Dear SIA Community, Ramadan Mubarak. I received a lovely Ramadan message from a colleague at SPEA which I wish to share. “On this festive occasion, I wish peace transcends the Earth, I wish your life is brightened with positively and harmony. Happy Ramadan to you all’. At the school, we held a special Ramadan assembly to help our learners appreciate the holy month and its significance. We believe that it is important to instill a strong sense of community and respect for different viewpoints in our learners, and we hope that this assembly helped to reinforce those values. I really enjoyed seeing how many mums, sisters, aunts and grandmothers came into school on Tuesday to celebrate ‘Mother Figure Day’. At SIA, we celebrated all the important women in the learner’s lives. We did this by holding special assemblies where learners talked about why these women are important, we made special cards and had visitors into the classes to talk about their favourite women in their life. Learners were confident to talk about why people are important in their life and showed empathy to other speakers who talked about different mother figure in their life. FS2 and Year 4 learners performed a special song at our assemblies about all the important women in their lives which were just brilliant and I was so proud of the learners commitment to learning the words and actions. Overall the day was a touching tribute to mothers and women everywhere and demonstrated a deep appreciation for the sacrifices and hard work that mothers do. Our staff had a fantastic opportunity to learn about Chat GPT with a talk from our learner Ehab, who demonstrated how it can be effectively used in teaching practice. Ehab’s presentation was well received by all staff and showcased his dedication to his studies and his commitment to sharing knowledge beyond his peers. I am certainly super proud of Ehab and look forward to seeing what impact Chat GPT may have on supporting learner outcomes. On the sports front, we have held all awards ceremonies for sports day for Year 3 and also Years 7, 8, 9, and 10, and they were nothing short of amazing. The learners excelled in their performances and showed exceptional team spirit, determination, and sportsmanship. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and look forward to continuing to support them in their sports journey in term 3. Finally, we celebrated Head of Secondary Awards on Thursday’s assembly to showcase the achievement points for our strongest learners across secondary. It was an amazing way to end the term and provide recognition for their hard work and dedication. Overall, it has been an incredible term and I thank all the community for the continued support and appreciation. I know we all look forward to continuing the momentum next term. Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, This week was indeed another busy week and further opportunities to celebrate. I am certainly proud of us all this week for the wonderful concerts and two really positive days with the Assistant Director of HPL. I am very pleased to say that HPL is evident and embedded across SIA and we are certainly on track for our accreditation visit in May. It is always a highlight when we get to see our learners practice and perform their sing- along. These enrichment opportunities are wonderful and provide the type of learning experiences that support growing life skills. All learners have learnt songs, dances, and lines, and we have watched their confidence grow over the week. There was buzz of excitement when the whole of the primary had the chance to perform on stage in front of their parents. In Secondary more opportunities were provided to help further the experiences of our learners across the phase. We had our final collapsed study day for our IGCSE Science learners as they prepare for their upcoming exams in May. We also had our PE learners compiling their coursework evidence for their assessments in June which involved an array of sports such as Shotput, Cross Country and Athletics. The Hardworking attitudes of these learners was showcased through their Resilience, Perseverance and their consistent Practice in order for them to perform at their highest level in these sports. They are a shining example of our HPL philosophy. Well done to all involved! As mentioned last week it is our vision to celebrate the ‘I’ in kind weekly at SIA. Please see the link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQflfn330Jc Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community This week has been about Sport at SIA, as we had our Primary & Secondary Sports Days on Wednesday & Thursday which was a fantastic opportunity for our learners to get out of the classroom and showcase their talents in the world of sport. There was something for everyone and it was an amazing day put together by our PE Department that was really enjoyable for all. Well done to all those who got involved and to our amazing PE department for organising two truly wonderful days. Our learners and staff will need a rest over the weekend after all the activities at Sports Day! In FS the learners made rain hats for teddy bears using lots of different materials and had to predict which ones would be water proof and the put it to the test. It was just so wonderful seeing them working collaboratively and having so much fun in the process. In Primary we had Science week and it was amazing to see our learners making rockets using balloons and looking at how force can move objects. In lower primary they were also looking at how people age over time and the different stages of life which also supports our learners understanding why we are different linking to our VAA’s. What really stood out for me is just how much language development has happened over this year and the impact of these type of focused activities and our Read Write Ink programme. We also got the opportunity to celebrate reading – 6A won the competition and were rewarded with being able to have some free time to play and chat and have