Essential Parent Information WWW.CISDOHA.COM facebook.com/CISDOHA @CISDOHA Compass International School Doha Gharaffa Campus: P.O. Box 23479, Plot 13 Al Waab Al Abareeq Street Gharaffa Area No. 31 Doha, Qatar Rayyan Campus: Wadi Al Ghusm Street Al Rayyan. Doha. Qatar Main Desk Gharaffa: +974 (0) 4034 9666 Main Desk Rayyan: +974 (0) 4034 9777 twitter.com/ cisdoha [email protected] facebook.com/cisdoha WWW.CISDOHA.COM 2 ESSENTIAL PARENT INFORMATION JULY 2015 AT COMPASS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DOHA, RAYYAN & GHARAFFA 3 Welcome from the Principal Dear Parents Please find information in the following pages which will hopefully provide answers to some of the questions that you will have about joining our school as a new family. It is very difficult to convey the warm atmosphere and feeling of our school on paper and if you haven’t already visited our school during the application process, we would invite you to visit during the start of the new term and learn about us first- hand. Tours may be organised for new families, but parents with a child transferring from one of our sister campuses are also very welcome to arrange a visit. We will also be organising a number of coffee mornings at the start of the new term to welcome all of our new parents. We are very much looking forward to you being a part of our family at Gharaffa and Rayyan. We enjoy a positive and successful partnerships with our parents and there will be many and varied opportunities for you to participate in the life of the school. I feel one of the most valuable resources is the parent body and everyone at CIS Doha is very proud and appreciative of the continuing, invaluable support we receive from parents and the wider community. As you will see from our website we are a very social school and host many events throughout the school year including family picnics, International Day, Qatar National Day, Book Week, Arabic evening, cinema nights, coffee morning’s and a whole host of school activities and trips throughout the year. We do hope that you will come and join in and if possible offer your services as either a class representative or a welcome volunteer at one of our events. We are proud of our school and the quality education and experiences we provide at CIS. I hope that your child will be very happy during his or her stay with us and you can be assured of our full commitment to your child’s needs at all times. 4 Hopefully, the following information will provide all the essential details you require to prepare your child for the start of the new school year, but if there is anything else we can help with, please do not hesitate to contact our admissions team who will be at school throughout the summer. You can also e-mail any questions or concerns to our Marketing and Admissions Director, Kathryn McCulloch at: [email protected] I very much look forward to seeing you on 6 September 2015 for our induction morning. I wish you a happy summer and for those of you relocating to Qatar a safe and pleasant journey. Yours sincerely, Graham Horton Principal 5 Welcome morning for new starters Our School Day We will be holding a welcome morning for all new starters, excluding Early Years 1 children on Sunday 6th September 2015 from 8 am at Rayyan and from 9 am at Gharaffa. Parents and children will be welcomed in to the school hall. After a the short presentation parents may stay for a coffee and return after approximately 2 hours. During this time your child will be taken on an orientation of the school. This will allow them to become familiar with the school facilities and is a chance for them to see their classroom, meet their teacher and other new classmates in advance of the first day of term on the 7 September. It is important that all new children attend the Welcome morning. All children should come to school in school uniform on this day and there is no need to bring anything else. We anticipate that the morning’s proceedings will conclude by 10am at Rayyan and 11am at our Gharaffa campus. You will be free to take your children home after this time. There will be no school day on Sunday 6 September after the conclusion of the induction morning. The whole school will start for the new term at 7.20am on Monday 7 September 2015. How to find us? Both Gharaffa and Rayyan enjoy excellent, easily accessible locations in Doha. Our Rayyan campus is located in the grounds of a former palace, towards the West of Doha city and close to the Al Shaqab Stables. Our Gharaffa campus is also found to the West of the city, but North of our Rayyan campus and very close to Doha’s Education City, the Qatar Science and Technology Park and the Sidra Hospital Development. For specific location details, please refer to the campus maps which can be downloaded from our website or the Google map links below (please press Ctrl and click to follow link): Gharaffa campus: https://goo.gl/maps/rhKna Rayyan campus: https://goo.gl/maps/sVK0g 6 Our School Day Year 1 to Year 6 Drop off is from 7:00am and the school day begins at 7:20am. Registration is from 7.20-7.30am and all children must be in their classroom during this period. Lesson 1: 7.30 am to 8.30 am Lesson 2: 8.30 am to 9.30 am First Break: 9.30 – 10am Lesson 3: 10.00 am to 10.45 am Lesson4: 10.45 am to 11.30 am Lunch 11.30 am- 12.00 noon Lesson 5: 12.00 noon to 12.45 pm Lesson 6: 12.45 pm to 13.30pm School day ends 13.30pm Please note that Early Years starts at 7.20 am but finishes at 13.20 pm Extra- curricular activities Our ECA clubs run from 13.30pm to 14.30pm. A letter and request form will be sent home during the first week of term outlining the vari- ous extra-curricular activities. The request form will need to be completed and returned to our school secretary. ECA’s are run by our own teaching staff or specialist staff who are employed to run specific training sessions. Most of the activities are held in school, but some such as sailing and golf will be held off-site. Transport arrangements for off-site -ac tivities, timings and equipment required for specialist activities will be communicated with parents separately. Most of our clubs are free of charge, but where a specialist teacher is employed for activities such as judo, horse riding or musical instrument tuition, an appro- priate charge will be made. ECA’s are an opportunity for our children to explore different activities and to get a taste for an activity they would like to pursue. All ECA’s are targeted to specific age groups and have a limited number of spaces, ensuring that the children gain the most from the experience. The school will try to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to experience every activity they wish to at some point in the school year. Our ECA clubs will commence from Sunday 4th October. 7 Drop Off arrangements/Parking Please be advised that parents are responsible for the supervision of their children after dismissal at 13:30 pm unless they are attending an ECA. We respectfully ask that you col- lect your children on time at the end of their school day. There are dedicated drop off areas, as well as parking facilities for all of our parents. Safety is of paramount importance when children are entering or leaving the school premises. Uniformed security guards are on duty in the car park and outside the school entrance; please follow their guidance at all times. If your child is dropped off by a driver, we would ask that you are very clear with your driver that they should also follow the instructions of our security guards. Please drive very slowly in the vicinity of the school at all times. On occasion, you may be asked to wait in a queue for safety reasons. Please park your vehicle where directed. We thank you in advance for your co-operation in this important matter. Where do the children go on arrival at school? Early Years parents and drivers must escort their children to their classroom and ensure they are handed over to an Early Years member of staff. Year 1 to Year 6 children should assemble in the playground and will be escorted to their classroom by their class teacher. Arrangements for the end of the school day Class teachers will escort their class out of the classroom at 1.30pm and stand in allocated areas in the school playground, where parents are able to collect their child. Early Years children are to be collected from the classroom at 13.20pm. 8 Recreation, Snacks and Lunch We have two sessions per day for eating and recreation. Early Years have their own shaded and enclosed play area and there is a large playground and shaded areas for our primary school children. All recreation and lunch sessions are supervised by our duty staff. Children are asked to bring a healthy snack and lunch to school to encourage healthy liv- ing and maximise brain capacity for learning. Please do not include sweets, chocolates or fizzy drinks in your child’s lunch and always try to include a piece of fruit or vegetable.