As the Gulf English School (GES) recently celebrated a bustling fortnight brimming with creative events and musical concerts, during what it calls the International Fortnight, the importance of diversity and mutual respect was driven home as the students got to better understand the global environment.
During the Junior Arts Week, students took part in activities in which they discovered interesting facts about several countries of the world. The young minds showcased their knowledge of continents and countries like Africa, UK, Holland, Germany and Italy by featuring demonstrations of food, clothing, famous landmarks, and geographical aspects, peculiar to those places.
Sarah Hartley, Deputy Head at GES, said, “It was fantastic to share the work that the children have been doing in our celebration assembly. Everyone had a fabulous time.”
On the back of the Junior Arts Week, the Musical Concert Week witnessed participation from 30 students belonging to the Year 2 choir. Before the actual event, the choir rehearsed every Sunday after school for six weeks – and all the dedicated preparation certainly paid off. Doh, Re, Mi from the musical The Sound of Music, and a combination of Dipidoo and Tinga Layo were the chosen songs for the performance.
Fiona Pattison, Music Teacher at GES, said, “During rehearsals, they concentrated on four things a good singer must do: Stand up straight and still, breathe deeply, open mouths wide and think. This soon became second nature and the choir began to produce a good sound. We also explored diction and movement. We tried adding percussion to the songs but this proved to be a distraction to good sound production. The children were regularly videoed and they assessed their own performances.”
Moreover, the children had a dress rehearsal by performing in assembly – although a little rough around the edges, it was a great success. By the time the concert day arrived, the year 2 singers were acting and sounding like a proper choir. That is how during the Musical Concert Week, the school orchestra performed a piece of music with a full-fledged accompaniment for the first time ever and all by memory. The featured recorder duet was also a new musical activity in the concert.
Apart from activities, GES has been quite active in extending a helping hand to the community at large. A couple of months ago, among other such activities, GES showed its support for cancer awareness by hosting the Think Pink initiative, so as to raise cash for both charities – a Dress Down Day and a Bake Sale. Eventually, a total of QR13,000 was raised for the Qatar Cancer Society.
Raised with the objective to increase awareness about cancer and also contribute toward the students’ IB diploma program, the event’s prelude was a month-long campaign “Show you care, be aware” by GES students, which saw them teaming up with fundraisers from the Qatar Cancer Society.
More than18 students with support from CAS co-ordinator and teaching staff took part in a range of fundraising activities including a bake day, a pink/blue-themed dress down day, car wash, and a FIFA tournament for students. During the car wash day, secondary school students offered to wash teachers’ cars. They also enjoyed the photo booth where students made photo frames and props so that they could get a photo clicked and printed. To promote the campaign, the high school students had even started an Instagram account.
The Gulf English School was founded by Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani in 1993 and has gone to become one of the leading international schools in Doha, operating in a modern campus with state-of-the-art equipment and educating its pupils to rigorous international standards.
CIS-accredited, it’s the first private school in Qatar to receive the Award of Excellence from the SEC and is IB World School accredited. Located in Al Gharaffa, GES has the highest GCSE results in Doha and places all its IB graduates in international universities overseas and in Qatar.
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