8th December, 2016

Superintendent’s Message Feel the pulse of life! This could well have been the promotional line for our United Nations (UN) evenings this week. With the UN dedicating this year to “pulses”, our director Natasha Meilunas was presented with the challenge of putting on a show about something none of us knew much about and something that, quite honestly, did not set our pulses racing. However, for those who attended, I know you will agree that the students and teachers did a remarkable job in their artistic interpretation of the theme while also making us more aware of the significant benefits of beans and seeds. I would like to congratulate the performers from grade 3-12 and to thank the many people who made the event so special. These include the backstage crew, Jaya Prakasan (JP), Waleed Bushara, Sompon Sudbuangarm, Jerrome Tan, Soraya Ladha, Lisa Morgan and Anthony Langrish. Thanks to all of you too for your donations as we were able to raise 725 OMR for the Rustic Pathways Children's Home (RPCH) in Thailand and the Buddhism for Social Development Action (BSDA) in Cambodia, with whom our grade 11 students will be working side by side for a week of direct service during Discovery Week in February. Last, but not least, we have the winners of the Live Art and Music Raffle: Would the following contact the office for their prizes, please: Lieve Adams, Gundi Thum, Aashi Surana, Maxime Papirnik and Christine Beniston.

Simon Taylor

AL NOOR-ABA NEWS

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Upcoming Dates

Dec 12 Prophet’s Birthday

Public Holiday

Dec 13-15 Grade 6 Adventure

Oman Trip

Dec 15 Mufti Day

Early Dismissal

Whole School

12pm

Dec 16 Winter Break

Begins

Message from the Assistant to the Superintendent

Switching Lanes will be on sale this evening at the PTA’s Winter Fair at OMR 5. All proceeds will go directly to the Paul Uche Foundation. As many of you know, ABA is a friend and supporter of the Paul Uche Memorial Foundation. Paul Uche was an ABA alumnus (class of 2009) who passed away from leukemia in June 2014. During his short life Paul was actively involved in bringing people together and helping those in need. He was a founding member of ABA’s branch of Students Against Prejudice and later became its leader. In memory of his son, Paul’s father set up the Paul Uche Memorial Foundation with the purpose of keeping Paul’s legacy alive through its work to alleviate human suffering.

During the school year 2014-15 the combined efforts of staff, students, parents, board members and friends of ABA raised an incredible 12,156 OMR in support of the Foundation’s renovation of a health clinic in Paul’s hometown of Igbere, Nigeria.

Since the opening of the clinic in December 2015 we have continued to fund raise in support of its upkeep. This includes the selling of the book Switching Lanes, a collection of short stories, song lyrics and blog posts written by Paul from his hospital bed in Canada. The ABA community is given a special acknowledgement in the book. “We can choose to be affected by the world, or we can choose to affect the world.” Heidi Wills

Diana Malik

Message from the High School

IB Diploma Course Options

As mentioned in a previous newsletter edition we planned to straw poll Grade 10 students regarding new DP courses that they might be interested in. Following feedback from students we will now further explore the possibility of offering DP Music and DP Psychology in the future. If interested you can read more about DP Music from HERE and DP Psychology from HERE . Please do note that although we will seriously explore offering both or one of the above, a final decision has yet to be

reached. Although less, we also had significant interest in DP Social and Cultural Anthropology and DP Global Politics. In addition to student interest there are many considerations when looking at new courses including the impact upon existing offerings (are there courses we might not run), content of the syllabus, staffing, resources, pathways to Higher Education and careers, and global average scores from previous exam sessions.

Parent Coffee Morning

Thank you to the parents who participated in the coffee morning last week. It was another productive and hopefully informative session. The next coffee morning

is for Grade 11 and 12 parents on Wednesday 25th January 2017. Parent representatives will be in touch to collect questions beforehand.

Grade 10 IGCSE Examinations

The deadline for parents to have informed the School on the IGCSE examinations that they wish for their son or daughter to be registered for is Sunday 15th January (payments must be made by the 12th of January). Further details are on the green forms that were issued 2 weeks ago. Should you require a new form then please contact Ms Rishi.

Lanterna

Following increased interest from ABA students we are pleased to share that the Lanterna revision courses will go ahead in January. It is not too late to sign-up. Lanterna can be contacted directly at info@lanternaeducation.com . Please see below for the programme, further details can be accessed from HERE.

