News for 30th April 2015
A great news week! Read all about the sporting achievements, charity drives and ROAR! news in this week's school newsletter.
Message from the Principal
It seems we have had a week of swimming and a glorious week it has been too.
The rounders team did an awesome job in their first match with a 12 – 10 win.
Our sporting students have been super as we move into the warm weather sports of the summer term.
If you have the chance, take a look at our Facebook page. You will find our Spanish Story telling classes with parents, our Year 4 and 6 students reading poetry and giving virtual lessons and a number of other events.
This week though I’d like to talk a little about the recent earthquake in Nepal. A number of our support staff are from Nepal and I have been heartened by the response our parent body has contributed to help the victims of this terrible earthquake. It was both spontaneous and heartfelt. I would like to assure parents that the school has made appropriate and fulsome offers of support to our staff personally affected by this.
As a school we have a responsibility to our whole community, to lend a helping hand when needed, offer support and also celebrate the successes together.
I am proud to be part of this community.
Michael Embley
Message from Head of Primary
Dear Parents,
It has been lovely to see so many of you in school for our demonstration swimming lessons and gala events this week. We do have a lovely pool here at NAS Dubai and it’s great to see our children in action, enjoying those facilities. We look forward to more of the same next week, with Year 3-6 and our Nursery children participating next.
Speaking of Nursery, we are about to begin making class lists for those students entering Nursery in the next academic year. In a fortnight or so, when this process is complete, we will begin sorting out classes for Reception & Years 1 to 6. As a general rule, the children will go up to the next year group with their current class. However, we might make one or two adjustments, for example if the class is unbalanced in some way (lots of girls, few boys). As a rule, the process of class assignation is led by myself and the class teachers and we cannot accommodate individual requests for specific teachers. However, if you believe there is a genuine reason to move your child to a different class group we may be able to consider your request. More information on this important topic will follow shortly, I know it is already very much in people’s minds as we move ever closer towards the end of the year.
Have a great weekend!
Elizabeth Lamb
Message from Head of Secondary
Dear Parents,
This week started with our secondary school students presenting an assembly about ‘Equality’. It allowed us to once again celebrate our diverse community and recognize the talents within our school.
This week we welcomed into school the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) team; the purpose of the meeting was to gain accreditation from the CIE Board. This was an extremely successful visit as they are hugely excited to be working with us and us them. They were particularly impressed with the calibre of our students and their academic ambition; this links to exam week that takes place the week beginning 31st May 2015. I recognize that exam season can be stressful for both students and parents therefore in lessons teachers are supporting students with revision techniques, time management skills and reminding them of previous learning.
A date for your diaries, Mr. Steve Ormston will be hosting an information session for parents on ‘how to support your child in secondary maths.’ The focus of the session will be on accessing our ‘My Maths’ programme to enhance learning. It will take place on Sunday 10th May at 3:15pm – 4:15pm in R1-36.
Finally thank you to all parents for supporting the Inter-House Swimming Gala, I am sure you will agree we have a very talent student body. Well done to our PE department for another successful display.
Liam Cullinan
Sports Report
NAS Primary Swim Gala Report
On Thursday 23rd April NAS hosted their first swimming gala. A team of 34 children proudly represented NAS Dubai; two visiting teams from Uptown School and Victory Heights joined us. The gala included swimmers from Years 4, competing over 25m in frontcrawl, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke. Years 5 and 6 with competed over 50m in frontcrawl, breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke and individual medley (only Year 6). The teams then swam in a freestyle relay, medley relay and squadron relay.
With well over 100 parents and supporters in attendance the gala had a fantastic atmosphere. We chose to focus on participation and enjoyment, however there was a point scoring system in place for our competitive swimmers.
Uptown School produced the strongest team performance on the day with the NAS and Victory Heights team putting in some excellent performances of their own. The NAS Parent Community set-up the Chatter Box Café at the poolside offering refreshments and snacks. Lauren and Kirsty from our aquatics partner providers; Speedo SwimSquad, gave additional support in the roles of Starter and Finish Judge.
Well done to all of the swimmers involved and thank you to all of the coaches and supporters for making this event a huge success!
The NAS Primary Swim Squad will continue to train with Mr. Gilpin on Mondays (Development Squad) and Tuesdays (Competitive Squad). NAS have entered a swim team in the Dubai Primary Schools Swim Gala League. The first round for this gala will take place on Thursday 7th May (location and timings to be confirmed). Depending on the results of this gala the NAS team may then swim in the finals on either 8th or 11th June. Mr. Gilpin will be in touch with the swim team with more information shortly.
