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Parents’ Weekly Memo I S S U E 8 7th May

safety and the movement in the car park.

To help with the increasing congestion we

encourage families to consider the use of the

school bus service. This year our school bus

numbers have increased necessitating the

school to lease an extra two buses. To help

us consider the bus service, on Tuesday we

uploaded a short survey on the school portal

to help us with our planning.

Outstanding Schools & BYOD

As announced last week, our new school app

is available to help parents stay connected to

the latest news at Dar Al Marefa. Please

refer to the last parent memo, school portal

or the email that was sent home this past

week for further information.

The use of technology is an important part of

school life and after our trial BYOD for

Grades 9-11 we are considering to introduce

the BYOD program to the whole MYP/DP

departments to begin the new academic

year. More details on the implementation

process and specific types of devices allowed

will be shared in the next year weeks.

Until next Thursday,

Peace & Best Wishes

Jake

Term 3 has started where Term 2 left off, with

many exciting events and activities happening

over the last couple of weeks ranging from

school photos to field trips to academic compe-

titions. On the academic front, students are

busily engaged in their various units of inquiry

while the staff are also busily planning for the

end of year assessments and reporting pro-

gram. Our staff are planning the many end of

the year activities and celebrations. It is a very

positive time as the students get an opportunity

to show their learning, competence, and confi-

dence in a variety of ways.

Planning for the 2015/2016 is well underway

and your support in completing the re-

registration process before the 15 May will be

extremely beneficial for the school. There is

much to do as we prepare for the increase in

students with additional classes in both the PYP

and MYP being planned.

Great Teachers Create Great Schools

One of the privileges of leading Dar Al Marefa is

the opportunity to meet with parents and to

discuss the learning program used in our school.

One of the secrets to our school’s growing suc-

cess is the quality of our teachers. Children are

supported through classroom teachers’ differ-

entiation of learning activities and outcomes,

to cater for children’s individual needs. Our

teachers understand each child’s strengths

and areas that require support and are there-

fore able to meet their individual learning

needs very effectively.

Fostering strong resilient and independent

children is foundation to reaching our school’s

vision of creating lifelong learners who will

contribute to a just and peaceful world. Our

school curriculum provides a rigorous academ-

ic pathway from Kinder to the Diploma pro-

gramme that trains young minds to become

critical thinkers, problem solvers, thoughtful

communicators, collaborative team players,

and will independently seek life-long learning.

This is the message that parents resonate with

and want for their children.

Car Park Issues

The newly surfaced car park has reduced the

dust and helped with the flow of traffic for the

drop off/pick up times. However, with the

growing number of families at our school and

the increasing numbers of vehicles visiting Dar

Al Marefa each day it is inevitable that there

will be congestion in the car park. Drivers need

to follow the directions of the security staff

who are charged with the responsibility of

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same issue of interest.

A balance between process and product is required and students must produce something that they are proud of. The aim is to also go beyond research and the facts and get into real proposals for solutions and actions such as individual stu-dent learning journals, presentation-al piece ,inquiry presentation and others.

On June 4th 2015, Students will cel-ebrate and communicate their learning about the Sharing the plan-et unit to the school community through examples of written work, oral presentations, examples of technology, performances in a variety of mediums, art work, Power Point Presentations, inquiry presentation and other issues based on what the students have planned for their summative assessment task.

Lama Kalash

PYP Coordinator

The Grade 5 PYP Exhibition is the culmi-nating experience of the primary school. It is structured in such a way that Grade 5 students are challenged to take re-sponsibility for the design, organization and successful completion of an in-depth inquiry through planning one unit of inquiry. This year, Grade 5 students have chosen “Sharing the planet” trans-disciplinary unit.

The key purposes of the Exhibition are to synthesize their prior learning and apply it to an unfamiliar situation, thus providing an opportunity for assessing student understanding, to provide an opportunity for the school community involvement as a whole, to gain a great-er understanding and appreciation of the PYP and to celebrate the transition of learners from the primary school to the middle school.

As the culminating experience of the primary school, the exhibition incorpo-rates the application of key questions and concepts, requires all students to apply thinking skills, communication

skills, self- management skills, social skills and research skills, offers opportu-nities for the students to display posi-tive attitudes, and requires all students to engage in positive action. This action may take the form of personal involve-ment with the planning and implemen-tation of the Exhibition, rather than service-orientated action.

The teacher’s planning process for this Exhibition began on February. Every week, students were actively discussing and exploring their personal issues and concerns connected with the outside world, looking for both global and local relevance and significance. After this process, our students collaborated with their teachers on identifying the Issue or problem to be explored, creating the central idea and lines of inquiry, and the positive action that can be taken to ad-dress the issue. After students have identified the areas in which they will focus their research on, they were orga-nized into small groups that share the

.

Math Department in MYP Conducted an outdoor activity for the MYP boys, the idea of

this activity was to implement MYP Mathematics objective, “The aims of MYP mathe-

matics are to encourage and enable students to enjoy mathematics, develop curiosity

and begin to appreciate its elegance and power.

Math Olympics aimed to develop the maximum approach between mental and

physical abilities of our students and challenge them to meet the objectives and

requirements of MYP math curriculum. Hence students had to pass various hurdles

to reach the station where they were challenged to use their critical thinking skills

to solve multiple choice questions. The questions were selected from various

branches of Mathematics like numbers, algebra and statistics. Students used time

management, collaborative and thinking skills as they had to solve the questions

within given time limit.

Student response was amazing; they overcame their fear of numbers,

and worked using social skills in groups with huge interest and team spir-

it to achieve the maximum level. A new spirit and enthusiasm is evident

in the students to give their optimum in the subject.

Celebrating Our Students Success

The IB Programme is a student-driven curriculum that promotes authentic

opportunities for students to reflect on and speak about their social, emo-

tional and academic development.

Families are important partners in conversations about student learning. As

such, it is vital that students have the opportunity to report on their learning

with family members and collaborate on goals for the future. The school

implements the student-led conference to provide a framework for this

form of discussion between families and students.

What is a student-led conference?

Over the course of the school year, your child has selected

work samples from different disciplines, analyzing his or her

strengths or learning challenges and reflecting on possible

goals for future learning. These have been placed in his or

her portfolio.

The student-led conference gives your child the opportunity

to lead a conversation about pieces of work in the portfolio

and more generally about his or her strengths and challeng-

es in the different disciplines. It is also an opportunity for

you to see the range of work that your child experiences in

MYP.

How does it help your child?

Encourages students, parents and teachers to openly communicate as equal partners about student achievement

Enhances students‘ oral communication skills Builds students’ self-confidence and ability to re-

flect On 21

st May, parents will be given the opportunity

to listen to these reflections, acknowledge their child’s effort and growth, and ask questions to your child. The parents will also be asked to help brainstorm goals and develop a plan to achieve them.

We look forward to seeing you on 21st May at 9.00 am.