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The Nepal group would like to thank Mr. Yom for coming in this week to help us learn some words in Nepali.  Thanks for showing us how our names are written in  Devanagari.  Dhanybhad!

"نشاط أمي تقرأ لنا قصة "

RIS STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN ABU DHABI CLASSICS SERIES AT EMIRATES PALACE

Beethoven's Fifth - 14^th of January 2010

Congratulations to the Raha students from Grades 8,9,10 and 11 for their amazing performance at the Emirates Palace last Thursday evening. The students created their own interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony visually and musically along with students from BSAK and Al Yasmina. A special thank you to Mrs Lilian Caplen and Mrs Nicki Standen for their help at BSAK . It was a huge task to arrange all four movements of the symphony, create visuals, film the performance and document the process into a short film.

We are extremely proud of our students for their dedication, motivation, confidence, drive and passion to learn new skills.

What an incredible achievement!!!

Mrs Anne-Marie Pignéguy and Mrs Daniela Parkinson

Disney in Concert - 15th of January 2010

On Friday 15^th January 37 students from the MYP went to the Emirates Palace to perform with London's Philharmonia Orchestra. They were joined by the British School Al Khubairat and a choir from Al Ain and sang many favourites from Disney movies.

first with Paul Rissman, a musician and educator from Scotland and then with the conductor Allan Willson from the UK.

The students involved did such a fantastic job and Anna and myself are really proud of their achievements. On the day of the concert they were impeccably behaved during a long dress rehearsal and the concert just blew everyone away.

Thank you to all who sang and I hope that you had just as much fun singing as everyone did hearing you!

Mr. Simon Green

"قد أنهى طلابنا في الصف العاشر جانباً كبيراً من قراءة (كتاب الأيام) للكاتب الكبير طه حسين. وقد سجلوا بعض انطباعاتهم حول تجربتهم الذاتية أثناء قراءتهم الكتاب. إليكم بعضاً منها : اضغط هنا لمعرفة التفاصيل .

Grade 2 Celebrate for Change Birthday Party

Across the globe, there are millions of children who don't know when they were born and never get to celebrate their birthdays. These kids are denied their basic human rights because they were never registered at birth. They're known by development professionals as "invisible" because their governments don't have any official record of their existence. Some don't even know their ages. UNICEF calls these children "invisible", highlighting their lack of rights in the 2005 State of the World's Children report. They are among the 50 million children born each year who are not registered at birth. Governments can easily ignore or overlook these children, especially when they're engaged in dangerous situations of child labour or fall in the hands of traffickers who sell them to slavery.

The Celebrate for Change lets us celebrate the birthdays of these children. The students of Grade 2 threw a party that raises awareness about these children and collected funds for children and their communities in the five countries in which Free The Children carries out development work: the rural areas of Kenya, Sierra Leone, China, Sri Lanka and Ecuador.

They raised a whopping 1807AED and would like to thank all of the parents who came and supported our party. With these funds, they bought a goat for three families, clean water for two families, they planted twenty trees in a school and gave a loan for a woman to start a small business, where the woman will invest her income back into her family, resulting in an improvement in the health and welfare of the entire family and community.

On Tuesday, 24 November 2009, Raha International School celebrated the UAE's 38^th National Day.RIS students and staff wearing red, green, black and white attended the whole school morning assembly where they demonstrated their National Day pride and spirit by forming a human UAE flag.

Mr. Wayne MacInnis, the Principal welcomed special guest speaker, Mr. Ali Al Saloom, to join in the National Day celebrations. The famous UAE author, cultural consultant, professional speaker and TV show host of "Ask Ali", participated in the celebrations throughout the day and delighted several groups of students with question and answer sessions. Many questions were asked about the origins of Abu Dhabi and the UAE, also many questions about Islam and national dress were answered.The school campus was festooned to show off the school's pride in being a part of the UAE, with flags and traditional items displayed all around the school.

Students also had the chance to participate in traditional UAE activities throughout the day. These activities included clay pottery painting, henna decoration and traditional UAE games. Other activities included making bracelets and bookmarks, writing memories of Abu Dhabi, portrait painting and a display of historical photographs.

Students, staff and parents also enjoyed a falconry and camel display and they were even visited by Um Khammas, the cartoon character from the popular UAE cartoon Freej! A group of RIS students also performed and demonstrated traditional Yola and Naeesh dances. To end the day off, guests, parents and staff enjoyed a wonderful traditional UAE buffet.

"I liked talking to Mr. Ali because he told us how the UAE flag originated and how to survive in the desert. It was really cool."

