Oryx International School Newsletter Issue 7 | March | 2021 Message from the Executive Principal Dear Parents, We are approaching spring break with (dare I say) a renewed spring in our step. I hope you will all be able to take some time to enjoy the pleasant weather and spend quality time with your families enjoying the amenities here in Qatar. We have enjoyed a very busy and much more ‘normal’ term since January. Our first set of IAL exams yielded some excellent results, our CIS Accreditation visit also yielded some excellent outcomes and we have seen a return of more of our school engagement activities, such as book days, photo competition, individual and class success in local and national mathematics competitions, the re-start of outdoor PE lessons, investigation activities, Mini-Olympics, school photographs, the launch of Orbital’s Virtual A-level programme, inter-house competitions, achieved ‘outstanding’ in the world-wide mathematics ratings from PISA, and our wonderful COVID Reflections video. We are getting back on track now and I am confident that in August we will see a return to more ‘normalised’ school activities. There are several reasons to be optimistic about the weeks and months ahead, not least the COVID vaccination programme underway in Qatar. School staff and contractors working in schools were prioritised by the government, alongside health & medical workers and the various armed & security forces. This is making our schools even safer than previously and we will be continuing with all our COVID health precautions in addition to the vaccine requirements. Our Year 12 students are also now being offered the opportunity to receive the vaccine, which shows great commitment from the MoEHE to extend this level of protection to the over-16 age group in Qatar. Travel between countries should become more frequent and convenient as the vaccine is rolled out across the world. Qatar, being a major worldwide travel hub will benefit immensely in terms of social wellbeing, culture, travel and tourism and the economy. We may not yet be ‘out of the woods’ but we have weathered the storm. Throughout all of the challenges and rapid changes this past school year, we have shown that as a school community we have the resilience, determination, flexibility and empathy to work together to overcome and adapt - none more so than our students – and we have hope in great abundance for the future. Thank you for your continued support, cooperation and understanding. Thank you to all our wonderful teachers and admin/support staff for their continued dedication to the children in our care. “Some teachers taught the curriculum today. Our teachers taught students today: there’s a big difference.” Regards and best wishes, Mr. Derek Laidlaw Primary School News Secondary School News Mrs. Andrea Smith Mr. Ken Haggarty Go here for all the Primary Go here for all the Secondary News News PE at Oryx Primary Mini-Olympics results Congratulations to Saturn House who are the overall winners of Year 1&2 and Year 5&6, and Mercury House who are the overall winners of Year 3&4. Fantastic effort from all Students and Year groups, we look forward to next year already! Well done to all Secondary students who took part in the Mini Olympics during PE lessons. The PE department thoroughly enjoyed watching students display excellent skill and techniques across many athletic events. They competed in a safe manner whilst representing their House team and conquering new challenges. To see the video go here. Primary athletes of the month - February Secondary athletes of the month - February BTEC Travel and Tourism Stars The Year 12 BTEC Travel & Tourism students excelled in Unit One of the course. There was one Distinction, five Merits and three Passes awarded. Congratulations to Mahnoor Rizwan who achieved the distinction award and well done to all our students for doing so incredibly well! Mahnoor Rizwan COVID Poster Competition Winners The Student Council Covid-19 Awareness Poster competition was a great success. There were 157 entries from the children from Foundation Stage to Year 6. Our Head Girl, Aliz, and Head Boy, Matheesha, were involved in the judging of the posters. It was a difficult task as every poster was very creatively put together and of a high standard. All the children that entered received a participation certificate. Posters have been put up in the corridors around school and the winning posters and finalists are displayed in the main school reception area. Well done everyone! Our winners are as follows per year group: Foundation Stage John Cortis FS1B Lebanon Year 1 Ahyan Yusuf 1C Cambodia Year 2 Vardaan Sharma 2C Sudan Year 3 Dalysya Avari 3C Greece Year 4 Nikos Filippidis 4B UK Year 