Al Rabeeh News
January/Februry Edition
Al Rabeeh School
Email: admin@alrabeehschool.ae
Website: www.alrabeeh.sch.ae
Location: Al Rabeeh School - Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates
Phone: +971 02 4482856
Facebook: facebook.com/AlRabeehSchool
A Message From The Senior Leadership Team
A warm welcome to all of our families and readers.
Once again, it has been a very busy start of the new academic term with lots of exciting trips, enrichment days and activities that our children have been taking part in.
We continue to promote the UAE's national agenda and have already held a special My Identity day to celebrate the 'Year of Tolerance'. We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming lots of parents in to school to celebrate this day and we thank you for all of your efforts and kind contributions. Many of our parents presented special talks to our students about their country of origin and culture and shared home cooked food.
We have seen a huge improvement in punctuality in the school and most of our children are arriving to school on time for 7:30am, thank you for your continued support with this matter.
This half-term we are looking forward to our Sports Days, Y3-6 are hosting their sports days at The Armed Forces Officers Club and parents are more than welcome to join. Y5&6 13th February, Y3&4 14th February, between 9am and 11am.
The UAE is hosting a very special sporting event in March, the Special Olympics, and we are very lucky as a school to be able to take part in such a wonderful event. Many of our students will have the opportunity to get to watch the games and support the athletes. As a school, we have been presented a 'Host Nation' and we are proud to be supporting our selected nation, 'Costa Rica'. We hope to receive a school visit from the Costa Rican athletes when they arrive in Abu Dhabi.
We are very excited for some major improvements which will soon be made to our infrastructure in the school. The roof will be undergoing maintenance and will be replaced with a soft, child-friendly surface which will make play times even more safer and even more fun.
The admissions process for re-registration and for sibling registrations is now open. Please visit the administration team for further details to secure your child's place for the 2019-2020 academic year.
A Message From EYFS
FS1
FS1 have been busy this half term with our ‘Animals’ topic, learning about sea creatures as well as jungle animals through stories. We had a very successful visit to the Emirates Park Zoo where the children had the opportunity to have a real life experience with a variety of wild animals.
We have linked our topic to all areas of learning, in mathematics we have been counting spots on octopus legs and making shape animal pictures.
In Literacy we have been extending our vocabulary by describing the animals we have seen, learning a new sound each week, and practising to write our names. We have had great fun exploring the Jungle and new ‘Car Wash’ role-play area outside in the playground, as well as practising to climb independently.
FS2
This half term in FS2, our topic has been 'Under the Sea'.
One of the books we have read is The Rainbow Fish. We enjoyed learning about how The Rainbow Fish shared his scales, and learnt the importance of sharing and being a good friend. All of the classes created some wonderful rainbow fish which are displayed around our classrooms. We especially enjoyed covering the scales in glitter and sequins to make them shiny just like The Rainbow Fish’s scales!
We have also read the story Sharing a Shell, where we focused on writing words and sentences to describe what shells feel and look like.
FS2 enjoyed a visit to Emirates Park Zoo where we loved seeing the animals, watching the sea lion show, feeding the giraffes and camels and planting carrot seeds. It was a lovely day and inspired us to write about our trip in our Literacy lessons!
Last week, we took part in My Identity Day. Lots of us wore our National dress and tried food from different countries. We loved listening to our parents as they told us all about their own culture.
A Message from Y1,2&3
Year 1
Since returning to school after the Winter Break, we have been working extremely hard in Year 1.
As part of our science topic ‘Working Scientifically’, we had the opportunity to become Year 1 Super Scientists! First, we designed and made our own lab coats to enable us to carry out our fun investigations during the week. Our favourite experiment was the Coca Cola and Mentos explosion!
We took part in a whole school event celebrating The Year of Tolerance in the UAE. We welcomed many parents into class to join the children in discussing their cultures with others. This was very exciting and we even deigned our own countries sports kit.
We are really looking forward to next term where we will be going to Pizza Express and taking part in our Year 1 Sports Day!
Year 2
We’re going to the Zoo! Zoo! Zoo!
In science this term, we have been finding out about living things and their habitats. To enhance our learning in this we visited Emirates Park Zoo to find out about the wonderful variety of animals that live there. We saw lions, tigers, cheetahs and leopards in the big cat enclosure and learned that the male tigers must be kept separate from the females and her cubs.
We saw the two elephants and found out that they are sisters-I hope they don’t have trunk fights when the keepers aren’t there!
