Al Yasmina School Primary Newsletter

4 October 2012

Issue 04

Dear Parents,

Dates for your Diary

Sunday 7 October - Primary Disco

Tuesday 9 October - Year 5 – Year 6 House Sports (8.30am-10.30am)

Wednesday 10 October - Year 3 – Year 4 House Sports (8.30am-10.30am)

Thursday 11 October - Year 1 – Year 2 House Sports (8.30am-10.30am)

Sunday 14 October - Open House 8 – 9.30am

Tuesday 16 October - Parent Teacher Consultations

Wednesday 17 October - Parent Teacher Consultations

Wednesday 17 October - Year 6 Heritage Village Trip

Thursday 18 October - FS1 Theme day

Sunday 21 Oct – 25 Oct - Half Term

Important notice from Head of School, Mr Gale

Reminder: Keeping in line with the School Health Authorities' directives as well as in respect of the

socio-cultural sentiments of the country, I would like to remind all our parents and staff that Al

Yasmina has a NO NUTS & NO PORK based food policy. Please make sure that breakfast and

lunch items brought to the school are free of these ingredients. Many thanks for your understanding

and support on this.

Vacancies Al Yasmina School – October 2012

The following vacancies have arisen at the school.

The posts outlined below are much needed to support the school‟s current vision to achieve

“outstanding”. Applicants must be confident and have an excellent command of English.

Role Start Date Application

Deadline

Min Qualifications Salary AED

Contract

Arabic

Secretary

28 October 2012 14 October 2012 Must be fluent in

Arabic/English

“A” Levels or

equivalent

6,400/-

7.30am – 3.30pm

30 days holiday

per annum

Secondary

Learning

Support

Assistant

28 October 2012 14 October 2012 “A” Levels or

equivalent

4,500/-

Term time only

7.30am – 2.30pm

Applicants should already have full sponsorship and medical insurance.

If you feel you have the skills to be outstanding in the posts please contact Mrs. Roberts for a job

description/person specification. Please e-mail your application with a letter stating why you have

the skills and attributes to support our aims to Mrs. Roberts at droberts@alyasmina.sch.ae.

Shortlisting and interviews will take place during the week commencing 14th October 2012. We look

forward to hearing from you.

From The Music Department

Primary children had a wonderful treat this morning, as a rather special group of singers performed in

our Primary assembly. The 30 talented performers from Years 5 and 6 have been selected to join with

children from 4 other Aldar Academies Schools in November to perform „Yanomamo‟, a beautiful

show about the African Rainforest. The children have been rehearsing after school on Thursdays, and

their hard work is already paying off – the singing was stunning. We were very proud of them!

Well done to this week‟s Musicians of the Week:

Danish Mohd Husni (Key Stage 1).

Danish (Year 2) gave a captivating performance of a

beautiful tune on his trumpet for the whole class.

Zachary Earnest (Key Stage 2).

Zachary (Year 4) was super-successful when he

displayed his ability to tap back some complex

rhythms in our „Spot the Rhythm‟ game.

For any information about primary music activities, please contact cknapton@alyasmina.sch.ae

From the School Nurses

Please note that the school doctor who is responsible for primary pupils, Dr Stiles, is due to visit the

school clinic next Tuesday 9th October, at about 08.00hrs. If your primary child has a medical issue

which you wish to discuss with Dr Stiles please contact the school nurse on 02-5014722 to make an

appointment. Please note that a parent would need to be present at the consultation with their

child.

Please note that Dr Stiles will be in the school clinic from 08.00hrs only up to the time it takes him to

see all of the scheduled appointments.

See the website for more information about Dr Stiles, who has an office at Al Noor Hospital, Airport Rd:

http://www.alnoorhospital.com/PAEDIATRICSListdoctorsAirport.aspx

From the PE Department

Primary House Sports will take place next week. All children will need to wear their house t-shirt and

hats. Please apply sun cream and bring lots of water!

Year 5 – Year 6 - Tuesday, 9 October 8:30am - 10:30am

Year 3 – Year 4 - Wednesday, 10 October 8:30am - 10:30am

Year 1 – Year 2 - Thursday, 10 October 8:30am - 10:30am

Friend of Al Yasmina (FOY)

Second Hand Uniform Sales

These are proving very successful, and the quality of the uniform on sale is very good. A sale will be

held on the last wednesday of each month, so put it in your diaries. The next sale will therefore be on

Wednesday, 31October.

