JPS Weekly

January 9th 2014 Jumeirah Primary School, Dubai Issue No. 16 - 13/14 Dear Parents, Welcome back to you and your families after what I hope has been a restful and happy winters break. It has been great to see so many of you again and to welcome the children and their smiles. Personally, I spent the holiday period in England, where I spent time with my own family, my daughter coming over from Australia to join my wife and our two sons. I am also fortunate enough to have both my parents still with me and so I spent time with them and my five brothers and sisters and their families. As I sit here in Dubai I must admit that the wet weather that we are experiencing reminds me of home! The start of any term is always busy, but, as last year, we have been notified that we are to be inspected later this month. This is always potentially a stressful time but I must be honest and say that all the inspections teams I have worked with in the past have been very thoughtful and fair in the way that they have dealt with things, and I have no reason to believe that it will be any different this year. On this subject, can I take this opportunity to ask you to complete the online surveys that are required at each inspection. One of the aspects the school will be judged on is the number of returns that we have and so I am always extremely grateful to those of you who find time to be able to support us in this way. Moving on from inspection, we have an exciting term ahead of us with events such as Sports Days, the Spring Fair and camps for the older children, amongst many other things. As always, I look forward to speaking to as many of you as possible over the coming weeks and months. A school of this size is incredibly busy, but I can honestly say that the best times that we have involve working with other people, whether they be parents, staff or children. Once again, welcome back to all of you and the very best of luck for the forthcoming term and calendar year. Best wishes, Chris McDermott Principal/CEO

DATE
Sun 12 January Mon 13 January Tue 14 January Wed 15 January Thurs 16 January

IMPORTANT DATES FOR TERM 2

PROPHETS BIRTHDAY SCHOOL CLOSED

Teacher Led After School Activities start
Year 3 Curriculum Preview Meeting 7.45am to 8.30am Year 1 Curriculum Preview Meeting 7.45am to 8.30am FS1 Trip to Jumeirah Beach Park Y6 AB Netball v JESS Jumeirah @ JPS 2.30pm Y4/5 Muslim children Trip to Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi FS1 Curriculum Preview Meeting 7.45am to 8.30am Year 2 Curriculum Preview Meeting 7.45am to 8.30am Y4 B /Y5 B Netball Tournament @ DESS 2 to 3.30pm

TERM 2 PREVIEW MEETINGS

We welcome all parents to attend our termly preview meetings. The Heads of Year and specialist staff will provide you with an overview of the terms learning focuses. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions about the curriculum and year-level educational opportunities. You can send your questions in advance, via their email address below. We look forward to seeing you there! (Please note: Year 6 is now Thursday 23 January)

TERM 2 PREVIEW MEETINGS

FS2 YEAR 5 YEAR 6 YEAR 3 YEAR 1 FS1 YEAR 2 Sunday 19 January Sunday 19 January Thursday 23 January
(note new date)

7.45am to 8.30am 1.30pm to 2.10pm 12.30 to 1.15pm 7.45am to 8.30am 7.45am to 8.30am 8.00am to 8.45am 7.45am to 8.30am

Meeting Room Meeting Room Main Hall Meeting Room Meeting Room Meeting Room Meeting Room

Chloe Hobson-Burch Chloe.H_JPS@gemsedu.com Alison Lawton A.Padmore_JPS@gemsedu.com John Stapley J.Stapley_JPS@gemsedu.com Nikki Perkins Nicola.P_JPS@gemsedu.com Louise Usher L.Usher_JPS@gemsedu.com Sue Price S.Price_JPS@gemsedu.com Dan Smith D.Smith_JPS@gemsedu.com

Monday 13 January Tuesday 14 January Wednesday 15 January Thursday 16 January

RUTH MISKIN PHONICS WORKSHOP KS1 (Years 1 and 2 only)

Parents of new children in KS1 are welcome to a Phonics Workshop to be held on: Monday 20th January 7.45 to 8.30am This is a great opportunity to see how we teach the early stages of reading, and to get ideas on how you can help your child at home. Please email me e.deans_jps@gemsedu.com to confirm your attendance. The session will contain practical examples of how you can help your child(ren) at home. Audience participation will be required! I will look forward to seeing you there! As this is a repeat of last terms workshop, it is for new parents only. Emma Deans Year 1 Class Teacher and FS/KS1 Literacy Leader