Would you like to have a kiss from a sea lion and to shake hands with them? Have you ever seen sea lions dance with the rhythm? Well we were lucky enough to as we sat and watched a fantastically fun sea lion show before our yummy meal of chicken nuggets and chips and then the bus ride back to school.
Year 3
We started this half term by developing our innovation skills by using recycling materials to build the tallest Burj Khalifa. We used our team work skills to collaborate to achieve our goal. We know that it is very important to listen to others and that we need to take turns to share our ideas, so we can work in a productive team.
On Thursday 31st January 2019, we enjoyed celebrating the Year of Tolerance by sharing and celebrating our different cultures. We wore traditional clothing from our country and we even shared delicious food. We each decorated a section of our class’ paper chain, with pictures, words and symbols that reflect our culture and beliefs.
We are looking forward to our Sports Day on Thursday 14th February 2019 at the Armed Forces Officers Club and hope you can come and cheer us on!
A Message from Y4,5&6
Welcome to the Years 4-6 Spring term newsletter page. It has been a short but busy start to 2019 for the Year 4 – 6 classes. All children have been working hard on their academic studies, and have each been given two individual targets in English, mathematics and science. Teachers and children will be working hard on achieving these targets each term, and you can help your children achieve these also – a copy of your child’s targets have been sent home, so that you can work together on these at home.
It has also been wonderful to see so many classes working hard to create extended pieces of writing this term. Year 6 have written persuasive texts based on their class novel ‘George’s Marvelous Medicine’ by Roald Dahl. Children in Year 5 have been working hard on writing descriptive pieces about their very own ‘Dream Land’. Year 4 have written some extremely persuasive letters to Miss Nan, begging her to have the roof fixed – and they worked with work now starting on repairing our roof very soon!
Over the past few weeks, all Year 4, 5 and 6 classes have been developing their athletic skills and refining their sporting technique, ready for our Sports Days. The events will take place over two days at The Armed Forces Officer’s Club – Year 5&6 on the 13th February and Year 3&4 on the 14th February. Which house will win the cup this year?
Year 5&6 enjoyed their visit to the Emirates Park Zoo at the start of the term, where they got to see animals from all around the World including zebras, giraffes and flamingos, but also animal native to the U.A.E such as camels and falcons. Unfortunately, Year 5&6 had to cancel their Desert Safari trip at the end of January, so that everyone at Al Rabeeh School could cheer on the U.A.E national football team in the AFC Asian Cup Semi-Final. There were many disappointed children in the year groups, who were looking forward to the day out. Luckily, the trip has been rearranged for February 12th, the day after we return from our mid-term break.
Thank you to all children and parents who attended the Book Worm Book Fair which was held in school at the start of term. It was a very successful week, and thanks to their visit, we have been able to top up the books in the library adding many more titles for our children to enjoy.
Finally, the whole school took part in a successful My Identity Day at the end of January, to mark the Year of tolerance. Each year group put on performances for parents to watch, which included reciting poetry and singing songs about tolerance. Each class also took part in activities about tolerance in classes, such as making a tapestry of hand prints or making videos about tolerating others.
Year 3&4 and 5&6 Sports Day
Wednesday, Feb 13, 2019, 09:00 AM
Armed Forces Officers Club and Hotel - Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates
A Message From The Arabic and Islamic Team
Arabic
نستمرّ في قسم اللغة العربيّة في تطوير استراتيجياتنا في التعليم لتقديم ما يناسب اهتمامات الطلاب واحتياجاتهم اللغويّة. ولأنّ هدف تعلّم اللغة العربيّة ليس فقط أكاديميّا بل هو هدف حياتيّ يرمي إلى إعداد جيل قادر على التخاطب بـ وقراءة وفهم وكتابة اللغة العربية بثقة وفخر. وهذا ينتج عن التعاون بين البيت والمدرسة في تعزيز هذه الثقافة وتشجيع الطلاب على استخدامها للتعبير(عوضًا عن الانجليزيّة) لأنّ لغتنا هويتنا ونحن نعتز بها.
لذلك سيتم التركيز على بناء المهارات اللغوية عند الطلاب في القراءة والكتابة وسننظّم العديد من الأنشطة والفعاليّات لتنمية مهارة القراءة عند الطلاب ضمن توقعات وأهداف المنهاج الوزاري بالإضافة إلى القراءة الترفيهية.
لذلك ندعوكم، أنت الأهالي، شركاءنا في التربية والتعليم لمشاركة أفكاركم واقتراحاتكم ومساهماتكم في جعل الطلاب يحبون القراءة.
