We are a Microsoft School

SEK Qatar International School joins the Microsoft School Program for 2016-2017 school year.

SEK Qatar is recognized as a global leader in successful integration of technology with teaching and learning.

Doha, Qatar – 5th April 2017 – SEK Qatar joins the Microsoft Schools Program, an exclusive community of more than 1,000 premier schools from around the world, recognized to celebrate their pioneering efforts and innovation in rethinking teaching, learning and assessment with the intent to drive deep 21st century competencies.

SEK Qatar joins the program for the 2016-2017 school year because they identify themselves as engaging with Microsoft in some capacity and is signaling an intent to explore programs, resources and professional learning opportunities further.

“Becoming a part of the Microsoft Schools program is an amazing opportunity to connect and engage with over 1,000 leaders in education around the world,” said Vivian Arif, Principal at SEK Qatar. “We look forward to sharing our experiences with other schools in our community and the world to continue finding innovative ways to equip our students with the proper tools needed for success inside and outside of the classroom.”

As well as being recognized on a global scale for their innovative approach to educating tomorrow’s workforce, Microsoft Schools receive additional collaboration opportunities with other schools around the world, access to professional development opportunities, access to Microsoft Innovative Educators Experts (MIE Experts) on staff to help drive innovation and to support staff, peers and students, and more.

On 15th May, SEK Qatar ICT Coordinator Francisco J. Ruiz, who is a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator, was invited to share the best practices using Microsoft tools in Microsoft Event. He presented how the school use Microsoft tools in different ways every day putting the focus in Microsoft OneNote with its two variants, OneNote Classroom and OneNote Staff.

If you want to know more about Microsoft Schools, follow this link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/school-leaders/showcase-schools/default.aspx

Book week 2017

Our school is celebrating Book Week from Monday 24th to Thursday 27th April, when different activities will take place around the school, to engage students, staff and parents into different reading challenges.

Some of the classes will create their own story book and the students will be the authors, illustrators and publishers. They also will create a piece of art book related. All books and art pieces created will be available in the library after Book Week.

On Monday 24th, preschool students will attend a shadow play performance of “Raffy Rabbit Book Burglar” in the auditorium.

PYP students will collaborate in creating a never-ending story, that will be displayed in the main hall. All students, teachers and parents are encouraged to contribute to the story.

Grade 3, 4 and 5 will engage in writing challenges whereby they will create modern adaptations of traditional fairytale stories.

MYP students will read in Spanish, English and Arabic at the beginning of their classes and they will dedicate some time to read to PYP students in the three languages.

Mystery readers are welcome. Homeroom teachers will invite other teachers, parents, support staff and family members to come to the school and read stories in their native language to their class.

On Thursday 27th, PYP children and teachers are invited to dress up as their favourite book character to participate in the Book Character Parade.

Have a happy Book Week and don’t forget to keep reading!

Teaching and Learning Forum

Our SEK Qatar Specialist Teacher, Ms. Maysa Taha, had the opportunity to present at the Teaching and Learning Forum on 22nd April 2017 held at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

The Teaching and Learning Forum is designed by Qatar Foundation’s Education Development Institute (EDI) to be one of the premiere teaching and learning conferences in the region. The aim is to select the most dynamic, innovative and effective presentations from the top education professionals. Aside from sharing practice, the aim of the conference is to inspire and motivate teachers to reach for the highest level of student engagement and achievement. To complement the teacher presentations, EDI invites the top international speakers and authors in the field of education to present keynote and featured presentations.

Ms. Maysa’s presentation addressed the issue of teaching Arabic for non-native students. The presentation shared teaching strategies that are used in our school and it revealed the importance of the integration of technology in communicating information.

It also included the general difficulties faced by the non-native Arabic language learners and the audience received a host of simple and practical ideas to make their lessons rich with communication and participation.

Personal Project Exhibition 2017

Personal Project Exhibition 2017

One of the highlights of the school year in the MYP is the Personal Project Exhibition. If you are new to the Middle Years Program, a brief explanation is necessary.

 The Personal Project is an independent research project in the final year of the MYP. It is a significant piece of work that is the product of the student´s own initiative and creativity, completed in their own time under the supervision of a teacher in the school. It is a chance for them to investigate and create anything that they want. It should be something that they are passionate about and it should be all of their own work.

 This year we had projects ranging from a lookbook on the development of the abaya, videos on how to redesign furniture or to coach someone on football skills, or an art exhibition. Although the product is extremely important, so is the journey, and all the students are expected to produce a report that documents the learning process they undertook, including a journal, a record of their research techniques along with what primary and secondary sources were used.

 This is the day where the teachers, the students and the parents celebrate their success. The students get to discuss their project and answer questions from everyone attending.

 The students are visited by all the MYP classes and upper PYP classes, so that they can share with their peers as well.

 See photos from the event below!

 A Big Thank You!

International Day 2016-17

Today, 12th April, we are celebrating International Day at SEK Qatar.

This is a great opportunity for our community to enjoy our cultural diversity and share our diverse backgrounds in a festival of learning.

Students did a great job preparing presentations and performances representing many regions of the World installed in exhibits and displays all around the school. After a welcome message and a few performances, visitors can walk around the school and learn about many regions of the World.

The main hall is devoted to Africa and the Middle East, where African performances and artefacts are presented, as well as Arabic lanterns made by Preschool students.