Primary & Secondary Discos :-

These discos are being held on the following dates/times

Years 1, 2, 3 - Sunday 7 October from 4-5pm

Years 4, 5, 6 - Sunday 7 October from 5.30-7pm

Years 7, 8, 9 - Monday 8 October from 5.30-7.30pm

If you are able to help in any way during these times, please contact FOY on

alyasminaFOY@gmail.com.

Festive Fayre

This event will be held on Saturday, 8 December. This was a great success last year, and with your

help could prove to be equally successful this year. FOY need volunteers to help with the

organisation and also on the day itself. If you'd like to lend a hand, join us at the Abu Dhabi Golf

Club for a casual coffee and discussion at 8am (after school drop off) on Monday 8 October.

Foundation Stage 1 (FS1)

We have reached the end of another fun filled busy week in FS1! This week

we have linked all our activities to the theme „My Family‟. We were excited

to share our family photos with our friends and talk about them; we even

made some of the photos into our very own jigsaw puzzles. We have been

learning about 2D shapes and made our own shape houses in the classroom;

we looked for the different shapes we know in the environment. Not only

that! We have been looking at the initial letter of our name and practiced

recognizing it by decorating our own initial letter. Finally, we have loved

having a „bedroom‟ area in the class to relax in; this also helped us practice

fastening buttons when tried on the pyjamas.

A big thank you to all the parents who managed to send in pictures of the children and their families.

Please continue to practice independent changing with your child at home, especially fastening

and unfastening buttons.

Next Week

Next week we are looking at the theme „my new family - my class.‟ Some of the activities will include:

passing a hug around a circle and talking about being good friends, finding out who is the tallest and

the shortest in our class and what our favorite school activities are, as well as introducing our own

name cards.

Appeal

Please could parents send in clean empty cereal boxes, clean plastic containers, bottles, (not glass)

bottle tops etc. that we can use for junk modeling? Thank you very much in advance.

Stars of the Week

Last week the stars of the week were: Chloe

Callachan from Green Class, Ashlee Strika from Red Class,

Molly Shuttleworth from Blue Class, Saood Al Menhali from

Yellow Class, Kitty Commons from White Class and Aryan

Gupta from Gold Class. A big well done from all the

teachers, we are all really proud of you!

Foundation Stage 2 (FS2)

What an exciting week we have had in FS2! We have been learning all about our 5 senses.

We have been exploring the sense of hearing by making some big listening ears to wear on our

listening walk around school. We took pictures, and used sound pegs, to record the different sounds

that we heard. We became investigators to explore the sense of sight! We carried out an experiment

with different materials to find out whether we could see through them or not. Continuing our super

senses week, we explored the sense of touch by feeling lots of different materials and using some

„wow‟ words to describe how they felt.

We read the story, „We‟re going on a bear hunt‟ and then went on our own bear hunt! In our bear

feet, we walked through all the different textures that the characters walk through in the story. Next,

we explored the sense of taste by tasting foods that were all the same colour and discussing whether

we liked them, or not, and why. Finally we learnt all about the sense of smell by trying to guess the

different smells in the cups. We were able to use our IT skills to make a programmable BeeBot move

to the correct picture of the smell.

Next week

Next week our mini focus is „where I come from and where I live.‟ We will be doing some exciting

learning including making a „Me suitcase‟ so we can learn all about each other. We will be going on

an adventure to the Deserts of Abu Dhabi and learning all about 2D shape in Maths.

You could help at home by:

Making your ‘Me Suitcase.’ On Sunday the children will come home with their decorated

suitcases and we would like you to help them fill it with things about themselves. For example,

pictures of their home countries, family photos, flags, postcards, examples of cultural/family

traditions, the meaning of your child’s name etc. This can be brought back to school any day

during the rest of the week. Thank you

Discussing where mummy and daddy come from, where you used to live before Abu Dhabi (if

applicable) and where you live now.

Talking about 2D shapes and their properties. Can you go on a shape hunt? See how many

different shapes you can find around your house.

Phonics Focus:

Revision of Phase 2 sounds: ck, e, u, r.

Phase 2 tricky words: I, no, go, to, go, the, am, is, on

Helpful websites: http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/maths/maerdy_2d/frames.asp

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f

Key dates:

Thursday 18th October - „What I want to be when I grow up‟ Day. On this day, we would like to invite

the children to dress up as something that they would like to be when they grow up. For example a

doctor, a dentist, a vet, a fireman/woman, a pilot or even a teacher!!

Tuesday 16th October and Wednesday 17th October- Parent Teacher Consultation meetings. .

Sunday 14th October – „Open House.‟ From 8am until 9.30am. We would like to invite parents to

come and have a look at what we do in FS2, focusing particularly on Literacy.

