Ajman Academy Newsletter
All the latest news from November 14th - November 28th, 2017
Mr. Peter Ross - Acting Director of Ajman Academy
A search committee, to include representatives from all stakeholders, will soon begin the work of finding and hiring the prospective Director, however in the meantime we are confident that Mr. Ross will fulfill the role in the best of his ability.
Congratulations to Mr. Peter from all the staff and board of Ajman Academy.
Meet Mr. Ben Barry: Secondary School Deputy Principal
We are pleased to be able to share with you that we appointed Mr. Ben Barry as the new Deputy Principal of the Secondary School. Ben has moved from the United Kingdom with his family. He has a wife who is also a teacher of Mathematics at Ajman Academy and his young daughter will join Pre-KG soon.
After graduating with a BSc (Hons) from Liverpool University, Ben continued to gain a PGDip in IT, but then moved towards his true passion and gained a PGCE in Mathematics (Secondary) at Chester University.
Ben has taught Mathematics throughout his career alongside ICT and ECDL. He has also been a Head of Mathematics and Assistant Principal within the UK. Ben enjoys being in the classroom the most and wants to engage students towards Mathematics.
His overall goal is to make students enjoy and recognise the value of Mathematics. Ben enjoys advancing students beyond the level they believe they can achieve and seeing the advances they make in Mathematics. He has a strong passion towards not allowing students to underachieve and pushes his students towards excellence, whilst also intervening where necessary.
Ben in his spare time enjoys visiting new parts of the UAE with his family, especially introducing his daughter to new experiences outside of the United Kingdom.
We would like to wish Ben all the best of luck in his new role.
New Acting Secondary Principal: Ms. Sam Hamdani
We are very pleased to confirm that Ms. Sam Hamdani has agreed to accept the position of Acting Secondary Principal and we know you will join us in extending our congratulations to Sam.
Originally from the United Kingdom, Sam has been working in the Middle East for more than four years. She has a child in the Secondary School of Ajman Academy and this is her third year in this school.
Her passion for pastoral care was acquired from the start of her teaching career, which has been identified by every one of the institutions Sam has worked for. In her previous school in Doha, she was appointed as Pastoral Head of Year 11 and 12.
Sam has a strong desire to help everyone enjoy their journey in education and gain the success that every individual deserves. Her emphasis is on developing positive home-school relationships. She believes that a safe, nurturing environment allows students to perform their best, fulfill their potential, whilst simultaneously becoming responsible citizens of their community and the wider world.
National Day at Ajman Academy
Parents are invited to celebrate this occasion with us and we look forward to welcoming you. A wonderful show with entertainment, sports and stalls await you for a fun-filled event!
Football Competitions and Results
The full squad was as follows:
Khaled Alaleeli, Murhaf Daaboul, Mohamed Alawadhi, Omar Al-Ali, Marwan Alhashemi (C), Abdulla Al Suwaidi, Ramzi Al-Sharawi, Saeed Abdulla, Majid Sultan, Abdulrahman Alhouti, Abdul Baqi and Saif Alshamsi.
The Under 14 Football Squad has finished third place in the EISSA competition. They played with good teamwork against teams who were often much bigger than them. Well done to all those that consistently came to matches.
The full squad included Mohamed Said, Saleh Alhasmi, Abdulrahman Al-Ali, Zayed Alaleeli, Kalifah Sultan, Abdullah Alsamra, Mansoor Alashemi and Ahmed Kolo with Coach Ms Luiza.
Music with Mr. Keith
Here are a couple of videos of our students during their classwork.
In the first video, you can see Alia Al Shizawi demonstrating her superb leadership skills and understanding of rhythm by directing her class in a samba performance. G7 girls and boys have all been studying samba this term in music; all have performed to each other and grade 7 boys even performed to the whole of secondary and Kris Fade!
In the second video, view Grade 9 students during their short music course working out a well-known rock riff! Saud (on the drum kit) has continued to work hard on his drumming skills outside of lesson time and is working towards a drum solo performance in the near future.
Design Technology with Ms. Zakiya Bakari
Student Councils - Primary & Secondary Meet
The Primary School Student Council coordinated by Ms. Sarah-Jane Pattison and Secondary School Student Leaders coordinated by Ms. Carolina Fuentes have had their first collaborative meeting. Secondary School Student Leaders gave ideas and advice and different topics were discussed.
The new members of the Student Council 2017/18 were asked: "Why is being a part of Student Council important to you?". The following are their answers.
Grade 1
Amreesa Amit Swamy - “It is important to have a Student Council to help and care for the students of the school.”
Wissam El Bachtigui - “It is important because we need leaders to help guide the children”
Grade 2
Mohammed Ghanim Alfalasi - “I would like to be student councilor because I want to tell the children what we are doing and I want a nicer playground outside.”
Soliana Asmorom Ghebrihiwot- “I want students to be good and have good manners so the school will be nice and friendly. I want kids to have a fun time with teachers.”
