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Have you taken part in our Parent Survey?
If you have not filled in the parent survey please take 10 minutes to give us your feedback. Please follow the link below;
http://parentsurvey.nordanglia.com/survey/selfserve/5a0/150301
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Message from Principal
Mrs. Lamb and Mr. Cullinan are away today and all of next week. They are in the UK attending a Nord Anglia Education Senior Leaders development course.
The school, and indeed myself, view professional development as both a right and an expectation for all our staff.
Sometimes these courses are simply about learning from others, through shared experience perhaps. Sometimes they are about undertaking action research into educational effectiveness worldwide. This one is a combination of both.
Of course such development is not purely for our senior staff and nor should it be. We were delighted to welcome some Early Years teachers from a sister school last week and we will be welcoming many more over the coming weeks across various age ranges. Sharing best practice is some of the most useful development for teachers.
We have also welcomed, over the recent long weekend a number of Principals from our sister schools. They joined us at NAS Dubai to discuss our educational approach and philosophy. These discussions were dynamic, challenging, questioning and probing; just as they should be.
It is important that our staff; teachers, TAs, admin and support staff feel they are both valued and have opportunities for personal growth. After all, they are the ones looking after your children; who are the most important people in the school.
The school, and indeed myself, view professional development as both a right and an expectation for all our staff.
Sometimes these courses are simply about learning from others, through shared experience perhaps. Sometimes they are about undertaking action research into educational effectiveness worldwide. This one is a combination of both.
Of course such development is not purely for our senior staff and nor should it be. We were delighted to welcome some Early Years teachers from a sister school last week and we will be welcoming many more over the coming weeks across various age ranges. Sharing best practice is some of the most useful development for teachers.
We have also welcomed, over the recent long weekend a number of Principals from our sister schools. They joined us at NAS Dubai to discuss our educational approach and philosophy. These discussions were dynamic, challenging, questioning and probing; just as they should be.
It is important that our staff; teachers, TAs, admin and support staff feel they are both valued and have opportunities for personal growth. After all, they are the ones looking after your children; who are the most important people in the school.
All the best
Michael Embley
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Message from Head of Primary
Following the long weekend break, the days have flown by even more quickly than normal!
This week I want to celebrate the work of the class teachers in the Early Years and the primary school. I have spent many hours in classrooms recently observing lessons. Amongst other things I have watched Year 3 debate the rights and wrongs of the Viking raids on Lindisfarne, Year 1 write an encyclopedia page about life under the sea and Year 5 top set maths constructing triangles using rulers, protractors and some rather tricky calculations! It has been a real joy to watch the teachers facilitating the learning of the children in their care, and seeing the real enthusiasm with which I have been welcomed into the classroom by everyone. “Come and look at this, Mrs. Lamb” is definitely one of my favourite phrases!
I am proud to say that every one of my 35 class teachers was observed to teach a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ lesson this term. In all my years of teaching and school leadership this is the strongest set of teaching grades I have ever witnessed. Every day you and I hear about the great work that your children are doing, from the daily email and directly from your son or daughter, so it has been a true pleasure to watch fantastic learning actually happening in the classroom. I’d like to extend a big thank you and well done to all my teachers and of course to your children for their amazing enthusiasm and tireless commitment to their own learning.
Today I will be flying to the UK to take part in a week of training with other leaders from around the Nord Anglia Education family so next week’s message will come to you from sunny Warwick! Until then, I hope that you have a relaxing weekend and I will see you all in a week’s time.
This week I want to celebrate the work of the class teachers in the Early Years and the primary school. I have spent many hours in classrooms recently observing lessons. Amongst other things I have watched Year 3 debate the rights and wrongs of the Viking raids on Lindisfarne, Year 1 write an encyclopedia page about life under the sea and Year 5 top set maths constructing triangles using rulers, protractors and some rather tricky calculations! It has been a real joy to watch the teachers facilitating the learning of the children in their care, and seeing the real enthusiasm with which I have been welcomed into the classroom by everyone. “Come and look at this, Mrs. Lamb” is definitely one of my favourite phrases!
