THE OXFORD FRONT News Letter 2015-2016 January Edition

THE OXFORD SCHOOL

CAREER FAIR

ARTY SMARTY

Dear Parents, There are so many constructive and productive things happening in school every day. It has certainly been a busy year so far! Our students have been busy working hard while teachers have been giving them excellent oppor-tunities for learning. There have been exciting field trips to comple-ment your child’s curriculum. The sports days ensured that the stu-dents’ enjoy the challenges of a variety of physical activities. We thank all staff for their dedication in supporting the students’ holistic learning. I also want to thank everyone who attended the Parent-Teacher meeting on 21st January 2016. We had a wonderful turnout and appreciate your interest in your child’s education. Across the world, students have been involved with bullying other students via the internet. “Cyber Bullying” is when the internet is used to make fun of other people or send hurtful messages. You might want to discuss this very serious and growing concern of “Cyber Bullying” with your children, making them aware of situations and arriving at possible plans of avoiding it. nteractions with strangers should be strongly discouraged whether in person or through cyber space.They should immediately inform any adult they know and trust if any one ap-proaches them. Encourage your children to speak out immediately about anything that makes them uncomfortable. Students have been successfully participating in many competitions and achieving success. Please read further for details. Children in these varying developmental stages do not always recognize that their accomplishments relate directly to their attitude and their effort. If there is something your child is involved in that deserves recognition,

To keep a lamp burning , we must keep pouring oil in it .

please share your good news and e-mail information to Ms. Seema Sharda, the co-curricular coordinator at SeemaSharda.Oxford@iqraeducation.net. We would again request parents not to add extended leave to any scheduled School holidays. Keeping to a programmed schedule is a discipline that children need to inculcate as an important part of per-sonal and professional efficiency and parents play a vital role here asholidays are planned by them . The school calendar is uploaded at the beginning of the academic year and it is our sincere request that travel plans be made well in ad-vance to ensure hat students are present in school on the first and last days of each term. Parents, please continue to reinforce good attendance habits with your children.

Regards,

Aisha Ansari

Kindergarten

FS2 World of Animals

Children had bought slices of bread

both brown and white along with cheese slices and boiled eggs to make a yummy egg cheese sandwich. Children made the sand-wiches independently with very little adult interven-tion. Activity was engaging and they absolutely relished the treat.

Children were asked to bring strawberries and fresh milk to make a strawberry milk shake. children enjoyed pouring milk into the blender and then drop-ping in straberries. With that children were also talking about how the strawberry taste and also discusssed with their friends about the texture and colour. They loved to see the colour change from red to light pink when strawberries were blended with the milk.

FS2 - Fruit A Week -Activity

They made farm animal booklets. They were provided with the farm ani-mal cutouts which they stuck on the booklet . They then wrote the spelling of "Farmer".This activity helped in enhancing their understanding on farm

animals.

In the role play area the children pretended to be farm animals using books and puppets effec-tively.They enacted the different animal sounds.

Animals are my friends

FS2 had trip to the Dubai Zoo , which was a great opportunity for the

children to grasp a firsthand experience to view meat-eaters, close up to tigers,

lions and leopards. Soon after entering the zoo they saw a variety of birds, flamingoes, tall necked ostriches and fluttering chirpy birds.The children

got a chance to see the Arabian Oryx, which is the national animal of UAE. Peacocks, baboons, giraffe, chimpanzee, iguana, snakes, and turtles

were other attractions.

It was a very productive day as the children admired the animals and reptiles. Unfortunately feeding wasn’t allowed despite that the chil-dren really enjoyed the visit and had a fun time looking and chatting about the animals habits and appearances. As learning experience is vital for the children, fun of learning outside the classroom is also as much important. All the stu-dents came back happy and refreshed. 

Year 2 Orange – AssemblyGood Manners –

The students of Year 2 orange presented the assembly on good manners. After the recitation of the Quran and its translation ,they presented the theme with confidence and conviction and em-phasized on the following to behave properly in the classroom, at home, and in the library, to show respect to their fellow classmates, teachers, and parents, to practice the good manners,to be confi-dent in their performance, to be disciplined whenever they go and in whatever they do, and to conquer the stage fear.They reinforced the message with the song –“People will always be proud of you if you behave accordingly”.

