Secondary Newsletter
All the latest news from 20th September - 11th October, 2017
Principal’s note
It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the 2017/2018 school year. We are all excited to have our students return to our classrooms and see our mission in action! We aim to inspire all learners to be the most innovative and successful individuals they can be in an ever changing world. We are privileged to be a part of your child’s education and look forward to working with you to develop and support your child’s enthusiasm for learning every day.
On Monday we held our first parent information session for the year for parents of grades 6 and 7 students which was led by Mr Darren Stanbury and Miss Becky Barry. It was great to see many of you here and the feedback I have received was that parents found the session very informative.
We will be running various sessions throughout the year, and these will be announced via D6 Communicator and across our various social media channels. Please keep an eye out for these!
Again, we are expecting this year to be full of activity. Amongst other things, we are introducing our IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) for Grade 6, 7 & 8 and working towards implementation of the Diploma Programme (IB DP) for our later years to fulfil the school’s plan to become an IB World School. Currently, we are at the candidacy stage for both MYP and DP and preparations have commenced for authorisation status within two years.
The Secondary School team are energised and deeply committed to making a difference in the lives of your children through inspirational teaching and embedding an ethos of learning without limits.
In this edition, you will find news from our various departments and I do hope you enjoy reading it.
Peter Ross
Secondary School Principal
New Boys Secondary Building
We are so pleased to announce that the new Phase2B secondary boys building has now been completed. The new state-of-the-art 36,500 square foot building is designed to create an exciting academic environment that includes integrated natural skylights, 16 well-outfitted classrooms, a multi-purpose room, cafeteria as well as a 1500 square foot performing arts auditorium for general assemblies and indoor recreational activities.
The school, like the existing Primary and Secondary buildings will have complete integrated technology with additional computer labs, music and art rooms.
Advanced safety measures include a double-entry door security feature and security cameras throughout the interior and exterior of the building. Bright spacious interior hallways are designed for maximum traffic flow with minimal congestion.
Students will enjoy an interior gymnasium with direct access from school. Outdoor facilities include floodlit basketball and football pitches including an athletics track.
News from our PE department
There are many ways in which students at Ajman Academy can be involved in sport and physical activity after school free of charge. The schedule below shows the available activities throughout the year. Strong interest from students can help establish new and exciting programs to complement the ones already in place.
EISSA Competitions
The EISSA competition schedule has been added below for parents and any students that are involved or interested.
The season will start on Tuesdays and Wednesdays with netball. In order to take part, interested students must return signed consent slip to a member of the PE Department.
Swimming at Ajman Academy
At Ajman Academy we take our swimming seriously! We are indeed fortunate to have excellent facilities and experienced, talented staff. Mr Burak Bilgutay our head swimming coach has provided the below information with a wrap up of last year’s achievements:
EISSA Swim Galas: 18 championship records & overall age grand trophy
British Schools Of Middle East – BSME competition: (350 swimmers from 17 schools of 7 Countries): AJAC: 7 gold, 1 silver, 5 championship records and 2 high point trophies.
Middle East Unity Cup – MEUC (830 Swimmers from 30 schools of 11 Countries): 4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal.
Congratulations to all. We are enormously proud of our swimmers and the support they receive from parents to get to all their practice sessions.
During 2017-18 academic year, the AJAC Swimming Program will be:
PE Swimming: As a part of curriculum.
ECA Swimming: 5 days a week after school swimming as a part of Extra Curricular Activities. Swim Squad Team: Selected swimmers from ECAs to join the AJAC Swim Squad team.
EISSA Swim Galas: Selected swimmers from the squad to represent AJAC in EISSA swimming Galas
BSME & MEUC: Time qualified (faster) swimmers to represent AJAC in BSME and MEUC Championships.
Dubai Open & International: Faster time qualified squad team swimmers to represent AJAC in top-notch national and international meets.
During the course of this academic year, AJAC swimmers will represent our school in more than 12 competitions that will take place in various pools in the UAE.
Regular updates will be provided throughout the year. We are looking forward to bringing home more medals!
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 early release of your child before 2:40 PM, please provide a note to your child’s home room 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 the reason for absence is medical, please provide the school office with your child’s medical certificate.
Update from our Arabic & Islamic Department
أرحب بكم في أكاديمية عجمان، التي تتميز بشغف وحماس متقد بالخبرات التعليمية والفرص المتميزة لبناء قادة متميزين في المستقبل.