I am proud to say that every one of my 35 class teachers was observed to teach a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ lesson this term. In all my years of teaching and school leadership this is the strongest set of teaching grades I have ever witnessed. Every day you and I hear about the great work that your children are doing, from the daily email and directly from your son or daughter, so it has been a true pleasure to watch fantastic learning actually happening in the classroom. I’d like to extend a big thank you and well done to all my teachers and of course to your children for their amazing enthusiasm and tireless commitment to their own learning.
Today I will be flying to the UK to take part in a week of training with other leaders from around the Nord Anglia Education family so next week’s message will come to you from sunny Warwick! Until then, I hope that you have a relaxing weekend and I will see you all in a week’s time.
Elizabeth Lamb
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Message from Head of Secondary
First of all I would like to officially congratulate our F1 in Schools team ‘Project NAS’ who have qualified through to the next round of the challenge. They came 6thoverall and were 1st in the engineering element. This is a truly great achievement for the team in their first year of competition and thank you to all our sponsors who have assisted with the project.
The theme of the week in secondary has been freedom and specifically freedom of choice. As students develop within a secondary school setting independence and ownership of choice becomes paramount. Their choices will vary from subject options, where to go to university and even where to spend their break and lunchtime. In light of this our students have been delighted that we have opened a secondary specific break and lunchtime area. One of the areas the students have impressed me with the most is how they have taken responsibility to become role models for our younger students.
Our Year 6 families should have received an invitation to our transition day on 10th June. We are excited to welcome both students currently at NAS Dubai and those who will join us in September 2015 into Year 7 and give them an opportunity to learn a little more about the differences between a primary and secondary school and the learning involved. I look forward to welcoming everyone on 10th June.
Next week is revision week; their subject teachers will guide students on key understanding required for their exams and strategies to support that.
I will be in the UK next week taking part in my own learning and development as part of Nord Anglia University’s Leadership Programme. It is always an honour to attend these events as it allows me to reflect on our successes and talk with pride about our school and students.
The theme of the week in secondary has been freedom and specifically freedom of choice. As students develop within a secondary school setting independence and ownership of choice becomes paramount. Their choices will vary from subject options, where to go to university and even where to spend their break and lunchtime. In light of this our students have been delighted that we have opened a secondary specific break and lunchtime area. One of the areas the students have impressed me with the most is how they have taken responsibility to become role models for our younger students.
Our Year 6 families should have received an invitation to our transition day on 10th June. We are excited to welcome both students currently at NAS Dubai and those who will join us in September 2015 into Year 7 and give them an opportunity to learn a little more about the differences between a primary and secondary school and the learning involved. I look forward to welcoming everyone on 10th June.
Next week is revision week; their subject teachers will guide students on key understanding required for their exams and strategies to support that.
I will be in the UK next week taking part in my own learning and development as part of Nord Anglia University’s Leadership Programme. It is always an honour to attend these events as it allows me to reflect on our successes and talk with pride about our school and students.
Liam Cullinan
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School Notices
Class Photographs
We understand a number of families have not received their class photograph form, we ask you to double check in your child's bag and let your class teacher know if it is missing. We have raised any current missing forms with the Pret-Portrait team and will hopefully have all missing forms distributed by Sunday. We have also requested an extension on the early bird discount and will let you know as soon as we have an answer to this.
Library Volunteers
We are looking for keen volunteers to assist our librarian with our book cataloging. If you are able to spare some time please contact jasmine.ismail@nasdubai.ae with your details and availability.
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Tara Farthing
I'm really looking forward to moving to Dubai and joining the Geography department at Nord Anglia International School Dubai.
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Anna Hilton
I am extremely excited to be joining the mathematics department at NAS Dubai and starting out on my first teaching post abroad.
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Michael Connor
Having thoroughly enjoyed my last three Years in Dubai, it is safe to say that my family and I have embraced the lifestyle and culture of living in the UAE and Dubai.
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Daniel O'Hara
I have always had a passion for science. It wasn’t until I studied it at the National University of Ireland, Galway that the true extent of my passion came to fruition.
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Upcoming Events!