Arabic and Art Month

Year 1 – Arty Smarty Day

The theme being ART for this month, the students of Year 1 enthusi-astically participated in the art activity on ARTY SMARTY DAY. A few students talked about the importance of colours in the Assembly. Colour determines your mood. Mood determines your productivity.

Colours communicate the following qualities: Red means energetic and powerful

Blue means calm and cool Yellow means happiness and joy

Green means nature and strength Orange means productive and emotional

Our World of Paint

We are the artists of TODAY

Come, let’s paint the world

Project Making CompetitionYears 1 and 2

Islamic department organized project making competition for Years 1 and 2. The topics were famous buildings/places for Year 1 and Dua for entering and going out the house for Year 2.The turn up was 90% and students participated with full zeal and zest. The objective was to make students learn about the Islamic landmarks and Dua for entering and exiting our house. The objective was successfully achieved; students presented their projects with confidence and excellence.

– The students of Year 3 and 4 were engagedin a poster making activity with a theme in mind, ’Save the Environment.’Each group were focused on their respective slogan and worked towards producing excellent results in poster making. The teacher just moved aroundmotivating and guiding each group. Every child was actively invoalved in contributing his/her bit of artistic hand.The end result was over whelming and the posters were displayed on the sports arena on 14th January 2016, at the Annual Sports Gala where all spectators got the message loud and clear. Go Green.We are… One World.. Green World.. Clean World .Save our Environment today for a better tomorrow!

Stop the drip, to save the drop, were some of the catchy slogans of the day.

Project on Environment linked to Art Month.

‘It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.’

The Annual Sports day of Year 3 and 4 was held on 14th January, 2016. The theme for the day was “One World Clean World Green World”. At the outset the children of Year 3 and 4 welcomed the parents and other guests.The day began by invoking God’s blessings through the Qu’ranic recitation and Hadith followed by the National Anthem. The Sports day began with a walk past lead by the Year 3 students followed by the Year 4’s. Our principal, Ms. Aisha Ansari wel-comed the gathering and declared the sports meet open.This year sports day witnessed the enthralling performances through formation of pyramids by both girls and boys. To enliven the event our energetic students performed various fun races such as the sack race, obstacle race, untie and run, jump in loops and run etc.

Annual Sports Day Year 3 and 4

After the fun games were over track events were organized and winners were declared. Multiple hours of training and strenu-ous effort taken by the students and teachers are inscribed for the success of this great day.The day ended with the prize distribution and Vote of thanks.

Poster Making Competition by Year 5

It was a fun filled, vibrantly displayed poster making competition held between all the sections of Year 5. Students were divided into 5 to 6 in each group..Famous Artists name were given to each group. So each group did the research and compiled the detailed information regarding the same.

Children's eagerness can be well seen in the photographs taken, while the children were deeply engrossed in the poster making activity. It surely was a memorable day to see young artists sketch their imagination in a collage form! A competition well enjoyed by all.

Students of Year 5 went to field trip at Organic Field on Thursday under the supervision of their class teachers. The trip was wholly enlightening and informative for the students. They learnt about ways of natural food production at the farm house. They were briefed about the advantages of organic food.

Educational Trip to Organic Farm

Year 5

They asked about their queries to the related farm house person. The students inquired about the growth of different vegetables such as corn, turnip, red cabbage, coriander, eggplant, carrot etc. .

They also visited the poultry farm and knew about it’s features. They got awareness of healthy and chemical free vegetables. They visited fields of various vegetables and surveyed the process of plantation and pollination. They took immense interest inquiring about the plantation. Overall it was a good learning experience for the students.

Teaching and Learning along with the Young Ones-Talk on Money in Year 3

By Zubiah Farooqui AS Commerce

“In learning we teach and in teaching we learn”- Phil Collins.