Miss Duffy
U14 Rounders League Match vs Kings Al Barsha
Final Score: 12-10 to NAS Dubai
On Tuesday 28th April the NAS Dubai U14 girls rounders team played their first league game against Kings Al Barsha. With the Dubai Schools League operating as U14 this meant our team of Year 8 girls were playing against a team of predominantly older students. Clemmie Silverwood from Year 7 showed great skill and put in a fantastic performance as bowler.
The girls demonstrated excellent teamwork and communication skills that undoubtedly contributed to their success. The game was close-fought in the first innings with NAS Dubai scoring 4 ½ and Kings scoring 5 ½ rounders. The NAS Dubai team batted very strongly in the second innings and scored 7 ½ to Kings 4 ½. Lily Ashby was nominated player of the match by the Kings team. The team’s next games are on Monday 4th May at Sharjah English School.
Cricket
The NAS Dubai Under 11’s cricket team played their first game against SAFA School Dubai on Monday 27th April. Batting first SAFA set a very competitive total of 251 losing 2 wickets. Ben Talbot and Liam Alderson were the pick of the NAS bowlers. In reply NAS scored 216 for the loss of 6 wickets. Liam Alderson and Theo Treyer batting together and scored a wonderful 25 runs.
By Theo Treyer
NAS Dubai Skiing
Calling all advanced level skiers!!
There is an opportunity for all ADVANCED level skiers to represent NAS Dubai on morning of Saturday 30th May 2015 at the UAE Inter-Schools Ski Race Championships to be held at Ski Dubai. This will be open to all students in Years 1 to 10 (boys and girls).
If your children wish to be considered for selection, they must attend the NAS Dubai exclusive 1 hour trial session at Ski Dubai on Sunday 10th May 2015 starting at 2pm.
The trial will be a thorough professional assessment of each child’s skiing ability, to decide whether or not they could compete both safely and competently in the championships; and will be run by qualified Ski Dubai race instructors.
The cost of the trial will be at the discounted rate of AED150 per child, to include insurance, equipment & clothing hire (if needed) and assessment.
School transport will also be provided with students returning to school by approximately 3.45-4.00pm.
If your children are interested, please email Louise Atherton with their name/s and year group/s by latest Tuesday 5th May 2015 at: nasski@nasdubai.ae or louise.atherton@nasdubai.ae
Come on, get registering!!!
*Note for your diaries:
In May, all parents will be invited by the NAS Principal to attend a presentation at the school to introduce and promote a fully structured and measurable “NAS Dubai Ski Development Pathway” for children, from absolute beginner through to elite level NAS Dubai Ski Race Teams and scheduled to commence in September 2015.
Please watch this space if interested.
Mark Sharman and Kirstin Sherriff
NAS Dubai parent Ski Development Pathway representatives
ROAR!
Costumes
Please remember all costumes for the production need to be handed fully labeled to Mrs Mack by Friday 1st May.
Rehearsals continue to take place over the coming weeks. Please check the parent portal school calendar and ensure your child arrives on time. The whole cast are working super hard to create a fabulous show!
Show Nights
Monday 11th May @ 11:15am
Performance in school to Yr 1 – Yr 8 students
Monday 11th May @ 6:00pm
First Performance
Tickets available soon
Tuesday 12th May @ 6:00pm
First Performance
Tickets available soon
PA Events
Monday 4th May @ 8am
PA Meeting in secondary library (2nd floor)
All parents welcome
Friday 22nd May @ 9am – 12pm
Table Top Sale
Book your tables for AED 50 per table via the main reception or Chatter Box Cafe
All table booking fees will be donated to Little Flower China
Friday 5th June
NAS PA Gala Dinner
Emirates Towers
AED 495 each inclusive of beverage package, 3 course meal and entertainment.
Join us for a night of Dinner & Dancing!
A note from our Charity Officer
Wow, what an amazing response we've had to the NAS Dubai Chatter Box Cafe cake raffle for Nepal over the last few days.
As always we are humbled by your generosity and pleased to announce that we have raised over AED4000 in just two days. Many thanks to Karen Van Zyl for donating her amazing Frozen themed cake. The winning number was 219, belonging to Farran De Wet, congratulations!
To continue our efforts to help we'd like to ask for the following donations:
·
Clothes
· Blankets
· Non perishable foods (such as milk powder, oats, cereals, dry fruits etc)
All donations need to be delivered to school by Sunday 8am. STS have provided us with a bus to transport the items to Sharjah airport where Air Arabia will be flying them out to Nepal.
Our many thanks to Roberto Monza and Dominic from STS for helping us to arrange the transportation of the donated items.
Donna Limin
NAS Dubai PA Charity Officer
NEW LOOK NEWSLETTER OUT NEXT WEEK!
Have a great weekend
NAS Dubai News Team
