News from Head of School - Kathy Miner
Planning for the 2017-20018 School Year
As we head into the month of February, we begin to plan for the coming school year. We are already looking ahead to the 2017-2018 school year and planning our schedule of classes, preparing our budget and hiring needed faculty.
The most important thing we do in planning for coming school year is to hire the very best teachers possible to join our already amazing faculty.
We are pleased to announce that while 33 teachers have indicated that they will be departing in July, we have 145 teachers who will return next year. (Please note that teachers do not discuss departures with students until May.)
In an international school it is not unusual for teachers depart to explore other parts of the world, return home to their home country and family, or to follow a spouse’s work transfer.
We continue to have a strong retention rate for an international school and we credit this high rate to our positive and collaborative work environment, supportive parent community and, of course, our wonderful students.
Senior Leaders are actively recruiting strong and talented teachers to join our faculty for the coming year. We recruit highly qualified teachers by accessing international recruitment agencies online and by attending teacher recruitment fairs. We are pleased to announce that we have already hired a number of talented and experienced teachers and are excited to have them join our school.
Several Senior Leadership Team members, myself included, are attending recruitment fairs in the United States. I have to say that we are proud to represent GAA at these fairs as we describe our school to potential candidates.
Thank you for your support in helping to make our school an amazing place to be. Our school has become a place that attracts strong teachers who are looking for a high quality school and happy school community.
February Half-Day Plan
For the last two years, The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority has scheduled a parade celebrating the Al Hosn Festival on Thursday afternoon in the second week of February, closing streets in downtown Abu Dhabi. The street closure affects our bus routes as many of our students commute from downtown.
In anticipation of the street closures on February 9, we scheduled our normal end-of-the-month professional development half-day on February 9, instead of February 23.
To date, the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority have not announced the parade for this year. We will announce the placement of our Half-Day for Professional Development once we know more information.
Regards,
Kathryn Miner
Head of School and CEO
As we head into the month of February, we begin to plan for the coming school year. We are already looking ahead to the 2017-2018 school year and planning our schedule of classes, preparing our budget and hiring needed faculty.
The most important thing we do in planning for coming school year is to hire the very best teachers possible to join our already amazing faculty.
We are pleased to announce that while 33 teachers have indicated that they will be departing in July, we have 145 teachers who will return next year. (Please note that teachers do not discuss departures with students until May.)
In an international school it is not unusual for teachers depart to explore other parts of the world, return home to their home country and family, or to follow a spouse’s work transfer.
We continue to have a strong retention rate for an international school and we credit this high rate to our positive and collaborative work environment, supportive parent community and, of course, our wonderful students.
Senior Leaders are actively recruiting strong and talented teachers to join our faculty for the coming year. We recruit highly qualified teachers by accessing international recruitment agencies online and by attending teacher recruitment fairs. We are pleased to announce that we have already hired a number of talented and experienced teachers and are excited to have them join our school.
Several Senior Leadership Team members, myself included, are attending recruitment fairs in the United States. I have to say that we are proud to represent GAA at these fairs as we describe our school to potential candidates.
Thank you for your support in helping to make our school an amazing place to be. Our school has become a place that attracts strong teachers who are looking for a high quality school and happy school community.
February Half-Day Plan
For the last two years, The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority has scheduled a parade celebrating the Al Hosn Festival on Thursday afternoon in the second week of February, closing streets in downtown Abu Dhabi. The street closure affects our bus routes as many of our students commute from downtown.
In anticipation of the street closures on February 9, we scheduled our normal end-of-the-month professional development half-day on February 9, instead of February 23.
To date, the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority have not announced the parade for this year. We will announce the placement of our Half-Day for Professional Development once we know more information.
Regards,
Kathryn Miner
Head of School and CEO
Islamic Inventions Exhibition at Gems American Academy
Dear GAA parents,
Today was an exciting day at GAA with our grade 9 students taking the lead and presenting at the Islamic Inventions Exhibition held at school.
We are very proud of them and the hard work they put in, to present their work, introduce what inventions Muslims contributed and share this information with our students and teachers.
Thank you to our Secondary Islamic Department and grade 9 students.
Arabic Director
Samah Awad
Today was an exciting day at GAA with our grade 9 students taking the lead and presenting at the Islamic Inventions Exhibition held at school.