Chemistry HL, 3 students, Jan 2-3

Maths HL, 4 students, Jan 4-5

Maths SL, 6 students, Jan 4-5

Biology HL, 5 students, Jan 6-7

Physics HL, 7 students, Jan 6-7

Kognity Digital Textbooks

Our trial of Digital textbooks in some IBDP subjects will finish on December 15th. Students and teachers are currently providing feedback as to whether they would like for us to take out a subscription- this will help to inform our decision.

RCSI Visit

Last week, one of the Grade 11 students, Ananya Bhardwaj and myself, were fortunate enough to enjoy an orientation visit to the Royal Society of Surgeons in Ireland Medical School of Bahrain.

RCSI operates on three campuses: Dublin, Perdana University – Malaysia, and Bahrain. Any grade 11 student, interested in medicine could have applied to join this trip. Out of the five enthusiastic and well qualified students who applied, one was chosen at random by a member of ABA Administration.

It was a very rich and interesting visit in many ways – incorporating as it did a tour of RSCI college, the chance to experience taught lectures and workshops on echography and ultrasound, speak to the professors, lecturers and first year students, and have a tour of Bahrain. Students particularly enjoyed the teaching

of Catherine Abouzaid, chief Lecturer in Nursing (and acting coordinator of the simulation lab), and the inspiriting lectures of Dr Martin Corbally, Professor of Surgery, Head of RSCI Surgery Department and Head of Staff at the King Hamad University Hospital and Dr Frank Cunningham, Clinical Professor of Surgery (formally of RCSI Ireland, now at Bahrain. Both men talked about the amazing opportunities that a life in medicine had afforded them; the satisfactions and the challenges of this career, and the ways in which RCSI offered some excellent preparation for this very special vocation.

This is Ananya’s overview of RCSI: Going to the RCSI Bahrain trip was an exceptional educational opportunity for me because I got to learn about the life of a college student studying medicine and the life of a doctor as well. I was able to attend different workshops, one where I had the opporutunity to conduct an ultrasound

on a human's neck and identify the structures! When I was talking to one of the college students in RCSI Bahrain, he said, " It is the most amazing experience I have had and I would definitely recommend everyone to apply RCSI. There is a close knit community of people where I have found my home away from home. All the students and teachers are so supportive that I feel absolutely comfortable in this environment. Also, my family lives just a 40 minute flight away in Dubai and I can visit them whenever I want, if I ever need them. Being a medical student with an increased workload and stress, I rely on my family and friends for comfort and guidance. The atmosphere in Bahrain really helps me focus more on my studies and avoid getting too distracted and for my social life: the Student Council at RCSI is always organizing new activities and parties to keep the students engaged!"

The main points that Ananya and myself both took away from our orientation of RSCI in Bahrain could be summarized as follows:

1. It is an exceptionally supportive learning

environment for medical students. Class sizes are small 1: 20 and this ratio decreases significantly the nearer students come to their final year.

2. The internal academic standards are just as high as RCSI, Dublin and students have to ensure they pass the relevant exams at the end of each year to progress. This is far from automatic and students must retake a year if they fail. Each year a prestigious Anatomy Award is given to an RCSI student. This year it went to an RCSI Bahrain student. Professors gave this as an example that students do not need to work on cadavers to gain an excellent knowledge of the human body (Cadavers are prohibitively expensive – around $250,000 – in Bahrain, and are not therefore used).

3. The quality and experience is comparable to

that enjoyed in Ireland. Teaching staff come from RCSI Dublin, and other world-renowned institutions. The teaching style is fairly traditional with lectures, seminars, practical simulation work and then hospital-based medical experience. Students enjoy a range of practical hospital experience working across the King Hamed University Hospital, The Salmaniya

Medical Complex, Bahrain Defence Force and the Royal Medical Services.

4. The library is well resourced, light, airy and a

good place to work (important given the number of hours that will be spent here!).

5. Bahrain is a small, safe environment. Students

are housed in nearby accommodation all carefully vetted by university staff. The campus is both alcohol and smoke-free, something that you won’t find in any European universities. There are few distractions to successful study time here.

6. A strong emphasis is placed on student health

and wellbeing. The canteen has a very good range of healthy eating options; supportive mental and physical health-care were very evident together with ubiquitous materials from Student Services. There are two well-equipped gyms, one for women-only and all students have access to a free personal trainer that they can make regular appointments with.

7. We recognized a strong community spirit with

students frequently working in pair and groups in their own time.

8. Entry requirements for the 5-year programme (Usual route) 35 IB Diploma points with two sciences at HL, or one science and Mathematics at HL, and the other science at SL. Entry requirements for the 6-year programme (includes a foundational year) 30 points with no special requirements for science at HL. Entry requirements for BSc in Nursing = 26 points.