Congratulations to last week‟s „Stars of the Week

William Durrant in Purple class, Hamdan Al Khaja in

Amber class, Noor Chehayeb, in Jade class, Logan Nisbet in

Ruby class and James Chacksfield in Orange class. Well done

guys, we‟re so proud of you!!!

Request to Parents of FS Pupils:

The FS team would like to request that all parents and their children only use the fixed play

equipment within the FS outside area in the morning whilst waiting for the whistle to blow, and the

classroom doors to open. The area nearest FS1 Red and Yellow Class should be avoided by parents

and their children at this time. This is due to the Teaching Assistants and Teachers requiring space to

set up the activities for the children for that day. This has to be done between 7.30am and 7.45am to

allow the staff to be back in the classrooms ready to receive the children for the start of the day.

There have been a few incidents over the past couple of weeks where activities have been put out

for the learning that day which have had to be removed or re-organized due to children playing with

them in the morning. We are very lucky to have such wonderful facilities and your assistance with this

matter would be appreciated, we do not want to close this area altogether in the morning when the

fixed equipment is available for use. Please ensure you are supervising your children on the

equipment during this time.

Many thanks for your support.

Year 1

WOW!!! What a super busy week had by all this week in Year 1. In Literacy this week we have been

writing lists using adjectives, bullet points and even commas. The cheeky teachers took photos of our

lunch and snack boxes to help us make a leaflet all about healthy snacks and foods. Do we have

healthy lunch boxes?

In Numeracy we having been learning our number

bonds and finding ways to make 10 and 20 using

two numbers.

The Al Yasmina Café opened for business this week

in our shared area. It is so much fun! The food is

delicious and service is fantastic!

We look forward to continuing our learning next week looking at senses poetry in Literacy. In science

we will be off around the school on a listening walk and looking closely at our local environment for

Geography. In Numeracy we will be learning to use graphs, sorting objects and collecting

information.

Please could we ask that all children have the appropriate house colour t-shirt for our sport’s day

which is on 11th October 8.30-10.30. If you are unsure of your child’s house colour please

ask their class teacher who will be able to help. Thank you!

A massive congratulations to our stars of the week.

Well done to Emily Strika in Doves class, Charlotte Williams in Robin‟s class, Max Sperber in Cuckoo‟s

class, Maitha Al Hosani in Larks class and Owen Quintana in Sparrows class.

Year 2

We have been discussing and sharing our stories we have written

about Creatures of the Desert. This is similar to the stories that

Bedouins have passed down to their families by „word of mouth‟.

We enjoyed taking a Freeze Frame from each group‟s story that

was being told.

Next week we‟ll be looking at non-fiction and focusing on

information and text.

In Maths we have been studying Time and making human clocks!

We also created our own clocks using hoops and various objects.

Next week we‟ll be using strategies to calculate number

sentences and problems.

(photo)

In Social Studies we discussed how Litter is a problem as it‟s killing

the camels – and found ways of warning people against Littering

and Saving the Camels!

The Names of our Star Writers were: Muhammed Hussaini – Sandpipers, Steven Tampubolon –

Flamingoes, Ahmad Ghosheh - Herons, Lucy Hodgson - Spoonbills, Yehia Said - Storks

Stars of the week

Libby Backhouse – Sandpipers, Eve Naysmith – Flamingoes, Laurie Smith – Storks, Ahmad Ghosheh-

Herons, Mariam Alhosani - Spoonbills

Year 3

This week in Year 3 we have been researching information on the internet all about Ancient Egypt.

We have also been learning the difference between fact and opinion. The Buntings were debating

between – „Miss Brown is a teacher in Year 3‟ - FACT and „Miss Brown is the best teacher ! – OPINION.

It was a very controversial discussion!

In maths we have been learning to double and halve numbers to 100. We looked back at our

partitioning work from last week and used this to help us work out the answers.

We have set up an experiment in science about the effects of different drinks on teeth. We will

record our findings next week.

Have a look at our Ancient Egypt mosaics – aren‟t they fantastic?

Next week our focus will be:

Literacy – Gathering all information and writing our Ancient Egypt Reports. Math – 2D shape and

symmetry. Science – Making a poster for a dental surgery about Keeping Your Teeth Healthy. Topic –

We will be learning about other Egyptian pharaohs and their roles. ICT – Copying and pasting

images from the internet into Microsoft Word. Art – Making models of a tomb.

Please can you send in a shoebox or a small cardboard box on Sunday as the children will be

making 3D models of an Ancient Egyptian Tomb.

