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JUNIOR SCHOOL EXHIBITION: Friday, 9th September

This term our students in the Junior School are actively engaged in an Inquiry Units of Work related to our theme ‘Our Global Village’ with Geography as the learning focus. The inquiry process is conducted in the spirit of personal and shared responsibility among students which involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems. This will lead to the Junior School Exhibition in the last week of this term which involved students from Foundation to Year 6. The Junior School Exhibition has a number of key purposes including the following:

• for students to engage in an in-depth, collaborative inquiry
• to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning
• to integrate the key learning areas in the unit
• to provide students with an opportunity to explore research skills
• to celebrate and share the learning experience with parents, students, teachers and other members of the school community

Early this term each class began working on their units through an ‘Inquiry Cycle’. As a starting point, students’ prior understanding was explored at the ‘Tuning In’ stage. Students were then invited to investigate the unit by formulating their own questions and looking at the various means or resources available to them to these questions. This was at ‘Finding out’ and ‘Sorting out’ stage, students researched their focus questions through observing, planning and organising the information gathered. Students will develop further by presenting and communicating their ideas in a creative, planned and organised manner in the upcoming Exhibition, which will make up the ‘Going Further’ stage.

What have we been doing?... Students are working in different groups made up of 4-5 students on a project. Each group will be presenting their findings using ICT, charts, diagrams and reports. I encourage you to talk with your child about their involvement within their teams. The teachers would appreciate if you could assist your child’s team by providing items or artefacts that are relevant for your child’s class unit for their displays. Your involvement and contributions are really appreciated for the success of the Exhibition.

As part of Al Siraat’s initiative this year, all Primary staff took part in the Project Zero online course conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Staff were trained in unlocking the potential of group learning in our classrooms. We focused on how both children and adults learn from and with others, encountering new perspectives, strategies, and ways of thinking. Our focus within the Exhibition this year has been to deepen content learning and to cultivate students’ thinking skills and thinking dispositions.

STUDENTS’ ATTIRE FOR EXHIBITION DAY on Friday, 9th September

For this event, your child is required to wear full school uniform, black shoes and white school scarf (for girls)for the Exhibition Day. NO SPORTS UNIFORM ALLOWED! School hours on Friday, 9 September is from 8.20am to 2.05pm and students remain in school for the exhibition which starts from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.

INVITATION TO PARENTS

In celebrating your child’s learning, we would like to invite you to the Junior School Exhibition as follows:

• Day/Date : Friday, 9 September 2016
• Time : 2.30pm to 5.30pm
• Venue : Junior School Building & G Block
• Lunch : Kindly pack extra lunch and snack for your child for the day.
• Coffee van is available as fundraising for the School Resources.

Attendance is COMPULSORY for each student as this is an assessable component of their work and celebration of their learning. Your child is required to stay with the class teacher till the end of the program. Please add the above date to your calendar and we look forward to seeing you in the coming Junior School Exhibition 2016.