MCE TIMES

MCE TIMES16/5/2019

MCE TIMES

IMPORTANT DATES MAYTuesday 14th MayLewis House charity dress-up day

Headmaster’s WelcomeThe start of the last term of the academic year is off to a flying start. With our reduced hours for the month of Ramadan all staff and pupils are working extra hard to ensure everything still fits into the working day. I have been very impressed by how so many of our dedicated pupils have coped exceptionally well with their school routines while also fast-ing. The College works hard to support the pupils during this important time of the year. Unfortunately, overall the attendance of pupils has been a little sporadic and we would ask for parents to communicate with the College as much as possible to ensure we have accurate records for the reasons for these absences. For parents of primary school pupils we do ask that you also communicate, through the pupil diaries if possible, if the pupil is fasting or if there have been any changes to their routines (for instance if for some reason they are not fasting for a day or more). This was the teachers can help support the pupils. With the spike in temperatures over the last few days it has been even more vital for the staff to be aware of which pupils are fasting. The College has allocated additional inside and shaded spaces for pupils during the break times, but as ever some of the more energetic youngsters do still want to run around or play football even when they are fasting. It is a time for the pupils to learn and we are more than happy to support them in this pro-cess.

This time of the year is also very important for think about others and our Ramadan collection of food and hygiene items has shown how generous and giving our community is. We look forward to sharing with you in the next MCE Times details of where these donations will now go. Continuing with the theme of giving and charities, this week saw a bright yellow day on Tuesday as our pu-pils enjoyed the Lewis House Dress Up day. With the theme linked to endangered animals many pupils and staff showed their creativ-ity with unique costumes. Alongside the House Dress up day the Secondary school House chess competition has continued. It has been wonderful to see so many pupils not only joining in with the chess competition but also coming along to support their Houses.

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We were delighted to welcome HE Sir Geoffrey Adams, the British Ambassador to Egypt, to MCE last week. The ambassador took a tour around our campus and met a number of staff. He was incredibly complimentary for the College and particularly the polite, well mannered pupils who he met along the way. The College was also host to Professor Camillo Giorgi, Head of Education at the Italian Embassy for a similar tour of the campus. As our College we are proud to have such strong links to the UK through Malvern College UK, but also this growing relationship with the British and wider international community within Egypt. An element of our ongoing strategic development has been to build upon these links with the British community in Cairo while also working more to reflect in our College ethos the values and traditions of our amazing host country.

Warmest Regards

Wayne Maher Headmaster

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Early Years News from Sally Dibb-Holland – Head of Early Years

The Pre-Nursery children have continued with their new topic of ‘People Who Help Us.’ The focus this week has been on Doctors, Dentists and Vets and how they help us in the community. The children enjoyed a visit from the school Doctor, Dr Noha. They made their own special Doctor’s bag fully equipped with everything needed to make people feel better. The children have revised the numbers taught so far, which include zero to five. They have also revised all 2D shapes taught which include, rectangle, circle, triangle, square and star. Alongside this they have been working on revising all number recognition, quantities and what each number represents.All of the children looked fantastic in their mini beast costumes for the Lewis charity dress up day.

This week in Nursery, the children have been very busy learning all about Arctic animals. They enjoyed listening to the story of “Lost and Found”, making penguin crafts, and sequencing the penguin life cycle. They have been identifying different animals and the sounds they make with the story of “Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” Our Malvern Quality is Co-operation; the children have been practising working and playing together in the continuous provision area. For Read, Write, Inc., we have introduced the “z” sound (zebra, zigzag, zip). The children have been giving meanings to marks they make, and some have been practising how to write their own names in pretend snow, salt, white glitter, and Styrofoam. For Maths, we have been counting objects to 10, and beginning to count beyond 10 by matching the eggs to the penguins and putting them in order.

The children will now bring home reading books from our Oxford Reading Tree scheme. These books are wordless but are very important to the children’s reading development. Please take the time to read with the children at home for fifteen minutes every day.

This week in Reception the children have continued to learn about ‘Fairy Tales & Traditional Stories’. The theme for this week was learning about ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters, and for this we used the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’. The children discussed words we could use to describe the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters they already know about, we discussed various synonyms for both ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and used movement cards to play out the differences in how ‘good’ and ‘evil’ characters may move. The children used the story to discuss their attributes then used one of their own characteristics to create their very own dwarf. The children then developed their question writing by scribing questions they would ask the magic mirror if they had one themselves.

In Maths the children have been refreshing, exploring and developing halving, doubling and sharing. They have been working on recording their doubling problems as equations, dividing items between 2 or more groups and finding their double facts with Numicon.

For our topic next week, could you please send in some boxes of various sizes. Lastly, please can you make sure to pack a labelled sunhat in your child’s school bag. We are invoking a ‘no hat, no play’ policy from Sunday.