This saying sums up what I had experienced from my day of teaching the Year 3 about money on the 24th of January 2016.My task as a teacher was simple, that was to explain the impor-tance of money and carry out few interactive activities. How-ever, the experience taught me a lot about team work, compe-tition and confidence. I was more than surprised when I saw how the noisiest group of the class, was the first one to finish the word search. I then understood from my students that as a learner I had nothing to be afraid of and that no one is born great, but we become one through our journey on this planet. I might have given these students some knowledge but I got more in return than I expected.

Teaching is among the greatest and oldest profession of our history and I was proud to be given a chance to experience it. My respect has grown for my teachers and I feel very thankful to the students for giving me a valuable lesson. Indeed “while we teach, we learn”.

Secondary Section

A Career Fair was organized at The Oxford School, Dubai on 25th January, 2016. The Fair started from 9:00am in the morning and continued till 1:30pm in the afternoon.Stalls were put up by 18 of the leading universities like NYU, AUD, Cromwell, Amity, etc. Students of Years 9 to 13 were brought to the venue class wise and they interacted with the University representatives with much interest and fervor. The exhibitors also experienced a much enthusiastic and motivated crowd.

CAREER FAIR

The Oxford School, Career Fair helped the students to gather information and learn about all types of career fields and organizations. They were also made aware of internship options and scholarship criteria which motivated students to remain focused and work seriously towards their goals.

An educational trip was arranged by The Oxford School for the students of Psychology on 17th of January to Al Noor training center. This school is specially made for children with disabilities; either physical or mental disability.Their mission is to provide all individuals with special needs, regardless of background, the same opportunity through professional training and care to realize their potential and integrate them into the wider community. Their vision is to help individuals with special needs to achieve their highest potential. Al Noor has its own specialized curriculum.

There are different units for example junior unit, Special care unit, Arabic unit, NIOS (National Institute of Opening School) Department of occupational thera-py, Department of communication of language and speech and many more wherein different types of activities are conducted.

At the moment, there are around 270 - 300 students present. There are jobs on offer at the school too.

Al Noor Training Centre

This special school focuses especially on communication. All of their students are at different levels of ability so they have individual educations plans in order to cater to each individual learner.

It is really difficult for the students to understand, things that are easy for us to do, for example daily life routines like brushing teeth, wash-ing face, walking and etc. A good learning experience for our students who were able to appreciate how blessed they are.

“ Developing Creativity and Independence”

AN EDUCATIONAL TRIP TO ARABIAN WILDLIFE CENTER

SHARJAHThe Oxford School students of Year 9 and 10 set off on an educa-tional trip to the Arabian Wildlife Center, Sharjah, on Monday 4th January 2016. They experienced the animal life and its habitat, and also enjoyed the Natural History Museum.The museum of Natural History had artifacts related to prehistoric era and had displays of various types of rocks and minerals .

It also highlighted how the land of Arabia had grown from past to present and how people coped with the different weather conditions.The museum of Wildlife had a variety of Arabian Animal Kingdom and students saw various species of vertebrates and invertebrates. The students saw different types of snakes, reptiles, small sea fish, beetles and rodents. It even had a spacious café with live viewing of animals like cheetah, baboons, hyenas and cats . Not only that, they even had a look at the botanical center in which they learnt about the different types of plants. The most interesting part of the center was the beautifully settled natural environment for dove, flamingo, owl and eagle. It was a trip enjoyed by girls and boys alike. It was then time to compile their observation and findings in a report to complete the learning process.

ANNUAL SPORTS DAY for GIRLS and BOYS

Years 5 to 13

The annual sports day of the OXFORD SCHOOL, of Years 5 to 13 was held on 27th January for BOYS and 28th January for GIRLS, at the school ground in a frolicsome atmosphere. The event was marked by a string of spectacular performances presented by our students, who were brimming with enthusiasm and sportsmanship. The grand opening ceremony was graced by the presence of school officials, the Principal Ms. Aisha Ansari, Head of Senior School, Ms. Deepa Vinod and Head of Primary, Ms. Saraswathy. The ceremony was auspicated with the recital of verses from the Holy Quran followed by its translation.

The march past by the houses that followed exhibited discipline and practice of the students. The Sports coordinator administered the solemn oath to the house captains and the participants. The Principal officially declared the sports meet open.

