PYP Exhibition 2023

The exhibition is a celebration for an IB school. It’s the synthesis of the journey throughout the Primary Years Programme, and a time to share the knowledge, achievements and success of each student.

As a culminating experience, the exhibition is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile that they have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP. The enthusiasm and motivation exhibited by this group of Grade 5 students throughout their exhibition journey has been admirable.

As inquirers, each Grade 5 student identified a passion,  for which they were personally compelled to investigate, educate and address. Primary and secondary sources were sought, field trips, interviews and observations staged, data collected via surveys, experts consulted and group negotiations conducted.

The mentors, all teachers from within the primary school, supported students with structuring their time, keeping them on track with their research and supporting them with questions and guidance. Our experts, including our specialist teachers, were also on hand to support transdisciplinary learning, and helped the students make their research more interesting.

Grade 5 have been passionate in the way that they have approached these significant and complex passions. They should be very proud of their achievements, and we are sure their parents were proud as they visited their booths on 1st March 2023. While exploring their passions, the parents experienced;

  • The knowledge that the students have generated,
  • The skills the students used in gaining that knowledge.
  • The understanding of concepts which most might think are too difficult for a Grade 5 student to understand.

Our G5 students dazzled us with their research, their singing and their dancing. Congratulations G5 for a successful PYP Exhibition.

Please do visit the PYPX 2023 website to learn more about the students passions and keep checking our YouTube channel for videos of the event.

You may follow the link to view our students’ presentation – SEK-Qatar PYP Exhibition 2023

Graduation Week SEK International School Qatar!

Congratulations to all of our students graduating this week!

This year, as it is our priority to stay safe and comply with the Covid-19 restrictions, the graduation ceremony runs over several days and is split up into different sections.

Preschool 5

This is a very special day for all our Preschool 5 students as they attend their first IB graduation. The IBPYP Programme, which runs from Preschool 3 to Grade 5 (aged 3-12), “nurtures and develops young students as caring, active participants in a lifelong journey of learning” (ibo.org, 2021). All of our teachers and staff at SEK International School Qatar have thoroughly enjoyed teaching our brilliant Preschool 5 students this year. We are proud to send them off into a well-deserved, joyful summer holiday and we are looking forward to welcoming all our returning students back next academic year when they enter Grade 1 at SEK-Qatar.

Grade 5

Next up are our Grade 5 students ready and eager to start the MYP Programme after the summer! Congratulations to all of you for completing PYP. As we look at their happy faces, they show that they have worked very hard and learned how to view challenges and opportunities in our fast changing world. SEK International School Qatar is honored to offer the PYP Programme as it has grown an example of best educational practice globally.

Grade 10

MYP Grade 10 students – well done! Happy graduation day!

The IBMYP Programme runs from Garde 6 to Grade 10 and is essential for laying solid groundwork for the final DP stage. During the MYP years, students have the opportunity to get involved in community and personal projects.

DP

Class of 2021!

Congratulations SEK International School Qatar Diploma Programme graduates.

Over the past two years they have studied incredibly hard to complete the ambitious International Baccalaureate® (IB) Diploma Programme.

Not only did they battle through Extended Essays, Theory of Knowledge, CAS and many exams, yet it is also worth mentioning they spent most of their diploma stage living and studying through a global pandemic. This alone was another added challenge that all of our students took on like pros!

They now hold their certificates in their hands and step out of school life into a world beyond the safe and almost home-like  SEK-Qatar.

It was a great pleasure to have taught and equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills for the next stage. All of SEK-Qatar wishes the 15 graduates the very best for their future studies and lives!

DP Visual Arts Exhibition

To visit the virtual exhibition double click on the link below. We recommend using a big screen (tablet or laptop) for a better experience.

DP Visual Arts Exhibition

The final exhibition is the culmination of the students’ IB Art experience. They have made a selection of their best work produced during the 2 years course and these were presented in the form of a curated virtual show which articulated their purposes and intentions as artists.

The students had the opportunity to present the work in any medium and we can find Acrylic paintings, Lino printing or casting sculptures. However, there is a noticeable propensity to use digital techniques such as Photo Edition, Animation or Software developed painting among others. Such preference could be the result of a pandemic that has definitely affected the way our students experiment with different techniques at school. Due to the implementation of an online and blended-learning, we have been given the opportunity of exploring a bit further the digital world.

Nonetheless, this has been a very successful exhibition where the students have experienced the concept of the space and its importance for the display of the work and its impact on the audience.

The virtual exhibition will be soon published and the SEK community will be able to visit it online and watch the results of the tough but enjoyable journey of our DP Art students.

PYP Visual Arts Project for Earth Day 2021

As part of the 51st Earth Day celebration, our PYP Visual Art teacher Ms. Ebru created an optional activity for Primary School learners. This activity had a focus on reusing materials, and looking for natural materials in the environment to create different pieces of art. Students submitted their work online, and spoke about why they felt creating artwork with an Earth Day focus was interesting for them.

DP Information Session 2021

SEK International School Qatar held a DP Info Session on Tuesday, 20th of April 2021. 

During the IBDP Info session participants were able to gain a deeper understanding of what the IB Diploma Programme entails, what subjects, projects and classes it offers, and how it compares to the IBMYP. 

The event was a two hour live stream hosted by the DP Coordinator, Mr. Kim Derudder, and our DP teachers.

  • At the start, the live stream covered the general framework of the IBDP programme. Followed by a deeper discussion on the three mandatory DP classes: extended essay (EE), theory of knowledge (TOK) and creativity, activity and service (CAS).
  • Once the main topics were presented, parents were able to join virtual rooms, one for each subject, to meet with the teachers and learn about each subject, expectations, content and assessment.

