Year 11 Fortnightly Newsletter

Year 11 Fortnightly Newsletter
Page 1 of 4
5th February 2015
Marvellous Mock Results!
By now your child should have received most
of his or her results from the recent mock
exams. While of course the key word here is
‘mock’ – allowing students the opportunity
to test themselves in true exam conditions,
review their performance and focus on how
to improve by the time the real thing comes
around – there have already been some
impressive results which, even at this stage, are
worth acknowledging for the hard work these
students have put in. The following students
in particular have stood out either for excellent
grades, superb effort or for showing fantastic
personal improvement:
Business Studies
Noma Malik, Rebecca Evans, Hesham Elmorsy,
Nada Fawzy and Ahmed Al Jabari
CiDA (ICT)
Suha Abou-Rebyeh, Absarina Azizan, Anisa
Benbourenane, Gillian Francis, Jessica Low,
Tanya Mathur, Iruni Rabel and Yamunaputri
Setiorini
Core Science
Roman Isaev
Economics
Rebant Palit and Yamunaputri Setiorini
English
Sarah Al Dulaimi and Karl Odukwe
Graphics
Roman Isaev, Rebant Palit, Melissa Locke, Rhea
Variava, Emily Gordon, Yamunaputri Setiorini,
Capria Olivier, Tedi Islami and Abdul Haseeb
Azhar
MFL
Tanya Mathur, Yamunaputri Setiorini and
Carmen Espinosa
Year 11 Fortnightly Newsletter
Page 2 of 4
5th February 2015
Travel and Tourism
Byeongseok Jung and Mariam Al Neyad
Maths
Noma Malik, Yamunaputri Setiorini, Jessica
Low, Carmen Espinosa, Luisa Gutierrez Rueda,
Absarina Azizan and Muhammad Hakim Azman
It should be noted that these last students all
scored a Grade A on the topics covered so far
in their post-GCSE course, the Free Standing
Maths Qualification, which carries UMS points
for university entrance. To achieve so highly on
such a course at the end of the year would be
unusual, making their achievement at such an
early stage all the more impressive.
Well done to all these students – keep up the
hard work!
Reports and Parents’ Evening
As briefly mentioned in my previous
newsletter, you will be receiving a school
report on Thursday 19th February which will
provide feedback on your child’s performance
in the aforementioned mock examinations.
The report will also provide specific advice
and/or targets for your child which will
hopefully help them focus their studies in
order to be fully prepared for their summer
exams.
Following this, there will be a Year 11 parents’
evening on Monday 23rd February, which will
take place between 5pm and 8pm. I would
urge your attendance at this evening as it
will be the last formal opportunity for you to
discuss your child’s academic performance and
priorities for revision with teachers prior to the
final GCSE exams, which begin in May.
What can IB?
Looking beyond GCSEs, there will be a parents’
information evening about the International
Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, hosted
by the Head of Secondary, Mr. McLaren, on 11th
February from 6-8pm. This follows a similar
presentation given to all Year 11 students at the
beginning of this week, in which the numerous
benefits of studying for the IB Diploma
were outlined, as well as the philosophy
underpinning it.
It would be great to see as many of you there as
possible. If you or your child are still uncertain
about their next step in education and what
the IB involves, this is a fantastic opportunity
to gain greater insight into the exciting
opportunities offered by the IBDP programme,
as well as to clarify any misconceptions.
Please note that this will be the same
presentation that Mr McLaren delivered to
parents earlier in the year. If you attended the
previous presentation then there is no need
to attend this event, unless you wish to, in
which case you would of course be more than
welcome. We look forward to seeing you there!
Year 11 Fortnightly Newsletter
Page 3 of 4
5th February 2015
GCSE Subject Support Clubs
As I also referred to in my previous newsletter,
a wide range of extracurricular support clubs
for GCSE subjects are available on various
days after school this term. These sessions
are open to all students in Year 11 and are
an opportunity for them to receive some
additional supervised study time. I would
strongly advise you to encourage your child to
attend any of these sessions which you or they
feel may be of benefit to them. A full list of the
activities on offer can be seen on page 5.
We are also planning to begin some
intervention sessions for pupils during the
school day; further information about this will
be communicated to you shortly. Please be
assured that these will not affect your son /
daughter’s GCSE lessons, and will be tailored
to each student’s specific needs.
Yr 10,11,12 & 13 BIS Abu Dhabi
Olympics
The BIS Abu Dhabi Olympics will commence
on Wednesday 11th February. During the
morning Years 10, 11 and 12 will be taking part
in athletics events, including the 60m, 200m,
400m and 800m runs, javelin, shot put, high
jump and standing long jump. During the
afternoon, students will be playing a number
of different sports to earn points for their
houses. These include touch rugby, mixed
netball, table tennis, badminton and chess.
All students should come to school wearing
their coloured house T-shirt, PE shorts and
trainers, a hat and sun screen; they should
also bring a water bottle. Parents are invited to
come and watch the Athletics events, so please
come along and enjoy the day!
Arts Cafe
It was great to see some of you last week at
the wonderful ‘Arts Cafe’ – a fantastic way to
showcase students’ work from across the Arts
subjects. Some incredible work from Year
11 Art and Graphics students was on display,
fresh from their mock exams, while Youssef
Abdelshafy wowed everyone with a virtuoso
piano performance. A special mention should
also go to Byeongseok Jung and Yamunaputri
Setiorini, who designed the logo for the event.
See the school weblog for a full report and
photos from the evening.
Language Perfect Northern
Championship
Congratulations to Anisa Benbourenane in 11C,
who achieved second place in the Language
Perfect Northern Championship last term.
Anisa is pictured in the photo with her BIS Abu
Dhabi team mates as well as the people behind
Year 11 Fortnightly Newsletter
Page 4 of 4
5th February 2015
the Language Perfect company, who came all the way from New Zealand to spend the day with
us. Anisa is holding the Language Perfect World Championship Cup, which goes to the top
country in the global competition. At the moment it is held by Australia, but we’ll try to bring it to
the UAE in May!
ECAs and Subject Support Clubs
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Geography Exam Prep
Maths Club
Science Clubs
(Core, Practical and
Indvidual Disciplines)
Language Analysis
(English)
Humanities Coursework
Catch-up
History Exam Prep
General Homework Club
Spanish Speaking and
Listening
In addition, Ms. Rubio is running a drop-in session for GCSE Spanish students on any day after school.
Coursework Deadlines
Subject
CiDA course (ICT)
Deadline
12/02/2015
Coursework Title
Digital Poster Deadline
GCSE PE
15/02/2015
Final Deadline: AOP & PEP
GCSE Art
12/02/2015
Final Coursework Deadline
Matthew West
Head of Year 11