9. Fees $39,500 per year plus around $20,000 per year for living expenses. This is probably directly comparable with costs in UK and US (although living expenses may be a bit cheaper in the latter), but remember that the number of years spent studying is also important. The shortest Medicine degree that I have found so far is 4.5 years – Buckingham University in the UK.

Going into Medicine is a huge commitment, requiring an enormous amount of work in a potentially very stressful environment, both during training and beyond. It is not a training to be taken lightly, not least because of the number of years required to become fully qualified. Nonetheless, the joys and immense satisfactions of the job were also made clear to us. For grade 10 and 11 students considering Medicine please bear the following advice in mind:

Grade 10:

For your IBDP subjects you should choose two sciences at HL, preferably Chemistry and Biology. One science must be Chemistry. Mathematics should be taken at least at SL.

For your other subjects, choose what you will enjoy most, and where you can achieve highest grades. You must be expecting 35-36+ to even think about Medicine as a first degree.

Start to think about work experience / job-

shadowing where you have access directly to people. These do not have to be ‘patients’, they might be children at a nursery group, or older people at a care home. The opportunity to talk about your capacity to interact sensitively and empathetically is the important thing.

Grade 11: Plan your work experience / job-shadowing

where you have access directly to people. See comments above. You need at least three sustained medical/caring related experiences to be a credible applicant for direct entrance into a Medical Degree.

If you are considering the UK, do your research into the UKCAT (UK Clinical Admissions Test) and BMAT (Bio-Medical Admissions Test). You will need to do at least one of these. Familiarise with the type of tests they are this year, so you are ready to take next November.

Research the various routes different countries

offer into Medicine and the opportunities that exist for you to continue living and working in that country once you graduate.

Country Structure Cost Special Features

UK 4-year degree in Medicine + 2 year as a Junior Doctor F1, F2 Between 18,000 – 36,000 for Int. Students.

Shortest route to medical degree.

US Must do an undergraduate degree first. Biomedical Sciences represents a foundational pathway, then to post-graduate Medical School for three years.

Between $24,000 - $75,0000 a year.

Canada Must also do an undergraduate degree first. Then to post-graduate Medical School for three years.

Europe Netherlands – 6 yr course – requires three sciences for DP. Not offered here.

NB If you are considering direct entry to a medical degree (UK or Ireland or Singapore) then it really pays to visit the universities and ask some detailed questions about the style of tuition. Some medical schools (e.g. Manchester) have moved more towards more student-centred learning - Investigation into Case-Studies and problem-based learningfor example. Others remain more traditional and transmit knowledge through lectures and seminars.

Simon Walker - High School Principal

PSAT Examinations Students who sat PSAT examinations in October of this year will be able to access their results online via the Collegeboard.com site on December 12th. We will ensure all students have the information they need to create their account and log on to view their results on this day. Rachel Keys and I have arranged a brief presentation and question and answer session for parents of students who completed the PSAT and the SAT in the future. This informal meeting will take place in the PTA room at 7.45-8.15 on Wednesday 14th December.

International travel is one benefit of living abroad, whether it is for business or pleasure. On occasions, it may be necessary for parents to be out of the country at the same time. If this situation occurs during term time and you leave your child in Oman, please inform us at school. An email to the registrar with details of your dates of travel, names and telephone numbers of the adult in charge is ideal. In addition, an out-of-country emergency contact number for either parent would also help in case of an emergency.

Claire Anthony - Secondary School Counselor

Message from the Elementary School

GET CAUGHT READING OVER THE WINTER HOLIDAYS!

Get Caught Reading is a nationwide campaign launched by the Association of American Publishers to remind people of all ages how much fun it is to read.

May is officially Get Caught Reading month, but the celebration lasts throughout the year.

This year at ABA, the elementary library is promoting reading over the holidays. We are encouraging students Grades K3-Gr.5 to read and send us a picture by email

to elemlibrary@abaoman.org of themselves caught reading with a caption of what their story is about. The pictures will be displayed in the library after the holidays.

