SummaRISe 42 - Raffles International School

Thursday, 17 January, 2013 Issue 42
GENERAL NURSERY KG JUNIOR
SECONDARY SCHOOL CLINIC
GENERAL
We wish all our students, parents and staff a very
Happy and Prosperous New Year.
DATE/TIME
FORTHCOMING DATES
JANUARY 2013
Sunday, 20 - Wednesday, 23 January Science Week KG 1
Thursday, 24 January
The Prophet’s Birthday
EVENTS
Sunday, 27 - Tuesday, 29 January Annual Production Rehearsal: Grades 3 - 6
Monday, 28 - Tuesday, 29 January Sports Day - KG2
Wednesday, 30 January
Thursday, 31 January
Thursday, 31 January
Thursday, 31 January
Sports Day - KG1
Grades 3 - 6 Annual Production
End of First Semester
e-Reports issued

DATE/TIME
Sunday, 3 February
Monday, 4 - Wednesday, 6 February
FEBRUARY 2013
Second Semester Begins
School Photographs
EVENTS
Tuesday, 5 February Talent Show - Grade 1 and Grade 2
Tuesday, 5 - Wednesday, 6 February
Thursday, 7 February
Thursday, 7 February
Grades 3 - 6 ISA Exams, 8:00 am - 1:00 pm
Sports Day - Nursery
Purple Day - KG1 and KG2
Thursday, 7 February Big Bus Tour - Grade 5
Sunday, 10 - Tuesday, 12 February
Sunday, 10 - Thursday, 14 February
Wednesday, 13 February
Wednesday, 13 February
Thursday, 14 February
Sunday, 17 February
School Photographs
KG 2 Science Week
Orange Day - Nursery
Grade 6 Field Trip
Professional Development Day - Early dismissal at 12:00 noon
Mid-Term Break - Holiday
Monday, 25 February Sports Day - Grade 1
Tuesday, 26 February Sports Day - Grade 2
Wednesday, 20 February Sports Day - Grades 3 and 4
Thursday, 21 February Sports Day - Grades 5 and 6
Thursday, 21 February
Sunday, 24 - Thursday, 28 February
Thursday, 28 February
Sunday, 3 - Wednesday, 6 March
Tuesday, 5 - Wednesday, 6 March
Wednesday, 6 March
Open Day (KG1 - Grade 6), 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Artist Week - Nursery
International Day
MARCH 2013
Nursery Field Trip
KG1 Math Fun Day
KG2 Curriculum Evening - KG2
Thursday, 7 March Green Day Fun run - Nursery to Grade 6
Saturday, 9 - Saturday, 16 March
Grade 6 trip to Austria
Sunday, 10 - Tuesday, 12 March Dental talk - Grades 1 - 6
Tuesday, 12 - Wednesday, 13 March
KG2 Math Fun Day
Wednesday, 13 - Thursday, 14 March Dental check-up - Grades 1-6
Thursday, 14 March
Thursday, 14 March
Wednesday, 20 March
Thursday, 21 March
Brown Day - Nursery
Orange Day - KG1 and KG2
PARIS Mothers Day Picnic
After School Activities ends
Thursday, 21 March Math Fun Day - Grade 4
Thursday, 21 March
Thursday, 28 March
Open Day (KG1 - Grade 6), 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Last school day before Spring Break, End of Term Party - Nursery
Thursday, 28 March Crazy Hair Day - KG1/KG2 and Talent Show - Grade 3
Friday, 29 March - Saturday, 6 April Spring Break