Grade 3
Khalifa Almatrooshi - “I like to be a student council member because I like to help people and make the school a better place. I like helping people with math or science or spellings and being a student council is fun because you get to have meetings. Being a student council is fun and you might be one next year. “
Grade 4
Salma Halalo - “I want to help the school be a better place and more interesting for everyone”
Kareem Khaled Assaleh - “I want to make the school a better and safer place for all the children.”
Grade 5
Humaid Rashed Jamal Alnuaimi - “Being on the student council gives me the opportunity to speak for those who want to be heard. It is the chance to provide input from a students point of view and provide valuable insight to what students want. Being on the council lets me lead and support my friends and classmates.”
Message from the Secondary Student Councils:
On Thursday the Secondary Student Leaders met with the Primary Student Council to discuss leadership skills and the role of a leader within our school community. The primary student council brought to the table different issues in the Primary School that they would like to tackle, and the Secondary Student Leaders communicated to the Primary Student Council different ways to solve daily problems that they may witness.
After the meeting, the Primary Student Council decided that they would like to try and tackle their own problems and if they needed any assistance then the Secondary Student Leaders would step in and help guide them in the right direction.
If you, as our fellow students have any news or thoughts about your day to day school life, please see your dedicated grade student leadership team, if you are not aware of who they are, ask your teacher or please feel free to catch either Kawther, Khalid, Osama or Lydia, we will be more than willing to assist you if necessary.
Council of International Schools Visit
We are very pleased to welcome two visitors from the Council of International Schools (CIS) to Ajman Academy next week. Dr Rick Spradling and Mr. Iain Stirling will join us as part of our journey towards accreditation with CIS. We enjoyed a very successful membership visit in May earlier this year and we know this visit will be equally positive and helpful for the growth and development of the school. Dr Rick and Mr Iain will hold interviews and meetings with staff and students as well as spend time in classrooms. They will then prepare a report for us highlighting our strengths and recommending areas of growth.
Both CIS and BSO looked at us very favourably last year and we’re confident the message will be the same (or better!) this time as well.
Read Theory update from Ms. Elise
A big thank you to all parents who have been encouraging their children to complete Read Theory assignments on a regular basis. Teachers are starting to notice the improvement in students’ reading and comprehension skills in class and they are mentioning this to me.
The best way for students to improve their performance in all subjects is to improve their reading skills, so please keep encouraging your children to take time to work on this at home.
78 students have received a certificate for completing 10+ assignments at 80% or higher – this is fantastic work!
Special congratulations should go to the following students for their outstanding effort:
50+ Assignments completed at 80%+
6G1 Mouza AlMheiri; Sidra AlShekh; Azza Khufash
6B1 Bilal Ihab Gabr
6B2 Mohammad Imran Ahmed
7B1 Hadef AlShamsi
7G2 Sarah AlShamsi
8G Aya Sheerani; Aisha Alshamsi
8B1 Mohamed Said
100+ Assignments completed at 80%+
7B1 Zayed AlMatrooshi
7B1 Emre Bilgutay
Students whose reading has improved by two grade levels on Read Theory
6B1 Quija Tang
6B1 Zheming Ruan
7G1 Asma Alnuaimi
11B Ramzi Al Shawari
Elise Marlow
Subject Leader, English
Curriculum Leader - Primary
In the Primary School, we are continuing to develop a strong and rigorous curriculum. We are delighted that Ms. Samantha Bhogal has accepted the additional responsibility of becoming Curriculum Leader with responsibility for English, Mathematics, and Science in the Primary School. She will be assisted by Ms. Kerry to develop our learning journey ladders and ensure our curriculum continues to meet international benchmarks.
Congratulations to Ms. Samantha!
Fire & Lockdown Drill
We are very proud of our Primary School students who have been practising Fire Drill Safety this week.
They are all able to evacuate our building within 3 minutes and everyone safe and accounted for.
We are working on our lockdown drill procedure also and children and staff practised this week. The classes were firmly locked down and children absolutely out of sight.
Well done to all!
Attendance and student absences
Educating your child is an important job and to do it well, we need your support. Attending and arriving on time to school means that your child(ren) arrive each day ready to learn in in their classrooms. Regular attendance sets up a pattern for your child's entire schooling. Please assist us in this process by scheduling routine doctor and dentist appointments for after school or over school holidays.
If you need to make arrangements for the early release of your child before 2:40 PM, please provide a note to your child’s homeroom tutor with prior written permission. This will ensure that you are not inconvenienced and kept waiting whilst your child is released from their classroom.
If your secondary school child is to be absent from school please do email g.denvir@ajmanacademy.com.
If your primary school child is absent please contact the main school reception.
If the reason for absence is medical, please provide the school office with your child’s medical certificate.
Parent Support Group
Our parent partnerships are important. We have an active parent network and involvement in our parent support group assists with development of closer relationships with teachers and increases parent opportunities to share ideas.
There are some exciting projects being planned for this year - do see Miss Yasmeen Ali if you are interested in becoming involved or email directly: y.ali@ajmanacademy.com.