Dear Parents,
Last week I spoke about Learner Agency and how our ISG schools promote Learner Agency in different ways. This week I’d like to share what our ISG Dammam students had to say about their learner agency through assessment and self reflection. This is an important part of our teaching in every classroom at ISG.
Congratulations to BSD's U14 Girls Volleyball Team who took home the Gold in last week's SAIKAC competition. Last weekend our ISG U14 Volleyball teams competed in the last SAIKAC Volleyball tournament of the season. Over two days, our teams competed against the Aramco teams from Dhahran, Abqaiq, Ras Tanura and Udhailiyah and the American International School Riyadh. The tournament was filled with energy, passion and high performances. The girls tournament ended with BSD taking gold, ASD taking silver and Aramco Udhailiyah taking bronze. The boys final match was between ASD and AISR and ended with ASD taking silver and BSD taking bronze. Congratulations to all our teams, coaches and parents.
If you are a long time ASD and BSD parent, you are probably familiar with the sign that hung over the tunnel at the old Dhahran campus “Through this tunnel walk the finest students in the world.” We brought that sign with us to the new campus and we’re looking for a place to hang it. I’m opening a competition to hear your family's ideas on the best location to put up that sign. You can submit your ideas through this form. Where do you think the sign should go? Ask your child their opinion too. The person with the best idea will win a dinner for two.
Our ISG schools are launching a student competition to find each school’s new team spirit song. This type of song, commonly known as a ‘fight song’ or ‘school spirit song’ is sung among students during sports competitions, school trips and reunions. Please encourage your children to participate. We want one song for each school. The winners will be announced in March and our new songs will roll out to our community in September 2023. You can learn more about the competition and see some examples of other team spirit songs here.
The ISG Teaching and Learning Office oversees our curriculum and teacher professional development training. Every month our teachers and staff undergo a variety of different training during and after school hours. Here is a few of the different sessions that took place this month:
- ISG Learns held 30 workshops delivered to over 330 staff members across the district.
- Two Adult Course Facilitation workshops for ISG staff to promote staff-led professional development.
- Arabic curriculum lead workshop.
- Virtual sessions were conducted with American Curriculum lead teams.
- All American School math teachers received Conceptual math professional development both virtually and in-person.
- School Instructional Leadership Team members from all schools attended a virtual session on classroom visits and evidence based conversations.
- Two Instructional Leadership Team collaborative discussions and professional development designed to increase student achievement and instruction at all schools.
- Two i3 Interactive Board training sessions to answer procedural and technical questions on the boards.
I am pleased to announce that ISG will be offering our fourth annual Summer School program in June and July 2023. We would like to build on the great success of the past years by offering a range of academic and extracurricular enrichment courses and explore the possibility of virtual and/or in-person options. To ensure our program meets the needs of our families, we request your feedback by filling in this Summer School expression of interest form by December 8th, 2022. Please note this expression of interest does not enroll your child(ren) in the Summer School program. A registration and enrollment form will be sent at a later date.
Please note that this is the last week to nominate for the vacant seats available for the Board of Trustees. Please refer to this letter from Board Chair, Mr. Christopher Boyett, for more information. The deadline for nominations is November 30, 2022. If you have any queries, or would like to make a nomination to join the board, please contact Laura Morris (morri.l.08@isg.edu.sa).
A final reminder about the ASD Virtual Open House this weekend. A link will be shared on the ASD website on the morning of November 26. Please share this information with your friends and family outside the Kingdom who might be interested in joining ASD. An in person Open House will be scheduled on January 21, 2023.
ISG Dammam will host an Open House on December 10, 2022 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Please save the date and share it with friends and family. More details will be shared as we get closer to the date.
Due to the unscheduled holiday we had on Wednesday, the BSD Open House has been postponed and we will share more information about the new date soon.
Best wishes,
Michael P. Mack