News, Blog, Podcasts - Page 39 - News Search

We are excited to announce the graduation events to celebrate our Year 13 students’ academic achievement. We invite our graduating students and their families to get together before they move on to university or the next phase of their lives.

On Saturday 14th March six BIS Abu Dhabi students went to Dubai College to compete in the ‘Middle East History Bee and Bowl’ competition, a history quiz version of a spelling bee. There were a number of International schools also competing from across the UAE.

Exciting news: necessary approval has now been received, and a contractor appointed, meaning that work can begin in the next few days develop the top floor of our school building and to build a new sports hall and swimming pool. The new 2nd floor will accommodate the whole of Secondary and will provide a purpose-built suite of rooms specifically designed for Secondary-aged students.

This year we are using a new electronic system to make signing your child up for an ECA easier and fairer. Registrations are now open.

Our school very proudly hosted the prestigious BSME U15 Games 2014 between 27 - 29 November, which were a huge success.

You may have noticed that the school has undergone a transformation this week as we prepare for our National day celebrations. Many of the children have been busy at home preparing a tribute to the UAE. Please take the time to view the displays which will be placed in the different entrances of the school.

Following on from my weblog posting on 27th October, we are constantly reviewing our health and safety procedures in line with good practice. Additionally we take the safeguarding of our children at all times as our highest priority. Earlier in the week we carried out a routine fire drill with our students to make them well aware of the need to evacuate the building when the alarm goes off.

We will be introducing ECAs for parents who would like to learn either English or Arabic, which will commence next term. It will be a great opportunity for you to learn a new language while your children are busy in their ECA.

We are very excited and privileged to be welcoming two authors to the school next week. On Monday 20th October 2014, children’s author Ian Billings will be visiting the school. Ian Billings is an accomplished writer for children’s television (including Chucklevision). The following day on Tuesday 21st October 2014, Chris Bradford (author of Young Samurai and BODYGUARD) will also visit the school and run a series of presentations for Secondary students.

This year the school is planning some exciting celebrations for National Day with our students and their families. There will be a lot of events taking place over Sunday November 30th and Monday December 1st, look out for more information on these in the coming weeks.

We have received official confirmation that school will be closed on Sunday 5 October and Monday 6 October to mark Eid Al Adha.

Well done to all the entrants of the summer reading competition. It was a difficult task for members of the Curriculum Access Team to judge, but we are pleased to announce the following 5 students who were announced as winners in Assembly.

House Captain elections took place this morning, with students in Year 6 making some very impressive 2 minute speeches as to why they should be selected. Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 had the difficult task of casting a vote out of approximately 30 candidates.

Throughout the months of October and November, Years 5, 6 and 7 will have the opportunity to participate in their respective school camps. The camps will be run by North Star, under the supervision of the BIS Abu Dhabi staff.

Parents are reminded that the 2013/14 yearbooks can be collected from the main reception. If you did not purchase a yearbook but would like to, the good news is there are still some copies available.

On Thursday 28th August, we received notification that the Ministry of Education instructed ADEC (Abu Dhabi education council) to change the dates to ensure 3 weeks break at the end of Term 1. As such, Term 2 will now begin on Sunday 11th January and in order to ensure 190 instructional days, the February half term has been removed.

With two successful orientation days behind us, our priority now is to get everybody back to school, settled into the routines of school life and feeling at home. Find out all the information you need on back to school practical arrangements for both returning and new students.

We are most looking forward to holding our Orientation Days for children and parents at 9am-12.30pm on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th August 2014.

The process of recruiting high quality staff to join our exceptional team of practitioners is one of the most important aspects of the role of school leader. It is a process which began way back in December 2013 and continues throughout the school year. After months of interviews and UK visits, during which we took potential candidates through the rigorous interview process, the following team of staff has been successfully appointed to join our talented Primary team and we look very much look forward to their input and the expertise as they work with us to drive our standards forward even further.

As you are aware we have a new Head of Secondary Mr Craig Mclaren joining us in August, and we are looking forward to his imminent arrival. Mr Mclaren has already been in touch with a number of staff and from the moment he joins us will be hitting the ground running. Of course he won’t be the only new starter; we have a variety of new faces joining our talented team.