In addition to displaying students’ pictures with their captions, the top three classrooms to send in the most pictures showing students’ reading, will receive a bag of books each for their classroom shelf. Happy reading! Mara Hakim-Teacher-Librarian

Message from the Extra Curricular Program Success in the community Congratulations to Anton Berggren for his amazing performance at the Rolling Hills Half Marathon last weekend. A tough course running along the hills from the Al Bustan past the Oman Dive Center and back. Not an easy task. Anton placed 15th from a field of 118 runners from the region. Anton has now set his sights on the Muscat Marathon in January. All the best with your preparations Anton. A great story of one of our upcoming cricketers

Saami Khan in Grade 6 spent his summer 2016 playing league cricket for his fathers cricket club Dulwich in London. He excelled and was selected to play for the Surrey district team where he was spotted by a Surrey County Cricket coach and selected for Surrey County Cricket performance assessment tests in August 2016. Saami came through with flying colors at the assessments and has been selected to play for Surrey County under 12 age group Winter Nets training and Summer 2017 Match Play. This is an enormous achievement for Saami who plays as an all-rounder. He is a left-handed batsman with a very impressive average and strike rate. His preferred bowling action is pace however he is a very impressive leg spinner. Saami we wish you all the best in your cricket journey.

Pic: Saami and Virat Kohi (Captain of the Indian Cricket team)

Muscat Football Academy Registration for Muscat Football Academy season three is open on January 11th

Muscat Football Academy is a professional football school that offers courses specifically designed to enhance and develop football skills whilst ensuring a fun filled experience in a safe environment. The manager and head coach Chuck Martini has had a professional career spanned over 20 years. He has played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe

(Tottenham Hotspurs FC, Wimbledon FC and Leicester City FC in the English Premier league). He also has played for the Dallas FC and represented Morocco internationally and was part of the squad that reached the Word Cup 94. The third season timings are below: Dates: 14th Feb - 2nd May Time: Tuesday 2:30pm - 3:15pm Age range: K3- Grade 5 Location: ABA field and MPH

If you are interested in having your child participate in this great opportunity you need to sign up directly at the ABA main reception from January 11th. Numbers are limited. If your child was in season two this does not guarantee your child's spot in season three. Once the maximum number of students are signed up, registration will close. All questions and enquires about Muscat football Academy need to be directed to chuck@muscatfootballacademy.com Fields used for training and games for the Middle School and High School soccer teams.

ABA has hired two venues for the soccer season. For pick up purposes and supporting your child at games below is the google map links for each field. Muscat Pirates Rugby Field/ Bousher Field: Click here for the Bousher Field MQ field: Click here for the MQ Field google map. Next week

Basketball

Soccer Fixtures

ABA 9 v 1 BSM

On Monday, ABA's Grade 6 team continued their fine start to the season with a comprehensive 9 v 1 victory over the British School. Emilio Lopez Del Olmo was the star man with 5 goals and was well supported by a strong midfield of Stephane Pejon, Liam O'Connor, Markus Kelfasz and Danny Helou. Goalkeepers Cameron Henderson and Abdul Rahman Al Raisi

marshalled their inexperienced defence with increasing confidence and Oliver Sokolowski, Daniel Barry and Al Faisal Al Abdullatif have settled well into this developing team. Shakeel Wadsworth and Saami Khan grabbed themselves a goal each and Faisal Al Khonji continues to develop as a central defender. This resounding victory followed

another comprehensive win against MIS with ABA running out 3 v 1 winners in a shortened game. With 22 players signed up for the squad, we are confident that the excellent form will continue and are looking forward to more fixtures and our tournament in the new year. A special thanks to Gareth Owen for refereeing the game.

Tom Chambers

Swim Team

The Annual TAISM Relays were held Monday, December 5th at The American International School of Muscat. The event was filled with excitement from more than 300 swimmers, spectators and volunteers. Our Vipers swim team was represented by 34 swimmers, and swam well throughout the afternoon. Vipers coaches, Charlie Semple and Graham Marshall are proud of the swimmers for their great efforts and outstanding attitude! Congratulations Vipers!

Charlie Semple

DATE COMPETITION TIME VENUE

Dec 11 Varsity Boys vs PSO 4:10- 5:00pm ABA

Dec 13 JV Girls vs BSM 2:45-3:45pm ABA

Dec 13 Varsity Girls vs BSM 3:45 – 4:45pm ABA

Dec 14 JV Boys vs PSO 3:00- 4:00pm ABA

DATE COMPETITION TIME VENUE

Dec 11 Varsity Girls MSSL Tournament

3:30-6:30pm BSM

Dec 14 JV Girls Vs TSS 3:45pm TSS

EC and Elementary Sports Days

It has been an action-packed week on the field with our three sports days for EC, Grade 1-3 and Grade 4-5. EC sports day started us off. We saw K1-K3 students practicing their running, jumping, balancing, throwing, scootering and more. Grade 1-5 students have worked hard during PE class practicing their track and field events leading up to this week. They participated in the following throwing events; javelin, discus/ring and shot put/tennis ball throw. Other events were the long jump, high jump, sprint, as well as a Spartan Course, relay, flip the cone and more. Results for the Elementary Sports Days

At the completion of each of these three days the students enjoyed the refreshing oranges which were brought in by parents and iced lollies kindly donated by the PTA. Thank you PTA!!