some food in the PE Hall on Thursday afternoon. This week our secondary learners have been celebrating International Women’s Day on Wednesday where we celebrated the amazing achievements of all of the wonderful women in our lives, both at home and in school. This was a lovely day where we got to showcase the amazing achievements of all of our superwomen! At SIA we learn about being Empathetic which is one of our HPL VAA’s. Within the heading of being empathetic is a set of three VAA’s that look at the way in which we approach working alone and with others to achieve stronger outcomes. These are collaboration, Concern for society and being confident. Something we are proud of at SIA is our growing positive culture which was recognised by the inspection teams when they visited us. The ability to know the contribution you make to a society is important as this supports citizenship, making a difference, creating a sense of community and recognising that we are all different and that is ok. You may have seen that on the wall next to the FS doors we have a sticker that K()ND which essentially asks us the question ‘how have you been the I in kind?’. Each week we ask this of ourselves and celebrate this by making a little video and through our celebration assembly’s. It is my aim to celebrate this through the newsletter weekly so please do see the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQoPgAot7Zo Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community This week we were visited by the British School Overseas Inspection team and it was a pleasure to welcome them into our school. Although I can’t divulge the result at this stage, I will say it all is very positive indeed. As always, thank you to all that supported me and my amazing staff who are just so dedicated. I really enjoyed Thursday in school as we celebrated World Book Day. Our community dressed up as their favourite book characters and our learners also brought in their favourite books to share with their friends. Learners used their phonics knowledge to read their books aloud. I could hear conversations about characters, the beginning, middle, and end also where the story is set. Our Year 3 and 4 learners got the opportunity to visit Adventura this week; they were well- behaved and applied many of the skills, values, and attitudes we teach at school in practice on their field trips. Receiving pictures and videos of the learners smiling, overcoming fears, helping peers, and generally having fun has been a definite highlight for me this week. Look out for some pictures in the newsletter next week. Episode 9 of the podcast with Ms Annabel aired this week, where our learner leaders discussed all things well-being with our school Counsellor. SCHOLARS SPEAKS LINK Furthermore, we celebrated an amazing achievement with two of our secondary learners. Saleh and Marwa from Years 11 and 9 had the opportunity to meet the Sheikh after winning the Sheikh Sultan award for celebrating the spirit of Youth. This is an outstanding accolade, they completed charity work and some community projects to achieve this award. Our Year 12 and 13 exam results have been published with some outstanding grades for our learners. Our senior learners in the school are celebrating lots of success across the board. These achievements this week are amazing, and we are very proud to showcase them. Well done to our learners and to our Secondary staff that support our learners to ‘be the best they can be’. #proudprincipal Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, As you will be aware the SIA had our visit from the SPEA review team this week and I am pleased to say it was very positive indeed. It has been great for us at SIA to have had the opportunity to validate all the work we have done through all the positive feedback we have been getting this week. Thank you to all within our community for supporting us as we continue to ‘be the best we can be’. I really enjoyed seeing all FS to Year 2 learners take part in sports day and I big thank you to all the parents that came and supported. The learners had lots of fun using the different skills that they have learned in their PE lessons. The learners all showed how hardworking they are when trying different activities. Our learners thoroughly enjoyed watching their parents, teachers, and teaching assistants take part in a race as well. It has indeed been a really exciting week across the whole school, our learners have been showcasing all of the amazing opportunities they have had this year already and all of the amazing learning and events that are yet to come. There have been many practical, hands- on activities in lessons this week. Learners have demonstrated the VAA-empathy by collaborating with one another, listening to different viewpoints, and offering constructive feedback to their peers. We have also had some wonderful assemblies this week to celebrate International Mother Tongue Day on Tuesday and Mindfulness Morning as part of Wellbeing Wednesday. Our learner leaders play a big role in assemblies, and they truly are just amazing – very proud Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, We are still all buzzing here at SIA from the fantastic Fiesta. I watched all the acts and was so very proud of each and every performer. Another big thank you to you our community for supporting this event. RAFFLE DRAW WINNERS We are also delighted to share our Spring Fiesta Raffle draw winners below: 1st Prize – Seba 3B 2nd Prize – Chanaya 2C 3rd Prize – Zayed – FS1 -A 4th Prize- Marley – 4B We have some amazing pictures, now turned into memories from the Spring Fiesta day which will be shared soon. This week we have had a focus on wellbeing and mental health across the school. This started with our learner leaders presenting in Mondays assembly about the importance of both and the importance of promoting both. In Primary each learner completed a well- being check-in every morning, encouraging them to express how they are feeling to their teacher and discuss why. It was wonderful