Message from the Principal
Dear Parents
Greetings again. The New Year has started with a surge of activities, events and learning - permanent
features of life at RIS!
Appreciation again to those who completed the KHDA online Questionnaire. The Inspection Team
reports that our response rate was very good, at three times the average for surveys of this scale! More
significantly, the degree of general parental satisfaction with the school was extremely high. Please be
assured - the sustained drive is to continue to refine and improve. However, thank you again for your
support and involvement in the school community and what happens in the school.
Our students have been highly active and enthusiastic as always, and have taken the new, KHDA
Inspection routine in their stride. The visiting inspection team have really enjoyed observing lessons,
meeting individuals and talking to children and parents.
The process is rigorous and a vital part of constant self-evaluation and improvement, intensely
focussed on teaching and learning, and many key, related areas. It is part of a healthy and highly
productive commitment to challenging ourselves, and I can honestly say that we welcome the reflection
and the developments that arise from both the inspection and discussions. Central objectives are to
identify strengths and areas that need to be improved. Permanent aspects of this culture of evaluation
and improvement are the planning and implementation that automatically follow, and continue
always. The formal Inspection Report from KHDA will be published in a few months, but before then
there will be some general observations and trends that will be outlined and shared with you.
Two updates for your information:
Arabic A support groups commenced a week ago, after the appointment of an additional part-time
teacher;
The Library has purchased a large number of Arabic graded readers and books, in order to boost
provision and aim to equal the ratio of books to students that applies to resources in English.
Also please note that e-Reports will be issued on Thursday, 31 January for 2013.
Best wishes
David Impey, Principal
Green Day, 10 January
The children and teachers showed their support for the
environment by wearing green on Thursday, and ‘Jeans
and Greens’ were seen throughout the school!! With the
environment ASA starting this week, students from
Grades 1-6 will be reinforcing the need to recycle in the school, and
help show their peers how to use the correct recycling bins which are
located throughout the school.
Emma Turnbull,
Environment Coordinator

GENERAL NURSERY
KG JUNIOR
NURSERY NEWS
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! The Nursery team wishes your families a year filled
with joy, good health and peace.
As we begin Term 2, we are excited and anxious. Excited, because
there is so much we are going to be doing with this term and anxious
because we cannot wait to get started. Hopefully the children have all
enjoyed their first week back at school, as we have missed all our little
ones tremendously!
Term 2 has lots to look forward to. Beginning with a Green day in January, in the following week the
Nursery will have a Book Week. We are going to be reading ‘The Rainbow Fish’ with our children. The
book deals gently with the topic of making friends and sharing. We will celebrate Chinese New Year on
the 23 rd of January.
Monkeynastix® for Term 2 is starting. Please ask your class teacher for
details.
News from Casa C
In February and March, we will have the School Photos, our Sports Day, an
Artist Week and a Field trip for the Casas, along with a myriad of colour
days. Details for these will follow closer to the events.
We anticipate a great start in 2013.
Warm regards,
Garima Kapoor, Nursery Coordinator
A big hello and a warm welcome to you all. Here’s wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New
Year. I hope you all enjoyed the winter holidays and had a happy and well rested start of the New Year
2013.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support given in the last year, and we look
forward to a similar support from you all in 2013 too. We are all excited to start this year with full
enthusiasm, with the class and school activities calendar looking so good with fun-filled activities. We are
striving to work very hard to make the New Year much better that the last year in every way. We are
already into the first weeks of 2013 with a very exciting start as we begin our topic of the week,
“Recycling”. We said farewell to Joonsoek, Timothee and Elizaveta last month and we welcome Zaeem,
Ameer and Emil to Casa C.

Just a quick reminder we have
Arabic class on Sunday from 9:50
am to 10:10 am. Please feel free to
come and meet me on DID day which
is Tuesdays of every week after 2:15
pm.
I look forward to more fun and
learning in the coming months!
Gitanjali Pathak, Nursery Teacher,
and Shirley Zinampan, Classroom
Assistant
News from Casa D
Dear Parents,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hope you had a lovely and happy holiday. We are glad to see all the children back. They are all looking
rested and happy. Our Kidzania® trip before the winter break was a great success with our two volunteer
parents on board. The children had so much fun as they had a chance to experience different careers
from doctors to paramedics, firefighters, bankers and many more. They got to be `paid’ for the work they
did and pay for the services rendered to them. We welcome Arvin Kannoth as an addition to our Casa D
family. Arvin will be joining us in place of Ileana who has moved back to her country. We wish her all the
best.
Sarah Nyambura, Nursery Teacher
and Krizza Legarde, Classroom Assistant
Casa D outside KidZania®

