Welcome back to a new school year here at The Sultan’s School. There are many new faces in the Primary Department this year, both staff and students.

Our new staff join us from schools in different parts of the world, each of them brings with them their own special qualities that we hope they will put to good use and help the Primary Department build on the great progress it made last year in developing all aspects of its curriculum both in English and Arabic.
There are many, many new students throughout the school with a considerable number of these being in the Primary School. In fact with the exception of a small number of spaces in certain grades being available nearly all the Grades from KG 1 to Grade 6 are full.

Priorities within the Primary Department will centre around reviewing Assessment procedures to reflect the changing emphasis within the school away from simply awarding Grades for attainment. The format for the written reports will also be reviewed with slight changes made where necessary.
On the Pastoral side we had a very positive response from parents last year at our attempts to promote a sense of openness regarding signs of Bullying. We are looking to develop this further this year and looking forward to the Quantum Theatre Company visiting us in November with their production entitled ‘Bully 4 You’. A topical interactive workshop that should hopefully prove to be enjoyable yet thought provoking.
It promises to be a very busy, exciting year and we look forward to sharing it with you.

This year’s ECIS Conference is being held in Nice in November. The Conference facilitates the gathering together of staff from International Schools across the world to share ideas and good practice. Selected practioners from these schools provide workshops on a whole range of educational topics. I am pleased to say that several members of staff from The Sultan’s School will be attending the conference targeting areas we feel will ultimately benefit the long term curriculum development within both the Primary and Secondary school and also the Learning Support Department.
On return to school after the conference it is anticipated that these staff will form the basis of several working groups driving forward the implementation of these developments.
Staff attending the conference are:
Mr Ian Jones – Head of Primary
Mr Leigh Smith – Head of Secondary
Mr Sean Griffin – Learning Support Coordinator
Mrs Laura Griffin – Primary Science Curriculum Coordinator
Miss Larissa Ryan – Primary English Curriculum Coordinator
Miss Jodi Ingersoll – Primary Mathematics Curriculum Coordinator
Mrs Kerry O’Hanlon – Secondary Science

I look forward to sharing a Conference report with you in the next issue of the magazine

Ian Jones
Head of Primary