On the 11^th of March, 7 SEK students traveled to Madrid, Spain to partake in the 13^th annual SEK Model United Nations Conference. They participated in the 3 day conference where they represented the delegations of Mexico and Tunisia in the committees of United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nation World Tourism Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Economic and Social Committee.

Students collaborated with others to discuss issues such as the promotion of peace and sustainable development in Africa, competitive and responsible global tourism, sustainable and reliable energy use in the modern world and combating the glorification of organizational practices that fuel discrimination and xenophobia. In addition, they  conducted research and engaged in friendly negotiation that resulted in new perspectives regarding global issues. Following the conference, the students toured the city with the company of 7 SEK-El Castillo students to expand their cultural perspective as well.

Last Thursday, 17th January SEK-Qatar was welcomed to the Academic Bridge Program at Qatar Foundation for an All-Qatar University Fair.

Universities from around the world based in Doha were in attendance to inform students on their wealth of programs and details of the admissions process. Qatari businesses were also present to inform on scholarships and internships.

Twenty two of our sophomores and juniors represented us proudly!

On Tuesday 14^th of January, Preschool 4 students experienced ice-skating at the Gondolania Ice Rink at Villaggio Mall as part of their unit provocation, Weather and Seasons. This experience aligned with this unit’s central idea, ‘Weather can influence the way people go about their daily lives’.

As a learning community dedicated to 21st century international mindedness, exposing our students to as many national and cross-cultural opportunities will contribute to our students’ development as global citizens. In addition, this provocation allowed students the opportunity to explore how ice-skating contributes to a healthy physical lifestyle while they had a very good time.

On Sunday, 16th December, we celebrated Qatar National Day at our school. This celebration gives the students, parents and teachers of SEK Qatar a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the many aspects of Qatari culture.

Every term, our students take time to study the Qatari culture, traditions and rich heritage and in this oportunity, we had a great variety of student artworks on display around the Main Hall. We also enjoyed face painting and henna and a chance to play traditional Qatari games.

Meanwhile on the stage there were a variety of performances from PYP and MYP students, including the henna night Dance from Grade 5 and 6 Girls, a poem and play written by Grade 8 students and the traditional sword dance performed by PYP boys. MYP music students were proud to give recital of the Qatar National Anthem.

In addition, we enjoyed traditional food and drinks and we would like to send a special thanks to all of the students, school staff and parents that helped us to make this joyous event happen!

We are glad to have shared with all the visitors this special day in honour of Qatar National Day 2018.

The UNESCO Doha Office provides an Environmental Awareness Pilot Program in the Mangroves in Al Thakira and it is a great opportunity to learn about the coastal/marine environment.

As a part of Science Class, 6 Grades students walked across the ecosystems in the Mangroves to experience the environmental conditions of each as well as the organisms that inhabit them. They were given binocular to observe the bird life, crabs and other organisms in the habitat. They also crossed the mangroves to measure temperature and salinity.

Over the weekend of 8th – 10th November, 2018, eight SEK Qatar students from Grade 10 and 11 (Mohamed Ibrahim, Abdur-Rahmaan Iqbal, Fatima Mammadova, Sarah Gil, Zaynab Berriche, Karim Abi Nahed, Najah Risheq and Mohamad Ladki) put their research and communication skills to use at the 11th annual Doha College Model United Nations Conferences.

The SEK students represented the country of Turkey in a number of General Assembly Committees, The Human Rights Council, the Economic and Social Council and the Environmental Commission.

Students worked hard and collaborated with their peers to negotiate and discuss issues such as the use of chemical weapons on Syria, the prevention of discrimination based on age and the mistreatment of migrate workers following globalization. They truly enjoyed having the opportunity to discuss such intense issues as well as working closely with others their age to make a change. It was an enlightening experience for all attendees.

This week, from Sunday 14th – Thursday 18th October, our PYP team celebrate Arts Week!

This year, we have decided to take a new approach to celebrating the arts in our PYP department. Each grade level from Preschool 3 to Grade 5 has organized their own celebration of the arts and parents have been invited to join at different occasions throughout the week.

These celebrations reflect the many ways the arts have been integrated with our Units of Inquiry and include activities and presentations such as; gymnastic routines, dance performances, fitness games, interactive art workshops such as Tie – Dye and Mosaic, singing performances, presentation of a drama written students, cultural song and dance, the creation of a ‘Peace’ mural and many more!

