manners and polite behaviour are necessary skills that children need to learn and we are reminding them to say ‘please’ when they ask for something, or ‘thank you’ when they have been helped in any way, whether this is help from a friend, a TA, a teacher, an adult. It is also important that children learn not to push through doorways when others are trying to walk through, but to learn to take it in turns, or wait for an adult to pass through. We would very much appreciate your support at home in reminding the children of these simple, but very effective words and behaviour. As part of our initiative to improve behaviour, our Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 theme for assembly this week has been Communication, which has helped to explain to our pupils how to behave with each other and other people. As you are aware, we have created a House Team system for Years 3-6 and each week points are being awarded for good behaviour, effort and hard work, so the more green cards a child receives during the week, the more points for their House Team. This week the scores are: Gazelles: 166 points Red Foxes: 182 points Leopards: 224 points Wild Cats: 184 points Well done to the Leopards this week. The running scores to date for this term put the House Teams in this order: 1st Place: Leopards with 661 points 2nd Place: Wild Cats with 559 points 3rd Place: Red Foxes with 557 points 4th Place: Gazelles with 549 points Come on Wild Cats, Red Foxes and Gazelles; let’s see if you can close the gap on Leopards. We still have some time to go before the end of Spring Term when the winners will be announced, so any team can win. Do your best and good luck.

Show your children the weekly Newsletter: I have been made aware that a number of children do not see the weekly newsletter. Please will parents show the newsletter to children each week as there is important information for the children as well as the parents.

Half term: Half term will be from next Wednesday 10th February to Saturday, 13th February. All pupils are to be back in school on Sunday, 14th February by 7.25am ready lined up outside in the yard for assembly at 7.30am. Please will parents make an extra effort to get their children to school on time so that late arrivals do not disrupt assembly and lessons. Please will parents ensure that children continue to read English books over half term.

Uniform: There are still a number of children, particularly the younger ones, that are not wearing the correct school uniform. Jeans are not acceptable in school. Please will parents make sure they buy the correct uniform for children over half term. Thank you for your support.

This Week in Key Stage 1

This week’s SUPER STARS are:

Well done to all these children who were awarded certificates in assembly for all their hard work and effort in school this week.

Congratulations to our Primary pupils who have been awarded a Head Teacher’s Award:

Ghiath 3C, Habiba 3C

Well done to these pupils for some super work.

News from the FS2s

Class FS2C has had a very busy week and has been involved in all sorts of interesting activities:

Showing the number of leaves, coins and biscuits on number mats.

Practising balancing in PE lessons.

Counting jelly beans and matching them with their numerals.

How many beans did Jack get from the old man? Let’s count using real beans.

Painting of dots on ladybugs with written additional sentences.

More News from the FS2s

Belvedere British School takes literacy very seriously and the children are really engaging in the school's efforts to support reading. Here are the FS2A children enjoying their library time.

Read a Book…Read a Book…Read a Book…Read a Book…

Pupils in Year 3C have been very busy reading books, which is wonderful. Here are two book reviews from Ghiath and Habiba:

Ghiath

Book Title: Journey of a Bar of Chocolate

Author: John Malam

How did you like the book? Ghiath gave the book a 5 star rating.

What was your favourite part?

“ Sugar is added to cocoa to make it taste sweet. Cocoa, milk, cocoa butter and sugar are the ingredients in milk chocolate. I chose this part to be my favourite part because I had the most information from this part.”

This book is part of a series of books that look at how common everyday products end up in our homes. These are fascinating books and a very interesting read. The author, John Malam, writes information books for children of all ages and has written more than 200 titles on a huge range of topics. Thank you to Ghiath for sharing his thoughts on this book.

Habiba

Book Title: Gemma the Gymnastic Fairy

Author: Daisy Meadows

How did you like the book? Habiba gave the book a 5 star rating.

What was your favourite part?

“My favourite part was when Gemma, Kirsty and Rachel took the magic hoop from the goblins. I loved that part because Gemma, Kirsty and Rachel were happy.”