We are very proud of them and the hard work they put in, to present their work, introduce what inventions Muslims contributed and share this information with our students and teachers.
Thank you to our Secondary Islamic Department and grade 9 students.
Arabic Director
Samah Awad
معرض الاختراعات الإسلاميّة في مدرسة أكاديميّة جيمس الأمريكي
أولياء الأمور الكرام،
تحيّة طيبة وبعد،
نطمح في مدرسة أكاديميّة جيمس الأمريكيّة في الحصول على أعلى المستويات وتقديم أحدث الوسائل التعليميّة للوصول بأبنائنا إلى بر العلم والأمان.
قام قسم التّربية الإسلاميّة للمرحلة المتوسّطة والثّانويّة مع طلاب الصّف التّاسع بتنظيم معرض الاختراعات الإسلاميّة.
حيث تمعّن الطّلاب بالبحث في التّراث الإسلامي، واختيار أحد العلماء المسلمين فدرسوا سيرته وترجمته، ومن ثم أنتجوا نموذجًا يحاكي أحد اختراعاته وعرضه في المعرض الخاص بهم.
مع تحيّات قسم اللّغة العربيّة والتّربية الإسلاميّة
مديرة القسم
سماح عوض
أولياء الأمور الكرام،
تحيّة طيبة وبعد،
نطمح في مدرسة أكاديميّة جيمس الأمريكيّة في الحصول على أعلى المستويات وتقديم أحدث الوسائل التعليميّة للوصول بأبنائنا إلى بر العلم والأمان.
قام قسم التّربية الإسلاميّة للمرحلة المتوسّطة والثّانويّة مع طلاب الصّف التّاسع بتنظيم معرض الاختراعات الإسلاميّة.
حيث تمعّن الطّلاب بالبحث في التّراث الإسلامي، واختيار أحد العلماء المسلمين فدرسوا سيرته وترجمته، ومن ثم أنتجوا نموذجًا يحاكي أحد اختراعاته وعرضه في المعرض الخاص بهم.
مع تحيّات قسم اللّغة العربيّة والتّربية الإسلاميّة
مديرة القسم
سماح عوض
Parental Engagement
Dear Parents,
We are excited to announce that we’ll be having a couple of parent engagement sessions per month throughout the second half of the year. Please come out and join us with the first two coming up in February. The details of the sessions are below and we look forward to seeing you there.
The Parental Engagement Team,
Virginia Ingle and Aida Elhalwagy
Fostering Creativity at Home
Does your child love to write?
Would you like to see them take their creativity to the next level?
This session will focus on developing and encouraging children to be creative, thoughtful, and passionate writers.
Lauren Tickel
3:15- 3:45 Tuesday February 7th
Elementary- Grade 1-5
Room 49
Mindfulness as an effective Family Tool
Ever wonder what is Mindfulness and how it can help you and your family?
This session will focus on how mindfulness can help us deal with stress and daily challenges and in affect help create positive relationships at home with our kids and teens.
Mindfulness by Anna Kaminski
Sunday February 5th at 6:00 – 7:00 pm and Wednesday February 8th at 1:30 – 2:30 pm (same session)
Parents of kids in all grades. Location to be announced.
More about this session:
My name is Anna Kaminski and I’m a parent at GAA. I’m also a mental health professional and a mindfulness teacher, who’s had the pleasure of working with some of our children at the school over the last year. Mindfulness is a science-based and secular practice, which involves purposely paying attention to the present moment. It has been found to have numerous benefits to people of all ages, for example improved ability to manage emotions, more control over own behavior, improved cognitive abilities like maintaining focused attention, to name a few. During the talk I will introduce mindfulness to you in a little more detail. We will however concentrate on how mindfulness tools can help with daily challenges, like stress or intense emotions. We will also touch on the ways of teaching mindfulness to our children. I look forward to seeing you there.
Anna Kaminski
We are excited to announce that we’ll be having a couple of parent engagement sessions per month throughout the second half of the year. Please come out and join us with the first two coming up in February. The details of the sessions are below and we look forward to seeing you there.
The Parental Engagement Team,
Virginia Ingle and Aida Elhalwagy
Fostering Creativity at Home
Does your child love to write?
Would you like to see them take their creativity to the next level?
This session will focus on developing and encouraging children to be creative, thoughtful, and passionate writers.
