This is the season of giving, reflection, and for supporting people in our community less fortunate than ourselves. We have extended our collection for the Migrant Workers Protection Society to Wednesday 12th December. The MWPS works tirelessly all year to support thousands of men who are housed in labour camps and in, sometimes, derelict accommodation. Preserving the dignity of the people to whom we are donating these goods is just as important as the goods themselves, and this is something we will be discussing with the children this week. The MWPS have let us know items which they desperately need: We’re collecting (new and unused): Toothpaste, toothbrush, disposable razors, deodorant, bars of soap, gloves, socks, and non-perishable food items in boxes. We’re also collecting (new or gently used): men’s shoes, blankets, men’s jackets, scarves. If you are unable to bring in items but wish to donate cash we have a collection in the office, too— all donations help! Please bring your donation to the office by Wednesday ready for delivery. Thank you!

All new children and staff to the school this term have been given their Nadeen Bear so that means everyone in the school has one now! We’d love to see where your Nadeen Bear travels to over the holidays! Over the summer our little Nadeen Bear went all over the world! #nadeenbear was seen in helicopters, going down waterfalls, climbing mountains, and sitting on world heritage sites such as the Colosseum! Where in the world will our bear go next? Tag us on Instagram or email your photos through to us so we can all track where the bear goes! You can also encourage your child to make a scrapbook or diary of the holiday and include photos, ticket stubs, postcards, and other holiday memorabilia. We’d love to see it when we all come back in January. Happy holidays, little bear!

We are celebrating Bahrain, our home, on Wednesday 12th December! We’d like you to come in to school wearing traditional Bahrain dress or in the colours of the flag: red and white. We’re also selling Bahrain-themed accessories up to the day in case you want a little extra bling! Please join us on the day…it will be a feast for the ears, eyes, and mouth! All classes will be participating in a parade and then the children from our Arabic department will be performing for you. They’ve been working really hard and we know they’d love to see you in the crowd watching them! We will have lots of traditional craftsmen and craftswomen on site, sharing their stories with us and traditional food vendors on site selling yummy treats. We are also going to have musicians, calligraphers, craft demonstrations, henna artists, and a falcon. Bring your cameras and don’t miss this last event of the year!

Dates for your diary!

• 10 Dec: EYFS concert
• 12 Dec: Bahrain Day celebrations
• 13 Dec: Last day of term— all children finish at 12pm;
• 6 Jan: First day of term
• 17 Jan: Nadeen School Birthday party
• 24 Jan: Science Fair
• 28 Jan: INSET DAY— EYFS+KS1 children finish at 11am; KS2 children finish at 11.15am
• 3 Feb: Art Spot Theater
• 7 Feb: International Day

Thank you so much your generous support at the Festive Fair! All of your donations of goods and time helped us raise over BD3000, the most funds ever raised at our fair! A big thanks to the Mums and Dads who helped out the PTA on the day, to everyone who donated raffle prizes, and to anyone that helped in anyway—you are part of the success of the day! We are already planning our events for next year. Our first event will be a bus trip to Bab Al Bahrain for a Bahraini breakfast followed by a tour of the Souq led by Ms Shanee on Monday January 14th. We do hope you can join us! Then everyone’s favourite day of the school year falls on February 7th: International Day. This is a day when the students wear their national costume or country’s flag colours and the playground is filled with delicious food from all over the world. Mums and Dads from the same countries get together and cook and create the best food from their home countries that we can all buy and taste on the day…it is a bright, colourful celebration of the 50+ nationalities at the school! Until then, we wish you all a very happy festive season, wonderful Bahrain National Day, and to all a very happy and healthy 2019!

We’ve had an exciting first term on the School Council. The highlight has to be when we hosted the esteemed Chelsea Pensioners during their visit to our school. Our Key Stage 2 members each provided something for the tea party and we served our guests and listened to their stories. It was a really pleasant experience! Next up, we supported the school at the Festive Fair and sold some Nadeen branded umbrellas and bags as well as ran the 10-pin bowling game! It was a long day for us but we loved supporting the school and did a great job!  Unfortunately, due to other events, we have postponed our annual disco to February. We will be getting together at the beginning of the year to get the plans underway.

This month has seen the first of our Primary Sports League tournaments. The girls took part in the 8 a-side under-11 football tournament at St. Christopher’s School. As a team they demonstrated excellent teamwork, collaboration, and perseverance, winning 2, drawing 1 and losing 2 matches, narrowly missing out on a semi-final spot. Unfortunately, the boys’ tournament was disrupted by the recent rainy weather and rearranged for during our Ecoventure trip. We have arranged to play in two friendly tournaments to make up for that before the Christmas break. In PE, we are in our athletics unit of work. Children have been developing their athletic skills in preparation for sports day next term. Finally, we encourage all students to sign up for the Spartan race taking place on 18th January. This is a great opportunity for children to challenge themselves physically and mentally in a demanding obstacle course race. The link to join the school team has been sent via email!

Freely chosen play allows children to create and think critically. In play children show imagination, originality of thought, or even sophisticated bending of rules or conventions. You need to be creative to be a mathematician, a writer, a gardener, a chef, a doctor, a hairdresser, an artist, a doctor, a teacher, a carpenter, and lots of other things! That is why is so important for young children to experience the world first-hand, to play, explore, make connections and meaning from their experiences. Allow children to play and explore in different ways, and be there to answer their questions and feed their imagination- you will be surprised by the depth and originality of thought the young children can develop!

What is creativity? Using our ideas and imagination to create something. In year 1 we have been exploring creativity during our English lessons. We have re-written our own version of our text ‘No-Bot, the robot with no bottom’ and have come up with some really funny and wonderful ideas. In year 2 we are working on the text ‘Where the wild things are’ and imagining lots of different characters and including adjectives to describe them. Creativity doesn’t just have to be during art or music or drama, creativity can be explored through all subjects!

How to express our creativity is a quandary. Are we limited by resources? Are we limited by our imagination? Do we have limitations? Is there a social ‘norm’? To help inspire creativity with children, allow them to express themselves in anyway they can. Allow them the opportunity and freedom to express and create. There is no right or wrong when it comes to creativity…the various different art movements throughout the centuries have shown us that. Creativity should not be relegated to specific subjects. There is place for all of us to add creative elements to children’s lives. It’s important that we light the creative fire under our children – otherwise, we’ll watch a generation entering a dark age with very little creativity. Creative thoughts are what took us to the Moon. We need to make sure that we remind children of the value of creativity, and that we give them every chance to show it in the everyday life.