December 2, 2019 | Issue 3 CES NEWSLETTER Director's Headlines Thank you to all of our parents for your support during this assessment period! Preparing children to perform well in their assessments is an important part of the academic year and gives us all the opportunity to stop and reflect on the progress that has been made but equally gives us the opportunity to adapt our lesson planning to ensure that all the children are making the expected progress in all subjects. Over this coming week we will be analyzing the results to ensure that have identified the areas of development. Just a reminder to all parents that you must present your CES Identification Card when dropping or collecting your children from school. If you have made arrangements for someone else to collect your children by informing the school in advance they must also bring some form of identification with them. These safeguarding measures that we have in place are to protect your children and we appreciate your support in complying with these procedures. We are also pleased to report that our current attendance levels are the highest they have been for a long time and it is important that you ensure your child is in school learning every day. There is a lot of research to show that children with 100% attendance make the most progress. Please keep up the good work as we are set to achieve some of the best results this academic year as we work together as a team to support your child. Beth Meldrum Director
What's been happening in FS & KS1? Lots of learning has been taking place... In Year 2, students have been using their observations of vegetables they planted in the classrooms to create a platform for discussion related to the important role these foods play in a healthy diet. The '5-a-day' campaign is based on advice from the World Health Organisation, which recommends eating a minimum of 400g of fruit and vegetables a day to lower the risk of serious health problems. This recommendation equates to five portions of fruit and vegetables. They have also learned the important role plants have in the cycle of food chains. These discussions will continue next week too and are important lessons for life. In Year 1, students have been observing the changing weather patterns through the seasons. They have noted that Autumn in Egypt isn't necessarily the same as in other countries. They have used their natural surroundings as a starting point to compare deciduous and evergreen trees in the environment and to look for seasonal changes in nature. Students in FS2 have enjoyed their first trip this academic year with an exciting visit to Sitara, where they delighted in the wonderful production of Rapunzel! In FS1, the children have been working with and learning about a variety of familiar Fairy Tales. They have participated in a variety of activities and listened to different versions of the same stories. They have recently been discovering the joys of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and even celebrated by having a Teddy Bears picnic! All the students from FS1 to Year 2 are busily rehearsing for their Winter Shows and will be bringing home invitations for parents very soon! FS1 will be the first year group to perform on Wednesday 11th December FS2 will be performing on Thursday 12th December Y2 will be performing on Monday 16th December Y1 will be performing on Tuesday 17th December We look forward to seeing you at your child's event! Sporting Superstars: We have more superstars to celebrate this month. Well done to Jana Ahmed Monib, Y2OS, who achieved 1st Place, earning a Gold medal, at the Egyptian Gymnastic Federation championship for girls under 8 years old. Bravo! Congratulations to Karma Sherif Kamal, FS2S, for achieving 1st place and earning herself a Gold Medal in the recent National Gymnastics Competition for Girls under 6 years old. Superb!!! Well done to Lara Mohab, FS2S, for earning herself a Gold Medal in the recent National Gymnastics Competition for Girls. Super job! Congratulations to Tamara Hassan, FS2S, who also earned a gold medal in gymnastics. Wow! Bravo Maria Labanh, FS2C, for receiving a gold medal in a recent gymnastic competition for the under 6's category. Great effort! What super talented gymnasts we have. Well done to them all, you make us proud!! If you would like your child's achievements outside of school celebrated in this publication at any time, please send a photo of your child and a short paragraph on their achievement. Thank you. Reminder: Attendance in school and being on-time are extremely important to your child's learning. A few minutes lost each day mounts up to days of learning lost! Your child should be in time for the morning Anthem as this sets the tone and encourages the mindset that we are now commencing learning. Being organized and having your child arrive at school on time helps reduce classroom interruptions and distractions allowing teachers to focus on teaching lessons to all students. If you find the traffic is an issue, then leave home a little earlier. Thank you to those who already ensure this happens, consistently! Regards the FS & KS1 Team!