This title is part of a series of books about Sporty Fairies. Everyone in Fairyland is preparing for the Fairyland Olympics, but Jack Frost and his goblins have stolen the Sporty Fairies’ magic sporty objects. Read the series of books to see what happens in each sporty adventure. Thank you to Habiba for introducing us to Gemma the Gymnastic Fairy.

YEAR 5 Year 5 pupils have had a really busy and exciting week , which included the much anticipated Egg Drop experiment. Also, throughout the week, children have been playing friendship games within their classes and as a year group.

Year 5 Egg Drop Experiment

Hi, I’m Casey, and on behalf of the Science Prefects we would like to congratulate all of Year 5 pupils’ effort, enthusiasm, and cooperation with us, the Year 10’s. We had great fun working with the Year 5’s; the positive energy, radiating of ideas and creative designs have been amazing to see from our mini scientists in Year 5. We had a fantastic day and the students brought in lots of materials. Furthermore, we were so happy to see the generosity of kind students in sharing their materials with their class peers.

Miss McCann writes: After a fantastic effort in preparation by the Science Prefects Casey, Mahmoud, Sarod, Carly Rianna and Haneen, the Year 5 Egg Drop turned out to be a fun day had by all. Not only by the Year 5 students, but also by the overly competitive Mr. Llewellyn, who just had to get involved. I was really impressed by the innovation and collaboration by all the students and the Prefects. Well done to everyone involved and the winners will be announced on Thursday 4th February!

Year 5A

Miss. Marcangelo

Year 5B

Mr. Llewllyn

Prizes will be given to:

1st, 2nd, 3rd Place

Best Design

Best Planning (Critical Thinking)

Most Creative Capsule

See what happens

next...

On Monday morning, children in Year 5 worked

wonderfully with the Year 10 Prefects to complete the Egg Drop Project.

Children (and staff!) were very excited about this

project and showed great creativity and

determination in the designs and creation of their egg capsules.

Children were able to use a variety of materials to

create a capsule for a raw egg to be placed into and dropped from a great height in the play-

ground. The winners would be the teams with an undamaged egg in its capsule with the lightest de-

sign and at least half of the egg showing.

Children had to complete a

design template with the mate-

rials needed for the creation of

their capsule.

The children had brought in lots of

different materials from home to

use for the science

investigation led by Year 10

students.

Miss McCann worked very

hard with her students to

ensure the morning was a

huge success.

THANK YOU!

Not everyone’s designs were

successful!

On Sunday

afternoon, 5C played whole

class games and talked about

what it means to be a good

friend.

Children thought of one person who they would

call a ‘good friend’ and had to explain the

qualities this person had and why it made them an

exceptional friend.

We thought about how we can be like these

friendship role models.

It has been really

nice to see a

huge effort

made by

children to

improve their

behaviour and

make the right

choices.

Let it rain…Let it rain…Let it rain…continued from last week

Following on from their tests on suitable materials to use for an umbrella, the children in 6B have been very busy designing and beginning to make their umbrellas as part of their ‘Materials’ science project.

“During our Science lesson, we tested different materials to discover which material made the best umbrella. According to the results, plastic was the most appropriate material because it is flexible, strong, light and non-porous (waterproof). However, paper was the worst material be-cause it wasn’t strong or waterproof, which is essential for a good quality umbrella.”

Flowry Rompus and Raneen Said

School Attendance

Here are the top 3 classes, with the highest attendance from last week. Well done to Year 7B2 and Class 1A,

for winning the overall weekly attendance awards. Well done to Year 10 boys for again being in the top 3

classes. Our whole school target is 94%; we encourage all students to attend school every day. Thank you for

your continued support!

