Newton British Academy, Al Dafna

“An International Community of learners striving forExcellence and celebrating success”

NEWSLETTER – January 18-19

Dear parents and friends of NBA Al Dafna,

This has been a busy half term and there have been a variety of activities that our children have enjoyed. Many of these activities have been school based as well as with other Newton schools. We have seen children dressed as pirates and as Vikings, princesses and super heroes. We have seen children participate in Arabic drama, inter school football, national fencing competitions and planting projects. Your constant support in making these activities possible for the children has been remarkable. Thank you.

This term we have focused on RESPONSIBILITY as our Newton Value. In the coming half term, we shall focus on SUPPORT. Supporting one another is a critical part of team work and the NBA Al Dafna team is a cohesive and happy one. When parents, pupils and teachers support one another we can achieve all our goals. Your ongoing support will be very valuable in the half term to come.

This term we welcomed Ms Monya Carstens onto our staff as the new Year 3 Yellow teacher. We have also been joined by Ms Danielle Blake who is working with Ms McDermott in the EAL department. We are pleased that both ladies have joined us. We wish them every happiness and a long stay at NBA Al Dafna and in Doha.

It is really important that children come to school every day and on time. The first 20 minutes of the day are very important as the children settle for the day and in the lower classes have phonics lessons. Phonics is the building block of English, which as you know is the basis of all learning in our school. The past 4 days latecoming has gone back down to around 5%. It is critical that we continue the drive to be at school by 7am. Thank you for your efforts in this respect.

We are now breaking for a few days and school will resume on Sunday 17 February. Please take note of the following dates:

17 February F1 Sports Day18 February F2 Sports Day19 February Key Stage 1 Sports Day (Year 1 and 2)20 February Key Stage 2 Sports Day (Year3, 4, 5 and 6)

On Friday 8 March we shall have our School Fair. This is a lovely day where families can enjoy time together in a fun filled environment. We have 10 parents who will be running stalls this year which will add to the interest and the atmosphere of the event. I do hope you will join us for this day.

In the next few pages of this newsletter you can read about the activities that we have enjoyed at school over the past half term.

NBA Al Dafna’s International Art Week was a great success. Children got to learn about different countries and shared much about their own cultures and traditions. The teachers had planned a variety of fun and engaging activities to support children in learning about a range of countries and cultures. The week came to an end on Thursday with a celebration involving a super assembly by 2B, and a party in the class where children were able to try a range of food, representing the wonderful mix of nationalities we have at NBA Al Dafna.

Thank you parents for your continuous support and providing your children with tasty treats to share and fabulous outfits to wear!

EYFS Parent-Child Reading Programme, Term 1:

It has been wonderful to celebrate reading in the Early Years through the Shared Reading Programme in Term 1. Thank you very much to all the parents who were involved and attended on a weekly basis. At the beginning of the programme, we had a welcome PowerPoint to inform parents of the importance of reading during the Early Years of children and we shared some ideas for what parents can do at home to support their child with reading. For the subsequent five weeks, we began each session with some warm-up rhymes, followed by shared reading of different stories. After this, the children got to choose a range of English and Arabic books and this provided essential guided reading time between parents and children in the library. The programme enabled children to take these books home until the next session. It was fantastic to see the love of reading in children throughout the programme. We hope to see all of the parents again and we would love for more parents to participate in Term 2.

On Tuesday, 15 January 2019 the Schools Olympic Fencing Championship was held at Qatar Fencing Federation training hall, with various schools from around Qatar participating in either “foil” or “epee”. Newton Al Dafna was represented by Mohammed Al Akraf and Hamid Hashim in the “foil” catergory. They participated in five round robin matches each before advancing to the knock-out phase. With not much experience, but rather finesse, discipline and natural talent the boys both made it to the semi-finals, where they unfortunately lost, but managed to secure a bronze medal in third place position.

Ten boys, born in the year 2011, represented Newton Al Dafna at the Aspire Football tournament on 22 January 2019. There were many schools from around Qatar present at the tournament who participated in various groups.Within our group, our school played four matches:Winning three of the matches 4-0; 2-0 and 3-0 and lost one match 1-0. After winning the group they then proceeded to the Quarter Finals round where they were unfortunately defeat 1-0. The boys displayed good character and can be proud of their achievement, as it was their first time playing together as a team.

Well Done.

Beach clean-up!

On Friday, 18th of January 2019, we joined Doha Environmental Actions Project (DEAP) and Torba Market at the Al Khor mangroves for a beach clean-up. Several families from Newton British Academy joined in on the fun. We learnt about why it is important to clean up after ourselves and the damage we cause when we use lots of unrecyclable products. In a few hours we managed to collect over 1300 kilograms of rubbish. We also had fun exploring where crabs live and learning about what creatures live in the rock pools at the beach. It was great to see so many people caring about our environment and we hope to see more families join us at the next clean-up.

NBA Al Dafna, were lucky enough to be visited by scientist from Texas A & M university. The scientists were extremely enthusiastic, vibrant and really ignited a sense of awe and wonder within the children. Both KS1 and KS2 enjoyed it thoroughly and spent the whole day discuss the wonderful science they saw.

KS1 Newton Football Report – 17 January 2019

On 17 January 2019, Al Dafna hosted a Key Stage one Newton Football Tournament at Qatar Sports Club. Five Newton Schools attended with a total of 11 teams participating in a 5-a-side “round robin” format tournament, before playing finals for first, second and third positions.

The children in Key Stage one, were engaged in a fun filled morning from 9am – 11am with lots of excitement during the matches.

The third place play-off was between “NBA Barwa C” and “Al Waab A” with “Al Waab A” winning the match (2 – 0) claiming third position in the tournament.

The Final was between “Al Dafna A” and “NBA Barwa D” and after fulltime the score was (1-1). The match then went to a penalty shootout and “NBA Barwa D” were crowned champions (2-1).

Thank you to all Schools who participated and to the parents who allowed their children to participate, as well as those parents who came and supported the children on the morning.

KS2 - Newton Football Report – 24 January 2019

On 24 January 2019, Al Dafna hosted a Key Stage two Newton Football Tournament at Qatar Sports Club. All Newton Schools attended with a total of 17 teams participating in either Year 3/4 group or Year 5/6 group. Year 3/4 was 7-a-side “round robin” format tournament and Year 5/6 where divided into 2 section, A or B, 9-a-sde “round robin” format.The children in Key Stage two, were engaged in a fun filled morning from 8.30am – 11.30am with lots of excitement and goals during the matches.In the Year 3/4 group, third place play-off was between “NBA Barwa A” and “Westbay” with “NBA Barwa A” winning the match (1 – 0) claiming third position.The Final was between “NIA Barwa” and “Al Waab” with the final score (2-1) in favour of “NIA Barwa”.In the Year 5/6 section, third place play-off was between “Westbay” and “DRing” with “Dring” securing third place with a (1-0) win. The Final was between “NBA Barwa B” and “Alwaab”. After fulltime the score was (0-0), which meant the match would end in a penalty shoot-out. “Al Waab” were champions and won (3-2).

Thank you to all Schools who participated and to the parents who allowed their children to participate, as well as those parents who came and supported the children on the morning.

Finally, I should like to commend you on the good manners of your children. I am delighted by the way our children greet adults who visit the school and the courteous behaviour they show to staff. It is so important for children to learn good manners as this will stand them in good stead all their lives. As we focus on SUPPORT as our value this half term, may I remind you that you are always welcome at school. Should you wish to speak with any of the staff, please simply make an appointment to do so and we will all be here to support one another in the education of the children – your children, our children.

Sincerely,

Patrick SalvagePrincipal