Primary School Coffee Morning 26 September 2018

26th September marked the first Coffee Morning with Dr. Fatma at the Primary Campus, for this Academic Year 2018/19. Coffee Morning is a talk that ARIS holds with parents to give them an immersed look into our mission, vision, programmes, our progress and development as well as our goals to achieve.

Our mission and our vision is supported by our Core Values –

Greatness in everyone

Learning with everyone

Creativity and Innovation by everyone

Service to everyone

Change for everyone

More so, we also have ARIS Characteristics to set an example and motivate us as we move ahead in our goals –

Responsibility and Respect

Passion and Professionalism

Collaboration and Communication

Reflection and Action

To begin the presentation, our Head of School, Madam Dania Sadek announced to parents of all our Achievements from last Academic Year 2017/18. As we are becoming a school fully integrating ICT in Teaching and Learning, the Achievements include – ARIS Schoolstream App, iSAMs, GL Assessment (Cognitive), Mathletics, Managebac and also LEGO Education.

Through 2017/2018, we have also been able to focus on Personalized Learning through their Student Profiles, CAT4 (GL Asssessment), IEPs and a Support Programme. Moreover, we have also had a good year of Staff Professional Development in Early Years Inqyiry, Concept-Based Inquiry; our staff have also been involved in the Harvard University Project Zero, IB Global Conference and the IB Africa Education Festival 2018. We also graduated the first batch of ARISVersity of 20 Graduates last Academic Year.

All of these domains have been instrumental in propelling our Blended Learning in Classrooms and facilitating Personalized Learning for each student. For a school that puts Student Performance and Experience at the center of the Educational Model, creating a Personalized Profile for each and every student to record their strengths, areas of work, likes, dislikes, learning journey is imperative. This creates an in-depth understanding of each student for personalized learning, thus, as the student progresses on, a new facilitator will not have to discover a child anew.

Madam Dania also spoke about Cognitive Assessment Tests in the GL Assessment which really catches how the student learns. She also elaborated on Reading Resources we are constantly introducing and upgrading to facilitate and promote literacy, research and comprehension skills across all ages of children.

We have worked on our various Numeracy and Literacy Strategies and Resources, as well. Numeracy Strategies that we have included so far are – Mathseeds (up to Year 1), Mathletics (Year 2 and onwards), Numicon Kit, Lego More to Mathematics Kit, Inquiry Approach, Cambridge Numeracy Stategies and also Activities. Our Literacy Strategies include – Guided Reading with Reading Attainment Targets, Big Writing (VCOP) which sets targets and gives constructive and even verbal one to one feedback, rainbow marking and even using strands as descriptors.

What does PYP in an ARIS Classroom look like? To give parents a concrete idea, Madam Dania also talked about Essential Agreements in each class, Star Charts, Student of the Week, Monitors, Covered Exercise and Workbooks, Consistent Writing Formats and even a Handwriting Policy.

Parents were advised to put their focus more on their child’s learning journey, along with the child’s end result.

Children learn through their experiences and through their expression on themselves. From the Early Years at Primary to the later stages of the PYP, students are exposed through their Units and other activities to the different areas in which they can freely express themselves.

Our Early Years Coordinator, Madam Evon emphasized that ARIS Early Years has been following the Reggio Emilia Approach. This is a student centered approach that uses experiential learning in relationship-driven environments. In their formative years, they are encouraged to explore and express themselves to develop various sets of skills through a guided approach.

As Coffee Morning progressed on, Madam Dania spoke about our School Improvement Plan this year.

Our school will be committed to defining skill sets in a more pronounced way for each stage of a child’s development. This is an Age and Development Level Based Understanding of Skills, Attitudes and Characteristics. For example, if a child is developing his/her research skills, what would be considered a research skill for a Year 1 student would be distinctly different from that of a Year 6 student.

Our Core Characteristics state Creativity and Innovation by everyone. The future demands creative and innovative minds. We aim to put more emphasis on the Arts within our curriculum, scope and sequence. Our children have a variety of strengths in the Arts field and we plan to hone that through the Integration of Art and other Creative Expressive Arts into Inquiries and even Summative Assessments. Students should be led on a path where they can be successful in whichever path they discover themselves in.

One last vital area to keep improvements on is our Ongoing Processes of Inquiry. The Levels of Inquiry in Sciences are different from another discipline, and we plan to adopt a Consistent Approach in this. Thus, we aim to develop a Scientific Enquiry Approach.

Coffee Morning drew to its conclusion as we shifted our emphasis on our overall culture of International Mindedness. All that we do is aimed towards developing the culture of International Mindedness and making Global Citizens out of our students. We have held several cultural festivals from around the world in the last year, and more to come this year, we have sent our students abroad to Turkey for the International Children’s Festival, and to various other cultural and MUN Trips abroad at Secondary.

This has all been done while we have stayed rooted in the local culture. We have held Language Fiesta, Yam Festival Celebrations, Founder’s Day (which was attended by Ms. Samia Nkrumah), Local Resources in the Early Years and also the introduction of the ARIS African Wear Cloth!

As a school, we extend our learning to our Parents as well to develop a better understanding of the Programmes. Last year, 20 ARISVersity Graduates were a big Achievement to the values of Lifelong Learning that ARIS holds dear. This year, we have begun ARISVersity on both the Primary and Secondary Campus. Last year’s graduates can also come and lecture on this year’s Modules.

Here’s hoping to a great and fruitful Academic Year 2018/19 ahead!