This event was a great way to show how SEK International School Qatar, as Microsoft Showcase School, uses technology to educate, inform and create relations through digital platforms.

PYP Exhibition 2021

The PYP Exhibition is the culminating experience for our PYP Learners. The PYPX is an opportunity for students in G5 to follow their passions utilising their research skills, and create local or global change. Our G5 students this year chose a number of different issues to research, including discrimination, air pollution, animal welfare and well-being. They used a variety of different tools and strategies to research their skills and held interviews, created and analysed surveys, and made observations of the world around them. They used this knowledge, and acted on it, creating posters, stop motion animations, videos, and fitness calendars to inform their audience.

Congratulations G5 on a successful demonstration of your skills, knowledge and conceptual understandings. We know this is just a snapshot of where you are in your learning journey, and look forward to supporting you as you continue to provoke change in the world.

Welcome to the Personal Project Exhibition for the MYP Class of 2021

Congratulations to our Grade 10 students! They have been working very hard over the last seven months on their Personal Project journey. Our students have created an amazing range of products, from teaching tennis to creating history books, magazines, and social media content.

The Personal Project is an important part of the MYP and for preparation for the DP. Students have to bring together skills they have learned in order to be successful. They are called upon to use subject specific skills as well as their ATL skills – in particular time management which is also an essential for doing well in the DP. We have been pleased by how well students have balanced all their commitments this year, despite the pandemic. Students are continuing to work hard and explore their interests which is evident in their PP exhibition Microsoft Sways.

Although we cannot gather in person, we hope you enjoy this virtual gallery showcasing the Grade 10 students creativity, hard work, and growth as MYP scholars.

You can also use your VR glasses to walk through it!

https://bit.ly/3uvgwM0

Mr. Diego, poetry contest

This month Mr. Diego Encinas Colilla, SEK Qatar’s PYP Spanish teacher, had the opportunity to participate in a poetry contest organised by the Qatar Poetry Center (@Diwanalarab_qa) and the Spanish Embassy in Qatar.

The topic of the contest was “The importance of living in society”, and Mr. Diego focused his poem on how he feels about Qatar, it’s culture and people. We are very excited to share that Mr. Diego’s poem has been chosen amongst many and he was the winner of the poetry contest.

Wondering what to learn during the summer? We got you!

Yesterday was the last day of classes for our students at SEK-Qatar! COVID-19 has shown us that education is a team effort, and that the work teachers do is truly invaluable.

But during this 2020 summer we will still live with some restrictions for going out. We all need to keep being careful, so staying more time at home during the break (and even avoiding traveling at all) will be the reality for many families.

Learning new skills is definitely one of the best ways to go into this situation. You and your child can keep entertained, inspired and motivated by engaging in a few online courses and activities. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have each member of your family learn something different, and then share it with the rest of the family members over dinner, or by planning special workshops or exhibitions at home during the weekends? Parents and kids, all learning and sharing their newly acquired knowledge with cool projects. Yes, that sounds like something we want to do!

Here are some resources that you may find spark an idea to enjoy this summer with your people -you may even include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and they can join online with you!

Summer SEK: SEK Education Group has opened 8 courses that our SEK-Qatar students can join, as they are in English and online, a wonderful thing to do to meet more members of the SEK community around the world! Find all about them HERE.

Microsoft Family Learning Center: Microsoft is always offering fantastic resources to families, and this is no exception. In HERE you will see games and activities that will give you and your child something to bond over. Here’s just a tiny taste of what you will find:

Online Summer Camps in Qatar: We have compiled a list of courses offered by some of our trusted external providers -universities included for MYP and DP students! Check them out HERE.

Qatar Museums: We highly recommend the virtual tours of MIA, Mathaf and National Museum of Qatar, which you can access HERE. Visit also the online activities and educational resources put together by MIA and Mathaf.

We hope you will find joy, amusement and inspiration from these and other activities to do over the summer. Remember there’s no need to rush, let’s strive to be grateful and caring during this time while we all adapt to how things will continue to work.

Have an awesome family time, and happy summer from all of us at SEK-Qatar!

Lance King – “Teaching with ATL in mind”

Have you heard of ATL or Approaches to Learning? This groundbreaking framework designed by Lance King for the IB curriculum focuses on developing 21st Century skills in students that help them learn how to learn. It is a true honor to have Lance King at SEK International School Qatar, as his venture has been transforming and shaping the direction of especially the MYP and DP programmes -over 4000 IB schools in 150 countries are implementing the ATL curriculum.

Lance King’s ideas revolve around developing resilience and guiding inquiry learning in the classroom by activating a cycle of implementation based on Thinking, Planning, Doing and Reflecting.

Almost 50 international teachers that live in Doha learned from Lance King in his two-day workshop “Teaching with ATL in mind”. The workshop outlined the ATL framework and provided hands-on opportunities to incorporate a focus on developing these skills into regular classroom practice.

Some of the topics included the purpose and need of 21st Century skills; thinking and learning skills selection to match student needs; identifying the Cognitive, Affective and Metacognitive ATL skills; teaching time and task management, goal setting and motivation skills; developing self-regulated learners through helping students to take responsibility for their own skills assessment and development, and so much more.

Furthermore, important questions were being answered throughout the workshop, such as what skills and teaching strategies give students advantages in specific qualification examinations, what are the steps of development of the Cognitive ATL skills across a student’s school life, how can teachers raise meta-cognitive awareness in students, and how can students (and teachers) learn how to “fail well” -amongst many others great inquiries!

The workshop was a “hands-on” style full of activities for participants, designed to give schools clear practical strategies. 

You can find out more about Lance King and ATL here https://www.taolearn.com/