The long awaited athletics events were held which included track events and other innovative events ike Tug of war. The boys and girls participated enthusiastically in all of them. The prizes were given away by the Principal, Head of Senior and Primary School and Section Heads. The Ruby house bagged the overall championship for Boys and Emerald House for girls. Teachers also enthusiastically participated in races and tug of war.

The event came to an end successfully with the vote of thanks, leaving thrilling memories in the hearts of each and every one present there.

January 2016 was celebrated as Art Month at the Oxford school. As art educators, we do our best to squeeze out the best from our students within the time we have in the classroom. From process to product, elements of art, principles of design, culture, integration and history, we ultimately bridge the gaps between all the subjects, no matter which Year level. One of the most integrated subjects we teach relates to social studies and how the arts played an important part in documenting and preserving our human history.

There are many ways to incorporate art and history into our lessons for all Year levels. Projects can be an imitation of an artistic style or a practice of a specific method used in creating. Here are only a few of many ways you can incorporate art history into your curriculum.

Year 8 made the colourful motives in paper plate activity, inspired by the work of the artist Kandinsky and it is displayed in their art work.

Year 7 students started drawing out their shoe designs

experimenting with different shapes and colours.

Year 9 boys’ prepared Mache dragon related to fantasy art. One group had prepared dragon, and another group made a car

out of waste materials.

Year 9 Girls prepared Paper Mache Shoe

YEAR 9 AND 10 Students from Year 9 and 10 made beautiful art work on a tile

to show how art is related to science

Year 10 G1 and G2Bottle cap art work inspired by Artist Van GoghOur students found great success in incorporating great design elements while working on their bottle cap creations. Students recreated Vincent Van Gough's painting "Starry Night." These projects taught them the importance of recycling and taking care of our planet! The motive for making the mural was to create a large artwork for displaying outside & encouraging others students to start “thinking green.” Working together on the mural was also an excellent opportunity for students to practice 21st Century skills such as creativity and collaboration. Piecing together the differ-ent sized bottle caps was similar to solving a puzzle, and figuring out how to arrange them. In the weeks leading up to the bottle cap project, students learned about Vincent Van Gogh, his life, and his artwork, and some Year levels created paintings in his style. Then we began the mural by painting the basic outlines of the shapes in “Starry Night” on the board panels. Students from Year 10 G1 and G2 classes participated in painting the shapes and the background.

After the shapes and background were filled in with solid colours, they added in some details and brushstrokes of different colours to imitate Van Gogh’s style.Through this project, the students met the following learning standards:

Creating, performing, and participating in the Arts: Students actively engaged in the processes that constitute creation in the arts and participate in various roles in the arts.

Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources: Students are knowledgeable about and made use of the materials and resources available for participation in the arts in various roles.

Responding to and Analyzing Work of Art: Students re-sponded critically to a variety of work in the arts, connecting the individual work to other works and to other aspects of human endeavour and thought.

Understanding the Cultural Contributions of the Arts: Students developed an understanding of the personal and cultural forces that shape artistic communication and how the arts in turn shape the diverse cultures of past and present society.

Paintings and Mixed Media done by Year 9, 10 and 11

Done by William-9B1

By -Jewel Year 10 G

REPORT ON DIGITAL

LEARNINGDigital learning is an instructional practice that uses technol-

ogy to strengthen a student’s learning experience. It emphasizes high-quality instruction and provides access to challenging con-tent, feedback, opportunities for learning anytime and anywhere, and individualizedinstruction toensure all students. Students of middle school are told to bring their own device once a week and get involved in blended or hybrid learning inclusive of digital content and resources. Students were engaged actively at all points of time and were able to grasp the concept in a better way.

