CRITERIA FOR ADMISSION

1. ABS provides an academic education for those students who are able to meet the school’s standards and who can cope with the bilingual nature of the programme offered. The school is unable to consider applications from students who are physically disabled or who have special educational needs. Admission to the school is selective and is based, as appropriate, on previous school records, academic testing, a personal interview with the applicant and his/her family and availability of places.
2. The school reserves the right to contact an applicant’s previous school(s) and request confidential references. Testing and interviews are the governing factors for admission from Grade 1.
3. In cases where the number of applications exceeds the places available at a given grade level, applicants will be placed on a waiting list in order of date of application, with priority given, as indicated below. The Principal’s decision is final in all matters pertaining to admissions. In accepting students the school depends on student admission priorities, set by its Boards of Trustees, as follows:
   1. Children of Board Members
   2. Children of Old Baccalaureans. First child must be registered within three months of birth. (The priority is applicable to those who had spent 5 or more years at ABS)
   3. Grandchildren of founding Board Members
   4. Siblings
      • After the first child has been enrolled for one full academic year, siblings are given the siblings’ precedence/ priority if:
        • the older sibling entered the school in KG1 and
        • the sibling has been registered within three months of birth.
   5. Staff children – teaching
   6. Staff children - non-teaching
   7. Date of application.

   All candidates for admission to the School must meet the stipulated academic criteria and are placed on the waiting list according to criteria.

The Curriculum Framework is made up of:

1. a balance between the search for meaning and understanding, and the acquisition of knowledge and skills .
2. 4 organising themes for KG 1 and 5 for KG 2, taken from the PYP Programme.
3. The development of positive attitudes and actions.

Concept-Driven Units of Inquiry

1. Units are introduced and developed through a broad sequence of stages:
• introduction
• connection phase (building on prior knowledge)
• inquiry
• structured
• guided (independent inquiry to stretch more gifted students)
• reflection
• assessment
2. Inquiry led by the English Programme or Arabic Programme teachers will ensure that a natural, purposeful interdisciplinary approach is taken to enhance learning, so that understanding of these concepts can be easily transferred and applied in other disciplines.
3. Concepts & modes of thinking in one discipline will enrich students’ understanding in other disciplines when appropriate.

• Languages:
1. The essence of the unit will extend to language by means of related reading and listening comprehension passages, creative writing, etc.
2. Language strands (listening, speaking, writing and reading) are systematically taught and assessed during specific lessons.
• Maths:

Math skills and understanding are taught:

• using hands-on manipulatives
• using relevant real-life situations for problem-solving
• Assessments

Students will be assessed on:

• Knowledge that is worth being familiar with.
• Knowledge and skills that are important to know and do
• Understanding that is enduring
• A variety of formative and summative assessments will be applied.
• Stand Alone Topics
• Transdisciplinary

Transdisciplinary Skills are fundamental skills that students must master for life-long success. They are used in all disciplines and are continually reinforced.

Transdisciplinary Skills include:

• Social Skills
• Accepting responsibility
• Respecting others
• Cooperating

Resolving conflict

• Group decision-making
• Adopting a variety of group roles
• Research Skills
• Formulating questions
• Observing
• Planning
• Collecting data
• Recording data
• Organising data
• Interpreting data
• Presenting research findings
• Thinking Skills
• Acquisition of knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation
• Communication Skills
• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
• Non-verbal communication
• Self-management Skills
• Gross motor skills
• Fine-motor skills
• Spatial awareness
• Organisation
• Time management
• Safety
• Healthy lifestyle
• Codes of behaviour
• Pastoral Care Programme

The Pastoral Care Programme is embedded in the daily curriculum of the KG complementing the school’s philosophy of nurturing the well-being of the whole child.

Book Fair

During the Book Fair, a huge selection of reasonably-priced Arabic and English books are available to choose from.

Teachers are given the privilege to select books to put on their “wish list” to enhance their units of inquiry. Our generous kindergartners and parents purchase books from the “wish lists” to surprise teachers with their donations. A percentage of the proceeds is dedicated to purchase a selection of Arabic books for a less fortunate school in Jordan.

KG1 Fairytale Ball

As a culminating event for the KG1 Once Upon a Time unit of inquiry, the KG Multi-purpose Hall is transformed into a fairytale ball where our KG1 fairytale princes, princesses and storybook characters waltz their way across the dance floor. The teachers interview each child as the character of his/her choice.

Characters Alive!

We have a fabulous event entitled “Characters ALIVE!”. The children participate in storytelling, art and drama activities during this remarkable literacy-based day.

