DHA News & Updates
Friday 20th May 2022
Week 5
We were deeply saddened following the announcement that the UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan had passed away and as a community we expressed our deepest condolences to the people of the UAE and across the world. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was truly a visionary and his contributions and legacy will live on forever.
This week the students have been busy identifying the life cycles of different animals, naming sides and vertices on 2D shapes, finding equivalent fractions, discovering about the the life of Sheikh Zayed and the foundation of the UAE, investigating the properties of different materials, designing sections of the Year 6 yearbook, understanding the physical nature of springs and creating a school information app.
FS1 and FS2 students took their learning out of the classroom and visited the Dubai aquarium as part of their topic on the world of water. Year 5 students were set a task with a limited budget and not only demonstrated their mathematical skills to ensure the correct quantities of ingredients were bought but also their culinary skills by baking some very delicious cookies.
This week we have also been holding our online PST (parent, student and teacher) meetings to discuss the students’ attainment and progress. Whilst we are planning to return to face to face meetings next academic year, we will continue to offer online meetings as we know some of our parents find this more convenient.
Professional development is an important and valuable element for all our staff and this week we attended the BSME (British Schools of the Middle East) Annual Conference for Principals and Senior Leaders. The conference offered a wealth of inspirational keynotes, workshops, roundtable discussions as well as an exhibition of educational vendors and suppliers.
With the skies starting to clear after a few dusty days, please enjoy the weekend and we look forward to seeing you for another busy week on Monday.
Dates for your diary
May
Friday 27th - This is Me Day
Monday 30th - Open Day
June
Thursday 30th - FS2 Graduation
July
Monday 4th - Year 6 Graduation
Thursday 7th - End of Term 3
Don't forget you can keep up to date and access our calendar online via our website or by using the following link and adding it to your own calendar:
Golf Day at Montgomerie Golf Club - raising awareness for Angelman syndrome
Back in February we introduced Seren, her mum Rhian, dad Ollie and her brother Samson. Samson has Angelman Syndrome and we were happy that Seren and her family could share their journey with us.
On Saturday 21st March there is a golf/family day at the Montgomery to raise awareness for Angelman Syndrome. Seren and her family would like to invite the DHA community to join them at this event. You can find all the details below.
They would love to see if you could make it.
FS's Visit to Dubai Aquarium
Kidpreneurs!
The past 2 weeks, Year 5 has been probing their entrepreneurial skills. After some very intense brainstorming they decided on baking some cookies, and then distribute them as an act of kindness. Year 5 decided their teachers, being their closest community, deserved this the most.
A budget was given to the students to decide on a recipe. They opted for a simple sugar cookie recipe, since the budget was very small. Online shopping was done to find if their budget was big enough for their choice of recipe. They had to dab into their maths knowledge acquired during this year, as huge amounts of maths had to go into the planning phase. Batches had to be multiplied to make sure they had enough cookies. Adjustments were necessary to fit their budget!
We discovered some great cooks in our Year 5 class during the cooking phase of the project. They were ecstatic to distribute the cookies with a little handwritten note of appreciation to the teaching staff.
During their reflection time, they wrote how warm and happy it made them feel to give just a small token of appreciation.
“This made me feel good and I enjoyed this so much. I think we also made a few teachers' days, which was good to hear!” - Ruairi Year 5
“We gave away some cookies that we made for the teachers. It made me feel excited, happy and exactly like you are doing something good for everyone” - Zoey Year 5
A huge thank you and well done to Ms Wendy and our Year 5 students.
Inclusion & Wellbeing
We are delighted to have a new member of our inclusion team to support DHA with well-being and pastoral support. Ms Rachel Brown is a qualified social worker from the UK and she is excited to meet and support our DHA community. Next Wednesday 25th of May, Ms Brown will host a wellbeing session for parents on Zoom to introduce herself and also to share some strategies for wellbeing at home. Please join us on the Zoom link below:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73276075948?pwd=QBNAQbfGQ0kzk40p4KJoaA9avmFjqD.1
Meeting ID: 732 7607 5948
Passcode: 8Q6csq
PE & Sport at DHA
This week we focussed on the triple threat and pivoting in basketball while continuing to work on the front crawl in swimming.
We have noticed that a lot of students are forgetting their swim caps. Please note that it is compulsory to wear a cap for both safety and hygiene reasons. Kindly message the PE team via Seesaw if you need help in sourcing caps.
We look forward to competing in our first Primary swim gala in over 2 years next Tuesday. We wish all our swim squad members the best of luck.