يسعدني كرئيس قسم اللغة العربية أن أكون ضمن الفريق الذي سيقوم بتطبيق منهاج السنوات المتوسطة، وهو منهاج تابع لبرنامج البكالوريا الدولية، يمتد من الصف السادس إلى الصف العاشر. لذلك، ينصبّ تركيزنا على الهدف المشترك المتمثل في تقديم الدعم الاجتماعي والنفسي الذي يحتاجه الطلاب خلال هذه المرحلة العمرية، وفي الوقت نفسه منح تأسيس أكاديمي مميز يضمن انتقالهم بسلاسة إلى المرحلة الموالية. كما نبذل جهودًا دؤوبة لمساعدة طلابنا على اكتساب الشعور بالوعي تجاه القضايا العالمية والمجتمعية، وبناء أساس أكاديمي متين من خلال برنامج السنوات المتوسطة، وتطوير المهارات الضرورية التي تمكّنهم من اجتياز المرحلة الثانوية بنجاح. أما في ما يخص مادة اللغة العربية، فنعتمد مناهج وزارة التربية والتعليم بدولة الإمارات.
نأمل أن تكون سنة مكلّلة بالنجاح للجميع، كما نرجو ألا تترددوا في التواصل مع المدرسة إذا كانت لديكم أية استفسارات أخرى، أو إذا رغبتم في الحصول على المزيد من المعلومات.
ختامًا، تقبلوا خالص شكري وتقديري.
كريمة بنحسين
Introducing Rana - new to the Marketing and Communications Team
We would like to introduce Mrs. Rana Ghazal-Laghoutis who is joining the school's Marketing and Communications Team
Rana's main role is to ensure fluid communication between the secondary school and our parents and encourage trusting relationships. In addition, Rana is involved in the marketing and PR of the school and contributes to social events and projects accordingly.
We would like to point out that our main tool of communication is via the D6 application. If you do not have this downloaded on your smartphone please do so. To ensure that you are receiving all your child’s class related information, please ensure that you have selected the correct grade level. You might be missing valuable information because you still have it set on your child’s last year’s grade.
If you have any queries or need any assistance please contact Ms. Rana on r.laghoutis@ajmanacademy.com
Middle Years Program (MYP)
Ajman Academy aims to empower students in taking responsibility for their learning by facilitating students in their learning journey, by embedding the IB ethos, we are providing the building blocks for independent learners.
Ajman Academy is continuing its' International Baccalaureate (IB) journey. Our vision at Ajman is to create an holistic and challenging learning environment that will prepare students as future global citizens. The Primary Years Programme (PYP) continues to lay the foundations; the implementation of the Middle years programme (MYP) and the Diploma (DP) programme are now in progress.
Ms May joined AJAC in 2013 and worked on developing the successful PYP curriculum, as MYP Coordinator she is developing the curriculum with a supportive staff. Most parents will already know Miss May as do the students, she continuous to support and guide the AJAC community in becoming an IB world school.
IGCSE Results
We had our very first cohort of IGCSE students in 2016/2017. Impressively, we would like to celebrate the achievements of Ayesha, Jamil and Osama. Their focus and hard work throughout the year paid off with some excellent results - congratulations.
We are proud of all our students who sat for examinations and are pleased to see you all back as senior Ajman Academy students this year.
News from Mr. Basil - our Environmental Leader
I am very pleased to announce that AJAC has been approved as members for the Eco School programme! This is very exciting news as we are now able to officially proceed with the seven steps required to become an authorised Eco-school. We can’t wait to get our students involved in the eco-committee and proceed to involve our wider school community. Please watch this space for further developments!
Secondary Pastoral Care
Dear Parents,
We are very pleased to welcome your child(ren) to the new academic year. The Pastoral Team are working hard to ensure that the welfare of every child is fully taken care of. We strongly believe that if your child feels comfortable and confident, they have a much greater chance of succeeding in their school work.
The Pastoral Team is structured as follows:
Each class is taken care of by a Class Tutor. Subject teachers inform the Class Tutors of positive progress and any challenges faced by the students.
Our Subject Leaders are involved in helping to support the students academically and with the focus and behaviour in class.
Every Grade also has a Grade Leader, who oversees the needs of the students too but for the entire Grade.
Mr. Ben Barry oversees the Grade Leaders and he and I together help to keep the school running, motivated and behaving in a polite and civilized manner.
If you have any queries or suggestions, please feel free to meet your child(ren)’s Class Tutor, Subject Leader, Grade Leader, Mr. Ben or myself.
We all look forward to a positive and productive year ahead for you and your children.
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.