GENERAL NURSERY
KG JUNIOR
Dear Parents,
I hope you all had a fabulous winter break and took
the opportunity to catch up with family and friends
from around the globe.
As we welcome 2013, we all have to go through the
challenge of getting our children back into their
normal school routine, after having late nights and
late mornings during family time through the holiday
period. The first few weeks will be a difficult time for
your child having to adjust to a different routine.
Here are a few tips that might help you.
KG NEWS
Begin by putting him/her to bed 10-15 minutes earlier each day until he/she is going to bed at his/her
normal bedtime during the school year.
Wake him/her up earlier each day to help him/her adjust so he/she is not groggy and tired for the
first few days of school.
Keep the timings the same during the weekends to eliminate confusion and to instil the weekly
school routine.
Many children have also grown accustomed to eating breakfast later and are not hungry right away in
the morning. You can encourage their appetite by feeding dinner no later than 6:00 pm and offering
their favourite breakfast foods in the morning.
Set aside some time for review and academic activities each day to help him/her ease back into the
school mind-set.
If you have any specific concerns that you would like to address with your child's teacher, try to
schedule an appointment with her this week.
Preparing early will help alleviate stress and tension often associated with returning to school. Your child
will be more successful if he/she is well-rested and prepared. Best of luck to you and your child for a
fabulous term!
During the month of January the KG2 children will be going on their first school outing to the Dubai
Garden Centre. This will encourage the learning they are doing in class with the topic Botany. As we will
be seeing the end of the first semester, the school will be sending out the first set of reports.
Please read on to hear from the teachers from the KG1 team and the KG2 team.
Kind regards
Susie Mcshane, KG Coordinator

KG1 News
It seems like yesterday the children of KG 1 commenced their year...
A very warm welcome back to all the children and parents, hope you had a refreshing winter break.
The children have thoroughly enjoyed working on the various themes we have covered over the past
months and it has been encouraging seeing them actively take part in sharing their views on each theme.
Weekly, we have been carrying out show and tell in class. This activity helps the children to proudly show
something they have brought from home and talking about the object helps them gain confidence to
speak in front of a group.
The children have started independently choosing and completing challenging work with as little
guidance as possible.
The specialist classes play a big role in the children’s learning each week as they look forward to them
and come back with new and exciting work taught to them.
The children of KG 1 visited the fire station this semester. It was a very thrilling experience for them, they
got to see what a fireman does in case of a fire and also gained first-hand experience what a fire engine
does.
I look forward to an enjoyable year ahead and I would like to thank all the parents for their support
throughout the semester. Happy New Year to everyone!
Thank you.
KG1 Montessori Team
KG2 News
Welcome back and watch your child blossom!
We welcome our Kindergartners back to school. We are sure that all our little angels would have
thoroughly enjoyed their winter holidays at home with family and friends. It has been a delight and joy to
be back in school with our children, who have settled very well into their classrooms and daily routines.
We surely are thrilled and excited as we have a whole new set of adventures in the world of learning
lined up for our little ones. The KG 2’s show a lot of enthusiasm towards their work. They are eager and
are striving hard to achieve all their targets set and get ready for a whole exciting new world.