In addition, the student artwork created during Unit 1 is also on display around our Main Hall.

Sunday 14th:

Grade 2: Inquiry ‘Patterns

Grade 2 have been exploring the Unit of “Inquiry ‘Patterns’. For their Arts Week celebration, they have been busy preparing Gymnastic routines with the PE Department. Students selected their own music and choreographed their own routines in groups.

Following their performances, Grade 2 students invited their parents to join them for a Tie-Dye workshop. Students had practiced different methods of creating patterns in fabric using Tie-Dye techniques in their art classes. During the workshop, the students worked together with their parents to make their own Tie-Dye t-shirts. The finished products were nothing short of amazing.

Monday 15th:

Grade 1: Let’s Stay Healthy

The first Unit of Inquiry for Grade 1 was ‘Let’s Stay Healthy’, so their Arts Week celebration showcased many different aspects of their learning about this topic.

First, the students put on an energetic and enthusiastic dance performance for their parents and teachers called the ‘Broccoli Song’ while they used amazing broccoli hats created by themselves. They also displayed what they had been learning in their PE sessions during ‘Let’s Stay Healthy!’: the many ways that children and adults can keep their bodies healthy. Then, they put on their own fitness class, by teaching their parents some fitness games they had prepared.

Finally, Grade 1 students brought their parents to their art station. In their art classes, they had been learning about the Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who painted portraits of people using fruits and vegetables instead of their normal facial features. As part of the Arts Week, the Grade 1’s drew a ‘fruit face’ portrait of one of their parents and completed the paintings together.

Grade 5: Literature

The Grade 5 classes have been working on the Unit of Inquiry ‘Literature’. As part of their inquiry, the students wrote their own play: thought of the plot, created the characters, designed the props and prepared their own costumes. This play was performed on stage to parents during their Arts Week celebration.

Part two of the Grade 5 Arts Week celebration was a presentation of their artwork. In their art lessons, the students learned about the artwork of an illustrator ‘Warja Lavater’, who created a modern illustration of old tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

Each student made their own accordion book inspired by the work of this artist. They chose a classic story or a fairytale and created a modern day illustration of that story within their accordion books. During their arts week celebration, students shared their artwork with their parents, then taught them how to create their own miniature accordion book.

Tuesday 14th:

Preschool 4: All About Me

Preschool 4’s first Unit of Inquiry has been ‘All About Me’ which was celebrated in many ways during their Arts Week event. First, the students of Preschool 4 took to the stage to perform a dance to the song ‘What I Am’. Every student was given the freedom to choose their own outfits to reflect different aspects of their personality.

Following their dance routine, the Preschool 4 students invited their parents to their classrooms to partake in some Arts and Crafts activities. Ms. Tyechia’s class got hands on with their parents by creating artworks using both of their handprints. Ms. Sinead’s class were introduced to the work of Pointillist painter Georges Seurat. Using cotton buds and paint, they created bright, dotty paintings around the shapes of the first letter of their names. The results were amazing and they definitely had a great time.

Wednesday 15th:

Grade 4: Conflict Resolution

Grade 4 have just completed their first Unit of Inquiry ‘Conflict Resolution’, so they embraced the opportunity to express their learning through the arts. Their Arts Week celebration emphasised the importance of peace. They performed a beautiful song,’Light a candle for peace’ prepared with their homeroom teachers Ms. Dada and Ms. Hadeel as well as their music teacher Ms. Irene.

Following their performance, the students and their parents were free to paint any symbol that represented peace for them and created a collaborative painting entitled ‘Peace Around Us’. They also worked together on a ‘Peace Mindmap’, answering the question ‘What does peace mean to you?’.

In their art lessons with Ms. Maire, Grade 4 students had designed and painted symbols of Peace using watercolours. They also learned how to make stencils from their designs, during their celebration, the Grade 4 students and their parents created a wonderful ‘Peace Around Us’ mural outside using spray paints and stencils.

Grade 3: Arts and Expression

Grade 3’s first Unit of Inquiry was ‘Arts and Expression’. During this Unit, the students explored the many ways we can express ourselves through the arts.

First, the students showcased an artistic expression in the form of gymnastic routines they had prepared in PE with their PE teachers Ms. Sylvia and Mr. Andres. They worked in groups to choreograph artistic gymnastic routines.