KEY STAGE 2 (Year 3-6) MATHS PASSPORTS/GUIDED READING WORKSHOP

Parents of new children in Year 3-Year 6 are welcome to a Maths Passports/Guided Reading Workshop to be held: Monday 20TH January 7.45 to 8.30am This workshop is for those parents who are keen on helping out in class with Maths Passports. There will also be a presentation on Key Stage 2 Guided Reading and how you can help your child at home. We look forward to seeing you there! As this is a repeat of last terms workshop, it is for new parents only Leia Bremmer KS2 Maths Leader Hilary Sinclair/Jenny Barratt KS2 Literacy Leaders

COLLECTION OF YEAR 3 CHILDREN Following on from the successful transition to the KS1 playground for collecting Year 3 children, please be aware that when collecting your child from here, it can at times be very busy. Please can you make sure that the playground is accessible for the year three classes at the end of the day, allowing ample space for us to line up. Make sure that your class teacher is aware when you collect your child. Thank you all for your help with this very important matter.

PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT WEEK

Sunday 19th January 2014

We are delighted to announce our fifth annual Parental Engagement week commencing Sunday 19th January. This was a tremendous success last year and a highlight in the calendar for parents, children and staff. Below is a brief overview of some of the events you can expect from the week and overleaf is a timetable of all events for your reference. Next week more detailed letters will be emailed about all events including how to take part. Our key foci this year are Creative Curriculum Assessments, Anti-Bullying, Introduction to our new Website JPS Weebly, revising the school Vision and Helping your childs class produce an amazing stall for the Spring Fair! Pupil-Parent Conferences. The idea of these sessions this year is for your child to engage with you and share their assessments of themselves in their Creative Curriculum sessions. They will share with you the ways in which they work, how they learn best and what they need to do to develop in certain areas. Your class teacher will send you two slot options and then reply to let them know when you would like to came and share your childrens experiences. Spring Fair Involvement .. Each class has a stall that is shared for the Annual Spring Fair and this year we would like the children to link their stall to their Maths, DT, ICT and Art learning. They will need your help! The class teachers will let you know which session/s you can come in to support in the production of their stall. Please let your teachers know of your interest to support and involve yourselves in this exciting opportunity! Talks in School During the week, we will be holding talks here at JPS that aim to support engagement. The Wellbeing Team will lead workshops aimed at understanding and implementing techniques for your children.

Anti-Bullying

BULLYING: recognizing it, preventing it, treating it Bullying is when a child repeatedly and on purpose says or does mean or hurtful things to another child. As much as we condemn bullying at JPS, unfortunately it can still happen, with social, emotional and academic consequences for our pupils. We therefore all need to be aware of what bullying symptoms look like, how to prevent it and what we can do if a child is involved in a situation, either as a bully, a victim or a bystander. JPS students will also be learning and discussing this important topic during assemblies as well as in class throughout the week. The Workshops will be held on Monday 20th January at 1pm and then repeated on Tuesday 21st January at 8am. There is allocation for 60 people per workshop and sign up for badges must be through Lamya Gabr in reception from Monday 14th January.

The JPS Weebly Workshop

Join Mr. Kris Powell in this workshop designed to introduce you to our resource website: The JPS Weebly. We will tour the school site, exploring the Student and Parent sections. You will be able to locate the Home Learning and Newsletters amongst a plethora of other resources that will support your family to engage with learning. The JPS Weebly Workshop will be held on Tuesday 21st January 1pm and repeated on Thursday 23rd January 8am. There is allocation for 60 people per workshop and sign up for badges must be through Lamya Gabr in reception from Monday 14th January. After School Activities All ASAs will continue as normal throughout the week.

Rachel Higgins School Improvement Leader

Parental Engagement Week Sunday 19th January to Thursday 23rd January

SUNDAY 19th MONDAY 20th TUESDAY 21st WEDNESDAY 22nd THURSDAY 23rd PAPERLESS DAY

Events Taking Place in the School Day

Pupil-Parent Conferences reviewing the Creative Curriculum Assessment Files Times to be allocated and sent out from Year Groups Return slips to book your slots Class Spring Fair Stall Projects Times to be allocated and sent out from Classes Ruth Miskin / Guided Reading and Maths Passports FS2/KS1/KS2 NEW PARENTS ONLY (7.45-8.30am) The Vision and Mission Statement PARENTAL COUNCIL MEMBERS ONLY Introduction to the JPS Weebly 60 places register with PRE Lamya Gabr (7.45-8.45am)

FS2 Curriculum Preview FS2 PARENTS ONLY (7.45-8.30am

Anti-Bullying Talk to Parents 60 places register with PRE Lamya Gabr (7.45-8.45am)

