PARENT UPDATES 14 March, 2021
FROM OUR DIRECTOR Dear Parents,
On Thursday, 25th March, school will close for the holiday. Please note the end times for this shortened day: PreK-KG1: 11:50 KG2-G2: 12:10 G3-G10: 12:20
Please look out for information regarding Ramadan timings later in this newsletter.
Governance Really good school governors are a bit like good referees in a football/soccer match. They work incredibly hard and are very passionate, but if they do their job well, you rarely notice them. Our Fairgreen Board of Governors fall into that category. They have a number of important roles in the school, and in Fairgreen things operate a little differently to many other schools, so I wanted to clarify this for you. We have two groups that make up our Board; an Executive Board and a Board Sub-Committee. The Executive Board is made up of members of our owners, Esol Education, representatives of The Sustainable City/Diamond Developers, and myself. The Sub-Committee has the same ownership representation but with participants from our parent body, our teaching staff and our students. These people do not represent the entire parent, staff and student body, but they do offer a perspective from each of these stakeholder groups. Each group usually meets at least twice a year, but I have regular (usually weekly) meetings with our parent company, Esol Education. This means that we are closely in tune with each other and can be more agile than most governing bodies. Our meetings discuss issues such as inclusion, enrolment, sustainability, student learning and recruitment. I will share a summary of the meeting minutes with you, starting with our next meeting.
Enrolment Frankly, it has been beyond amazing that we have grown to over 500 students in the midst of the pandemic. Many new students are recommendations from our current families, so thanks so much for your support. The original Fairgreen team started up the school in Villa 45, Cluster 1. Does anyone here live there?? Your kitchen was actually our admissions office and many of the founding children were assessed in bedroom 2! I lived in Villa 45, Cluster 2, so it was a very short walk to work. We recently started the re-enrolment process for current families and so far, 46% have re-enrolled, which is a good start, thank you for that. This is a gentle reminder that this process has a deadline of 25th March. Please complete this process as soon as you can so that we can plan for a great start to next year.
Campus Access Please note that our campus is temporarily closed after hours and at weekends. We have had some TSC residents and students taking advantage of the basketball court after school and at weekends. However, until we have a better system for organising this and tracking who is on campus, we will have to pause this access for safety reasons.
Parent Hub We would like to restart the Fairgreen Parent Hub soon, but within the current restrictions. I am very pleased to inform you that we have appointed a new person to our admin team who will lead the Parent Hub, oversee the native language programme and support our admissions process. Please look out for an introduction from Siham Amhidi later in this newsletter.
Have a wonderful week!
Graeme
NOTICES RAMADAN TIMINGS
Ramadan will begin around the 13 April and end around 12 May.
We are awaiting KHDA approval before a final Ramadan school timings schedule can be determined. However, we estimate that school will start between 8.10 a.m. - 8.30 a.m. and finish between 1.10 p.m. - 1.30 p.m., exact times will be given per grade level upon KHDA approval.
As soon as we have confirmation from the KHDA on timings, we will share the details with you.
IMPORTANT DATES Wednesday, 17 March, 9 a.m. : Zoom Parent Coffee for Pre-KG Families
Dear Pre-KG Parents, We are delighted to present the upcoming 'Early Phonics Skills Workshop' Zoom Parent Coffee on Wednesday, 17 March, at 9 A.M. for our Pre-KG parents.
At this workshop, our Early Years Coordinator Ms Cheryl Wood will share early phonics skills and give suggestions on how parents can support their children in developing phonological awareness, including rhyming, alliteration and pre-reading skills.
CLICK HERE to join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 764 0018 6228
Wednesday, 17 March, 11 a.m.: Virtual Open Day for Prospective Families
If you have friends or family considering Fairgreen, please ask them to join our next Virtual Open Day on Wednesday, 17 March, at 11 a.m.
Prospective families can register to join the Zoom via www.fairgreen.ae/virtual
Saturday, 20 March, midnight.: School Photo Orders
Our school photo partners have extended the deadline to order your child's school photos. Please order via instructions sent home with your child in the photo proof envelope or email supportuae@klassakt.net to place your order by midnight on Saturday, 20 March.
Thursday, 25 March: Re-Enrollment for Next School Year is Due
Thank you to all of our families who have responded to the Re-Enrollment email sent to parents from Fairgreen Admissions. If you have not yet submitted your response to this email, please kindly do so by 25 March.
Your response will hold your child's seat for the next grade level and help us with staffing for next school year. Please note: We have limited availability in many grades so your re-enrollment confirmation is very important. Thank you.
Thursday, 25 March: Early Release
Enjoy the Spring Break! Please note the early release timing for your child on the last day of school before break.
FROM OUR SECONDARY PRINCIPAL Dear Parents, As we approach the Spring Break, we wanted to let you know about the likely Ramadan timings so that you have some time to plan accordingly. School will start between 8.10 to 8.30 and finish between 1.10 to 1.30, depending on the grade level. Ramadan will begin around the 13th of April and as soon as we have confirmation from the KHDA on timings, we will share the details with you.
A reminder that MYP students will be receiving a Grade Report on 22nd March which will provide information on their overall MYP level and criterion totals. This will be followed by Parent Teacher consultations on 20th and 21st April for all our students.
