Graduation 2016

 

On Thursday 23rd June we had the pleasure of celebrating the graduation of our Pre 5, Grade 5 and Grade 10 students. Our school community united to look back over the special moments that were shared. We wish them well and look forward to the new stages ahead of them.

 

Fine Arts Night 2016

 

This year for Arts Night we turned SEK-Qatar into a big Arts Festival. As well as enjoying the exhibits of all of our students’ artwork, visitors had the opportunity to engage in all kinds of Art-making activities: there were percussion workshops, interactive art galleries, finger-weaving, colouring stations, drama and many more.

To complete the artistic experience everybody gathered around the stage to enjoy the multidisciplinary-interactive show “Lost in the Jungle”, in which students displayed their abilities and talents in varied arts disciplines: script-writing, drama, dance and music.

The audience also played an important role by joining in through the use of musical instruments. It was a memorable night, and a great example of how Arts can be used to build Communities.

 

PYP Exhibition 2016

 

SEK Qatar celebrated and showcased their very first PYP Exhibition on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th May 2016. Our Grade 5 students were excellent ambassadors for our school and the IB education that we afford them. They made us very proud and as our school’s pioneers they have set the standard extremely high for next year’s students. This student led event was the culmination of a long process of work which began in early February.

Monday’s performances catered to three different schools from Doha. We had the pleasure of hosting groups of students from Qatar Academy, ACS and ISL. The visiting students were very interested in the research and information on display. It was commented by all how impressive the final products were and how evident the learning process was on the boards. In particular, it was noted that our students work was comprised of three languages: English, Spanish and Arabic. Group presentations took several creative formats, for example videos, brochures, information pamphlets, surveys, data analysis, interviews, poetry, mini books. SEK students answered questions confidently and enthusiastically and were eager to share their knowledge with all of our guests.

Tuesday heralded the long awaited performance for parents. It was a truly wonderful experience for all involved. Our students relished the opportunity to display their talents to our senior leadership team, teachers, mentors, parents and families. The excitement was palpable and the evening was a complete success. Parent feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Witnessing our students display the IB learner attributes and attitudes in such abundance was heartwarming. They were well equipped to answer people’s questions about their chosen topics and displayed true communication skills as well as being highly knowledgeable. The creativity and integrity on display was amazing.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this rewarding process. This was collaboration at its finest and was a huge team effort. We are already looking forward to next year’s exhibition.

 

MUN – Model of United Nations

 

On May 6, 2016, five students from SEK Qatar participated in the THIMUN Middle School Model United Nations Conference. Students had spent the previous term researching information on topics ranging from “The Recruitment of Youth by Terrorist Organizations” to “The Role of Sports in Society.” The students then developed position papers from the perspective of the member state of Canada and collaborated with students from schools all over Qatar to develop resolutions that would attempt to solve these global issues. The hard work of the students paid off; it was truly a rewarding day for the students.

Metropolitan Libraries Conference

 

SEK-Qatar librarian, Mr. Virgilio Medina Jr, was one of the speakers at the Metropolitan Libraries Conference organized by Qatar National Library at Qatar National Convention Center.

He presented a research paper on Digital Literacy and discussed how this could empower young learners to become competent users in a digital world.

With this project, he is working with his research collaborator, Professor Ross Todd, who is an internationally recognized school library educator at Rutgers University USA. The two of them are working on digital literacies and its role in improving school library services.

According to Mr Virgilio, “this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to inform people on what libraries can do in educating students to live and work for a global networked digital environment where information is continuously growing”.

The METLIB conference 2016 under the theme “Pearls in the desert: unleashing potential” is host to librarians and educators from around the world and is taking place until 28th April.

Qatar Global Education Fair

Qatar Global Education Fair

Tuesday 26th April saw the grade ten students attending the Qatar Global Education Fair held at the Intercontinental Doha, The City.

Universities and colleges from around the world were represented, thereby providing an ideal opportunity for our students to engage with their representatives and take their tertiary education planning one step further along.

Whilst it’s always nice to have options, the choice these days is vast and it’s vital that we allow the students plenty of time to consider places and courses carefully and decide what will really be right for them.

The bonus here was access to seminars on topics such as studying in Canada, France or the USA, delivered by experts in the field. All in all, a productive morning!