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Sally Dibb-Holland Head of Early Years

Star of the Week

PNM Yara HegazyTwana Mohamed RM Yassin Eladl

Malek Fahmy

PNA Farida AbdelrahmanMariam Atwan RA Wairimu Githinji

Yusuf Othman

NM Adam WahbaFatma Elassy RL Talia Tadross

Youssef Dessouky

NA Adam GhalySelim Tawakol RV Mesk Younis

Hanya El Sallab

NL Karim ZbibHamza Beshr RE Ismail Aboelabbas

Joud Awadalla

NV Aly AshourChris Khalil Year 1 M Jana Mattar

Omar HusseinNE Essam Abouelzahab

Akram AbdulhamidYear 1 A Jodie Abdel-Moniem

Moustafa RadwanYear 1 L Seifeldin Abouelnas

Sarah Ahmed

We have a very busy term ahead of us in Year 1! Our Toys topic has gotten off to a wonderful start with a question and answer session with Mrs Dibb-Holland about toys from her childhood, which we compared to the toys we play with now. The children loved hearing about her favourite Cindy doll and had lots of interesting questions to ask. Over the coming weeks we will be learning about how toys have changed over time and examining the differences in materials and how toys are operated. We had fun bringing our favourite toys into school to show our classmates and we did some super writing too. In mathematics this week we have been adding and subracting 10 from 2 digit numbers. We have been adding tens and units and exploring patterns on a 100 square. We have used our Numicon number shapes, Unifix cubes and Diennes rods to help us consolidate our understadning of place value.

1L have been very busy preparinig their assesmbly performance which will take place on Monday 20th May at 12.40 . We look forward to seeing our 1L parents there.

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Primary School News

Charity eventWe have had the last our House Charity days this week. It was lovely to see the effort made by the Students as they dressed up for the Lewis House ‘Endangered Species’ Charity Day. There were also some great activities held at breaktimes by the Students to help even more money for their chosen charity. The final result is still to be calculated but we will let you know.

Assessment datesWe will be having end of year assessments and you should already have the relevant information regarding the dates. Please ask your child’s Form Tutor if you are unsure.

Hat and suncreamCan I please ask that all children should now be coming to College with a hat? Although some children are fasting some are still wanting to play in the sun and as the temperature increases it is advisable that these are to be worn. I also ask you apply suncream before they come to College and send in a named bottle if you want it replied during the day.

Congratulations to Mrs Susan Phillips (5A)A big well done to Mrs Phillips who completed the London Marathon over the Easter holidays. She raised a lot of money for local charities here in Egypt and the UK. Well done from us all!

Further news from around the Primary School.News from Year SixDuring our Humanities lessons recently we have been learning about the coastline, its importance to us both in peace time and during conflict, and also how we have changed the shape and use of the coastline.

We have been studying the way coastlines are formed and what effect the waves have on the coastline. We saw some very dramatic photos of houses that were almost tumbling into the sea because of the speed of erosion at the cliff face. There is a huge amount of new vocabulary to learn so that we are able to describe all the different types of erosion including attrition, abrasion, solution and hydraulic action. Most of us can describe these really well now!Most recently we have been looking at how we defend our coasts against erosion and all the different methods that different authorities choose to stop the negative effects of the sea on the coastline. So that we can become really familiar with these we have been producing non-chronological reports so that we can present our research to the class.

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the first Primary School newsletter of the term and also Ramadan Kareem.The College timetable has been reduced for the next few weeks but this has not impacted on the pace or enjoyment of learning. Year Three have started their Roman topic as you can see some of their fabulous work in the photos below. There are further comments from Years Four and Six at the end of our report.

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We have included photographs of the class working hard on the research and its presentation. Next term we are going to present these to one another to help with our public speaking as well as letting everyone else know about our particular research topic.

News from Year FourThe atmosphere was electric in Year Four this week as students took to the Science Lab to experiment with circuits. They identified common appliances that run on battery and mains electricity, before learning the names and functions of simple electrical components including batteries, bulbs, buzzers, wires and switches. They were then tasked with creating a simple circuit in their groups. They put their scientific knowledge and problem-solving skills to the test as they collaborated with their peers to light bulbs and sound buzzers. Students were also encouraged to consider how having electricity makes our lives easier, as well as taking into account any disadvantages electricity has on the environment. In the upcoming weeks, pupils will raise questions related to electrical insulation and conductivity, as they are challenged to design and make a switch. The bright sparks in Year 4 are sure to light up the lab once again!

