UAE National Celebrations: The vibrancy around the school today has been wonderful to witness. Students dressed in traditional dress, in swathes of red, white and green eagerly tasting food and watching traditional Arabic skills being taught. It has been another wonderful day of our community coming together as one to celebrate this incredible place where we live. We were also visited by some of the Dubai Police who had visited many other schools this morning. They were effusive in their praise of what was happening here – happy students eager to understand and participate in the UAE culture. They commented that GWA was by far the best school they had seen.
Congratulations to all involved in the tremendous Elementary production of Hamlet. This is quite different from many of the productions that have been put on in recent years. However, the nature of the production (Shakespeare and in the Black Box Theatre) made it a very special opportunity for our students to show the incredible talents they possess. It was a testament to the courage of the Directors, Ms Audrey Pagoli and Mr Dan Brewster and the whole cast and backstage crew. Well done to all! I have been reflecting on our policy with phones in the school for students for some time. This article that was shared with me recently has once again brought it to the front of mind. This week I am in Bangkok at the start of the staff recruiting season for next year. It is always an important time when we reflect on the most important element of an excellent school – high quality, committed teachers. As we continue to strive to provide the best education for all our students it is critical that we find teachers that have the passion, abilities and qualities that will make our community even stronger. Double parking at GWA: Double parking is just one of the many issues we are facing in school traffic which causes others tremendous inconvenience. Just like any other public roads/ parking areas, should a complaint escalated, security will take note of registration The most important aspect of educating a young person in a community is firstly ensuring the safety of everyone in our community. Perhaps one of the more dangerous aspects of any school is the action each day of delivering and picking up 2400 students, teachers, and some parents. We continue to search for ways in which this process can be safer. One way is to know who is coming in and out of our school. Therefore we will be introducing the need for parents/drivers/carers to have a “permit” displayed in the car if they are entering the school grounds in a car. We have already had this in place for staff for 7 months. We now expand this to our parent community. If you drive a car onto GWA premises, you will now need to have a car access permit to continue to do so. Permits are in the form of yellow tags that are to be It was wonderful to see the sea of colour today as we celebrated the UAE Flag day. Our Emirati students got the opportunity to raise their national flag. The day forms the precursor to our International Day tomorrow – one of the signature events of the year. I really encourage all of our community to join us tomorrow at the school between 3 and 7pm. It is really on of the great days when we show what a warm and inclusive (and very international) community we really are. |
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