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Following on from my weblog posting on 27th October, we are constantly reviewing our health and safety procedures in line with good practice. Additionally we take the safeguarding of our children at all times as our highest priority. Earlier in the week we carried out a routine fire drill with our students to make them well aware of the need to evacuate the building when the alarm goes off.

We will be introducing ECAs for parents who would like to learn either English or Arabic, which will commence next term. It will be a great opportunity for you to learn a new language while your children are busy in their ECA.

Following in the footsteps of our 7 global ambassadors who took part in Nord Anglia Education’s expedition alongside students from 18 of our school worldwide last year, Mrs Wallace headed to Nord Anglia's Shamba Kipara expedition camp for the annual senior leadership conference.

We are very excited and privileged to be welcoming two authors to the school next week. On Monday 20th October 2014, children’s author Ian Billings will be visiting the school. Ian Billings is an accomplished writer for children’s television (including Chucklevision). The following day on Tuesday 21st October 2014, Chris Bradford (author of Young Samurai and BODYGUARD) will also visit the school and run a series of presentations for Secondary students.

This year the school is planning some exciting celebrations for National Day with our students and their families. There will be a lot of events taking place over Sunday November 30th and Monday December 1st, look out for more information on these in the coming weeks.

We have received official confirmation that school will be closed on Sunday 5 October and Monday 6 October to mark Eid Al Adha.

Well done to all the entrants of the summer reading competition. It was a difficult task for members of the Curriculum Access Team to judge, but we are pleased to announce the following 5 students who were announced as winners in Assembly.

House Captain elections took place this morning, with students in Year 6 making some very impressive 2 minute speeches as to why they should be selected. Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 had the difficult task of casting a vote out of approximately 30 candidates.

We are very pleased to announce that The British International School Abu Dhabi will be hosting the prestigious U15 BSME Games 2014 (British Schools in the Middle East).

Throughout the months of October and November, Years 5, 6 and 7 will have the opportunity to participate in their respective school camps. The camps will be run by North Star, under the supervision of the BIS Abu Dhabi staff.

Parents are reminded that the 2013/14 yearbooks can be collected from the main reception. If you did not purchase a yearbook but would like to, the good news is there are still some copies available.

Congratulations to our Year 11 students for their excellent GCSE results received in August 2014. We are really proud of our students for their hard work and dedication, and we look forward to building on the success of our students further.

So what did you do over the summer? Go on holiday? Work on your tan? Catch up with old friends? All legitimate leisure time pursuits, but one BISAD student makes all that seem woefully inadequate. Her answer to the above question: “I published a book.” Amidst the hustle and bustle of the first day back, IB student Sehar Raza (aged 16) was quietly clutching an interesting looking novel which she had impressively written over the last eighteen months and published over the summer holidays!

On Thursday 28th August, we received notification that the Ministry of Education instructed ADEC (Abu Dhabi education council) to change the dates to ensure 3 weeks break at the end of Term 1. As such, Term 2 will now begin on Sunday 11th January and in order to ensure 190 instructional days, the February half term has been removed.

With two successful orientation days behind us, our priority now is to get everybody back to school, settled into the routines of school life and feeling at home. Find out all the information you need on back to school practical arrangements for both returning and new students.

We are most looking forward to holding our Orientation Days for children and parents at 9am-12.30pm on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th August 2014.

Starting school for the first time is an important and exciting time for your child. Nicola Exley, an Early Years Foundation Stage year group leader at The British International School Abu Dhabi, is often asked by parents “How can I help my child to be ready for starting school?” Here are a few key ways in which you can support your child to prepare for their new venture.

The process of recruiting high quality staff to join our exceptional team of practitioners is one of the most important aspects of the role of school leader. It is a process which began way back in December 2013 and continues throughout the school year. After months of interviews and UK visits, during which we took potential candidates through the rigorous interview process, the following team of staff has been successfully appointed to join our talented Primary team and we look very much look forward to their input and the expertise as they work with us to drive our standards forward even further.

As you are aware we have a new Head of Secondary Mr Craig Mclaren joining us in August, and we are looking forward to his imminent arrival. Mr Mclaren has already been in touch with a number of staff and from the moment he joins us will be hitting the ground running. Of course he won’t be the only new starter; we have a variety of new faces joining our talented team.

Assemblies took place during the last week of school, with children having the opportunity to thank our ancillary staff for their hard work throughout the year and present them with gifts of a 100 AED gift voucher and 80 AED in cash.