Quiz Time

TIME BOUND ONLINE MATHS QUIZ

Feedback on online assessment

Health Education Many parents are keenly interested in the basic academic education of their youngsters—reading, writing, and arithmetic—but are not nearly as conscientious in finding out about the other learning that goes on in the classroom. A comprehensive health education program is an important part of the curriculum in our school. The middle years of childhood are extremely sensitive times for a number of health issues, especially when it comes to adopting health behavior that can have lifelong consequences. Health education classes were taken by our school clinic department under the guidance of school doctor for Years 7 and 8 on various topics like -types of vaccines, WHO schedule of vaccines and its advantages,active and passive smoking, harmful effects of toxins in the smoke and benefits of quitting, Smoking hazards , physical growth and development etc. were discussed . The goal of this education is to increase child's health knowledge and to create positive attitudes toward their own well-being and also to promote healthy behaviour. Children actively participated in the discussions and cleared their doubts.

Health is Wealth

INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO

REPORT ON CIRCLE TIME

Circle Time is part of an overall whole school strategy for behav-iour management. It makes significant impact in developing chil-dren’s skills and attitudes. We start a day in The Oxford School with the circle time. In this month students participated in different activities like making class room boards, displaying their skills and showing presentations and discussions on different topics. Short inspirational videos are shown to instill good habits in the students and develop their overall per-sonality and confidence. Students were given vocabulary building quiz which they found interesting as well as challenging.

To train students’ brain and attentiveness on sim-ple but logical questions, quiz is the best practice. It can be seen in students’ face that they had fun in this activity because the said activity is tricky, challenging and at the same time tested their brain attentiveness and capability to adjust in time be-cause every stage of the quiz needs more speed in thinking. They said that it is exciting and interest-ing at every stage of the quiz.

Inspirational Short Film Showing : Two Plus Two Equals Five.The short film story is about having different view or belief on something: Be brave enough to raise the voice to say “this is not right” and be firm and stand on your beliefs/what you think is right.

Activity: What is my dream in life and what am I doing to achieve it?The boys were very happy writing about their dreams in life. They were all very excited to share what they want to be in the near future. All of them were certain of what they want to become. They have written interesting stories.

Activity: Who is my inspiration and how does he/she inspire me?Boys are usually not open about their feelings but they were very expressive of the people who inspire them to be good. For most of them, they look up to their fathers. They were all very inspired of the things their fathers have done for them. They appreciate and love them. Some of them wrote about their friends, some favour-ite athletes. It’s good to know who inspires our students.

To be inspired is great.

But to be an inspiration is an

honour

PARENT TEACHER MEETING

To apprise and familiarize the parents with the teachers who are teaching their wards in this Academic Year 2015-16, PARENT TEACHER MEETING was organized on 21st January 2016 between 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm in the M.P hall.Parents of FS2 to Year 10 visited the school and met re-spective class teachers and subject teachers, Section Heads, Head of Senior Section and Principal.Discussions related to academic attainment and progress were held. Suggestions were shared so that they can improve on the weaker areas of their wards. Overall, it was a fruitful meeting and turnover was good.

The way we talk to our

children becomes their

Arabic Month ‘Living Arabic’

In January 2016, the Arabic Month was conducted holding the name ‘Living Arabic’ where many activities took place inside the classrooms as well as outdoor.

الشهر العربي

عش العربية

The Arabic Month started with a reading challenge as recommended by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makhtoum. This challenge took place outdoor in the playground where students of all classes participated by reading stories.Students of the primary section, from Years 1 to 4, had their stories written on boards that were hung on trees and with the help of their teachers they were able to read stories out loud.

Students of the secondary section sat outdoor in groups reading different stories.

Moreover, an Arabic Studio was conducted, as January also had the Art Month, to establish a cross curriculum link. Students were able to draw different sketches including Sheikhs of different Emirates, some famous celebrities, as well as famous Arab poets and scientists and the logo of ‘Living Arabic’.

In the classrooms, competitions took place including story writing competitions like ‘My Beautiful Story’:

‘Qesas Bashareya’ where every student had to write one line in the story:

‘Qesas Mokhtara’ where every student writes a story of his own choice:

Another competition was the Handwriting Competition:

Also, a Dictation Competition took place:

Followed by our biggest competition. The Poetry Recitation for Arabs and non-Arabs.

A day was held named

as Arabic Canteen where

everyone selling and buying

items from the canteen spoke

in Arabic.