Y7 Boys2 – 97.78%

Class 1A – 97.14%

Y10 Boys – 97.50%

24.01.16 – 93.08%

Mr Simon Tarr Head of Secondary

Dear Parents,

I have had a busy fortnight going around all of the classrooms and observing all of the teachers and their classes. I have

been very impressed by the standard of teaching and learning across all subjects. The vast majority of our students work

well with their teacher to maximize every minute of the day. There was a real ‘buzz’ in many of the lessons as students

engaged with the topics and pushed themselves to learn more. There are some excellent inquisitive learners amongst all

year groups. This has been a very enjoyable exercise. It is one that I will repeat regularly during the year to make sure that

every member of the British Belvedere Learning Community stays focused and engaged. I would like to share with you all

some key findings from my round of observations:

Punctuality is improving and this is a real help as we have a lot of content to deliver. However, there is small minority of

students who are regularly late to their lessons – I will be asking my teachers to record the names of the persistent late

arrivals and these will be shared with parents. It is important that they do not miss out on valuable learning time and it is

very important that their late arrival does not disrupt the learning of the whole class. Please join with us and remind your

child to be at the right place at the right time.

Most students are well equipped and ready to learn. I was impressed with the amount of well organized students who had

bulging pencil cases with spares of every required piece of equipment. This conscientious approach was also shown in the

presentation of their work. Unfortunately there were a few students who have not adopted the mature approach needed

to study effectively at Secondary School Level. Writing in pencil and having no ruler to underline titles may seem

unimportant to some young minds, but the high expectations of presentation in Secondary schools everywhere are there

to teach everyone about self-pride and good organization. Having work that you can be proud of is a goal for all of us, and

producing work that teachers can read and mark accurately ensures we all do our best. Please join with us and check our

children’s bags and pencil cases for next week and make sure they are all ready to learn.

Our students have inquisitive minds and are keen to know new facts and learn new skills. I was really impressed by the way

many students wanted to go beyond the learning of the lesson and ask more and more questions of the teacher. This is an

attitude we want to encourage. We would like all of our students to ask questions in each lesson of everyday. It is a good

thing if a student answers one of our teacher’s questions, but it is a great thing if they ask their teacher a question. When

you collect your child from the school or the bus, I know you all ask the children about their day – please use this time to

ask them if they have asked any good questions today. This idea works and it produces inquisitive learners who are

self-motivated and self-directed. We have also started to encourage all of our students to try and become more confident

and independent learners – this is in response to my round of lesson observations in which I saw some children trying really

hard to solve problems before they gave up and asked the teacher. This was especially true in the subjects where teachers

ask the students to think about ‘4 Bs before me!’ This simply means that when a student is struggling with a problem,

instead of quickly giving up and asking the teacher they go through the ‘4 Bs’ – these are the Brain (think about the

problem carefully and identify which parts they understand and which parts they do not), the Book (re read the book or

the worksheets to see if you have missed anything that could help), the Buddy ( ask the students next to you to see if they

can help) and then finally Boss (only ask the teacher when you have gone through the other Bs and clarify what specifically

they need help with. We intend to really push this initiative and it would be great if we could all encourage the children to

think deeper and longer about the challenge in front of them before giving up – they know more than they think they

know!!

Thanks for your continuing support and I look forward to sharing more observations with you in the future.

Accelerated Reader Super Stars: Most books read: Will be announced next week! Get testing!!

Most tests competed: Will be announced next week! Get testing!!

Significant improvement: Will be announced next week! Get testing!!

Don’t forget!

All students are invited to wear their own clothes on February 25th in exchange for a donated

book.

Secondary English

Students of the Week

Mr Kenny would like to nominate: FAJER HASSAN ALI AL REYAMI

Miss Baranski would like to nominate: Ahmed al Rashidi

Mrs Baker would like to nominate: Basil Abid Hussein

Key Stage Three spellings include:

pulmonary

ancillary

stint

cancel

reggae

simultaneous

towel

inform

twilight

decimate

This week’s Word of the Week is still:

GARGANTUAN

Meaning: very large, massive

Celebrating Sporting Success in Secondary

Congratulations to two of our Secondary pupils who have been training hard for a huge sports event that was held last weekend. Hamza in Year 9 and Rayan in Year 10 have shown tremendous dedication and focus in training for this event and they did incredibly well. The Sports event was created to encourage physical activity and movement amongst students, staff and families.