to see all the activities arranged by the learners such as meditation, journalling, pyjama day and zen zones. It was great to see our learners exploring the importance of mindfulness and well-being around the school. For example, throughout the day, learners were encouraged to check in with their peers regarding well- being and their feelings. This develops communication and language skills as well showing lots of empathy towards one another. As you are aware we have a really big focus on reading post COVID but also to make sure learners can access learning as quickly as possible at a young age. The love for reading across the Primary is growing exponentially and watching the learners receive certificates for readers of the week has been fantastic. Our 6A class that went to the Mohammed Bin Rashid library this week were complimented on their excellent behaviour; the guide said, “6A was one of the best classes they have ever had.” They had the opportunity to go into the Treasure Room and look at many first edition books, for example, Shakespeare and Jane Austen. In Secondary we have been very busy promoting our learner’s love of learning Science during our Science specific week. We have had Expo City Trips where our learners experienced workshops in Robotics and they were also partaking in “Would You Rather?” activities also. On top of this, our Science Department ran some amazing activities in the auditorium such as the Crime Scene Investigation for the 11-13 learners and our Science Exhibition for Year 7-10 learners. It has been an amazing showcase for science this week and we are very proud of Ms Nourhan and her science team for all their efforts. Finally, our sporting superstars have had another huge week. Our U18 boys finished 2nd in the EISSA football league and our U16 girls finished 3rd in the EISSA football league. What an amazing result for our learners in their first-ever league appearance. Thank you to our amazing PE team for all their efforts. I met them this week to say well done for participating and showing great respect and teamwork. Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community This week has been national storytelling week and it has been a real pleasure to see our learners taking part in various activities promoting our love for reading which has created quite a buzz both in the classrooms and corridors. Learners have taken part in acting out stories, buddy reading and read aloud sessions. I know Ms. Daisy was really pleased to see just how confident our learners were when they were telling their peers about their favourite story. Walking the corridors this week we saw learners exploring different types of books, reading to each other, bringing in their reading journals and discussing various books. Learners are busy working on a story for a competition and we cannot wait to see the final products of this. Ms. Tanita got the opportunity to watch the year 6 learners sing a song called, The Climb – they sang in chorus and it was a beautiful melody; they analysed the lyrics of the song and had discussions about the meaning of perseverance despite challenges. Year 6 – The Climb.MP4 In Secondary we have been celebrating our fantastic learners and all the achievements they make each week. We have had our celebration assembly on Thursday where our learners’ received certificates for Empathy, Hard work & Agility which are the Values, Attitudes & Attributes we expect from an SIA learner in line with our High-Performance Learning vision. We have also had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the achievements of one of our learners in Year 12, Shahzad Ameer, who received his Outstanding Learner Award from the Cambridge Exam Board for his super results in IGCSE Science last May. This award showcases the Hard work that was put in by Shahzad and his teachers in the Science Department to help him reach his full potential. We at SIA are all very proud. Finally, in Secondary Sports News, we have had more successes over the past 2 weeks with our boys’ and girls’ teams representing SIA with pride in the EISSA league. The girls were amazing last week and continue to be footballing superstars. This week the Under 18 Boys won all 3 games with some great performances from Syed, Omar and Sadeed. The Under 16 Boys also won one of their games and a special shoutout to Artur from the PE team for having a great game! We are now finished all our preparations for sending our teams to Bahrain this weekend to represent us in the BSME competition. All our players and staff are really excited, and we know they will do us all proud against the other top British Schools in the Middle East Have a wonderful weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, Say it with me ‘Rain, Rain go away, come again another day’ Coming from the UK rain would disturb our days regularly as you can imagine. I remember as a child saying this over and over again with a big smile on our faces as we planned what to do as the rain had stopped play. This is exactly what we did this Thursday as the rain created challenges getting to school for the whole community but we remained resilient and pulled together as all good communities do. I would like to thank my colleagues, our learners and you our parents for supporting us to get online and continue our learning. I have really enjoyed seeing so many of parents from our SIA community coming into our school to listen to our learners read. Our learners showed how they practice and how ‘hard working’ they are through their reading skills, using their phonic knowledge of blending and segmenting. If you would like to become a parent reader contact hfrench@sia.ae and please remember to come say hello to me whilst you are in. In upper Primary our learners became teachers as they presented their research of soil found in the UAE; they linked their prior knowledge of learning about soil for this. Watching them present with confidence and enthusiasm was a treat and real example of how our learners’ skills have developed over