Al Rabeeh News
November/December
Brand New Newsletter
Due to the positive feedback received with the previous newsletters, we have subscribed to a new service which allows us to showcase all of the wonderful things that have been happening in the school in a different light.
We hope you enjoy reading about all of the marvelous things that our students have been doing both in and out of school and the exciting opportunities to look forward to in the future.
Email: admin@alrabeehschool.ae
Website: www.alrabeehschool.ae
Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Al+Rabeeh+School/@24.4424522,54.39805,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x3e5e685cbf49ff19:0x75b6737ca96a7a4!8m2!3d24.4424522!4d54.4002387
Phone: 02 4482856
Facebook: facebook.com/AlRabeehSchool
Twitter: @Al_Rabeeh_School
In This Newsletter ...
National Day Celebrations
Department Write-Ups
Student Leadership
A Message From the Senior Leadership Team
It has been a very fun and eventful end to the first term at Al Rabeeh School with some wonderful celebrations, theme days and learning that has been taking place.
In October we welcomed some external visitors from a UK based inspection team who came to assess the performance of the school and the education our students receive. We are pleased to announce that the report has since been published and the school received a 'Good' rating with a lot of positive comments. The main strengths identified include:
- The relationships between the students and the teachers
- The achievement of the students in English, science and mathematics and the progress the students make
- Students attitudes towards their learning and appreciation of UAE heritage and culture
- Teacher's promotion of knowledge and understanding in the English medium subjects
- The effective leadership of changes to the curriculum and staff structure
We have had some fabulous enrichment events and trips which have taken place including visits to: Mushriff Park, Al Rabeeh Academy and Ajyal School, Yas Marina and Bounce.
In Arabic medium subjects, in line with new National directives, learning is more skilled based rather than through rote learning. Students are more engaged and their progress is clearly shown in lessons. Please use the following link to complete the survey so we can get your ideas and target our workshops in the New Year to meet your needs. https://goo.gl/forms/Vtay0NivyuxGSZuu1
Next half-term we have a number of activities to look forward to including sports days and book fairs.
National Day was an extremely special day for all of our families and staff members. The number of activities available for the children and effort and planning that went in to organising the day was remarkable. Thank you to everyone for your support, especially the Friends of Al Rabeeh parent group who were a fantastic help. If you wish to leave feedback on how you thought the day was organised please visit: http://bit.ly/ar-ndcf
We have observed a huge improvement in attendance and punctuality over the last 2 months, 'well done' everyone! Our assembly starts at 7:30am and it is very important that our students arrive at school before this time.
As a Senior Leadership Team we would like to thank all of our families and staff members who have all contributed to making the November/December months a hugely memorable time for everyone.
We would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Winter vacation period and we will look forward to welcoming everyone back to school on Sunday 6th January.
A Message From The EYFS Team
This half-term in FS1 we have continued with our ‘Healthy Me’ topic.
All of FS1 loved learning about The Gingerbread Man and were lucky enough to bake and decorate their own Gingerbread Man! We had lots of fun building a house for all of the characters from the story and enjoyed painting and decorating the house too. We also had our fantastic trip for The Gingerbread Man production at ARA. This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to see the characters come to life and to interact with a real Gingerbread Man!
We also looked at the story of The Little Red Hen. We explored how characters felt in the story, we practiced retelling the story and then we worked together to bake our own loaf of bread, just like Little Red Hen! It was very exciting to see how all of the ingredients changed when they were mixed together and we particularly enjoyed watching the dough rise when we had left it in a warm place!
As well as all of these exciting learning opportunities, we have been learning about pattern, 2D shapes, and practicing our careful counting in Maths!
In Phonics we now know 5 sounds and have been noticing things in our environment that begin with these sounds. We have had lots of fun practicing writing these sounds using a variety of materials, including finger painting, sparkly cinnamon sand and crayons with water colours.
In FS2 we have been learning about ‘People and Communities’. We looked at lots of different types of transport and we even had a visit from the Police! They talked to us about how they can help people and the types of things that they do when they are a policeman or a policewoman. We used our phonic knowledge to label fire engines and to draw and label a recount of the police visit.
We have also been learning about The Gruffalo. We have done lot of role-play activities, we have sequenced the story and we have even created our own monster!
A Message From The Y1,2&3 Team
Year 1 have had a very exciting and busy term! We have had two very exciting trips out of school and had a fantastic time celebrating National Day.
As part of our Science topic we went to Yas Marina for a boat trip around Yas Island. We were able to explore the different types of wildlife and were even lucky enough to see a small gazelle that did not run away! We also got to see lots of exciting places around Abu Dhabi as we went on the bus that we had been learning about in our Geography lessons.