Star of the WeekYear 2 M Yassin El Sayed Year 4 M Aliaa AmgadYear 2 A Isaac Belal Year 4 A Jana MahmoudYear 2 L Youssef Abdel Aal Year 4 L Jad BelkadiYear 2 V Tasneem Othman Year 5 M Aleena AhmedYear 3 M Raed Elmokadem Year 5 A Haya ImamYear 3 A Sofia Kanarachou Year 5 L Malak TawfikYear 3 L Yaseen Hassan Year 6 M Adham EladawyYear 6 A Sama Bakr Year 6 A Hala Elzayat

Year 6 L

Jonathan M. Bailey M. Ed.Assistant Headteacher - PrimaryDeputy Designated Safeguarding Liaison Officer

Have a lovely weekend!

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House and Charity News: summary of eventsMs Pante and I have documented all the incredible House activities that happened during the Spring Term – you should be able to click on a link to find our report.

House Photographs for Years 2-6On the first Tuesday after the holiday we arranged group photographs of the pupils in each House, that we plan to include in the MCE Year Book. Here is a sneak preview of Elgar and Sanger – you’ll see Lewis and Foster in the next MCE Times.

House points1st: Foster 2nd: Elgar 3rd: Lewis 4th: Sanger

Jacqui Belcher Head of Primary House System

House System News from Jacqui Belcher – Head of Primary House System

Ramadan Food & Hygiene Items Collection – House CompetitionThank you to everyone who has donated items – please note that our collection ends on SUNDAY – in order to help those in need please bring items in! The House that collected the most will win 100 House Points!

Lewis House charity dress-up day Our final charity dress-up day, with the theme “Bee wild or bee yellow”, took place on Tuesday and was a great success. We are still counting the funds raised, but I would like to thank all those who supported the day. In Primary children had great fun looking for clues in an Insect Treasure Hunt, as well as lots of other activities.

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With the exams in full flow pupils have been working hard! Well done and keep going. Please could I ask for your support with regard your children welfare during Ramadan. We have reminded them to be careful with regard the heat and becoming dehydrated when they are fasting. Pupils do not have to go outside during lunch and break, and we are encouraging not to run around! Thank you to all those parents and pupils who have provided food for our Ramadan Packages – its not too late if you would like to contribute Thank you to all those pupils who dressed up for the Lewis Dress up Day – The environment is so important, and we need to encourage everyone to respect our planet. As a reminder I was slightly taken aback by the amount of lost property on display in the piazza, if your child has lost an item this year please do encourage them to have a look!

Secondary School News from Mr. Richard Moore – Head of Secondary School

Mr. Richard Moore Head of Secondary

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House System News from Isabel Pante - Head of Senior House System

Mr Webb’s Inter-House Chess CompetitionThe second round of matches are now complete and all houses have played two and have one more remaining. This week saw Lewis face Foster in a battle of the brains to see which house would have a chance of winning the competition. The first game was finished relatively quick-ly when Batrisya (Foster) beat Yassin (Lewis) with a strong opening game early on. The second game was won by Jason (Foster) who beat Ahmed (Lewis). Talita (Foster) came to play but her opponent from Foster did not turn up meaning that Lewis got the automatic win leaving the games at 2-1 with one match to play. The big surprise was on the top table where Martin (Foster) played Mohamed (Lewis). Mohamed the favourite for this game continued with his speed tactics from last week trying to get ahead on the clock. Martin, who had been showing signs of nerves this week, did not let this worry him and made some very good, calculated moves. Early on Mohamed blundered, losing his queen and soon after Martin promoted a pawn to a queen. Once Martin was playing with two queens, it was then only a matter of time. This left the games at 3-1 to Foster and the overall points as below. Next week will be Elgar Vs Foster with the winner of the tournament expected to come from this game, however Elgar have the advantage at the moment.

Elgar & Sanger Bake Sale – Monday 8th April On Monday 8th April, Elgar and Sanger Houses will be running a bake sale in aid of their respective charities. This will be a friendly competition to see which House raises the most money supported by the students in their Houses as well as the Prefect Team. The winning House will receive 100 House points while the runner-up will receive 75 points.

Important: Please do not bring goods bought from shops or made by professional bakers. Only sales from homemade items will be counted for deciding on the winner.

Mr Webb’s Inter-House Chess Competition – Tuesday 9th April Are you a good chess player? See your House Captains to join! Practice sessions at lunchtimes in F17 starting next week. All games will take place Tuesday lunchtimes in the blue court area.