• Friday 22nd May, 9:00am - 12:00pm - PA Table Top Sale @ NAS Dubai
• Tuesday 26th May - Earlybird deadline discount for class photographs
• Thursday 28th May, 10:30am - 11:00 - 1D Class Assembly
• Thursday 28th May, 8:30am - YR 3 trip to Madinat Theatre
• Saturday 30th May - 8:00am - 10:00am YCT Mandarin Tests for Beginners, Level 1 & 2
• Sunday 31st May - 3:00pm - U9s & U11s Cricket Match away at Repton
• Thursday 4th June, 10:30am - 11:00 - 4C/4D Class Assembly
• Thursday 4th June, 6:00pm - 10:00pm - Yr7 & 8 Celebration Party
• Friday 5th June, 7:45pm till late! - PA Gala Dinner
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Sports News
18 May
On Monday the U9 cricket team welcomed Gems Wellington Academy to play at NAS for our second cricket match. After losing the toss, Gems Wellington Academy decided to bat first. They did very well at batting and scored 235 runs at the end of their innings. Our bowlers did very well particularly Yash, Leo and Ben. Gems Wellington Academy were solid at fielding and with one over to go NAS needed 17 runs to win. Exceptional batting by Harry and Ben got NAS 16 runs to make it a draw. We played one over each to decide on the winner and NAS came out on top with 250 runs, winning by 18 runs. It was an excellent team effort. Well done boys. A big thank you to the parents for your support, players and Shane Thornton our coach.
19 May
On Tuesday 19th May the U12 rounders team set off to play their final two league games at Deira International School (DIS). The first match against Uptown School was incredibly close despite NAS being two players short. NAS showed some fantastic bowling and tight fielding and the score after the first innings was 3 ½ - 3 to NAS. Unfortunately by full time Uptown had just managed to creep into the lead by half a rounder making the final score 7 ½ - 7 to Uptown School.
After a quick break from the scorching sun NAS played their second match against DIS. Again the girls looked confident despite being two players short and opened the game by batting first. After the first innings the score was 5 – 2 to DIS. In the second innings the girls decided to try out a range of new fielding positions to make the most of their final rounders match this season and by full time the score was 7 ½ - 3 ½ to DIS.
We are so proud of the commitment and enthusiasm we have seen from the girls this season and of how well they have represented NAS. Well played!
Mrs Jena and Miss Gutteridge
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PA News
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22 May
Our inaugural table top sale takes place on Friday from 9am - 12pm. Please come along and browse the stalls. We have many tables with new, nearly new and used items. You never know you may find your outfit for the gala dinner!
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5 June
22nd May is the last day to grab your PA Gala Dinner invites to the parent event of the year! Nadine will be at the Table Top sale, so grabs your friends (and wallet) and come celebrate the end of a fantastic school year with us in the Godolphin Ballroom at Jumeirah Emirates Towers from 7:45pm. There will be a fabulous raffle taking place during the evening.
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Charity News
Charity Update
I'd like to ask for your continued support following the recent news of yet another earthquake in the Nepal region. All goods and monies donated will be given to the Red Crescent UAE for distribution. There is a drop off point at Chatterbox Cafe for the donation of goods such as clothes, blankets and dried food stuffs. If you'd like to contribute in any other way please don't hesitate to get in touch via nascharityofficer@gmail.com or contact me direct on 050 2491419.
Thank you so much to Heather Overall for heading up our NAS Spinathon - Heather and her spinners raised over AED 3000; spinning for 3 hrs!
Another thank you to one of our students, Ryan Abuwardh who stayed silent, not speaking a word for 24 hrs and raising AED 505 in the process. Well done Ryan!
Kind regards
Donna Limin
PA Charity Officer
Chatter Box Cafe
You may have noticed some new faces behind the cafe counter lately, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank not only our new recruits but our regular helpers too. Your support is paramount to our success and it is greatly appreciated. Its hard to believe that we're approaching the end of the school year, there will be some exciting announcements regarding the cafe in the future so watch this space!
National & International Celebrations - We are busy preparing our schedule of events for the new academic year and as such would like to ask that you let us know if your home country has any holidays that you would like to see celebrated at the cafe. You may have seen us acknowledging days such as St Georges Day, St Patricks Day and South Africa Freedom Day, we'd love to add some more to the list! Email us at naschatterbox@gmail.com.
Calling all Class Reps! - If you'd like to arrange a coffee morning for your class, please get in touch, we would be happy to open the Cafe exclusively for your class.
always looking for new friends of the Cafe!
Kind regards
Donna Limin
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