We also went to see the theatre production of The Little Gingerbread Man. This was very exciting for us as we were able to join in with different parts and loved being able to dance too!!
We also enjoyed sharing our National Day celebrations with our families and friends; and we are very proud to live in the UAE.
Year 2 have had a very busy half term. We have all enjoyed our National Day celebrations. Many of us wore National dress and contributed to this successful day.
KS1 sang beautifully during their performance and the dancing was a pleasure to see. The children have worked very hard to put on such a performance.
Year 2 enjoyed a trip to Umm Al Emarat Park on Sunday 9th December.
We loved seeing the animals that live in the park and we even had a chance to feed them. We enjoyed learning about habitats and the creatures that live among the greenery.
The park rangers helped us learn about the plants that grow in the park and we can look after our environment.
What a fun packed term it has been for Year 3. We have had lots of exciting learning taking place in class as well as an amazing trip to Umm Al Emarat Park.
We also had a fantastic day in school celebrating National Day with all our family and friends. As part of National Day celebrations Year 3 enjoyed performing a special song, which was well-received by the parents.
In Science we have been learning to be scientists and asking scientific questions, learning more about the world around us. We measured sound and used different instruments to find out which instrument was going to be the loudest. We also took part in many of our own Science experiments at home. We loved being Scientists and thinking like them too! In DT we made kites and enjoyed flying them around school!
A Message From The Y4,5&6 Team
Years 4, 5 & 6 have been working hard on their new topics this term.
Year 4 have been learning about 'The Roman Empire' and have recently held a Romans day, where they dressed in togas and created Roman shields. The Year 5 topic this term has been 'Mountains' and Year 6 have been continuing to learn about the 'Stone Age'.
All year groups have also recently finished their end of term assessments in English, maths and science. I am sure that after working so hard in these, all students are looking forward to a well-earned Winter Break.
Trips
Just after the mid-term break, the Year 4 classes visited the 'Bounce' Trampoline Park in the Marina Mall. All children enjoyed themselves bouncing on the different types of trampolines and launching themselves into the foam pits! In fact, they enjoyed themselves so much that we could not keep the children still for long enough to take a good photograph! Mohammed in Year 4 Blue said “When we got to Bounce, we had some free time and I was very excited! After this, we went upstairs and had delicious food, but I was really sweaty!”
The week after Year 4’s visit to Bounce, Years 5 & 6 combined to visit the Emirates Park Zoo, where they got to witness and learn about a variety of animals from around the World. These included elephants, zebras and tigers. They also had the opportunity to feed the U.A.E’s native animal, the camel.
Anti-Bullying Day
On Thursday 15th November, Al Rabeeh School celebrated Anti-Bullying Day. Each class took part in anti-bullying related activities, such as recreating anti-bullying videos, creating posters and taking part in role-play and whole class discussions about bullying. We also had a special assembly from the Police, where they talked about the importance of being kind to one another and recognizing when bullying is occurring.
National Day
A big thank you to all parents and children in Years 4, 5 and 6 who attended our National Day celebrations on Wednesday 28th November. It was wonderful to see all of the children in National Dress and joining in with all of the activities including Henna painting, creating desert landscapes and even an AFC themed penalty shootout! Year 4 recited their fantastic acrostic poems based on our school houses, Year 5 confidently marched to the Military Oath of Allegiance and Year 6 performed their UAE song, written by our very talented Year 6 teachers. We hope you all enjoyed the day celebrating the 47th anniversary of this wonderful country.
A Message From The Arabic Team
لقد طوينا في ديسمبر صفحة الفصل الدراسيّ الأول وقد حصل فيه الكثير من التعلّم والأحداث المشوّقة. فقد احتفلنا بيوم "هويّتي الوطنيّة" و "اليوم الوطنيّ" وغيرها من المناسبات التعلميّة المثيرة للاهتمام. وننتظر بفارغ الصبر بداية الفصل الثاني في يناير لنستمر في تقديم فرصًا جديدة للتعلّم والتميّز.
أولًا نودّ دعوة أولياء الأمور الكرام، شركائنا في التطوير، للقيام بالاستبيان من خلال الرابط التالي لمساعدتنا على التحسين وتحقيق مطالبهم والإجابة على أسئلتهم بشكل فعّال في ورش العمل التي سنقدّمها في الأشهر القادمة.
https://goo.gl/forms/VKOFTFF0eiHZTKT92
كما أنّنا ندعو طلابنا للاشتراك بالنوادي التي سنقدمها بعد الدوام المدرسي من الساعة 2 حتى 3 في المدرسة بدءًا من الأسبوع الثاني في الفصل. هذه النوادي تعتبر فرصة يستفيد منها الطالب لتعزيز لغته ومهاراته الفنيّة والاجتماعيّة في إطار مشوّق وممتع. الرجاء تفقد قسم المصادر على دي6 للاطلاع على التفاصيل.