Primary News Dear Parents We are fast approaching the end of a long and busy term where I know all the children have enjoyed a wide range of learning experiences and challenges, as well as the more fun aspects of school life. You will see from the range of activities in the Year Group reports just how much has been going on – the trips and Assemblies have been especially exciting. Of course, we do these things to make the learning more engaging for the children but it is there to support the learning. Another important part of this month were the assessments. During the term, week on week, children are assessed against their current learning. However, once a term they are measured against the whole curriculum expectations, not just what they have done in the last few weeks. This allows children who are finding the work more challenging to show their actual levels; it also allows pupils who are working at higher levels to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. The last thing I would like to highlight with you all is the awful news about the Girls' Home. They have had a series of fires which, sadly, are believed to be deliberate. This has left these already vulnerable girls with very little, not even the home that they were living in. We have held our Bake Sale to raise funds to help them and this week we will be launching our Winter Appeal which will focus on the needs of these girls. So when the letter goes home about this please do your very best to help us. Thank you for your continued support, Yours sincerely Richard Horn Year 3 Update Who can ever get enough of Ancient Egypt? Definitely not our Year 3s especially when our learning involves a trip to The Pyramids of Giza where we enjoyed learning firsthand about one of the greatest wonders of the world. Our tour guides made the trip very informative and enjoyable for us and we went back to school with heaps of knowledge. More on Ancient Egypt, 3C entertained us with a delightful assembly that involved drama, suspense, humor and of course a dance and a song. And who said that learning cannot get a little bit messy and a lot more fun? Check our Year 3s making amounts of money using play money. We learned to make amounts of money using different combinations and using the right money notation. It was a lot of hard work yet it felt like play the whole time. In Science, we learned the common names for bones after cutting the bones and putting them together to form a skeleton. It was loud, fun and all the while very productive. Year 3 is full of wonders! Year 4 Update As we approach the end of Term 1 our year 4 students have settled into routines well. We were all lucky to attend the wonderful assembly performed by 4C showing the learning journey of the generation thus far. We have many more to look forward to in the coming terms. In Science, students have been learning about the properties of materials, investigating stretchiness and making observations on reversible changes and irreversible reactions. In Maths students have had the opportunity to explore different measures, relating these to real life problems as well as building on their knowledge of mathematical vocabulary in order to explain reasoning questions more clearly. Our focus in Computing and writing has been publishing using MS Word. Students have been able to complete the writing process and use Word to publish their Newspaper reports. This month, Year 4 students will have the opportunity to explore various art forms on their trips to both the Art Café and Sitara. Or Value of this half of the term is Open Minded. Students have been exploring the meaning of this means and working together in values lessons to explain and give examples of how we can become more open minded in our daily lives. Identifying features in a non-fiction text. Publishing English Newspaper articles using MS Word. Art Café, working with clay. Year 5 Update What another amazing month in year 5! We've been having a blast learning about World War one, carrying out scientific investigations and investigating area and perimeter. In English, we've written some engaging diary entries about the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 when the Germans and the French/British soldiers called a ceasefire for one day. They gave each other gifts, shared food, sang Christmas carols, and even played games of football with each other. On November the 11th, we had the opportunity to participate in a Webinar about WW1 and took time to remember the fallen soldiers on Remembrance Day by having a minute of silence and drawing poppies. In Science, we have been learning about forces, in particular water resistance and air resistance. We looked at which shapes would travel the fastest through water, whilst discovering that water resistance can slow down objects passing through it. We thoroughly enjoyed making parachutes changing different variables to see which would stay in the air the longest. In Maths, we had fun measuring the perimeter of different areas around the school using trundle wheels. We also worked in teams to carry out investigations to see if rectangles with the same area would have the same perimeter. Year 6 Update Enjoying some time in the library and discussing what non-fiction look like and when we would use them. Earlier on in the month, Year 6 joined 'Science Craft' to take part in their very own Buzz Wire project and make their own electrical circuit mazes. Here we learnt about currents, and what makes a closed and open circuit and looked at variations in parallel and simple circuits when making our very own mazes. November saw Year 6 celebrate the Halloween festivities with 'Black and Orange Day.' We paraded around the school, learnt about the true origins of All-Hallow's Eve and had a go at writing our very own scary stories.
Secondary News December is on our doorstep and in just 3 weeks students will be starting their winter breaks very soon, but until the last day of term arrives all students should be giving the best in lessons and taking on board the feedback from the recent Assessment Weeks. I would like to congratulate the secondary school students who have studied hard over the last few weeks and it is great to see some of the excellent results our students have been attaining. The results from the examinations will be used by teachers to give a final report that will be shared with parents at the end of term. They should all be now looking at their papers and looking for the areas in which they can improve to further drive up their attainment. Even without the Assessment Week, November has been a very busy month and the school theme for this half term of open-mindedness has been embedded in a lot of the events taking place. I am becoming increasingly proud of our senior students and the work they are doing in the community. Our students have built an ever strengthening bond with the Girl's Home in Heliopolis and have been continuing to raise funds and materials for this great cause. I hope you can join me in thanking our IB students as well as Mr Andrew Zwick, Ms Louise Beer and Sister Maria for making CES such a positive contributor to the community. This month will also see the annual shoebox appeal taking place, where we ask students for donations of items to help support members of the community that are in need. Cairo English School isn't limited to fundraising in the community but our students are regularly involved in sporting events outside of the school. This month I was thrilled to see Ali Abdel Dayem winning in their semi-final match at Heliopolis Sporting Club. One of the highlights of the last 2 weeks has been the outstanding "Mock Trial" that has been led by Mohab Ramadan in Year 12. I would like to congratulate him and the other participants what has been an excellently student led event. In this edition of the newsletter I would also like to welcome some new teachers that have recently joined us. In Music with have Mr Daniel Knight, Science Ms Christine Mikhail and in Physics, Ms Mena Wafik. I hope that the whole school community will warmly welcome them to CES. Kindest regards, Mr Andrew Lennie Head of Secondary
CAIRO ENGLISH SCHOOL PO Box 8020, Masaken Nasr City 11371, Cairo, Egypt • (+202) 2249 0200
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