ومن الفعاليّات التي ستتم مشاركة تواريخها وتفاصيلها لاحقًا: دعوة الأمهات لقراءة قصة للطلاب – أسبوع القراءة – معرض الكتاب – مشروع تبادل القصص وغيرها
Islamic
لقد كان شهرًا حافلاً في قسم التربية الإسلامية تحت عنوان (القرآن كتابي). إذ استمعنا بفخر للكثير من الطلاب يتلون بإتقان السور القرآنية الكريمة التي قاموا بحفظها ضمن المسابقة.
سنستمر بتشجيع الطلاب على حفظ المزيد من السور وتحفيز الآخرين على الانضمام للمسابقة لما في ذلك من أهميّة في تطوير مهارات كل طالب مسلم.
منا احتفل الطلاب في المدرسة بيوم "الهوية الوطنية" تحت عنوان "التسامح" حيث تعرّفوا على الثقافات المختلفة في المدرسة والعالم وأهمية تقبّل الآخر رغم اختلافه. تنوعت الأنشطة خلال هذا اليوم لكنّها كانت كلّها ممتعة شيّقة وموجّهة لشرح معنى التسامح وزرعه في قلوب الطلاب وتذكيرهم بسماحة الإسلام وعدم تفريقه بين الناس.
A Message From The Nurse
In January, Ms Asumpta presented a workshop to Year 4 children about the importance of dental hygiene. The children learned about the importance of brushing their teeth twice a day, avoiding sugary foods and visiting their dentist regularly.
This term, the school nurses have also started BMI checks and eye tests for all children in the school. This is an ongoing process that will continue to take place after the mid-term holiday.
Please make sure that your child’s lunchbox contains healthy foods only. The school nurses and the class teacher check children’s lunchboxes daily. The Ministry of Education released the following list of food items that children are not permitted to eat in UAE schools:
1. Hot dogs and processed meats
2. Indomie which is a brand of instant noodle produced in Indonesia
3. Chocolate bars both with and without nuts
4. Chocolate spreads
5. Sweets, lollipops and jelly
6. All peanut products
7. All potato chips and corn chips
8. Carbonated drinks including energy drinks, flavoured water, juice, iced teas, slushies and eskimo drinks
9. All cream cakes and doughnuts
If your child has these food items in their lunchbox, they will not be allowed to eat them and alternative food items would need to be provided for your child.
Miss Asumpta can be contacted via e-mail at: asumpta.monis@alrabeehschool.ae if you have any questions.
Our Local Community
World Cancer Day
Al Rabeeh School has continued to develop and strengthen its links with the local community. We were delighted to mark World Cancer Day on 4th February with a visit to Burjeel Hospital this morning. Our school council representatives from Year 3 - Year 6, Head Boy and Head Girl were invited to meet patients at the hospital along with Ms Heba and Ms Anne. Our students distributed gifts and talked with many patients at the hospital. As always, our students were fantastic ambassadors for Al Rabeeh School and we are incredibly proud of them!
Punctuality
The school have been monitoring the punctuality of students closely this term. We are delighted to see a reduction in the number of children who are late, but we must continue to work on this as we still have a number of children who are repeatedly late and missing vital learning time. We have implemented the latest guidelines from ADEK regarding tardiness as persistent lateness is deemed as a Level 1 form of misconduct by ADEK. The guidelines state that written warnings can be issued on children’s ESIS records for children who are persistently late. Please see Ms Anne or Ms Heba if you have any questions about this.
Behaviour Workshop
On 16th January, we were very pleased to have a number of parents attend a behaviour workshop. The discussions that took place between parents were incredibly useful and positive, and many parents commented on how much they enjoyed discussing behaviour strategies with other parents as well as staff. We do try to offer many workshops for parents and it is always great when parents attend and contribute.
Tolerance Carnival
On Wednesday 27th February, we will be holding a ‘Tolerance Carnival’ at school. The carnival is being organized by our social worker Ms Heba and the Special Disabilities Centre in Abu Dhabi, who we have worked with closely over the past year. Proceeds from the carnival will go to supporting the Special Disabilities Centre.
The carnival will take place after school, from 2pm until 5pm, and children can attend once collected by parents or nannies. If your child travels on the school bus and you would like them to attend, you will need to arrange for your child to be collected on this day by yourself or another adult. There will be many fantastic activities for both adults and children including Zumba, face painting, a magician and different food stalls. Further information about the carnival and the purchase of coupons will be available very soon.