Clarion Newsletter, October 7, 2022

Dear Parents and Friends of Clarion,

As we move into the month of October, everyone is patiently waiting for our weather become cooler. We are very excited about this as it will provide for more outdoor opportunities for our students.

1. Clearing Benches Inauguration – We would like to thank Dr. Deep Singh for being present at the inaugural of the UAE's first Clearing Bench event at Clarion School. Dr. Deep is an International pioneer for Human Development, known for adding NADI healing methods to the Republic of India's National Health and Education Policy for 2022-2047, aimed at 1.4 billion people, which includes 1.6 million doctors, 2.34 millions nurses and midwives, 1.5 million schools, 10 million teachers, and 260 million students.

We would like to thank our student council, parents, staff, and our honored guests from KHDA for taking part on this event. Your presence and participation meant a great deal to make this event a successful one.

Clarion Clearing Benches are a symbol for the flow of human values and a resource for nurturing the flow of values in our students, teachers and parents. It is for the flow of energy, peace, love, kindness, compassion, joy, connection, and creativity, both for collective flow in our community and individual flow in mind, body and heart.

2. Student Absence and Lates – It is evident that student attendance at school plays an important factor in student success. A student who is absent two days per month will miss 120 hours of instruction over the school year. KHDA has mandated that our school needs to enhance our student attendance policy to include a process that would promote and encourage better student attendance and fewer cases of students arriving to school late. The school will be developing a tiered parent communication approach that will include communication and meetings with the parents of students who have accumulated specific numbers of absences or tardies. Our hope is that our students are attending each day and arriving on time. We miss them when they are away!

Students who are absent due to illnesses are requested to inform their homeroom teacher, with an email CC to Hemi at admin@clarionschool.com and the school Nurse at kballares@clarionschool.com.

Students who arrive late to school will be required to obtain a late pass from our receptionist, Hemi before entering class.

3. Student Drop-off – Parents are reminded that students cannot be dropped off prior to 7:30 AM. We do not have staff to provide supervision prior to this time.

4. Student Progress Reports – will be sent to parents on Thursday, October 13. More information will be shared early next week.

5. Parent Teacher Conferences – are scheduled for Tuesday, October 18. There will be no regular classes on this day. You may choose to bring your child with you to the teacher meeting. A link to sign up for a meeting will be sent by your child’s teacher by Wednesday, October 12.

6. Student Illness – We ask that parents keep children home if they are suffering from flu like symptoms.

7. First Book Fair of the Year! – We are excited to announce that our first Book Fair of the year will be held from Tuesday, October 25 to Thursday, October 27, 2022. More information regarding the book fair will be sent out by homeroom teachers when we get closer to the date.

Magrudy’s Bookstore will be hosting an author visit during this time. To confirm the author visit, we would like to gauge how many parents would be interested in purchasing a signed copy of the book.

Books:

• Snowy and Zoey in a New World - AED 50
• Snowy and Zoey's Big Life Lesson - AED 55

If you would be interested in purchasing a signed copy, please let us know here: https://forms.office.com/r/VacZW87cbC

8. Student Council – I would like to thank all students who participated in this year’s student council elections. We are very proud of these students. Permitting your name to run for election is a risk taking activity that does assist our students to develop resilience, grit and a growth mindset.

This year’s student council members are as follows:

• President: Helena De Oliveira
• Vice President: Amelia Strunk
• Treasurer: Maria Paula Franca
• Secretary: Sirus Alaalam
• Reporter: Stella Virgilli
• Class reps: Jayden Benyei-Anirudhan, Sienna Moutran, Alia Shaaban, Rihana Chami, Danyal Jaffer
• Zameer Moin Iqbal, Nour Kassem, Aws Boushany, Mohammed Izyan Patel
• Ms. Estelle’s asst.: Nicole Keshavarz
• Wellness ambassadors: Noura Rashid, Mateo Dalala
• Emirati Ambassadors: Ghalia Lutfi, Shamsa Al Suwaidi

9. Clarion Athletics – We are very pleased to inform you that our athletics program for this school year has started. We are competing as a member of DASSA which is the UAE.

This weeks athletic events included:

• DASSA Under 12 Football – Congratulations to the U12 Boys football team who won 4-1 against Royal Grammar School on Tuesday, October 4. The team was excited and happy to play their first match at the Clarion grounds. They showed great sportsmanship and teamwork.
• DASSA U8, U9, U10, U11 SWIMMING – Congratulations to the U8-U11 swimming team who took part at the Spring Gala on Tuesday, October 4 at GEMS First Point. This was the first competition for a lot of our swimmers, and we were very impressed with their determination and effort in every race.

Next weeks athletic events are as follows:

• Monday, October 12 – Under 9 Football team travels to Kings Nad Al Sheba school.
• Wednesday, October 12 – Under 11 Football team travel to Kings Nad Al Sheba school.
• Wednesday, October 12 – Under 10 Football team travels to Royal Grammar School.

10. The Power Of Self-Care – In celebration of World Mental Health Day, our CPC has arranged for a session on this topic hosted by one of our parents, Nada Othman. This session will focus on self-care and distress management. This session will occur in our atrium on Monday, October 10 from 8:15 AM – 9:00 AM.

11. No School – Friday, October 14 - Just a friendly reminder that there will be no school on Friday, October 14. This is identified as our school’s mid-term break.

12. CPC World Teachers’ Appreciation Day – We would like to thank our CPC for the wonderful breakfast that was provided to our school staff on Wednesday, October 5 in recognition of this day. Our staff were very touched and sincerely appreciated this event.

13. Student Field Trips – Field trips are an important aspect of the educational program at Clarion school. Just a friendly reminder that field trips are not meant to be optional and that students are asked to participate unless they are home ill on the day of the trip.

This week, our students participated in the following field trips:

• Monday, October 3 – Passion Hour students went to the Rain Room Sharjah Museum
• Tuesday, October 4 – Grade 6 students went to the Al Habtoor Polo resort (World Animal Day)
• Wednesday, October 5 – Grade 4 students went to the Rain Room Sharjah Museum

Next week, the following field trips are scheduled:

• Next week – Wednesday, October 12– Grade 5 students will visit Le Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi.

14. Pakistan Emergency Relief Drive – A huge thank you to our school community for your generosity and support of this wonderful initiative. A very large amount of items have been donated and will be taken to the distribution location on Monday, October 10. We will share photos of this on Monday.

15. CPC Fundraiser – Our CPC have an exciting schedule of events ahead including, Breast Cancer Awareness, Halloween, Sustainability Initiatives, a desert trip and much more.

Please continue to send in your voluntary donation of AED 300 per student for CPC activities this year. There has been good effort overall to gather funds that the CPC can use to support all of its events and activities for us as a community.

Contributions can be submitted as follows:

• Hand your contribution any CPC member or to your child’s homeroom parent.
• Submit your contribution to your child’s teacher by hand or email them if it is your child’s backpack for collection.
• Hand your contribution to Jafar, Finance manager, in the accounting office.
• A table will be situated inside gate 3 at student drop off on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

15. Parents Clarion ID Card – Just a friendly reminder to our parents to ensure they wear their parent ID cards when on campus.

Parents who have not yet received their parent ID’s, or returning parents who may have misplaced their old IDs, may kindly connect with Hemi at admin@clarionschool.com with their updated passport size pictures to have one issued at the earliest.

In closing, I wish everyone a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing you on Monday morning!

Sincerely,

Larry