Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to school for the

New Academic Year 2013-14!

A pre-conference reading at your leisure:

This is merely sharing as a friend in
conversation, to open a dialogue with
each one of you on the necessity of
moving the Westminster to excellence in
all that we aim to achieve in the coming
academic year.

The Educational journey we intend to go
on this year is one of a digital evolution
with an increase in technological
applications to accelerate Teaching and
Learning. We intend to create Learning
Communities and the leading one would
obviously be
- The Digital Community


The next priority would be an

action to
raise standards in English
Moving English Forward

A strong shared vision for English whole
School involved all teachers and all
Departments! Effective approaches to
differentiation, Showing the relevance of
English to pupils lives outside the classroom,
Ensuring consistent quality of English,
Listening to what pupils say about English,
Learning Bay has an effective Blog managing
progressive Literacy
- lessons that build on what students like
and do outside school
- breadth and variety of approach in
.School Vision

Small changes Significant impact!

EDUCATIONAL VISION IN MOTION
2013-14








One Team
One Vision
One Mission


THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, DUBAI
PRINCIPALS NEWSLETTER

September 1
st
2013
Year2



THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, DUBAI
PRINCIPALS NEWSLETTER


September 1
st
2013


Nurturing leadership at all levels
We are all in this together should be a
strong ethos among all the school in all
departments. It will not only result in a
better education for pupils, but help to
retain staff, who would then enjoy the
environment in which they work because
they feel challenged and valued for their
contribution.
The collaborative approach in this school
means that everybody knows what is
going on around the school and
contributes.
Leaders are approachable and their style
is all about encouraging, rewarding and
fostering a sense of belonging when staff
say that leaders push people to strive for
better and support everyone.
There is an ethos of trust and respect and
belief that people will get it right.
The staff should feel that it is fine for
them not to know something, knowing
that they will receive the support of their
colleagues.
Teachers welcome the trust and freedom
to become enthusiastic and inspirational
teachers through building on students
interests.





Phase Leaders and Asst. Phase leaders:
Developing leadership potential
effectively WITHIN THE SCHOOL:
National Curriculum Standards/School
Standards Benchmark to be identified
Improving teaching and learning through
leadership.
Robust monitoring and evaluation -
Creating opportunities.
Data management - support staff and
pupils as collaborators in the learning
and leading process.
Leadership The three Drives - Shared
Vision of the Curriculum Drive, Personal
and Social Development Drive, and
Activity/Event Drive integrated into the
Academic Planner: where we are
currently and where we would like to be
by the end of the Term/Academic Year
targets set for every level of leadership
Management of Teaching and Learning
defined across each Year Group as
reflected from the Subject Leaders and
all administrative aspects with prepared
folders (soft copies) to be available on
GLG.







Objective of the Conference and expected
Outcome

Where we are now
Time is allocated by timetabling software,
with set lesson time allocated to specific
subject areas throughout the whole school
year.


Where we would like to be
A few off-timetable days for separate year
groups built in but mostly hour long lesson
blocks allocated to subjects.
Learning weeks once a term allocated to
groups of subjects, Off-timetable days for
the whole school.
Keep lessons as one hour but group
subjects and give them consecutive lessons
to increase flexibility.


What would its overall implications mean?

Time is used flexibly to meet learning
needs with full-day or week-long
experiences built in across the school.

Learners have the opportunity to create
their own timetable.

Towards a more personalized and flexible
curriculum that better meets the needs,
interests and aspirations of all learners!
Year Leaders:
- Focus on Student and Staff leadership as
aligned to the Learning Bay Councils of
students and staff - resulting in Personal
and Social development/Health and Safety

- clarifies the place and purpose of teacher
assessment in improving teaching and
learning
- connect all the elements of assessment in
a coherent policy for raising achievement
that clarifies the accountability of staff and
outlines strategies for monitoring and
evaluation.

- Work in partnership to establish effective
arrangements for cross-phase meetings
where teachers can agree the standard of
pupils work and share effective
assessment practice.
- The theme of the month focusing all
plans would synergize the plans across the
School with a close attention of the
number of working days every month of
the Term.

THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, DUBAI
PRINCIPALS NEWSLETTER

September 1
st
2013



Subject Leaders : Teaching and Learning with particular reference to their own
subjects in relation to the National Curriculum Standards and current standards set by them.
Curriculum Mapping:
a strategy through a National Curriculum TWS-Teachers Conference!
- Use of ICT distributively throughout the School in all aspects of Teaching and Learning
- Syllabus for the Year, and portions for the term easily accessible soft copies!
- Integration of events and activities with the core values, multiple-intelligence mapping and the
year planner is part the expected outcome of the conference.
- Staff distribution into various Core Councils for every Year group along with the cluster teams
for staff affairs linked to student affairs leading to the Student School Council formation
and effective functioning along with the staff
- The theme of the month focusing all plans would synergize the plans across the School
with a close attention of the number of working days every month of the Term.
- Arrival-dispersal and break management would also be relevant to be mapped
according to the allocation of location and monitored effectively











THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL, DUBAI
PRINCIPALS NEWSLETTER September 1
st
2013



AIM to develop:


Communication
Collaboration
Critical thinking
Creativity

Problem solving and Entrepreneurship

- 21st Century Skills.


Addressee
Street Address, Suite 555
City, State 55555


All the very best