A Message From The Islamic Team
لقد استمتع الطلاب خلال الفصل الأول باستراتيجيات التعلم المتنوعة والتعلم الجماعي والمواقف التعليمية في حصص التربية الإسلامية بالإضافة إلى النوادي المتعددة.
كما احتفلنا بذكرى مولد النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم بنكهة خاصة هذا العام حيث تمّ اشتراك طلاب المرحلة التأسيسية بالإذاعة الصباحيّة مع طلاب المراحل الأخرى بعد أن تعلمنا الكثير عن سيرته وحياته.
أما الفصل القادم سنباشر بالشهور المنمّطة وسنبدأها بموضوع القرآن كتابي في شهر يناير. سنكون بانتظار طلابنا الحفظة وسنقوم بتكريم الطلاب المتميزين.
A Message From Our Pupils
School Eco-council
Al Rabeeh School are proud to announce the following Eco-council representatives for the upcoming academic year:
- Year 2: Jana and Ahmed Alkhoori
- Year 3: Mamdouh and Shamma
- Year 4: Nehal and Obaid
- Year 5: Hessa and Saleh
- Year 6 Boys: Khaled Kaabi
- Year 6 Girls: Rawdha Alshamsi
The students will help to organise events such as Eco Day (13/12/18) and look to promote initiatives within school to ensure we are operating in an environmentally friendly manner. The children are very excited to be give such responsibility and look forward to making a positive impact to the school. Please look out for more from the Eco-council very soon.
School Council
Al Rabeeh School are proud to announce the members of the School Council for this academic year:
- Year 2- Kareem Khalil and Miryam Mansour
- Year 3- Mohsen Rachid and Muna Alkhaabi
- Year 4 – Fatima and Adam
- Year 5 – Mariam and Mahmoud
- Year 6 – Mohamed Al Ali and Hend
All of the children are delighted to have been nominated for the roles and pleased to hold such responsibility. School Council plays an important part in our school and is an excellent opportunity for the students to put forward some of their own ideas and initiatives. So far, the council have already been involved with organising 'Pink Day' and 'National Day' with much more to come as the year progresses.
Student Quotes
- Mohamed Junaibi – 6 Blue ‘National day was amazing, I felt very proud to be an Emirati’
- Falah Alkhoori – 6 Blue ‘It was great to do the Yola dance in front of so many people’
- Mouza Al Zaabia - 6 Yellow – ‘Everybody has been really happy this term and there have been so many fantastic events’.
- Mansour al Hosani (Head Boy) – 6 Green – ‘I have really enjoyed the maths lessons this term, especially the fractions lesson.’
- Amna Al Ali - (Head Girl) - 6 Red – ‘It has been great organising things for the school this term. It has been nice giving my ideas to the school and knowing that they are being listened to‘.
- Hessa 5 Red: ‘I think that the best time this year was when we went to Emirates Zoo because there were elephants and we got to feed lots of animals, like camels and zebras.’
- Fatima 5 Red: ‘My favorite day this year was National Day because we danced and there was lots of things to do, like painting.’
- Fatima and Zainab – 4 Red: ‘The best thing about our first term in Year 4 was the trip to Bounce because we learned about energy and P.E. Whilst there, we played lots of fun games with balls that can make us strong and healthy.’
- Mahra and Mohamed Khoori – 4 Red: ‘The best thing about our first them in Year 4 was celebrating the International theme day. We celebrated by dressing up and we made a speech about the countries which we chose from an Atlas.’
Subject Champions
As an important part of our Student leadership Al Rabeeh are incredibly proud to announce the following subject champions:
- Maths - Salma Hasseib and Tala Yousif (Year 6 Yellow)
- English – Saif Alshamsi and Falah Alkhoori (Year 6 Blue)
Subject champions are a very important role in which students help set the standard for their peers as well as help to mentor and support younger children through the school.
Student Council Meeting
Minutes From The Meeting
Green Day Activities
A Message From Our Social Worker
On 15th November, Al Rabeeh School enjoyed celebrating Anti-Bullying Day. Our Anti-Bullying work promoted one of most important core values at school, respect. We celebrated diversity and the importance of appreciating everyone; we are all different but equally valued. There were many fantastic activities and events at school to help raise awareness of what bullying actually is and how to prevent it. Our students continue to amaze us with their insightful opinions regarding such important social issues such as bullying! Abu Dhabi Police visited some of our students to discuss bullying and the impact of bullying. We were also very fortunate to work with students from the Centre for Special Disabilities. They visited the school on 15th November and spent some time with our students in class and at break time. The Centre for Special Disabilities also produced Anti-Bullying t-shirts for our students to purchase and wear; we were thrilled with the t-shirts and so many students purchased these! A huge thank you to both the Centre for Special Disabilities and Abu Dhabi Police for supporting our Anti-Bullying Day. We are also incredibly proud that our Anti-Bullying Day work was written about in the local newspapers and magazines!
