Primary 'Good News' letter
News and events taking place from 15th - 22nd February
Message from the acting Primary Principal
The skills of collaboration and teamwork are very much in evidence with our Inspire 2 Teach programme for outstanding teaching and learning. More details are below.
PY6 Formula One Trip to Yas Marina Circuit
To link with their Unit of Inquiry into Forces, PY6 students have been designing racing cars. They are excited to be taking their models to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, 14th February to race them at the Yas Marina F1 Circuit. In the next newsletter we will include a full report of the day.
Parent Teacher Consultations
Art in Primary
Miss Kim Ross joined our Primary Team as Art Specialist for PY 4-6 and as advisor to teachers in PY1-3 who have art with their own class teacher.
There is some stunning art work displayed in the foyer and also outside the library. Please scroll down for more news from the Primary Library.
PA to the Primary Principal
At the beginning of term, we were pleased to welcome Miss Saima to our Primary School administration team as PA to the Primary Principal upon the appointment of Miss Zeina to the position of Executive Assistant to the Director. We wish Miss Zeina well in her new role and miss her in the primary section.
Miss Saima will be familiar to you from her previous position on the main reception desk. Miss Saima handles the day-to-day organisation and administration for the Primary School and any appointments with teachers or the Senior Leadership team. She can be reached on the email address mentioned below:
Email: s.ahmed@ajmanacademy.com
Consillium Education Visit
Next week we will be welcoming Elly Tobin, who is the Principal of Joseph Chamberlain College and the Director of the College for International Citizenship, both of which are based at a state of the art campus in Birmingham UK.
Elly will be coming to Ajman Academy to advise us on our teaching strategies for children for whom English is a Second Language
Elly has held senior leadership roles for more than two decades, both in the UK and overseas and is a founder director of the International Writing project which she delivers in a variety of locations around the world each year. With over thirty years of experience in education from Kindergarten through to adult learning, she is also an experienced presenter, guest speaker and educational consultant specializing in language acquisition, EAL, leadership, management and curriculum development.
Specialist consulting areas:
- Teaching for excellence in Learning Outcomes
- Language acquisition
- EAL for specialists and non-specialists
- Leadership development across the school
- Performance management of academic and support staff
- Curriculum monitoring
Admissions Open for FS1 - A Levels
Ajman Academy pursues excellence in all areas of our students' education.We combine the ethos held by the very best global independent schools in the world with the provision of a world-class International curriculum.
Email: school@ajmanacademy.com
Website: www.ajmanacademy.com
Location: Tallah 2, Ajman
Phone: 06 731 4444
Facebook: facebook.com/AjmanAcademy
Twitter: @AjmanAcademy
Welcome to the Library
As the school year rolls along this appears to be a good moment to look back at the libraries and review what we have achieved. The elementary library has been totally redesigned, bringing many of the books out into the large open area that surrounds the enclosed glass room. This has enabled us to reorganize the collection so that the inner room now houses our non-fiction books and there are tables and chairs for students undertaking research. The open area now stores our fiction collection.
We have been extremely lucky this year with receiving new stock. The large order placed last year arrived safely and is slowly finding its way onto the shelves. In addition Ajman Academy also invested in a sizeable local purchase so we are looking at adding some 3000 books to our stock by the end of the year.
However, even more than books, a library is about people and we are proud of the warm atmosphere that we are establishing. Staff often use the sofa area for small meetings, or to relax for a few minutes between classes, and with exhibition approaching small groups of 6th grade students are increasingly coming to the library area to conduct research.
We have put on displays of staff and students photographs – and are always looking to showcase other artists within the school community – and the library staff worked alongside Bookworm to host the success Book Fair. A second event is planned for later this term.
We have also worked hard to get books out of the library and into student’s homes. The amount of books each child can loan at any one time has been increased from1 to 3 and the Foundation years – our youngest students - are now regular visitors and borrowers. At Christmas we estimated that we had already facilitated 14,000 loans just from the elementary desk!
We would like to invite parents to drop by and see the library in action.
Bob Pateman and Library team
Welcome to the art room!
Kim Ross is an art teacher who is based in the Primary school but works with students from year 4 to 8. A large part of her job has been to develop a course of work that meets the needs of her students. As Kim says, “we are working hard to introduce the basic elements of art, such as line, shape, proportion, unity in a painting and colour theory.”
Her role has also involved close cooperation with classroom teachers in their topic areas. For example Year 4 have been looking at ‘Natural Forces’ and their art lesson have been used to produce a piece of art that links to this project. Using a mixture of medium, they have practised the basic skills of drawing and painting. One result of this work are the dramatic volcano scenes that can be seen decorating the top corridor of the school.
Other work produced by Kim and her students is on display around the school with a concentration of work being displayed in the library. Here you can see paintings of toucans and jungle leafs that the students have produced using oil pastels and paint.
Most importantly of all, Kim is working to create a love of art and develop the artist that lies buried within us all!