Arabic Assembly Students of Years 1 and 2 started off by reciting verses of the Holy Quran, followed by reading verses said by Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him), then quotes said by His Highness Sheikh Mo-hamed bin Rashid, and ‘bride of Arabic language’. Moreover the students sang a song about the 7 days of the week, and had a conver-sation about “lam shamseya” and “lam qamareya”.

Students of Years 3 and 4 started off by reciting verses of the Holy Quran, followed by reading ahadeeth of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). Then quotes of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid followed by some proverbs in Arabic. Then students sang a song called ‘Read’ followed by a play about ‘Honesty’ which was conducted by the non-Arab students.

Students of Year 9 to 13 read out some poems and acted out a play about the importance of Arabic language.

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On January 18th, 2016, three members of Bio- farming Club from The Oxford School went to Dubai HealthCare City to attend the Bio workshop about plants. There were many different schools presented their ideas and raised awareness about plants through different kinds of activities. Participants got an opportunity to share information with each other.The host was Stephen Ritz; who is thefounder of Green Bronx Ma-chine and he has been raising awareness around the world by edu-cating students. Students asked him different questions on plants and discussed various issues with him. The main topic was about hydroponics and he shared a lot of information about it through a fun and interesting lecture.

WORKSHOP ON BIO -FARMING

Blood Donation Campaign

Saving someone’s life is the greatest blessing on this earth. We have the most precious resource of all: the ability to save a life by donat-ing blood! The Oxford School was proud to organize a blood donation camp for the parents, students and teachers within the school premises. ‘The finest gesture one can make is to save life by donating Blood’. The cause of humanity, saving the life of other people by donating your blood. Our every drop of blood can save a life. With this view in mind the campaign began early in the morning. The senior students came in with their emirates ID and an NOC letter from their parents to donate blood. This shows their generosity and dedication towards the community. Our teachers too joined in as and when they had their free classes. The Blood Donation Centre staff were very happy to see the enthusiasm of Oxfordians to donate blood. Few par-ents turned up to support the cause as well.

Our Principal took time from her busy schedule specially to sup-port this campaign and happily donated blood. Healthy refresh-ments were given to recuperate the blood loss and donors were awarded with a certificate. Our colleagues from the sister group of schools also joined in this life saving activity. Over all it was a very successful event.

MAX STAR QUIZ CHALLENGE -2016

Our School participated in the MAX STAR Quiz Challenge 2015 (MSQC) which is UAE’S Most Prestigious Inter School Quiz Con-test hosted by the very famous quiz master Mohan Kapoor. The Elimination Round of MSQC 2015 was held on Wednesday, 20th January 2016 at Sheikh Rashid Auditorium, Indian High School, Dubai.The questions covered various topics ranging from History, Sports, Music, Current affairs, Science, Technology, Geography and General Knowledge. Seven teams from our school participated with two students in each team.

EFFECTIVE PARENTING FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Presented by: Mrs. Anu Binod, Social Worker and Counsellor Sun-ny Speciality Clinic, Sharjah, UAE.Members Present :Mrs. Aisha Ansari – Principal, Mrs. Saraswathy Murty – Head of Primary School, Mrs. Meera Bajaj – Supervisor 1-2, Mrs. Seema Shrada – Co-curricular Coordinar, Mrs. Vidya Vinod – SENCO, Team members of Counselling and SEN department. The session started with a welcome speech by the Principal. Mrs. Anu Binod the speaker of the workshop has good experience in dealing with members of all age groups in the society. She discussed in detail about the different parenting styles. What strategies to be adopted at home to be a good parent. Parents need to be the role models for their children. Parents should respect each other. Parents should not break the rules set by them under any circumstance. Rules should be set separately for adults and children.

Sleep is very important for children. The adults must have 8 hours of sleep. The children between 7 to 10 years of age must have 12 hours of sleep. The children between 11-15 years of age must have 9 hours of sleep. The parents must spend quality time with their children and listen to them. Parents need to listen to their children patiently and understand the ability of their children and help them out. It was an inspiring talk and parents have requested for more of these kind ofworkshops in future.