Y5 Curriculum Preview Y5 PARENTS ONLY (1.30-2pm)

Anti-Bullying Talk to Parents 60 places register with PRE Lamya Gabr (1.30-2pm)

Introduction to the JPS Weebly 60 places register with PRE Lamya Gabr (1.30-2pm)

Y6 Curriculum Preview Y6 PARENTS ONLY (12.30-1pm)

Evening Activities

PTA Movie Night Tickets in Reception

MESSAGE FROM THE LIBRARY Our library monitors for this term are Ananya Krishna 6A, Jennifer Ann Buchanan 6A, Eva Warner 6C, Sophie Peile 6F, Gishali Piyatunga 6F, Finn Adair 6F and Haya Khan 6D.

The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village. - Roald Dahl, Matilda
Reefat Mohamed
Lead Librarian

TREATS IN 2A!
We had so much fun in 2A at the end of last term when Mums and Dads came in to help us create yummy edible ice-cream cones, Christmas trees and melting snowmen cookies!

A delicious end to our Food Glorious Food topic

JPS Sports
FOOTBALL TERM 1 What a successful term!
Our Year 3s won their play off group convincingly.

Our Year 4s lost in a tightly contested final in their play-off game. The Year 5 team played absolutely brilliantly and deserved their win in the final. Year 6 were victims to a tough draw and lost 1-0 in the semi final game to the school that went on to win the final 4-1. The PE department is very proud of the work that the boys have put in this year when training, and their attitudes and effort on finals day was outstanding. WELL DONE JPS!

WELL DONE LARA!

Lara Teja (3G) competed at the Dubai Athlete Gymnastic Academy where she went on to win gold for her vault; sliver for bars and bronze for beam and floor.

Wow Lara What a fantastic achievement!

AND CONGRATULATIONS OMAR!

Omar Ayoub ( 5F) represented JPS in the ABRaS Mina 3K Marathon Race, winning a welldeserved medal.

Omar also met the Mayo Senior Gaelic Football Team at the Sevens ground, where he had a fun day being coached, as well as watching the Exhibition Game, Mayo v Middle East Selection. What a busy winter break, Omar!

So your New Years resolution is to be more involved in the school and PTA?? We WANT you We NEED you!
Its a busy term of PTA events with Movie night (23/1), Trash for Cash (31/1), The Spring Fair (28/2), Mother's Day (20/3) and Dad's Day (31/3). If you can help out in even a small way, we'd appreciate it, e.g. You might only be able to sell coupons for one half hour timeslot at pick up time one day, but it all helps! Speak to Lamya the Parent Relations Executive l.gabr_jps@gemsedu.com , or myself supersallydubai@gmail.com about what aspect you'd like to help with. Thank you! Sally Dewhurst Chair

Please follow through on that New Year resolution!

MOVIE NIGHT
Come and watch Despicable Me 2 under the stars on the JPS astroturf! Bring your bean bags/chairs/mats. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. Ticket Sales will start on 19th January!!

Parents Association SPRING FAIR

Donations Wanted

JPS Spring Fair 28th February 2014

The JPS Spring Fair Organising Committee needs your help in finding prizes for the Terrific Tombola stall and second-hand books for the upcoming Spring Fair
Do you have any unused/ unopened toys or gifts in very good condition? If so, they will make excellent tombola prizes get sorting and donate those gifts and items! Books Do you have any you dont want anymore? Pass them on!

Corporate Gifts If you know anyone or any companies that can offer lovely corporate gifts, e.g. hampers/ vouchers for our Terrific Tombola please let us know.

Your donations are vital for the success of our Spring Fair. If you have any items that are in excellent condition please deliver directly to the school and place in the boxes in the school foyer. In case of doubt feel free to call Nilam (0551432174), Buzzy (0554612992) or Bernadette (0553507077) (Spring Fair Committee members)

GEMS TRIATHLON - YOU NEVER KNOW UNTIL YOU TRI!

This is a unique event organized especially for GEMS Students, Parents and Staff to create awareness about the sport, offering all in the GEMS Community the opportunity to become active in a multi-sport event, either as individuals or in a relay team, and to enhance what GEMS has to offer all sport wise - in their Community.

The event is only open to all GEMS related students, parents and staff of all ages and abilities and will be hosted by GEMS World Academy (GWA), Al Barsha, Dubai. To register please open the link provided below and click on ONLINE ENTRY http://www.supersportsdubai.com/event-registration-article-forms/gems-juniortriathlon.html