Music and Visual Arts were also integrated during this Unit, so during the Arts Week celebration, students invited their parents to join them in art and music workshops. In their art workshop, the students showed their parents how they can use line, shape and colour to express an emotion. They randomly chose an emotion from the box, then created an abstract painting expressing that emotion with their parents. Their finished paintings were so impressive!

In their music workshop, the students showed their parents how the various musical elements such as tempo and pitch can be used to express an emotion or idea, as well as how different instruments and music technology on the ipads can be used to express their feelings.

As a final touch to their Arts Week celebration, Grade 3 students showed that culture can also be expressed through the arts. Their homeroom teachers inspired the students teaching them a song and dance from their home country. Ms. Zita introduced Grade 3A to folk music from Hungary and they sang the traditional Hungarian song beautifully. Mr. Joe taught his class ‘The Siege of Ennis’, a traditional Irish dance which they performed on stage, before teaching their parents some of the steps.

Thursday 16th:

Preschool 3: Arts and Expression  

Preschool 3 celebrated their art, music and dance skills during their Arts Week Celebration. They presented a song to their parents and invited them to join in their music and movement session involving singing and dancing together.

The Preschool 3 students and their parents then participated in different art stations. They painted together using brushes, sponges and stamps, and they created colourful collages using paper and pom-poms. Preschool 3 students have been learning about their different facial features, and so during their celebration they drew self-portraits together with their parents using mirrors.

Preschool 5:  Communities

Preschool 5 students have been learning about ‘Communities’, so their Arts Week celebration started with a dance about working as a team to the song ‘We’re All In This Together’.

After performing their dance in the auditorium, the students then moved to the Main Hall to do a Mosaic art activity with their parents. They had practiced the technique of Mosaic with paper and with stone in their art sessions. During the Arts Week celebration, the students and their parents drew a design together and then they used colourful tiles to create a Mosaic.

First Class of SEK-Qatar Students achieving the International Baccalaureate MYP and DP Programs

SEK International School Qatar has achieved a high important milestone by celebrating the graduation of the first class to complete the Middle Year Program (MYP) and the Diploma Program (DP) of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB).

Twenty MYP students and eleven DP students celebrated their graduation in the presence of SEK President, Ms. Nieves Segovia, and the Ambassador of Spain to Qatar, HE Ignacio Escobar Guerrero.

The objective of these programs is to train young people on engaging actively in the learning process and offer them all the opportunities to join the best universities all over the world.

The Middle Years Program is dedicated to students between 12 and 16 years old. And through the program, the students will understand the complexity of the societies in which we live and will develop an open and sympathetic attitude toward the world.

On the other hand, the Diploma Program is allocated to the 16-18 age category. It promotes the development of community conscience at local and international levels, and allows the students to explore their interests and passions.

SEK International School Qatar was established in 2009 within the scope of the Outstanding Schools Program of the Qatari Ministry of Education. In the context of this project, the Ministry elects the best international schools and invites them to set up in the country. The school embraces currently more than 70 nationalities among students, and more than 25 among teachers. SEK-Qatar is a mixed and multilingual international school in Qatar, comprising an advanced learning campus located in the modern district of West Bay – Doha. The English is the teaching language, knowing that the school offers as well Spanish and Arabic courses to all students.

SEK-Qatar offers the IB programs since pre-school until Grade 12. SEK schools use the curriculum framework of the IB, which combines a strict course of study with a methodology which promotes competence development. The IB offers high quality courses of study to a community of prestigious schools all over the world.

Currently, SEK International Schools embrace more than 5500 resident and non-resident students, aged between 0 and 18 years old, of more than 70 nationalities, in their locations within Doha (Qatar), Madrid, Barcelona, Almeria, Pontevedra, Dublin (Ireland), and the Alps (France). On its part, Camilo José Cela University has 3500 students, and considers the innovation, the interdisciplinarity, and the internationality among its principal marks of identity.

On the 6th of June, 2018, SEK-Qatar celebrated the Graduation for Preschool 5 and PYP Grade 5. The Preschool 5 students are moving into the next phase of their PYP journey and the Grade 5 students are moving to the Middle Years Program.

Students, parents and the SEK community attended this vibrant ceremony. Several students presented their graduation speeches, Preschool 5 performed a poem and both groups surprised the audience with some videos to remember how amazing this year has been in the school.

Thank you to all who have helped everyone successfully graduate from their programs.

This is just the beginning of the journey. Congratulations and good luck to all of you!