Thursday, May 21, 2020
Dear ELPS Family,
We hope that this letter finds you all in best of health. All of us are following the directives given by the Dubai Health Authority, Ministry of Health and Prevention UAE and Dubai Municipality to observe the social distancing and other measures regarding the current situation.
Over last two months, we have seen a transformation from a regular school to distance learning mode across the phases.
Alhamdolillah, it's been a successful journey since the day one, i.e. March 22, 2020. We thank all of our students, parents and teachers to collaborate in these testing times.
Parent Teacher Meeting:
We had the virtual Parent Teacher Meeting of the current phase on May 12, 2020. It was a big success as the maximum number of our parents attended the meeting. They not only appreciated the ongoing efforts and protocols but also recorded their lovely messages to thank the ELPS teachers. A Parent survey was conducted that revealed the following:
96% of the parents reflect that Revised Home Work Policy has a positive impact on social and emotional well being
99.9% of the parents verify that they are receiving learning material & resources from their teachers
94% of the parents say that they are happy with the reduced working hours during Ramadan
93.8% of the parents think highly of the importance of live sessions
After the huge response of the Parent Teacher Meeting through this new medium, most of our parents suggested that we should keep such events more frequently.
EOY Assessment Schedule:
All classes from Year 3 to Year 10 have been sent the schedule for EOY Assessment that will commence from June 10.
EOY Portions for all the subjects would be communicated to all the students through the existing channels.
School's Learning Management System:
Since the beginning of the Distance Learning, we had been using Microsoft Teams to collaborate and deliver live sessions. The schedules for synchronous and asynchronous lessons had been updated over the time. All of our students were assigned unique ID's for a safe and secured platform. This helped us in ensuring that there is no possibility of intruding at all.
Recently, the school has migrated to Microsoft Exchange emails that will mean all the school community can start using their existing Microsoft TEAMS ID's to send and receive emails. All students and teachers had already been assigned Microsoft License for using its applications fully.
Teachers' training and certifications:
Teaching and learning continues through the DL phase but at the same time our teachers have been working on enhancing their qualifications for distance learning and getting trained in using different platforms with an expertise at every level.
A very large majority of our teachers have done over Ten (10) Microsoft Certificates comprising of digital resources, MS Applications for Distance Learning, Collaboration between students & teachers and DL for SOD's. Our teachers have also been attending the weekly webinars conducted by KHDA on regular basis. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University's Courses and Pearson's Webinars are an addition to this.
CENTURY Tech:
At ENGLISH LANGAUGE PRIVATE SCHOOL DUBAI we’re always looking for ways to extend our students’ learning. That’s why, as part of our school improvement programme, we are now using CENTURY – a ground-breaking online learning platform.
CENTURY is an online learning tool for students. It combines Artificial Intelligence with the latest research in learning science and neuroscience. So far it has been evident that this application is promoting Independent Learning among ELPS students.
This tool helps our students in Assessments, Tracking and asynchronous learning. The best part of CENTURY Tech for our school is that it is aligned with UK curriculum and covers students form Year 3 to Year 11 (International GCSE). CENTURY is the tried and tested intelligent intervention tool that combines learning science, AI and neuroscience.
· Identifies gaps
· Addresses misconceptions
· Supports teacher interventions
Teachers have assigned some bridge courses for Year 3, Year 6, Year 9 and Year 11 so these students do not face any difficulty in moving to the next key-stage.
ELPSians, the school's Newsletter:
The school has started issuing its regular fortnightly Newsletter. The first edition was published on April 15, 2020. So far three editions have been shared with our students. These newsletters cover all the activities and work of our students, teachers and whole of ELPS community.
We are trying our best to provide the top resources and practices to our students so they do not feel away from the school premises, at the same time we are thinking of the well being of our students and parents.
Curriculum Modification:
Our heads had been working hard to identify the key elements of the curriculum that are necessary to be covered though we are in DL. That has kept them modifying the curriculum over the past 8 weeks. They have included the essential elements and have removed the ones that were not that important or feasible during DL and left them for later part when we resume our regular school, Inshaallah.
Attendance:
The school had decided to mark the attendance of students per lesson instead of once a day. This has results in an overwhelming response and the cumulative attendance of the last two weeks have raised to an overall rate of 92%.
Means of Communication and Updates:
In addition to the existing communication channels, i.e. EduPage, Microsoft TEAMS, Emails, etc., the school is maintaining the Distance Learning section on its website www.elspvtdubai.com on a regular basis. Since the beginning of March, our website can be accessed free of charge using any mobile service (after the collaboration of the telecommunication services Etisalat, DU and Virgin Mobiles with KHDA). So those who do not have mobile data or home internet, can also access the essential information through our website (www.elspvtdubai.com)
Access to School Premises:
We want to remind you that the school access is still denied for the children. Only parents can visit the school without accompanying any child. The visits will remain subject to the precautionary measures as suggested by DHA and MOHP.
Admin Officers work from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
We wish that you all have a happy and blessed Eid with your families at home.
With warm regards,
ELPS Staff & Management