Book Week 2016

 

MYP Book Week 2016

“There’s no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books.” This quote by James Patterson generally illustrates the message that we intended to convey to SEK Qatar’s MYP students, grades 6-10, this year. In a condensed effort to promote and encourage reading, students took part in various activities throughout the week. Along with daily D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time, some students had the chance to go on a fieldtrip to visit the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar’s library. During the morning assemblies, students had the chance to develop a better understanding about the importance of reading in the different languages taught within the MYP curriculum: English, Spanish and Arabic.

The highlight of this year’s Book Week events were the multiple authors who visited our school to share their knowledge and experience with the students. The students had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Khalid Al-Obaidan’s informative talk about the art of poetry and how the habit of reading helps in building a bank of vocabulary words within one’s mind. Among many other topics discussed by Mr. Khalid, students also learned more about the importance of receiving feedback, the ability to accept and embrace criticism and the notion of how beauty is very subjective.

The second author visit was by Mrs. Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar. Students listened attentively to an exciting presentation by an author of several published novels. They were able to appreciate the 12-monthly process that she undergoes to be able to produce pieces of writing while teaching university students and also taking care of her two children. In English Language and Literature class and prior to Mrs. Mohana’s visit, students familiarized themselves with the author’s writing style by reading the first short story she ever wrote.

Inspiration was a dominant factor in our Book Week’s final author visit. Mrs. Justine Jewell truly inspired the students to pursue their passion with commitment and dedication, as she spoke about her career in nursing. Students were intrigued to hear about her experience in the emergency trauma department, and how her aim as a nurse is to help improve the quality of care, and ultimately prevent more and more people from dying. Moreover, Mrs. Justine stressed the significance of literacy across all subjects and the importance of academic honesty in research. After the presentation, students had the chance to ask Mrs. Justine questions about her profession as an RN and as a professor at the University of Calgary Qatar.

Perseverance, passion, creativity, knowledge, commitment and open-mindedness were key words that resonated with both students and teachers, as the author visits and Book Week events came to an end.

 

PYP Book Week 2016

The PYP students of SEK Qatar had a fantastic week celebrating Book Week. The entire week was spent engaged in a celebration of books, and the demonstration of a love of reading. The children celebrated their favourite stories and authors throughout the week, with a range of special activities every day. The students brought in their favourite books to share with their classmates, participated in daily D.E.A.R Time (Drop Everything And Read), enjoyed the book fair and some classes attended a field trip to the local children’s library, Maktaba Library.

A caring sense of community again was evident throughout the PYP, as students from a variety of grades paired up for Buddy Reading. Older students came to the preschool classes to read to them and listen to them read. Younger students visited the older grades to showcase their emergent literacy skills, to receive immense support and encouragement from their older counterparts. MYP also visited the younger grades to share with them their own story books, which they had written and illustrated themselves, and were met with a wave of encouragement and appreciation, and left with a new motivation brought on by the preschool students’ love of their stories.

Throughout the week, the students had visits from many ‘Mystery Readers’ in various languages, especially Spanish, Arabic and English, as the entire school community joined together in sharing a love of books. There were visits from parents, grandparents, siblings, other teachers and students, and many other members of the school community.

Book Week ended with a whole PYP celebration with the PYP Character Parade. Students and teachers alike dressed up as their favourite characters from books and enjoyed the character parade in the main hall. Both students and teachers really enjoyed the parade, a fantastic ending to a brilliant Book Week!

Thank you to everybody involved for making Book Week such a success for the PYP students of SEK Qatar. They had a week full of fun and reading!

Productive weekend learning about Positive Discipline at SEK Qatar

Last weekend, 15th-16th April 2016,  25 teachers from Doha, Kuwait, Oman attended a workshop on “Positive Discipline” organized by SEK-Qatar.

The trainer leading the workshop, Joy Marchese, was an inspirational lady full of enthusiasm, passion, humor, and knowledge. Her warmth and engaging personality made the workshop interesting, practical and most importantly fun. She was able to make direct connections between the theory underpinning positive discipline, and practical tasks we can use in the classroom.

Joy also led a 90 min session for parents and the feedback was very positive.

Have a look on some of the photos below, and more details are via this website http://positivediscipline.co.uk/

International Day 2016

Leading up to our 2015-2016 International Day, students from Preschool 3 to Grade 5 had the opportunity to explore new countries and their costumes, games, music and cultures. MYP showcased their instrumental skills as well as honed their performance skill in introducing the PYP acts. Students celebrated with parents and peers through song, dance and presentations.

And you can see below some photographs from the event.