“We participated in the 2nd edition of the GEMS Triathlon which GEMS Education had organized on 30th January, 2016 in GEMS Modern Academy, Nad Al Sheba area of Dubai.

We were in the 13-15 age group category which consisted of 255 metres of swimming, 12 kilometres of cycling and 4 kilometres of running.

We finished ranked the 4th on groups (overall); with less than 2 minutes away from the bronze medal and the 1st on groups of 2.”

Hamza (Year 9) Rayan (Year 10)

Parents may be aware of the recent research that nearly 78% of UAE children lack the physical exercise that can protect them from cardiovascular disease. BBS already emphasizes the importance of a healthy lifestyle through its PE and extra-curricular sports programme, classroom discussions and lessons, reminders to parents regarding healthy snacks and lunches at school and in the extra-curricular Cooking Club. Hamza and Rayan are great examples of how to keep healthy whilst having fun.

Our own BBS staff know the importance of a healthy lifestyle and there are lots of ways to keep physically active, even in the heat of the summer. Have a look at what they get up to on the next page and have a go.

Keeping Healthy with the BBS Staff

BBS staff like to lead by example and, like any teacher in a school, act as role models for the children. Keeping healthy, fit and happy is something the BBS staff feel is very important and our teachers are involved in a wide range of activities.

Miss Skunta has a gym membership where she takes Zumba and Yoga lessons, and lifts weights. She ran in the Abu Dhabi Neorun, and has competed in other 10km races and half marathons in North America. She also loves volleyball!!

Mr and Mrs Garrett swim for 20 minutes followed by a 30 minute fast walk most evenings and swim in the sea at the weekends. Walking on the sand dunes is also a fun way of keeping fit and spotting red foxes. Mr Garrett was also a team member of the Belvedere Bulldogs and took part in the Dragon Boat race earlier in the school year.

Miss Samantha Wood goes to the gym regularly and goes to body pump, combat and spinning classes. She also attends a contemporary dance class and goes running when the weather isn't too hot!

Miss Racheal Kynaston goes to the gym 4-5 times a week and attends a variety of classes such as weights, cycling, running, Zumba and Yoga. Back in England Miss Kynaston danced 7-8 hours a week including Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz, Tap and Commercial. She also took part in the Dragon Boat race earlier this year as part of the Belvedere Bulldogs.

Miss Laura Griffin goes to the gym, swims and goes running.

Miss Melissa McCann also has quite a diverse range of keeping fit, which is great fun. Miss McCann plays Gaelic football twice a week, touch rugby once a week and then goes to the gym 2 times a week, with a bit of roller blading in between and wanting to start water sports this term.

Mr Llewellyn and Miss Cummings completed the Dubai Marathon on Friday, 22nd January.

Miss Alice Tomlinson and Miss Clodagh McHenry play Netball for the Kookass team every Tuesday evening. This week their team won 15-8 against the S.A.S. team. Miss Tomlinson also does Wake Boarding every weekend.

Miss Amanda Shehadeh walks around the Yas Racing Track each week. This is a great way to keep fit, is very sociable and good fun. This is the route:

Miss Leanda Kelly likes to go to the gym and take part in and teach dance classes like step and dance aerobics. Miss Kelly is another member of staff who plays netball.

Mr Simon Tarr swims for over 40 minutes then cross trains every night. Mr Tarr was also a member of the Belvedere Bulldogs and competed in the Dragon Boat race earlier in the year.

Mr Phil Davies, Mr Mark Kenny and Mr Ryan Baker play for the Abu Dhabi Spartans’ Football Team every week.

Student Competencies

The Competency Leader Team gave presentations to the Secondary School this week. Each group of competencies’ leaders presented their competency to their peers, informing them of how that particular competence could be used around school and giving them inspiration from famous people who had displayed this competency.

