News from Head of School - Kathy Miner
Dear Parents,
At GAA, we believe that teaching and respecting a diverse student body from cultures around the world fosters peace, justice and global understanding. We are preparing our students to be global citizens who can truly make a difference in the world.
With 93 nationalities in our school, we understand the importance of teaching our students how to honor and celebrate various cultures, embrace diversity and to advocate for their fellow peers. We work to foster a Culture of Kindness in our school; a culture that reflects our core values and philosophy of education.
Throughout our curriculum we include important social-emotional components aimed at teaching students to be respectful, to be responsible and to be a learner at GAA. We encourage our parent community to support our efforts in teaching our students at GAA how to live together with respect, care and acceptance of one another. Our GAAPA parents, teachers and counselors are collaborating to develop a fantastic learning opportunity for our students with the upcoming Anti-Bullying Week planned in October.
GAAPA & Booster Club
GAAPA and Booster Club have both kicked off the year with Welcome Coffee events and are planning a number of events you’ll want to be a part of. We are looking forward to the many fantastic events that our parents will create and support this school year. We are gearing up for the "Culture of Kindness Campaign" and the "GAA Celebrating Kindness Carnival" happening end of October early November:
…get involved, it will be a great events!
The National Anthem
Each morning our students stand to honor the UAE as the National Anthem plays throughout GEMS American Academy 7:45 am.
Our students learn the lyrics to the Anthem in their music classes as well as in their Arabic and UAE Social Studies classes. We believe that our students need more practice in singing the words and more opportunity to engage in the meaning of the Anthem.
Crosswalk Safety
3rd Street is a very busy thoroughfare with heavy traffic, particularly in the afternoon when our school day comes to an end. Some students are leaving the back gate of the school and running across 3rd Street. We believe these students are heading to the Al Raha Gardens Mall. These students are not using the crosswalk or respecting the traffic control signals provided at the intersection of 16th Street and 3rd Street and are making an unsafe choice to run across the street in the middle of the block.
This is a serious safety concern – we do not want our students to put themselves in danger of oncoming traffic. We ask for your support and assistance in also delivering this message to your children. If you allow your children to go to the Al Raha Gardens Mall after school, please direct them to use the crosswalk.
We have also added some additional supervision after school near the school gate. As this is happening after school, off school grounds, it is difficult for us to supervise directly. Through safety education and your support, students will make safer choices by crossing at the controlled crosswalk.
Kathryn Miner
Head of School and CEO
At GAA, we believe that teaching and respecting a diverse student body from cultures around the world fosters peace, justice and global understanding. We are preparing our students to be global citizens who can truly make a difference in the world.
With 93 nationalities in our school, we understand the importance of teaching our students how to honor and celebrate various cultures, embrace diversity and to advocate for their fellow peers. We work to foster a Culture of Kindness in our school; a culture that reflects our core values and philosophy of education.
Throughout our curriculum we include important social-emotional components aimed at teaching students to be respectful, to be responsible and to be a learner at GAA. We encourage our parent community to support our efforts in teaching our students at GAA how to live together with respect, care and acceptance of one another. Our GAAPA parents, teachers and counselors are collaborating to develop a fantastic learning opportunity for our students with the upcoming Anti-Bullying Week planned in October.
GAAPA & Booster Club
GAAPA and Booster Club have both kicked off the year with Welcome Coffee events and are planning a number of events you’ll want to be a part of. We are looking forward to the many fantastic events that our parents will create and support this school year. We are gearing up for the "Culture of Kindness Campaign" and the "GAA Celebrating Kindness Carnival" happening end of October early November:
…get involved, it will be a great events!
The National Anthem
Each morning our students stand to honor the UAE as the National Anthem plays throughout GEMS American Academy 7:45 am.
Our students learn the lyrics to the Anthem in their music classes as well as in their Arabic and UAE Social Studies classes. We believe that our students need more practice in singing the words and more opportunity to engage in the meaning of the Anthem.
Crosswalk Safety
3rd Street is a very busy thoroughfare with heavy traffic, particularly in the afternoon when our school day comes to an end. Some students are leaving the back gate of the school and running across 3rd Street. We believe these students are heading to the Al Raha Gardens Mall. These students are not using the crosswalk or respecting the traffic control signals provided at the intersection of 16th Street and 3rd Street and are making an unsafe choice to run across the street in the middle of the block.
This is a serious safety concern – we do not want our students to put themselves in danger of oncoming traffic. We ask for your support and assistance in also delivering this message to your children. If you allow your children to go to the Al Raha Gardens Mall after school, please direct them to use the crosswalk.
We have also added some additional supervision after school near the school gate. As this is happening after school, off school grounds, it is difficult for us to supervise directly. Through safety education and your support, students will make safer choices by crossing at the controlled crosswalk.
Kathryn Miner
Head of School and CEO
From our Parent Relations Executive (PRE), Naseera Timm-Holland
Dear Parents,
We are looking into the possibility of having a school bus service from the Saadiyat area. In order to pursue this possibility we need to know how many parents would be interested in using this service. Please contact me directly if you are interested [email protected] or Mr Abdullah from BBT at [email protected]
We have had many parents requesting parent ID's for nanny's, guardians and drivers. Unfortunately Parent ID's are for parents only. We are unable to issue Parent ID's to Drivers and nannies/guardians. Please assist us by ensuring that your drivers and/or nannies/guardians always sign in at security before entering the premises. This also means that they are not allowed to enter the school with your parent ID.
Student ID's: Due to the extended Eid holiday there has been a delay in the printing of student ID’s. However students may use their Id cards from last year. We are hopeful that students will receive it by next week. We do apologise for the inconvenience.
Uniform Purchasing at GAA: The uniform shop at GAA is still open but please note that there is limited stock and parents are encouraged to visit the store at Dalma Mall to avoid disappointment. Operating Hours as of September 18th is 8:30am-11am.
We are aware that some parents have not been able to get sizes and as a result students are not in full uniform. We are working with Threads to get this sorted ASAP. If you have placed an order and have still not received anything please contact me and I will be happy to follow up with Threads directly on your behalf. Please provide the order/purchase number in your email.
As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Regards,
Naseera Timm-Holland
We are looking into the possibility of having a school bus service from the Saadiyat area. In order to pursue this possibility we need to know how many parents would be interested in using this service. Please contact me directly if you are interested [email protected] or Mr Abdullah from BBT at [email protected]
We have had many parents requesting parent ID's for nanny's, guardians and drivers. Unfortunately Parent ID's are for parents only. We are unable to issue Parent ID's to Drivers and nannies/guardians. Please assist us by ensuring that your drivers and/or nannies/guardians always sign in at security before entering the premises. This also means that they are not allowed to enter the school with your parent ID.
Student ID's: Due to the extended Eid holiday there has been a delay in the printing of student ID’s. However students may use their Id cards from last year. We are hopeful that students will receive it by next week. We do apologise for the inconvenience.
Uniform Purchasing at GAA: The uniform shop at GAA is still open but please note that there is limited stock and parents are encouraged to visit the store at Dalma Mall to avoid disappointment. Operating Hours as of September 18th is 8:30am-11am.
We are aware that some parents have not been able to get sizes and as a result students are not in full uniform. We are working with Threads to get this sorted ASAP. If you have placed an order and have still not received anything please contact me and I will be happy to follow up with Threads directly on your behalf. Please provide the order/purchase number in your email.
As always if you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Regards,
Naseera Timm-Holland
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