Celeste Parkinson - Grade 2 student

"I enjoyed Ask Ali as he provided the students with very interesting and useful information about the UAE culture. I also enjoyed the Henna and traditional foods!" Lucy Yule - Teacher

"I thought it was really awesome how they set up all the different traditional activities. I enjoyed watching and participating in them with my friends. I also liked how they brought in Mr. Ali to talk about culture; it was really interesting and fun."

Jessica Meehan - Grade 8 student

Raha International Schools emphasizes to students not only to become passionate and confident citizens of the world but to understand the importance of a strong cultural understanding which will enable them to connect with their community. With over 40 different nationalities, students are encouraged to learn about, promote and embrace different cultures. Celebrating the 38^th UAE National Day provided the perfect opportunity to teach students about the traditions of the UAE and allowed everyone to share in this joyous occasion.

For more pictures of our National Day Celebrations, please visit our gallery.

Grade 3 Excursion to the Corniche

Grade 3 enjoyed an active excursion when recently visiting the Corniche in Abu Dhabi.  The students had been learning about forces and measurement during the Unit of Inquiry 'May the Force Be With You'.  The day was spent engaging in a multitude of practical activities which involved demonstrating their understanding of what they had been studying in school.  It was a fun filled occasion where the students could connect their learning with the real world.  Many parents were there to support the groups as they carried out the maths tasks and scientific experiments.  It was a fabulous learning experience for everyone.

Grade 3 students were involved in two excursions to the Beach Rotana where they were invited to learn about how pizza was made.  The students worked with top chefs to learn about the processes involved and then had the opportunity to make their own pizzas.  The exciting part of the excursion was when they were able to taste the delicious pizza before enjoying the play area at the hotel!  The whole occasion was excellent support for the language work that had been going on within the grade.  The students had been looking at how to follow and write instructions.  When making the pizza they had to demonstrate their ability to follow the instructions given by the chef.

The second week of November RIS hosted our first ever International Schools Activities Conference (ISAC) competition. After several trips to Abu Dhabi International Airport and late in to the night on Wednesday 11^th November, finally all our visiting schools had arrived for our ISAC Swim Meet.  With over 80 students aged U'14, U'16 and U'19 arriving from Dubai, Oman and Qatar our RIS Host families collected their guests and set off home to provide them with a warm RIS welcome.

On Thursday 12^th November our competition got under way and what followed was two days of strong competition and some fabulous swimming. Both Thursday and Friday began with heat races for all competitors in the morning , followed by the finals of events in the afternoon.

A fantastic social event was held at RIS on the Thursday evening, all participating swimmers and host students came along. The social was organized and supported by the RIS PSG and included a BBQ and buffet, DJ, Live band and movie. Everyone had a great time and all the visiting schools commented on how much they enjoyed the social evening.

Friday saw the last day of completion at the pool and after much excitement concluded with the presentation of medals and certificates to individual swimmers.

After two long and tiring days of competition it was time for our visiting guests to depart. Students and host families said fond farewells to their new friends and our guests packed their luggage on to the buses to begin their journeys homeward.

The Swim Meet was a great success with all participating students having a fantastic time. Congratulations to all the RIS swimmers and coaches for their efforts - Well done!

A Big thank to the student and parent volunteers for officiating, host families and PSG for all their help and support in making the meet such a great success. The PSG would also like to thank Lu Lu Express in Raha Mall who offered to support the PSG in their catering efforts and generously donated/sponsored the PSG with food & beverage items for the social event.

All the visiting schools complimented us on the work done by the RIS community and thanked us for making the event such a positive and valuable experience for the students.

Final Results:

1. American British Academy, Oman

2. The American International School Muscat, Oman

3. Universal American School, Dubai

4. Raha International School, Abu Dhabi

5. Qatar Academy, Qatar

Grade 2 students participate in Brazilian Parade

A Brazilian parade took place on 18th October on Abu Dhabi Corniche that celebrated the opening of the Corniche events for "Yasalam" and the last race of the season before the finale from the Yas Marina Circuit. A band lead 300 costumed children, 20 costumed performers, 14 samba dancers, 14 stilt walkers and many other entertainers - while the audience enjoyed Brazilian-themed food and drinks. As Grade 2 was doing a Unit called 'Let's Celebrate', 25 lucky students were chosen to perform in the Parade. They were given the task of producing headdresses and masks for themselves to wear.

Grade 2 student reflection of the parade:

When we were getting ready for the parade, we pulled the names out of the hat. Georgia, Katherina, Sarah, Cali, James, Lachlan, Jaxon, Rashid and I were chosen! We made our hats. We painted and put glitter and ribbons on our hats. We also made our masks. We coloured, put glitter, feathers and ribbons on them. The people who were chosen went to a rehearsal and practiced our dance. We waved our pompoms high up in the air. We also got our costumes. When it was the day of the parade we were nervous. We got our faces painted and got ready. We were walking for two hours. I was super thirsty. We had fun. We are also going to be on the T.V and the newspaper! We also get to keep our costumes! There were ladies wearing fancy costumes. We had super duper fun!