Also, a huge thanks to the PE Department and Mr Brace, Mr Derrick, Mrs Gantz, Mr Robb, Mrs Bassett and the Operational Team for helping us set up in the early hours of the morning, as well as our Elementary Teachers for leading the activities. These events always require many helpers - so THANK YOU for making it happen! Thank you to the parents who came out and supported our students. And finally well done to all the students for showing enthusiasm during these events.

Raewyn Jack and Erin Bshennaty -Elementary PE Department

First Second Third Fourth

Grade 1-3 Marani Jalali

Nizwa

Jabrin

Points 1947 1883 1779 1717

Grade 4-5 Jalali

Jabrin Nizwa Marani

Points 1236 1203 1170 1074

Message from the Parent Teacher Association

Our Winter Fair is this evening in the Drama Court from 5 to 8pm.

Come enjoy an evening filled with the sights and sounds of the Christmas!

Ride on the Christmas Express

Visit Santa in his Grotto

Shop in the Mistletoe Market

Play a Reindeer game or two!

Feast on delicious seasonal food

Sing a Christmas Song or too!

Thank you!

A Huge Thank You to:

Briony and Michelle for taking on this much loved event!

To all our community “elves” who came in to wrap gifts for our young shoppers to purchase, and volunteered to sell/advise on the day!

To you the parents who once again supported a PTA event.

To all parents who supplied cut oranges and volunteered to make our Elementary Sports Days enjoyable for our ABA athletes!

Facebook Page

Check us out at ABA Oman PTA! Like us and keep up with the PTA’s news.

PTA Dates for your Diary

PTA Open Meeting - Monday January 16th, 2017 at 7:40am in the PTA Room

ICF Planning Meeting - Monday January 16th, 2017 at 9:00am in the PTA Room

Your PTA

Messages for the Community

Show Your Stripes this Festive Season…

If your child is involved in Season 2 activities don’t forget to purchase competition socks & MESAC Travel Polo’s from the VIPERS Store from 2.15-2.45pm each afternoon from Sun 11 -

Wed 14 Dec (excluding the scheduled public holiday). This will be the LAST week to purchase your uniform until January 2017.

HO HO HO…Don’t miss your chance to get your official VIPERS merchandise before the winter holiday. VIPERS ‘POP-UP’ SHOP will be outside the ECE building on TUES 13 DEC from 07.00am. Fill your stocking with all your favorite VIPERS gear this festive season – HO HO …HOW BIG IS MY STOCKING? We would like to wish all our VIPERS families a very joyous, blessed, and safe holiday. We look forward to seeing you all back for an exciting start to 2017.

Yours in community spirit - VIPERS Booster Club

“Together We Care” Initiative Agrima Kampani is leading the “Together We Care” initiative which is a program exactly as the Red Box Appeal, but taking a different name. The aim of the initiative is to provide boxes that are to be filled and returned with the predetermined selection of personal items to workers working in ABA and construction companies. This enables us to express our gratitude to workers who are instrumental in our everyday life. Boxes will be distributed to the following: ABA OIG workers The Al -Turki Construction Company (working for

the new ABA campus) The Carillon Alawi Construction company. From grades 1-12 on the 8th of December (Thursday) in the morning, boxes will be distributed to all homerooms from grades 1-12. We have an aim to fill up 400 boxes in total, 10 boxes per homeroom. Please find below a list of all items that need to be filled in the boxes.

1. T-Shirt 2. Cap 3. Disposable Razor 4. Shaving Cream 5. Deodorant 6. Toothbrush 7. Talcum powder 8. Toothpaste 9. Small Hand Towel 10. Comb 11. Soap Antibacterial 12. Shampoo

*No money or food items can be included

* No used items can be placed in the box Only one of each item listed in the shopping list in each box 10 boxes from each homeroom will be collected on the 13th of December. There will be a large box in the PTA and administration building for any extra donations. Any queries, please contact Agrima (akampani1@abaoman.org). Lend a helping hand. Make a Big Difference. Agrima Kampani – Grade 11 Student The Babble Club

Attention 4th and 5th Graders! Want to sharpen your public speaking, acting & storytelling skills and gain confidence on the stage? Then come join the Babble Club! Parents encourage your children to come on Wednesday's from 2:30-3:30 in the Lecture hall. This will officially start in January 2017.

Agrima, Aesia, Aastha - Grade 11 Students