The library hosts Oceania, where we can find Australian Aboriginal Art, New Zealand Koru Art and performances of Maori songs connected to historical events.

In the Auditorium, Asia plays Ukuleles for us, and the Cafeteria is devoted to North, Central and South America, where we can enjoy a Mexican Piñata.

The Gym is taken by Europe. In this section, we can enjoy Greek, Spanish, Swedish, Scottish, Swiss, Cyprus and Italian shows, dances, food and artefacts donated by parents.

In all of these areas, students and parents are able to watch presentations and performances, admire displays and artwork, join in with interactive workshops and taste some delicious food provided by parents and staff sharing their culinary expertise.

All performances, presentations and activities are timetabled and repeated twice to give everyone the chance to enjoy as many of these experiences as possible.

Join us and enjoy this special celebration of our cultural diversity!

Find below the playlist of the event from our YouTube channel Play SEK Qatar

WISE@Madrid Forum Imagining the Future of Education

WISE Madrid 2017 post

Today, 28th of February, WISE@Madrid Forum Imagining the Future of Education takes place to explore new narratives of change, and ways for rethinking tomorrow’s education to better prepare learners as effective, empowered and fulfilled individuals able to contribute to their communities. You  can follow WISE@Madrid on streaming in this link starting at 12:00 Qatar time.

This Forum will deepen in the emerging tools and successful experiences for system level change, the role of higher education in preparing learners for future jobs, and new entrepreneurship and 21st century skills for smarter and happier societies.

WISE@ Madrid Forum brings together leaders in education, business and policy to discuss and debate the future of education. Among them is Ms. Nieves Segovia, the President of SEK Educational Group who will participate in the specialist panel about educational innovation, Redesigning Education Systems for the Future, a round table that will enable participants to exchange their views about the challenges posed by the transformation and evolution of educational systems in a constantly changing world. Experts will debate on the principles, means and innovations necessary to adapt and lead these systems.

Ms. Nieves Segovia has also prepared an article for the Summit, where she states that the time has come for the education system to rise up to the challenge of its own transformation, pointing out the necessity to question the status quo and the determination to act accordingly. The article is in line with the subject matter of the WISE initiative, which is created to further adapt education to the profound changes of the digital age, as now we are exploring further dazzling disruption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and this sector seems largely disconnected from these dramatic developments.

Educators are aware that life-long learning has become crucial, that technology is replacing human roles, and big data, artificial intelligence and smart living are creating new workforce paradigms and require new skills. Imagining future jobs calls for a reimagined and renewed education today. That is why SEK combine the most up-to-date learning resources and the latest technology, to deliver state-of-the-art student-centered education.

About WISE

Qatar Foundation established the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in 2009 as response to the necessity of revitalizing education and providing a global platform for the development of new ideas and solution. WISE is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action, aimed at promoting innovation and building the future of education through collaboration.

SEK-Qatar Professional Development 2017

Every year SEK International School Qatar develops a varied workshop programme as a part of our ongoing commitment to professional development, sharing best practices in education with our colleagues alongside educators from Qatar schools and other schools within the Gulf region.

This weekend we hosted 160 participants attending 4 different workshops; the inspirational workshop leaders came from the USA, Australia and Abu Dhabi, each one bringing her own passion and wealth of experience to share with the teachers during the weekend.  Most of the attendees were from IB schools, they are life-long learners and want to share, learn and grow as professionals in their field. 

The workshop led by Carol Ann Tomlinson attracted the most participants focusing on Quality Differentiation: what, why and how. Early years professionals had the opportunity to work with Fiona Zinn about Concepts in the Early Years, other educators were interested to learn more about Mindfulness with Elissa Ballard and the last group led by Tanya Elmer focused on Concepts in the Primary and Middle school.  

SEK Qatar will continue to offer such opportunities, our Professional Development programme will be published shortly online via our website.

FLL First LEGO League 2017

Our robotic teams spent the weekend of the 11th February in the FLL (First LEGO League) competition. They did a great job and had a great success!

SEK participated with two teams: LEGO Storm Troppers and ZooBots. It is with great pride we can say that both reached the podium! LEGO Storm Troppers ranked first in Core Values and ZooBots ranked third in Robot Game.

But good news don’t stop there. We are very proud to announce that they have been selected to represent Qatar in the regional phase of FLL, in which many teams from different countries from UAE will participate. This event will take place next month.

 Let’s congratulate our teams for all the effort and time they will be investing to achieve this goal and for the enthusiasm they are showing! Keep it up!

Sports Day

Students hit another milestone during Sports Day: they broadcasted the event by radio. To that end, they did some research about running a radio event. Then, they created the scripts and chose the songs. Finally, they were in charge of making the announcements and conducting interviews and quizzes about sports and healthy lifestyle.

Little by little, all together we are improving the Sports Day experience, involving staff and students in different activities related to sports.

Go SEK team!

To find out how good our students performed, check this post for PYPs and this post for MYPs.

Hour of Code 2016

Our school is participating in the largest learning event in history for the 3rd time: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 5-11). More than 310 million students worldwide have already tried an Hour of Code and the number is growing every minute.

If you want to work on it with your children, feel free to try some of the tutorials at home.

You are welcome to try them in our Foyer where we have installed 4 desktops with access to the tutorials.

Tutorials/activities https://code.org/learn

Hour Of Code main website: https://hourofcode.com

Find below some pictures of our students during different sessions running The Hour of Code at SEK-Qatar.

Start coding!