Food for Thought!
"Let children try. Let children fail. Let children succeed. Give them the freedom and
they will create." By S.C. Torrington
We are learning about the “Life Cycle of a Plant”. Our theme for January began with lots of fun activities,
and children planted seeds earlier in the week and read Eric Carle’s book “The Tiny Seed”. They made
their own charts of the life cycle of a seed. It was a treat to the eyes to see the little one’s enthusiasm
and eagerness shown in taking care of their tiny individual plant and making sure that their plant gets
enough sunlight, water, etc.
We are steadily moving ahead with regards to our Montessori curriculum, and this term they will be
introduced to some more challenging Montessori Materials. We celebrated Aisha’s birthday before we
closed for winter vacation.
This term parents will be able to notice the important transitions, wherein new skills are accelerated as
the children learn on how to compute, read, write, add, subtract, and develop their artistic abilities and
so much more…
Well, we continue to hope that we instill the love of learning that will last throughout their years of
schooling here at Raffles International School. We also look forward to your continuous support and
cooperation in helping the little ones build on their small successes, by creating favorable schooling
experiences for our Kindergarteners.
We would like to personally thank each and every parent for the cooperation extended from their end in
making the KG section a living example of a “Second Home” for their children.
KG2 Montessori Team
"Tell me and I'll forget. Show me
and I'll remember. Involve me and
I'll understand." (Confucius)

GENERAL NURSERY
KG JUNIOR
News from Grade 1
JUNIOR SCHOOL
We have been learning about Materials and their properties in Science. We also learned that some
materials can be used to make buildings and some cannot. We also tested materials to check if they were
‘waterproof’, ‘flexible’, ‘transparent’ and other very grown-up words. We also built model homes and
buildings with recycled materials that we all brought in from home. We were super architects and home
builders!! Our teachers said so!! In English we will be learning how to identify verbs and use capital
letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks correctly!!!
Deirdre Menezes, Grade 1 Coordinator
News from Grade 3
English
Learning Activity
Writing news reports, incorporating the 5 W’s , poem writing
Figurative language, metaphors, descriptive language
Irregular verbs
Math
Multiplication tables
Review the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 times tables
Learn the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables
Division
Dividing 2 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers
Science
Keeping Warm
SCIENCE WORDS: Celsius, degrees, hotter, colder, burning, boil,
thermometer, temperature, weather, conduction, conductor, insulator
Social Studies
Introduction to Ancient Rome
Using Timelines

Dates for your Diary
21 January - Beach Run
24 January - Prophet’s Birthday – No School
31 January - Annual Productions (Grade 3-6)
Class News
Please ensure that your child brings a healthy and sufficient snack to school each day. Fruit, vegetables,
milk, yogurt and sandwiches are highly encouraged.
We do morning announcements and sing the national anthem at 7:50 am every morning. Please allow
your child at least 5 minutes to set up and prepare for the day by having them at school by 7:45 am at
the latest.
Thank you.
Mahwish Rahman, Grade 3 Coordinator
News from Grade 4
Science - Changing states, liquids and solids.
In Science, Grade 4 students have been learning about Liquids and Solids and particularly have spent the
previous week looking at properties of materials. Students enthusiastically showed their interest when
learning about materials, observing properties and placing them into groups. As part of the class activity,
students worked in pairs and larger groups to analyse a group of materials by discussing their properties
and using words to describe and present their findings in a chart. In Grade 4B Nadya and Angela did
really well in the 10-minute ‘Solid and Liquid’ quiz; they were able to answer a number of questions
correctly and were awarded extra house points for their team. Watch this space!
Grade 4 Team

News from Grade 5
Welcome back after the winter break and to 2013. We look forward to exciting events in the near future
the Annual Production, Big Bus Tour, Sports Day, International Day and more.
Students were able to review their mid-year exam papers, which provided a great opportunity for them
to identify their weaknesses and work on them in the coming semester.
Students are back to the academics with a bang. In Science, they investigated various methods of
separation of mixtures and solution. They applied the knowledge of mean, median and mode to real life
situations and they are doing more factual writing. In Social Studies, they are highlighting the impact of
UAE on the international scene by finding out about Expo 2020.
And they are enjoying their rehearsal sessions for the Annual Production.
Great Going Grade 5!!
Shabana Bashir, Grade 5 Coordinator