Kind regards,
Seema Desai Secondary Principal
FROM OUR HEAD OF COUNSELLING Dear Parents,
Mindfulness in School We are embedding Mindfulness as part of our Jigsaw approach to personal, social, health education. Evidence supports how mindfulness as a practice can improve attention, behavior and lead to more positive pro social behavior. Dr Richard Davidson from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, highlights how this Healthy Habit of Mind can enable our children to thrive and teaches them vital skills to support their emotional and mental wellbeing. You may have interest in viewing his Healthy Habits of Mind documentary here. In secondary school, as part of our DREAMS program, our Grade 8s undertake the 9-week Mindfulness in Schools '.b Stop, Breathe, Be' program. Please see their fantastic information here. We are very lucky at Fairgreen to have four colleagues trained in their programs. Todays Grade 8s were learning about 'Befriending the Difficult' and learning how to respond rather than react to stress. If you have an 8th grader you may wish to ask them about their experience today in reacting to an external stressor and how they coped with it.
Cultivating Awe and Wonder Our Grade 1 team is doing an amazing job at creating learning experiences that focus on the magic of fairy tales. As a Wellbeing Team, we were thankful to contribute to helping our children experience a sense of awe and wonder through Peter Pan (AKA Ms Cathie) and Captain Hook (AKA Ms Aoife), performing for the children today and reading the magical story of Peter Pan. Research into the experience of awe and wonder reveals some interesting benefits that relate to enhanced mood, and indicators that when people experience emotions of joy, wonder and awe repeatedly, that it can reduce IL-6, a marker for inflammation.
So, with the holiday just around the corner, I hope you and your family are planning some time, for sunsets, sunrises, adventures, and connection with our amazing planet and it's people.
Kind regards,
Jackie Greenwood Head of Counselling
FROM OUR NEW SUPPORT STAFF Dear Parents, My name is Siham and I am a new addition to the school's support staff. I am so excited to join Fairgreen. Before joining the school, I was working in the hospitality industry and I have a strong sales, marketing and events background. Outside of work, I love spending time with my family and my little one Yanis who is 3 month old. I also love road trips and outdoor activities.
My roles will include supporting our admissions process, parent liaison and the native language programme.
As the Fairgreen parent liaison, I look forward to meeting with parents regularly to help build a strong bond between the school and our families and to represent parents' ideas and concerns to the school administration as needed.
While we will start off working within the bounds of Covid-restrictions, I believe there is much we can do to relaunch the Fairgreen Parent Hub even now during this time. I will plan for a first meeting in early April via Zoom for any parents interested in joining the Fairgreen Parent Hub so that we can begin brainstorming ideas on how we can support the school and continue to build our wonderful community spirit. Please stay tuned!
Kind regards,
Siham Amhidi Fairgreen Support Staff
FROM OUR INCLUSION DEPARTMENT Dear Parents,
We are pleased to share this online course provided by KidsFirst for parents of teenagers. The Triple P, Positive Parenting Program, is one of the world's most effective parenting programs. It gives parents the skills they need to build strong family relationships, manage misbehavior and prevent problems happening in the first place.
Please see the flyer below and contact KidsFirst for any more information.
HOUSE UPDATE Dear Parents,
House Points Aqua are continuing to stretch their lead at the top. Everyone else has managed to hold onto their position with Ignis second, Terra third and Caeli in fourth place.
HIGHLIGHTS Grade 9 Student Awarded Scholarship to Cambridge University Summer Programme
Congratulations to Grade 9 student Sreya who was awarded a 20% scholarship with Immerse Education to study International Relations at Cambridge University for two weeks this summer. Sreya shares her experience in striving for this opportunity, "The application process was extremely gruelling, and I am fairly certain my teachers grew exasperated by my numerous essay edits. However, it was all worth it to wake up at 5:46 am on January 25th and see my name as one of the acceptants. Almost immediately, I told my parents what Immerse could offer me, how I could truly come to understand International Relations, and how other students could introduce their perspectives into similar topics. They promptly enrolled me in the program, understanding that this could be extremely important in my high school and academic life."
Immerse Education have set aside five additional subsidised scholarships to Fairgreen students in Grades 9 and 10. Our Head of Counselling Ms Greenwood will be sharing the application criterion with these students later this week in their DREAMS lesson and with parents very soon. Stay tuned! Grade 2 Begin Farming in our Tower Gardens
What a cool experience Grade 2 had today when Ms Williams taught them how the tower garden works. They observed using their senses and recorded what they could see and hear, and then went to the urban farming room to put their observations into practise! They built their own tower garden and planted some lettuce seeds. They can't wait to observe the growth over the following weeks!
Grade 3 Exploring the Carbon Footprint of their Pizza Toppings!
Pizza is a fantastic end to the week! For their unit of inquiry on 'How we Organize Ourselves', Ms Wild's Grade 3 calculated the carbon footprint of their pizza toppings in transit to the school, helping them to see the effect of economics on humankind and the environment Such a delicious educational experience!
Mrs Clarke's Students Finish Nature-inspired Sculptures
Mrs Clarke's Grade 7 have finished their Biomorphic sculptures. Biomorphism models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms. Our students have taken their sculptures one step further by adding a chosen design, taking into account colour and pattern work.
It's a Carnival in Grade 6 STEM
Ms Thomas's Grade 6 STEM students used the Design cycle in creating these cool carnival floats! First they had to research about carnivals across the world and what is involved in designing carnival floats. Then, they had to create potential design sketches of a float that would demonstrate their own identity and personality before building these designs and bringing them to life. Now, the final stage of the Design cycle is the evaluation stage in which they ask for feedback on their creation and think about possible changes or improvements they could make.
FROM OUR PARTNERS AT BEITFANN
To register for Beitfann's Spring Break Camp, please email info@beitfann.ae
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