Well done to our stars of the week this week

Abhiraj Gupta – Curlews, Ayesha Al Mazrouei – Buntings, Lucy Amor – Cormorants, Eissa Al Mosa –

Ravens, Tyler Goyea - Terns

Year 4

It has been an exciting week in Year 4 this week. We‟ve worked hard and been able to show off all

the progress we‟re making! In Literacy we have been working on how to punctuate speech and use

adverbs. We played a great game where we had to act out some sentences with adverbs in them.

We‟ve also planned a story all about a magic potion, which we‟re looking forward to writing up into

a story – watch this space for some magical happenings!

In Maths we have continued our number work, with a special focus on number sequences. Those

sequences can be tricky, but with some counting in steps and lots of practise we got there! Our

weekly multiplication missions are continuing and this week we have students striving to complete

their mission to Mercury, Venus, Earth or Mars, in just 3 minutes! Last week Mr. Gale joined us for our

mission and nearly made it to Venus. Better luck next time Mr. Gale!

This week in Science, we carried out an investigation to do with the body – we had to find out if the

length of your feet and your height are linked! We carried out lots of measurements and had to be as

accurate as possible. We‟ll share our findings once we‟ve written about the investigation next week!

Next week we are looking forward to planning an exciting DT event and working on our culinary skills!

In Literacy we will be becoming poets – and don‟t we know it! We‟ll be reading lots of different

poems, finding rhyming words and exploring different forms. In Maths we will be getting to grips with

2D shapes and finding out the properties of polygons.

Congratulations to the Stars of the Week

William Tweddle (Wagtails), Jordan Farrugia (Pipits),

Hayden Woodrow (Sand Grouse), Zachery Earnest

(Warblers) and Moaza Al Suwaidi (Wheatears).

Year 5

The week has whizzed by in Year 5 – just like the animated flip books we have been making in ICT! We

have looked at animation „moving pictures‟, which actually consist of a series of still pictures, shown

very quickly one after another! The Frenchman Chevalier D‟Arcy used hot coals swung around his

head to demonstrate his theory of the „persistence of vision‟! Instead we used software called „Pivot‟

to create a series of moving images!

In Literacy we have been looking at how animations come to life by great animators such as „Walt

Disney‟. We created out our own storyboards and pitched our stories to others. These could be future

animated productions in years to come!

In Science we have learnt about the eye and its key functions. We labelled the eye and described

what each part did, e.g. Iris, Pupil, Lens. Test us if you see us! Do you know the different parts of the

eye? We have also looked at how a lens works and why people wear glasses or contact lenses.

We have also seen the completion of our fantastic homework projects; we have presented these to

our class.

Next week in Math‟s we will be identifying, visualising and describing properties of 2d and 3d shapes.

In Literacy we will be starting our new block of „Dramatic Conventions‟ which coincides with our

topic of „Lights, Camera, Action‟. We will be exploring how writers use language for comic and

dramatic effects. In Science we will be concentrating on reflections. In Art we will be completing our

sketches of the eye and in ICT will be improving and editing our animations using Pivot to include

other characters or objects.

Here are the Year 5 Stars of Week 3.

Well done to Basil Subhani (Parakeets),

Jake Officer (Sunbirds), Hindh Imad

(Nightjars), & Amelia Pearson (Swallows)

Hamad Al Hajira (Mynahs)

Year 6

What a fantastic week the children have had this week.

This week in literacy the children have been planning and constructing a suspense genre narrative.

They have looked at how characters can be portrayed through subtleties, such as body language

and specific vocabulary choices. The children had great fun looking at how personality traits can be

observed in actions.

This week in numeracy, we have been working on data handling and the many ways of analyzing it -

we have manipulated data in many forms, ranging from bar graphs, and line graphs to stem and

leaf diagrams. The children have been developing their understanding of the terms mode, mean and

median and applying these to various forms of data. Please ask them what these terms mean and

see if they can explain them to you.

Next week in literacy the children shall be completing their suspense narratives and in numeracy will

continue to develop their understanding of data handling.

Please can I take this opportunity to remind any parents that haven‟t done so already, to please

complete the permission slip and submit payment, for the children‟s trip to the Heritage Village, on

Wednesday 17 October 2012. Well done to our stars of the week this week!

Anam Liaqat (Owls), Dylan Tayler (Ospreys), Kareem El

Zeftawy (Kestrels), Anica Mirza (Falcons), Matthew Wood

(Eagles)

Al Yasmina School

Tel: 02 5014888

email: primarypa@alyasmina.sch.ae