The leaders showed great teamwork, leadership and attitude to present in front of their peers and this will put them in a great position to continue to promote the competencies around the school. Mr. Kenny

Creativity –

•Sarod Mehdi Y10

•Hessa Alseiari Y8

•Salwa Emad Y8

•Self-Confidence -

•Haneen Hussein Y10

•Nadin Moneim Y8

•Ammara Zubair Y7

•Leadership –

•Carly Miller Y10

•Razan Al Zaafreh Y8

•Moza Alzaabi Y8

•Cultural Awareness/Citizenship -

•Shamma Almari Y9

•Fatima Khalid Y7

•Self-Motivation –

•Mahmoud Hassayan Y10

•Hamad Lahdan Y9

•Problem Solving –

•Mohammed Elnemer Y9

•Karum Yosef Y9

•Teamwork –

•Casey Aurin Y10

•Hamza Abu Matar Y7

•Digital Competency

•Hamza Braiss Y9

•Bilal Khalid Y8

•Global Awareness -

•Rayan Amara Y 10

•Josh Bevan Y8

•Communication –

•Mansoor Al Rashdi Y7

•Basil Hussein Y7

•Mohammed Hassan Y9

Dear Parents,

MMR Vaccinations in BBS Please be advised that the MMR (mumps,measles,rubella) VACCINATION will be given to all students (with agreed consent) on FEBRUARY 14 and 15, 2016. Vaccinations will begin at 7.45am so please ensure your child is in school on time at 7.25am.

Tackling Obesity in Schools – National Screening for Obesity and BMI in BBS

As you are aware, Belvedere British School takes the health of its students very seriously and the teachers and staff spend time talking to and educating our students about living a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy food and encouraging more physical activity (I hope you have seen the pages dedicated to health in this newsletter). Part of our care is to check the height, weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) of every child in our school, and this is something that the School Nurse has been doing each year.

The Ministry of Health is now conducting a national programme to combat obesity. The aim of the programme is to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity to 12% among children/adolescents between the ages of 5 to 17 by 2021.

The Ministry of Health would like all of the private school nurses to take part in the national programme. As in previous years, the BBS School Nurse has been conducting screening for all BBS students this week and will continue next week until every student has been screened. The results will be sent to the Ministry of Health.

Parental support at home in encouraging healthy eating and regular exercise would be very much appreciated and will help your children as they grow and develop.

Dear Parents,

MMR Vaccinations in BBS

Please be advised that the MMR (mumps,measles,rubella) VACCINATION will be given to all students (with agreed consent) on FEBRUARY 14 and 15, 2016. Vaccinations will begin at 7.45am so please ensure your child is in school on time at 7.25am.

Tackling Obesity in Schools – National Screening for Obesity and BMI in BBS As you are aware, Belvedere British School takes the health of its students very seriously and the teachers and staff spend time talking to and educating our students about living a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy food and encouraging more physical activity (I hope you have seen the pages dedicated to health in this newsletter). Part of our care is to check the height, weight and BMI (Body Mass Index) of every child in our school, and this is something that the School Nurse has been doing each year. The Ministry of Health is now conducting a national programme to combat obesity. The aim of the programme is to reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity to 12% among children/adolescents between the ages of 5 to 17 by 2021.

The Ministry of Health would like all of the private school nurses to take part in the national programme. As in previous years, the BBS School Nurse has been conducting screening for all BBS students this week and will continue next week until every student has been screened. The results will be sent to the Ministry of Health.

Parental support at home in encouraging healthy eating and regular exercise would be very much appreciated and will help your children as they grow and develop.

The letter below has been sent to parents regarding the national screening programme:

Date: February 2, 2016 Dear Parents We would like to inform you that we will conduct a mandatory Annual Screening to all year level on FEBRUARY 3-11, 2016 for:

WEIGHT measurement HEIGHT measurement BMI calculation

It is vital that your child is present at school on this day. Thank you for your co-operation. Note: If you choose to decline the Screening Program - the school require a signed statement of refusal from the parents and to keep it on our record. Best Regards, Arlene Manluyang Calamba.,HAAD-RN/SN Lic. #: GN16718/ Nurse Belvedere British School P.O. Box 109770, Abu Dhabi, UAE Telephone: 00971 (0)25090013