To make the day even more special, the teachers and volunteer mothers dress up in costumes. The children are encouraged to do the same in any storybook character costume of their choice. There is no need to buy an elaborate costume for this event. Let your creative juices flow and your imagination run wild! We appreciate if the children do not bring in any accessories (swords, toy guns, magic wands, broomsticks, etc), so as to avoid losing any items.

Family Fun Day

The KG Family Fun Day is a day dedicated to the kindergartners & their devoted families. It’s a day where parents or family members get to participate in athletic challenges along with their child. The children demonstrate the skills they have been learning in P.E. throughout the year. Coach Osama, along with his P.E, Team, set up six fun-filled games on the football field for everyone to complete.

Roy G. Biv Week

Roy G. Biv Week is such a colourful week! It is a fun celebration that focuses on every colour under the sun. As you might have already figured out, Roy G. Biv is a mnemonic device that helps people remember the order of colours of the rainbow (Red, orange, yellow, Green, Blue, indigo, violet). Through hands-on science and art activities, we identify primary colours and experiment with creating secondary colours.

Parents Hands-on Learning Session

Parents, have you ever wanted to roll back the clock to when you were four years old? Well, NOW’S YOUR CHANCE! We have a parents ONLY hands-on learning session every September. The KG Students will not be involved in this session. They will continue with their normally scheduled lessons.

We created this parents only hands-on session in order to give parents a sneak peek into what actually goes on in our classrooms throughout the day. Two teacher representatives from each grade level will compile learning experiences for them to participate in. We encourage parents to take advantage of this opportunity to look at the world from a four-year old child’s point of view. It’s vibrant, spectacular and whimsical!

Pyjama Party

Our main objectives for this extraordinary event are to:

• ^*instil the love of reading
• ^*demonstrate an appreciation and enjoyment of listening to a story being read
• ^*highlight that reading a story before bedtime is a perfect way to end the day
• ^*engage in conversation to better understand what has been read
• ^*predict upcoming events
• ^*recognise character, setting, problem/climax & solution/conclusion

100th Day of School Celebration

The 100th Day of School Celebration is a marvellous math celebration that is used to teach basic math concepts to children. Anticipation builds as classrooms count each day they go to school one by one until they reach the 100th day. On the 100th day, the whole KG celebrates. Depending on what activities are taught, children may learn math concepts including counting, sorting, measuring, sequencing, graphing, classifying, etc.

Assemblies

• Each class presents an assembly in the Theatre during the course of the academic year. Our young actors are asked to wear black trousers, white shirts and black shoes. Our dainty actresses are asked to wear black skirts, white shirts and black shoes. Parents are cordially invited to watch their children perform. Performing on stage is very demanding, especially for very young children, and that while every child is given the opportunity to speak, sing, dance or act, just being out on the stage in front of an audience is in itself, a great achievement.
• During the academic year, many religious and non-religious occasions are celebrated appropriately as part of each class curriculum. A photographer is usually on hand and photographs of the children are sent home to parents for purchase if anyone so desires. These activities form part of the regular learning process and parents are not invited to attend them.

School Trips

Parents are encouraged to join their children on out-of-school visits and trips. These visits are related to the Units of Inquiry being studied in class and by joining in, parents have the opportunity to be able to reinforce the experience at home.

Unfortunately, only students who have spent at least the last two years of the Middle Years Programme will be able to receive the MYP certificate if they pass all the programme's requirements. However, you can still join the school in grade 10 if you pass the entrance tests but not get the MYP certificate.

Mathematics is taught in Arabic in grades 6, 7 and 8 however, students are taught Mathematics in English starting grades 9 and 10.

As for Sciences, they are taught only in English in all grades of the Middle Years School.

There are certain features in the IB MYP that prepare the students better for the IB Diploma programme in grades 11 and 12. The personal project is a research based project that helps the students acquire research skills which will help them when they write their extended essay.

Students will also be used to reflecting on their learning and evaluating their work against the published criteria. Students in the MYP have to fulfil certain requirements in community service; this is an aspect that is also required from the students in the Diploma programme.

The assessment criteria of the different MYP subjects allow the students to acquire skills in addition to getting the knowledge that is needed.

In a fast moving world, it is more important for the student to "learn how to learn" since information can be found easily using the Internet and other sources.

While the younger grades have fixed weekly lessons in the Media Centre, the Middle and IB students get to use the Media Centre when they have free periods, when teachers reserve class time for research or reading, at break time, as well as after school.

Teachers can also give special permissions for students in small numbers to leave class and go to work at the Media Centre.