Gharaffa Buzz | Monday, 10 February 2020

Dear Parents,

What an incredible half term we have had here at the Gharaffa campus!

Energy levels remained high last week as our staff met with parents on Monday afternoon for this term’s Parent Teacher Consultations.  Thank you to all parents who attended the meeting, we hope you found the meeting useful and feel fully informed with regard to your child’s progress and next steps.  Please do keep the conversations flowing after the half term break.  If you were not able to attend the meeting, then it is the expectation of the school that you meet with the teacher after the holiday.  Please contact your child’s class teacher and specialist teacher after the half term holiday and they will arrange a mutually convenient meeting time.

Also on Monday, our Year 3 and Year 4 athletes set off on a mission to compete against other Doha schools.  Once again, we have broken a Gharaffa record by bringing home a bronze medal.  Well done to all our athletes; you showed resilience, determination and excellent sportsmanship.  It was a well-deserved win.  Thank you to all our PE staff who trained the children for this event.

Wednesday’s Health and Wellness day was a fantastic success, thanks once again to our FCS (Friends of Compass School) team who have been working hard for week’s event, meeting with companies who promote healthy living.  The day began with a ‘Wake up and Shake up’ on the basketball court, led by Zara from Fun Fitness.  Following an invigorating exercise routine endured by children and staff the school day continued with a specific focus in class on mental health.  The word of the day was, ‘resilience’.  In assembly on Thursday we discussed the importance of exercise and talking about feelings and emotions, remain resilient and never lose hope.  Please continue promoting these messages at home.  Also as part of Wednesday’s event our children walked a mile.  This activity reinforced the importance of fitness and exercise and how it aids with mental and physical wellbeing. In the Morgan Hall, the parents had the opportunity to find out more about living a healthy life.  Stalls selling healthy goods such as organic vegetables, honey and cosmetics were in abundance.  Parents were educated about dental hygiene and oral health and even had the opportunity to have their blood pressure and blood sugar tested by our school nurse.  Nurse Stephanie also led a workshop about CPR for adults, children and babies while two other speakers, Susan Van der Fluit educated the Gharaffa community about ‘the pitfalls of feeling busy’ and Mohammed Abu Zeinab, a master brain trainer who spoke about ‘combatting the invisible’. On the school field, martial arts, kickboxing and fitness demonstrations were taking place.  The sessions were being led by experts in their field.  In the playground pergola, parents and staff enjoyed healthy juices as an industrious team of parents churned out fresh drinks for our community. I would like to end this paragraph by thanking the FCS Health and Wellness working party for creating such a successful, educational day for the school.  In particular, I would like to thank Balsam Al Maari and Nicky Levey for their exceptional leadership and for supporting our ‘Be Ambitious’ philosophy.  I would like to thank all Health and Well-being team for their time and energy and all the companies and individuals who made our day such a huge success.

On Tuesday, Arabic students from our four Compass schools were bussed off for this year’s Qu’ran competition.  The children all seemed happy on their return to campus, promising me further success as we await our results.  Thank you to our Arabic team, led by Ms Enaam for preparing the students for this event.

1D showcased a superb assembly on Thursday, linked to their IPC unit, ‘Flowers and Insects’.  What a wonderful, colourful assembly!  The children delivered their lines with confidence and ease, sang some educational songs and entertained us with their quirky personalities.  The 1D children and staff should be delighted.  The assembly was a fantastic way to end a half term.  Well done to all the 1D team, led by Ms Connolly.  Also in assembly, Ms Jarasova announced the names of the children who had been successful in this year’s Cambridge exam.  Well done and thank you to the children and Ms Jarasova; your hard work paid off!

Early Years 2 enjoyed a Pirate Party on Thursday.  Some children arrive in pirate hats and other colourful costumes, excited about the day ahead.

This week, we are enjoying our half term break.  I hope our whole school community is able to enjoy a happy, peaceful week.  Thank you once again to all our Gharaffa staff who are a superb team of professionals who continue to deliver a high class IPC curriculum in one of the best schools in the Middle East.  Thank you also to our parent community and wonderful children.  We look forward to welcoming you all back to the  campus on Sunday 16 February when we are straight into Sports week.  We look forward to seeing all our parents at our annual sports days which will begin with Year 1 and Year 2 on Monday 17 February.

Have a fun week.

Kind regards,

Karen Wilson

Head of Gharaffa campus