House Points Congratulations to Foster House for reclaiming their first place this week. Who is going to make it to first place next week? Watch this space. Ms Pante Head of Senior House System

1st Place Foster 2nd Place Lewis 3rd Place Elgar 4th Place Sanger

Lewis Dress Up Day – Tuesday 14th MayThis week we had our final Dress Up Day in aid of Lewis’ charity and the theme was ‘Bee wild or bee yellow!’ to celebrate and raise awareness of endangered species. Mrs Moore and the younger Lewis students planned some lovely activities for Secondary students throughout the day. Students started the day with online quizzes in registration to learn more about species under threat. During lunchtime, Mrs Moore and Mrs Maher ran a gardening station where staff and students planted seeds to help the bees as they are under threat and play a vital role in our ecosystem. Everyone was dazzling in their yellow clothes and animal costumes across the school and I would like to thank everyone for their support, in particular, Mrs Moore and the Lewis students for planning Lewis Day. The amount raised across the College will be announced soon.

House FlagsI am delighted to share with you a sneak peek of our House flags which have received recently and that will be used in upcoming House events to further develop House identity.

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House Points1st place Foster2nd place Lewis3rd place Elgar4th place Sanger

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms PanteHead of Senior House System

Food & Hygiene Items Collection – House CompetitionOur collection continues until next week. We are so pleased with the re-sponse so far from our community and would like to thank everyone in-volved. Here are some ideas for what you can donate if you would like to support:

- Pasta- Rice- Dried pulses- Oil- Tinned items (such as beans)- Biscuits- Canned or dried soups- Canned meat- Canned vegetables or fruit- Boxed drinks and juices (long-life) - Drinking chocolate- Powdered milk - Sugar- Cereal and granola bars- Toothpaste/toothbrush- Soap

The collection will conclude on Sunday 19th May. Items can be passed on to your Head of House. The House with the most donations will win 100 House Points!

House PhotosAt the end of Spring Term, each House in Secondary came together for a House photo. I am very pleased to share these!

House Points

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Drama News from Kim Harries – Director of Performing Arts

Welcome back to the last term of the year. Ramadan Kareem! As many students begin revising for their exams, I thought that this week I would write about why practical subjects like Drama… are an important means of stimulating creativity and problem solving in schools.

For a few moments in a Drama lesson, a student can become another, explore a new role, experiment with various personal choices and solutions to very real problems - problems from their own life, or problems faced by characters in literature or historical figures. This happens in a safe atmosphere, where actions and consequences can be examined, discussed, and in a very real sense shared and experienced. Challenging and questioning our perceptions and behaviours is perhaps the most important reason for practical subjects in schools.

Communication is a key life skill. Drama is unique in that it provides training in the very practical aspects of communication so necessary in today’s increasingly information-centred world.

Practical subjects require self-control and discipline that will serve a student well in all aspects of life. No art form is more truly collaborative that Drama and collaboration is an important tool for preparing students to live and work in a world that is increasingly team-orientated rather than hierarchical.

By asking the students to get practically engaged in what they are learning, they will develop a deeper connection to it, whether it’s Drama, Music, Art, PE, Science etc. So when you are revising, remember to get up and get involved practically in what you are learning… immerse yourself into it – experiment with the results, look at your work from different perspectives … you will get a much deeper understanding and you may well discover something new!

Kim HarriesDirector of Performing Arts

There is a Chinese proverb that says: “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand.’’

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Preparations are already underway for Summer concerts and End of Year Prize Giving Ceremonies, where whole Year groups will perform on stage in our wonderful theatre. More details of these acts will be provided at a later date. Musical performance diary dates for June:Prenursery and Nursery Summer Concert – Wednesday 19th JuneReception and Year 1 Summer Concert – Thursday 20th JuneYear 7 to 11 Ceremony – Monday 24th JuneYear 1 to 6 Ceremony – Tuesday 25th June

Students in Year 4 have been given the task of learning a Boney M disco song and to create a dance routine themselves in small groups. The link to this song is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-u6qdeaPoE and they should work on this as homework over the next few weeks.

Year 5 are continuing their learning on chromaticism and are learning how to improvise using the keyboard suite. Years 6, 7 and 8 have all just completed a unit in music technology. Year 6 have studied Soundtracks and Chords, composing to a clip of the British animation ‘Wallace and Gromit’. Year 7 have created music to a tourism guide on Asia, and Year 8 have just completed an arrangement of Petula Clark’s ‘Killing Me Softly’. As well as preparing songs for the Primary Prize Giving Ceremony, Year 6 now are learning how to record and edit audio, and change the sound of their own voice. Year 7 have now moved onto a very practical scheme of work on African drumming and Year 8 will continue their ‘Pop Through the Decades’ unit, looking at rap and Britpop from the 1990s.

This Year’s ‘House Shout’ will take place on Thursday 13th June with the theme ‘Songs from the Musicals’. Each house will be expected to sing a song on stage. The best act will win housepoints. House captains should now get their thinking caps on and start finding winning showstoppers to sing.

Paul RussellDirector of Music

Music News from Paul Russell – Director of Music

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