time. While we had some learners becoming teachers, we had some of our learners that became electricians this week; it was fabulous to see them working collaboratively to explore and construct circuits. Learners in Year 5 had the amazing opportunity to visit the Mohammed Bin Rashid Library; reading came to life as they read along with a robot and interacted with a motion picture book. Reading is something we promote heavily at SIA as it is so important to be a good reader if you are to be able to access a range of learning materials and progress. Please do practice reading at home and sign into bug club, literacy planet and century tech to support. In Secondary it was all good, as we had several exciting highlights that contributed to the education and well-being of our learners. Firstly, we organised a trip for our Year 12 and 13 learners to Mamzar beach as a way to unwind and relax after their exams. This trip provided them with an opportunity to enjoy the beach, bond with their peers, and de-stress after a busy exam period. Secondly, our business learners had an opportunity to participate in an internship trip, gaining real-world experience and learning about different aspects of the business industry. In addition to that, we also started our internal internship programme, providing our learners with hands-on experience and the opportunity to learn from experienced professionals. I am really looking forward to gaining feedback from our internship programme. Our PE department was busy this week with fixtures for U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18 learners, giving our learners the opportunity to showcase their athletic abilities and compete against other teams. It was a great way for all involved, with an opportunity to build those all important VAA’s such as teamwork skills and develop a sense of sportsmanship. I am super proud of the provision in school and the holistic opportunities our learners engage with daily. It was busy and productive week with many opportunities for our learners to learn, grow and develop towards being global citizens. We are looking forward to continuing to provide our learners with a well-rounded education that promotes their physical, emotional and social well-being. I wish you a lovely weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, I always enjoy when our learners come to visit me and this week I had Saif from 7C pop down to show me his sustainability project which was just awesome. As you know we have made a pledge to learning more about sustainability and becoming more sustainable which looks different across the school and phases. Saif had demonstrated his HPL attribute of ‘Hardworking’ by building a remote control robot from Sustainable materials. Well done Saif I am proud of you. It was lovely to welcome back Ms. Stephanie who has rejoined our FS department and has settled in our new FS1 learners so well. It has been a pleasure to see our FS learners learning all about growing, planting and healthy eating. FS1 learners shared their chopped fruit with other classes today and explained why we must eat healthy food. It is so important to consider both at school and home our nutrition and how it affects both our health and learning. I have the pleasure to be part of the well-being committee for SPEA and we at SIA certainly have a vision to develop well-being across our community. Watch this space as our new policy is nearly ready to present to you all. This week we have introduced our new Sixth Form Internship Programme which will give our senior learners an opportunity to experience some real-life work experience within our school community and using some of the skills they have built up through their year’s of schooling here at SIA. We are excited to announce such a fantastic opportunity and we will keep our community updated on their progress. Our Year 12 and 13 learners have finished their January Edexcel exams this week and we are so proud of the efforts they have put in. Our Secondary Boys Football teams have had some huge wins this week as well with our U12 and U14 boys going undefeated this week! Well Done Boys! I wish you a lovely weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More

Dear SIA Community, It has been wonderful seeing the focus on phonics and reading, especially within our continuous provision areas. I have enjoyed seeing our learners hearing, blending but also responding to the teacher and each other. I am so impressed with the mutual respect and care our learners show each other across the school. This was very evident in our morning assemblies, especially Thursday’s celebration assembly. The way our learners celebrate each other’s successes is something to be proud of as a community. In Primary our learners are certainly reading more confidently and with pride, there is a love for reading throughout EYFS and Primary. We now have a buddy reading system as well where older learners will listen to our younger learners and support them on their reading journey. Our learners are excited to share their phonics knowledge with their parents during their home learning activities. This week our senior secondary learners started their external exams for A Level Maths, Science, History and GCSE Arabic. Our learners have been really positive in how the exams have been going and are really happy with their preparations. We also had our external results from our October/November exams and we are super proud of our learners who all achieved a passing grade. This is a huge achievement for our learners and they are all delighted with their results. We also had our Secondary girls Under12, Under 14 & Under 16 footballers had a chance to compete in our EISSA football competition this week and did an amazing job. Our Under 16 girls had a superstar in Rana in Year 10 being our top goal scorer. All our girls represented the school with pride and we can’t wait to see them in their next fixtures. I wish you a lovely weekend. #bethebestyoucanbe #proudprincipal Take care James BattsPrincipal Read More