5 Heidi Wright 5E Peru Year 6 Kianne Avari 6E Ecuador Winning Writers Scoop 50 House Points and Enter Regional- international Event Students at Oryx International School recently participated in a House Writing Challenge, which was organised by the Secondary English Department in order to find some of the best writers to enter into a regional competition known as the BSME (British Schools in the Middle East) Secondary School Writing Challenge. For the full article, please go here. World Poetry Day Our students held a poetry recital assembly to celebrate poetry day, they wrote poems reflecting life, love, Nationalism, protest and war. To view their recitations please go here. Science Week Science week this year in the secondary phase Oryx International was a great success. Our theme this year was “Innovating for the Future”, to do that we had to get our students to study and make presentations on some successful people in STEM, to help them understand how to think like innovators. The major activity for the week, was for students to innovate a solution for a real world problem, we tagged this to find the “Next Elon Musk”. The response was amazing, we received hundreds of creative scientifically possible ideas, here is a list of a few of them: • An affordable aerodynamics lab for secondary schools. • A Somatosensory Prothesis • Nanoprobes for vital signs and diagnosis. • Auditory speed control earpiece for Autistic spectrum. • Use of Peppermint leaves as an antimicrobial agent. • Domestic waste power generator. • Mobile phones with screens that are eye-friendly. • Kinetic-energy powered portable charger. • Portable paper recycling machine. Science week in the primary section saw our students being exposed to and experimenting with various interesting scientific experiments. One of our students, Jessie, even brought his own experiment into school. See his story further on in this newsletter. Pi Day 14 March - 3.1415 . Pi day is celebrated worldwide each year on 14th March which is related to its value 3.1415... To make it fun this year, an in class Pi digit memorization and creating poster competition was held in 8A class with Mrs. Mulla. Three of our students - Yaswinii, Aarman, Jithishri from 8A memorised Pi digits up to 65, 72 and 45 numbers respectively. To see how good they were at reciting these, please go here. Students also created some amazing posters for the day to explain what Pi is. Pi—which is written as the Greek letter for p, or π—is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle. Regardless of the circle’s size, this ratio will always equal Pi. In decimal form, the value of Pi is approximately 3.14. Our Oryx Community Our Pandemic Journey During the Corona virus crisis, the people most affected are the ones who are unable to work due to businesses being closed due to lockdown or changes in working re- quirements. During a period like this, it is these people who suffer the most. As they say - The best of humanity shines through during the worst of the times. It is at this time that we came across this supportive group on Facebook called - Feed a Friend. This group help people who are in need and provide them with food and other daily necessities. We were inspired by their acts of kindness and reached out to the Feed a Friend ad- min to find out how we could help. There are many ways for one to get involved. You can purchase food packs, home necessities, milk and diaper supplies for chil- dren, donate clothes, help with the distribution and so on. It only costs 60 QAR to provide a month’s supply of basic food to 3-4 people. We joined the group and did a little something for the friends and families in need. If you are in a position to help, please support them in whichever way possible. You will find all the necessary information at Feed a Friend on Facebook. The Shah Family with Mr ayaz Hussain Where in the world is Oryx? Where in the world is Oryx this month? Email sally.balraj@oryxschool.qa and let us know where you think he is . Last month Oryx visited The Musfur Sinkhole The Musfur Sinkhole is the largest known of the still accessible sinkhole caves in Qatar, which is relatively easy to reach and explore. Believed to have been formed 325,000 to 500,000 years ago during the mid- Pleistocene Era, this mostly-unexplored cave system has an opening of about 12 metres and the visible bottom is around 100 metres deep, but some scientists suspect a larger cave-system to extend below. The Musfur Sinkhole can be found in Umm Al Shabrum, off Salwa Road, near the Saudi Arabian border. Directions: Drive South on Salwa Road until you reach Exit 35 with the Signpost to Mekaines (with two large satellite dishes on the left hand side) Exit here and turn right.