Secondary School - December 2019

Dear Parents,

As we are nearing the end of Term 1, the thoughts of this year’s Qatar National Day celebrations at school are keeping us all excited! We need to remind ourselves that a lot of important deadlines are still ahead of us before we can wrap up this first term. Our older students in Y10, Y11 and Y12 are working hard in class as the prospect of their IGCSE/AS Level exams in May/June keeps getting closer. Our Y7, Y8 and Y9 students are full steam ahead into their Term 1 Assessment Week.

With this in mind, I would like to reiterate how crucial it is that your child comes to school every day. 85% of presence at school is the minimum expectation. However, we should all support and encourage one another to maintain overall attendance as close to 100% as possible. The Secondary School wants to recognise those among our students who are resilient enough to make it to class every single day. Some surprises are in the pipeline! The Attendance Letter 2 will be issued with the end-of-term-1 reports, which will go home on Sunday 15 December. If you would like to discuss your child’s attendance, please do not hesitate to contact reception and request a meeting with your child’s Form Tutor. For our Year 8 students, you will have the opportunity to discuss attendance and progress to date with the teachers during our Parent-Teacher Meetings in the afternoon of Monday 13 January.

As mentioned, the end-of-term-1 reports will be sent home with your child on Sunday 15 December. The report will include the passing thresholds for each year group, so the progression from one year to the next is made clear to all our parents and students. If your child were to be absent on the day, the reports will be available from the main reception as from 07:30 Monday 16 December. It will not be possible to pick up the reports during the day on Sunday 15 December.

Another significant event before the end of term is our annual expedition to Tanzania. Please read below the article written by our two Tanzania trip leaders.

Lydie Gonzalès
Head of Secondary
 

Tanzania Expedition

With the end of term fast approaching, some of our Year 9 and 10 students are looking forward to the Tanzania expedition, which they are going on in just over a week’s time. The Tanzania Permaculture Expedition offers students life-changing experiences of working with local communities in the Arusha district of Tanzania. The group will be completing highly rewarding community service, whilst learning about sustainable development and permaculture. It will be an eye-opening experience, where the students will develop as wonderful examples of global citizenship, whilst helping with their education in a totally different environment and setting.

With only just over a week until the trip, the students are all getting prepared, having been for their vaccinations and making sure they have everything they will need for the expedition. Leading up to the trip, the logistics have been planned and the visas applied for, with everything shaping up nicely for departure on a great adventure and learning experience.

The students have already begun their learning through the global campus, watching online videos, and reading about sustainability and global goals to help them get the most out of the expedition. It has been an important learning experience to go through the global goals and link them to the expedition, and how the community work that we will be doing will aid progress towards these goals in the region. One of the important factors behind any community is its ability to grow and build a successful sustainable environment for which local people can create their own opportunities and develop their own resources and wellbeing.

For the students, this trip will show the hardships that others are subjected to, simply because of where they were born and are growing up. There is great importance in the work that the students will be doing, helping the local community build sustainable farming attached to the Nazareti Primary School. This will give the local community the ability to supply each primary school child with a free meal each day, helping them to remain in school to build their knowledge and develop their opportunities, shaping the course of their own lives.

We are looking forward to a successful expedition and the benefits it will bring the Nazareti community, and the challenges and rewards that it will bring to us all along the way.
 

Leah Murray and Ian Coppenhall
Tanzania Expedition Leaders