Clarion Newsletter, May 20, 2021

Dear Parents and Friends of Clarion,

I want to thank you as parents for the support you gave your children this week, during Spirit Week!

Your support as well as that of the teachers made it so successful. Our attendance was on average 98% this week. Thank you so very much!

I also want to point out the deep learning that went on in classrooms this week. As I walked about the school each day, I tried not to interrupt the lessons that were moving forward, regardless of crazy hair, hats and ties or mismatched clothes sported by teachers and students.

Your children and their caring and dedicated teachers used the week’s excitement to write more, edit more, build bigger and better, and to design, define, demonstrate and deliver high quality work. Students worked as whole classes, as small groups and as individuals, using their own agency to commit themselves to deep dive into reading and writing, Math, Science, Art, French, Arabic, PE and IT.

Re-enrollment reminder:

This weekend we are a part of a big event (more on this below) and our enrollment is strong for next year. Please don’t delay in connecting with Asia in Admissions, Heerral as Parent Liaison, or Jafar in the Accounts Office to ensure your child(ren) is/ are reenrolled for next year.

I ask this of you as this helps us in finalizing our staffing and resource requirements so that all is in place as we welcome you back on the first day of school i.e. Sunday, August 29th.

The School and Nursery Show 2021-2022:

This weekend is the “School and Nursery Show” at the Dubai World Trade Center on Friday and Saturday, May 21st-22nd from 11 AM to 5 PM.

Clarion School will be there with a booth so if you have friends and family interested in information please tell them to look for us… we will be the ORANGE booth! I will be there along with Ms. Asia from Admissions and Heerral the Parent Liaison.

MAP testing reminder:

One of the requirements of KHDA is that we have an external assessment to show student growth. As we are a US curriculum school, KHDA recognizes MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) as one of their choices for each year. This will be our 3rd round of assessments in Reading, Language Usage, Math and Science, for Grades 1 through 5. As academic staff, we use this data to look at your child’s development as they grow throughout the academic year.

All children grow in imperfect ways; no two children grow exactly the same physically or academically. Therefore, we use MAP data to look at each child individually as we chart their progress and learn more about them as they grow and achieve.

At Clarion, we will adjust our MAP testing to suit the needs of our learners. We will modify the times we give the assessments, take more breaks for snacks and liquids….and ‘brain breaks’ as well. The assessments will start on May 30th and run for two weeks; we have decided to do the MAP test over 2 weeks rather than 1 week so that the assessments are spread out more for the students.

We are informing you in advance and we thank you for your understanding.

Reminder JUNE 10 is a regular school day - earlier this school year, KHDA had cancelled Teacher PD days. I tried to keep it, but they said no. So we have school for students on Thursday, June 10th!

Thank you all for a wonderful week - we have enjoyed ourselves tremendously with your children as our students!

Sincerely,

Jim #SpiritedSpiritPrincipalAtLarge Pastore