Variety show, Falling Walls and getting WISER.
This year, our Secondary School is implementing a range of new initiatives that were developed last year. These include:
New High School courses like: Stagecraft, technical theatre, theatre history, performance studies, drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramics, digital media and photography, English communication
Mathematics: measurement, mathematical modelling, financial mathematics, statistics
Social studies: history and politics, geography, economics, psychology.
A systematic approach to the Advisory Programme with weekly class meetings and weekly Advisory lessons using the CharacterStrong Program.
A new approach to the student organisations with renewed energy and interest from the student body. While working in these organisations, students develop a range of leadership skills.
Continued collaboration with the university with the introduction of latest initiative, the research internship.
The school building looks much more attractive with new furniture in all the classrooms and in the Flag Pavilion upstairs. We have relocated the counselling suite to be closer to the students, upstairs in the Flag Pavilion, resulting in much more communication between students and counsellors.
The Secondary School is now a very busy place with many more students in the same space than in the past. We are managing this increased density well but are also looking forward to the completion of the new building in August 2023.
We had a good start to the new school year, seeing us through to the Saudi National Day celebrations, which always brings a great sense of pride and opportunity to showcase our creative talents. We look forward to a productive and collaborative year ahead and welcoming in 2023.
Students will always strive for an opportunity to be creative and collaborative. WISER previously known as TKS IP (TKS Internship Program) gives that opportunity to Diploma Programme (DP) students here at the school. With sign-ups and interviews starting from the last academic year, 14 students have joined the program. They have been interning with various departments since August, the beginning of this academic year.
The internship program was created so that students can gain real life experience in a working environment, giving them the opportunity to apply the school learning and further development of the ATL skills (thinking, communication, self-management, research and social skills), to the world of work.
Elementary School
Innovation & Economic Development - Entrepreneurship Centre
Innovation & Economic Development - Small & Medium Enterprises
IT Security
KAUST Health
KAUST Smart
KAUST Security
From this wide range of options, students have already begun making an impact within our community through their new jobs.
Abdurhamn Ahmed, a Grade 11 student, interning at KAUST Health, noticed that he "enjoyed meeting the nurses and physicians work."
A student interning at KAUST Smart, working with drones, Mohammed Mustafa (Grade 11), spoke about how "getting out of the comfort zone of school and stepping into a world [he’s] not accustomed to is extraordinary." He enjoys his work placement and noticed that his experience is "a total contrast to what is interpreted in movies."
Rayan Serajuddin and Yousef AlAttas, Grade 11 students working with KAUST IT Security, have been able to advance their interests in coding (Python) which will feed into a project that would help many of the KAUST employees stay safe from harmful software.
Abbasali Shaikh, a mentor from KAUST IT from Incident Response Team believes that he “leads, mentors and facilitates the learning,” but he does “not spoon feed”. He went on to say that “he has been pleasantly amazed at the students’ motivation to learn”. From this experience, Rayan and Yousef are leading a coding club for the GSS Middle School.
Not only does this internship allow students to have jobs to do and learn more about their personal interests, it has allowed them to delve deeper into ways of work in the real world outside of the school classrooms.
Abdulaziz Almalki, Grade 11, interning at Innovation & Economic Development - Small & Medium Enterprises, has been able to learn and guide start-ups, learning about real-world ideas surrounding successful businesses. A skill he can't gain in the classroom is collaborating with people with vast age differences, enabling independence and the satisfaction of helping others to grow.
Undertaking this journey is a fantastic experience; working with various people, from adults to children, strengthens many of our skills needed for the TKS student body and allows us to get top-class work experiences, all within school hours. With organization and true dedication, TKS students enrich their classroom learning and impact the community as well as benefiting themselves in their next steps in their life after the DP, such as their university application or other ambitions. The WISER program is something that all students should look forward to pursuing each year.
Written by Bayan Kharbatia, G11 student Edited by Ms. Azra Hanif, TKS WISER Coordinator
The performers sang and played music ranging from Arabic, Indian and Ukranian folk music to contemporary pop and rock and even some original music written by the students themselves!
Grade 12 students Rana Ibrahim, Shahad Bakr, and Angelina Shevchenko, gave particularly memorable performances. Rana and Shahad, as the band Arabix, performed their own take on a traditional Arabic song called "Sahar El Laylay", by adapting the music to a new, modern style and performing on piano and drums. Angelina performed a passionate rendition of the beautiful Ukranian folk song, "Oh in the Cherry Orchard”.
This is the last time these girls will perform at GSS, and as they have all been regular participants in all types of art department events, they will all be missed when they graduate this year.
Please come and support our creative arts students as they showcase their growing talents at our school events!
*Nov 30, Dec 1, Dec 3 = GSS Musical, Cinderella*December 12 = Arts Night 1*February 9 = Music Night 1*March 20 = Middle School Variety Show*May 17 = Music Night 2*June 5 = Arts Night 2
David Webb, Performing Arts teacherPictures by: Naomi Nason, G12 student & Evangelos Tzavaras, G11 student.
If you have ever felt like you will never get to use the skills you learn at school or want to develop them in real-world situations, this was that opportunity. Falling Walls: KAUST 2022 allowed two G11 students, Bayan Kharbatia and Sai Katuri, to utilize the skills that are critical for our student body.
Falling Walls is a science-driven creative organisation with an international and interdisciplinary mindset that seeks to ‘shape the future of humanity by impact-oriented ideas and discoveries.
Applying the ATL skills, such as research, creative thinking, communication, self-management, as well as public speaking, aided them to deliver a three-minute pitch effectively. They also got to apply their learning from subjects such as English, science, I&S, and more. Falling Walls successfully enabled the students to be creative with their learning and find areas they were passionate about in order to find a scientific solution.
Sai commented: “I got my problem and solution through something I read on my G10 e-assessment quiz. Furthermore, throughout my Secondary School, we have been well prepped and developed to research and validate sources which fed into the planning and delivery of the pitches.”
Bayan went on to say: “It was a great opportunity. I've never been part of something like this before, and it's something I will be highly grateful for during my final years of school.
"We received tremendous and prestigious mentoring and guidance from Sandra Katakalea from Student Career Development on campus. On top of this, we practiced with more experts from the university, including the manager of the English Language and Communication Program, Andrew Cornforth; and the English for Special Purposes (ESP) Instructor, Lucy Vick. This experience will feed well into our TOK and other presentations at school.”
Don't miss out on this and the other great opportunities that the University provides for TKS students.
Azra HanifOutreach Coordinator
During the event, TKS students had fun sharing their ideas and engaging in discussion around issues related to climate change in a fast, fun and interactive activity.
They had the opportunity to decide where they stood on some very tough and controversial questions around climate change.
After deciding whether they agreed or disagreed with specific statements, they then had to defend their position through an open mic.