By:

Hyomin Kim

Grade 2 student

Between October 13 and 15th  forty-three Grade 10 students took part in a two night field trip to the Green Turtle Adventure camp near Dhaid.  On the way, we stopped in Dubai at the ‘Hoofbeatz’ equestrian centre where students took part in team building activities and worked with some horses in grooming and leading exercises.  We worked on communication, trust and leadership and enjoyed meeting some exceptional animals.

On the second day we left the comfort of our sandy tents and carpets to go to the mangroves near Fujeirah.  There we tried kayaking, canoeing, fishing and played beach games.  Back in camp that night students showed off lots of talent and interesting skills in various challenges and skits that ranged from imitating a lion to doing the ‘worm’ to  imitating a teacher!  Creativity, teamwork, patience, humour, spirit and risk-taking all made it possible and entertaining.

On the final morning in camp we tried the ropes course and climbing activities.  A lot of teamwork challenges faced us there as well as the need for courage and skill!  It was impressive to see everyone reaching new heights on Jacob’s ladder and the climbing wall and leading their blind-folded partners across the cables.

And the students said:

“We would be lying if we said we weren’t a little bit afraid of leaving for the camping trip, but it turned out to be better than three days at Raha.  Well, a lot better, as it was extremely fun.  Our favourite activity was kayaking and we all found the last day was the best.  The campfire on the last night was also great because we found out different things about each other that we didn’t already know.  We also found our leadership skills improved by working together as a team.  Thank you to everyone!”

(by Maddie and Catherine)

Please view our Gallery for more pictures.

Kindergarten Breakfast

On Wednesday the 21st of October, Kindergarten children and their parents woke up with a feeling of excitement all over Abu Dhabi, today was the Raha International School KG Breakfast!

People came with picnic blankets under their arms to settle down to enjoy the amazing aray of foods to start their day with a wholesome healthy breakfast. Their only problem was what to choose first, Finnish pancakes with strawberry jam, Arabic cheese bread, watermelon, a sausage roll, muesli bites or should I visit the live fruit Kebab and toast stations to make my own fruit kebab with grapes, pineapple and banana or butter my own toast and top it with vegemite, marmite or honey? After making the all important decision of what to eat and then having washed it down with some delicious juice, everyone was happy.

It was a fabulous morning where families were able to share together and have a chance to meet other families and friends in a warm, fun and friendly environment.

A great morning was had by all and we would like to say a special thanks to all of the parents that lent a helping hand to make this event happen.

The Kindergarten Team

RIS Staff participate in Dragonboat Race

Go Raptors! On Friday, Oct. 9, twenty teachers and spouses from Raha International School proudly showed off their ‘Raptor Pride’ by participating in the Shangri-La Invitational Dragon Boat festival. After two grueling training sessions the team was all fired up and ready to compete!

The team competed in two races and were very competitive, placing a respectable 19th out of 28 teams, and narrowly missing making the finals by only one second!  The weather was beautiful, the BBQ was tasty, and Raha International School showed their community spirit once again.  Well done team!

Bake Sale for Indonesian Earthquake Relief

On Monday, 19th October a group of RIS students held a bakesale. We wanted to raise money to help the Indonesian people who had suffered in the recent earthquake. More then twenty students brought in cakes to sell. Everyone wanted to buy them. It was very busy! The good news is that we raised  AED 2663.

A group of us in Grade 3 (Safiya, Rebecca, Zai, Lina and Remy) visited the Red Crescent last week to present them with the money.

We would like to thank all of you who baked are bought cakes. We would also like to thank Ms Lucy for advising us.

A message from Safiya, Rebecca, Zai, Lina and Remy

Author Peter J. Murray visits RIS

On October 11 2009 the author Peter J. Murray came to our school and talked about three of his books. He told us the story of Bonebreaker, but not the whole story so that we would have to buy his books to find out what happened. Everyone enjoyed it, and we hope he will come back next year. Here is what some of the students and teachers thought of his presentation.

Waleed 2A “I liked it when he told us the story of Bonebreaker.”

Remy 3B “I liked it when one of my friends went on stage.”

Ibtisam 4C “I really liked it when he told us about the windmill.”

Connor 5C “ I liked it when he was singing in the mirror.”

Mrs Betsie 4C “He was highly entertaining and kept the kids totally engaged for 2 hours – he was sweating by the end of it.”

Mr Buckland 4B “I liked how he captured the children’s imagination.”

Written by Hana Tiltman 4A