Thank you to all of our parents for all of their support with ensuring that our students arrive at school on time for our daily assembly at 7:30am. As per ADEK guidelines, the school monitors attendance and punctuality very closely and track this on a weekly basis. We are always delighted to announce our weekly attendance and punctuality class winners in assembly! It is so important for our students to arrive at school on time as vital learning is missed if they are late for school. If a child is persistently late or absent, parents will be contacted by school. Furthermore, ADEK guidelines state that if a child continues to be late or absent, a formal written warning may be placed on that child’s eSIS record.
Special Abilities Centre Visit
Anti-Bullying T-Shirts
Media Exposure
A Message From Our Librarians
KS1 Library (Miss Rida)
During the first term students have been recognising the deference between the fiction and non-fiction books. They have also been completing comprehension based activities using educational websites and story phones. They have started to write reviews about the books as well to tell all of their friends what they liked about different books.
KS2 Library (Miss Doaa)
At the start of the term students have been reminded about library rules and how to sort the books in the Library. They have started to use the Accelerated Reader programme independently and are showing good improvement in reading and comprehension tasks.
Junior Librarian students have been chosen from Year 6 and assigned several tasks, one of which is to read with Year 1 on a morning.
It is vitally important that children look after and return library books to school on a weekly basis so that they can change their book.
Next hallf-term we are looking forward to holding a special 'Book Fair' where children and parents can visit to purchase a range of English and Arabic books, more information to follow!
Remember … Today a Reader … Tomorrow a Leader!
A Message From Our Clinic
This half term has been another busy few weeks for the school clinic and nurses. During the months of November and December, we had many students sick with flu-like symptoms due to the lower temperatures. Please monitor your child’s symptoms if they are unwell and keep them at home until their symptoms have cleared. When your child returns to school, please remember to provide the school with a medical note, making sure that the doctor has written the medical diagnosis on the medical note. Please also remember to complete the school’s medication forms if you require the school nurse to administer any medication to your child; without this paperwork, we cannot give your child any medication.
During November, we followed up with vaccinations for any students who missed these during the first round of vaccinations.
We are delighted to see many more children with healthy lunchboxes during our weekly checks. Thank you to all of the parents for supporting our Healthy Eating policy, ensuring that your child’s lunch includes lots of natural, healthy foods. It makes such a difference to the children’s attention span and learning when they have a healthy and balanced diet.
Finally, please remember to regularly monitor your child’s hair for head lice. Head lice does not have anything to do with dirty hair and they are usually picked up from head-to-head contact. Head lice are small insects, up to 3mm long, and can be difficult to spot. Head lice can be easily treated by combing your child’s hair with a special fine-toothed comb, available at most pharmacies.
Our Local Community
We have continued our work with the local community this half term. You can read all about our work with the Centre for Special Abilities and Abu Dhabi Police in Ms Heba’s section about our Anti-Bullying Day.
Our very committed parent group, the Friends of Al Rabeeh, along with Ms Mirna, Ms Aysha, Ms Anne and Miss Christine, have been very busy meeting, planning and organizing our recent National Day celebrations. Following last year’s feedback from parents, the Friends of Al Rabeeh planned and organised many more activities for our families to participate in. The Friends of Al Rabeeh have been pivotal in organizing specific National Day activities such as henna, calligraphy, food stalls and the cooking station. The celebrations were a huge success again this year and we were delighted to see so many parents sharing this special occasion together with their child at school. A huge thank you also to all of the teachers who planned and organized so many fantastic activities throughout the school to ensure that there was a rich range of suitable activities offered to everyone.
We were also very fortunate to work with one of our Year 4 parents, Mr Nazzal, who took lots of wonderful photographs of our National Day celebrations. We are very grateful to Mr Nazzal for spending the day with us and for capturing so many fantastic memories of such a special day.
Our Eco-Council have done a tremendous job at organising 'Green Day' to raise awareness for different ways to look after our environment and local community. Thank you to all of our families who brought in cat food to feed the stray cats in our local area. Our Eco-Council team will ensure our feeding station is well maintained and we will continue to work closely with Animal Welfare Abu Dhabi on their sterilisation programme in their aim to reduce the number of stray cats in Abu Dhabi.