Lauren Tickel
3:15- 3:45 Tuesday February 7th
Elementary- Grade 1-5
Room 49
Mindfulness as an effective Family Tool
Ever wonder what is Mindfulness and how it can help you and your family?
This session will focus on how mindfulness can help us deal with stress and daily challenges and in affect help create positive relationships at home with our kids and teens.
Mindfulness by Anna Kaminski
Sunday February 5th at 6:00 – 7:00 pm and Wednesday February 8th at 1:30 – 2:30 pm (same session)
Parents of kids in all grades. Location to be announced.
More about this session:
My name is Anna Kaminski and I’m a parent at GAA. I’m also a mental health professional and a mindfulness teacher, who’s had the pleasure of working with some of our children at the school over the last year. Mindfulness is a science-based and secular practice, which involves purposely paying attention to the present moment. It has been found to have numerous benefits to people of all ages, for example improved ability to manage emotions, more control over own behavior, improved cognitive abilities like maintaining focused attention, to name a few. During the talk I will introduce mindfulness to you in a little more detail. We will however concentrate on how mindfulness tools can help with daily challenges, like stress or intense emotions. We will also touch on the ways of teaching mindfulness to our children. I look forward to seeing you there.
Anna Kaminski
February menu and Cashless system user guide ( Grade2-12)
Dear Parents, please click on the file below to download the Cafeteria menu for the month of February. Parents who have students in Grade 2-12 are encouraged to use the cashless system for lunch orders as this system has many benefits, including convenience, safety and a daily limit . Please click on the user guide below to help you get started.
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KG & Grade 1
Keita have launched a new Online System for ordering food. Please see the attached presentation detailing the food order process for KG1, KG2 and Grade 1 students. Hot meals are provided by Keita catering and delivered to the classroom. This is not mandatory and parents are welcome to send students with a packed lunch.
KG and Grade 1 students have lunch in their classroom and not in the cafeteria therefore the order process is different to that of students Grade 2-12, who purchase food in the cafeteria using the cashless system.
Kindly note the following:
- For students to be able to receive meals in their classroom, it is mandatory that parents register them on the online system, make the payment and select the order of the meals. This can only be done online.
- We suggest parents order a week in advance to avoid any disappointments and to ensure on time delivery to your child.Deadline for orders is 4pm the day prior.
- Any orders via email, telephone or at the cafeteria will unfortunately not be accepted.
-All current students registered and their credit balance will automatically be transferred to the new system.
If you have any questions on how to place the order or experience any difficulty with this system, please contact the Keita IT Department at [email protected] or at 056 939 4250. For general information, please contact their customer service at [email protected] or 800 – KEITA.
KG and Grade 1 students have lunch in their classroom and not in the cafeteria therefore the order process is different to that of students Grade 2-12, who purchase food in the cafeteria using the cashless system.
Kindly note the following:
- For students to be able to receive meals in their classroom, it is mandatory that parents register them on the online system, make the payment and select the order of the meals. This can only be done online.
- We suggest parents order a week in advance to avoid any disappointments and to ensure on time delivery to your child.Deadline for orders is 4pm the day prior.
- Any orders via email, telephone or at the cafeteria will unfortunately not be accepted.
-All current students registered and their credit balance will automatically be transferred to the new system.
If you have any questions on how to place the order or experience any difficulty with this system, please contact the Keita IT Department at [email protected] or at 056 939 4250. For general information, please contact their customer service at [email protected] or 800 – KEITA.
keita_-__online_system_with_menu_selection.pdf | |
File Size: | 1488 kb |
File Type: |
2017-2018 Calendar Dates
Below you will find dates for the holiday breaks for the 2017-2018 school year. ADEC have released a calendar that outlines all of the major holidays for the 2017-2018 school year.
As you begin to plan for the coming year, I’m sure you’ll want to know the dates of upcoming holiday breaks to assist you in your family and vacation planning.
As always, we recommend booking flexible tickets as we have learned that holiday dates can change.
Below you will find dates for the holiday breaks for the 2017-2018 school year. ADEC have released a calendar that outlines all of the major holidays for the 2017-2018 school year.
As you begin to plan for the coming year, I’m sure you’ll want to know the dates of upcoming holiday breaks to assist you in your family and vacation planning.
As always, we recommend booking flexible tickets as we have learned that holiday dates can change.
2017-2018_calendar_gaa_parents-_1[4][1].pdf | |
File Size: | 474 kb |
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