Dutch Parent Handbook

Please help us to promote our new school values by encouraging our students to demonstrate them in all areas of their lives.
Nurture-School is a safe place where we promote equality and justice and develop empathetic learners to grow emotionally and intellectually.
Community Minded – Take pride in being part of some thing bigger than yourself . Choose compassion and forgiveness and demonstrate generosity.
Bravery – Stand up and be counted and stand for others, be risk takers learning from mistakes and showing resilience.
Integrity – Be responsible for your own actions a n d behave honestly, respectfully a n d ethically.
Self-Reflection– understand and develop self-awareness and consciousness about behaviour, thoughts, attitudes and motivation and have the courage to change. We will be focusing on the values throughout all the teaching and learning, events and activities in the school.

NCBIS consists of three schools:

• Dutch Stream
• Primary School
• Secondary School

The three schools work in close cooperation. The leadership team meets regularly and we share the mission and vision of our school.

Leadership Structure:

Paul Joseph: NCBIS Principal

Olga Kes: Head of Dutch

Paul Jowett: Head of Primary

Ian Midgley: Head of Secondary

The Dutch team:

Amanda Kamphuis: Groep Peuters-1-2

Annemee Siersma: Groep 3-4-5

Olga Kes: Groep 6-7-8 and Secondary Dutch teacher

Sally Naoum: English teacher

If you would like to phone the school, you can phone our main telephone line on nr +2026171115/1120/1121

You can always get in contact with our teachers. This can be in an informal way at the start of the end of the school day. If you would like to have a formal meeting, we ask you to make an appointment through Olga Kes by email olga.kes@ncbis.co.uk

In case you have a complaint, we ask you to first discuss this with the teacher involved. A second step would be the Head of School. If you don’t come to an agreement, you can get in touch with our Principal.

For confident complaints which you would not like to discuss with our school’s staff members, you can get in contact with the Dutch Inspection on nr +31-306706001.

The school has a number of ways to communicate with the school community

Newsletter: At the end of every school week a joint newsletter is sent out by email. The Dutch, Primary and Secondary School each have their own section in this newsletter. You will find information about last week’s school events and a listing of upcoming key dates.

Twitter:
@NcbisPrimary
@NCBISDutch
@NcbisSecondary
@NCBISArt
@NCBIStigers

Facebook: New Cairo British International School – NCBIS
Nederlandse School Cairo

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ncbisegypt

Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQBvopaPN8gMk5w5jA6Rmog

The Dutch Stream is a bilingual school. We teach the Dutch curriculum, in Dutch and English. We operate under the supervision of the inspectorate of the Dutch Ministry of Education. Our school is affiliated with the Foundation for Dutch Education Abroad (Stichting Nederlands Onderwijs in het Buitenland) who advise us in different matters.

We work closely together with NCBIS Primary School, which teaches an enhanced version of the National Curriculum for England. Our curricula have been specifically tailored to the school, the students, and the context to achieve the NCBIS mission.

It is a 21st-century curriculum, perfect for international students in a high achieving, multicultural setting.
Information on the Dutch curriculum can be found (in Dutch) on www.slo.nl
We are careful to ensure a broad and balanced curriculum.

The learning is planned by the teachers around topics. This allows lots of links to be made between the different subjects though inquiry-based learning or project-based learning.

In the Dutch Stream we also celebrate typical Dutch celebrations like Sinterklaas and King’s Day.

At NCBIS, the Dutch and Primary School work together closely. Our Dutch year groups are linked to a peer group in British Primary. They join their peer group during PE, music, IT, assemblies and during topic lessons (which cover the subjects history, geography and science).

In the Dutch school system group 8 is the last year of Primary School. The British equivalent group is Year 7, which in the British system is considered the first year in Secondary. Our group 8 students join their peer group in Secondary school for English, Science, PE, Music, assemblies and House Events. They follow the rest of the curriculum in their tutor group in the Dutch Stream.

Peuters: NurseryB
Groep 1: ReceptionB
Groep 2: Year1B
Groep 3: Year2B
Groep 4: Year3B
Groep 5: Year4B
Groep 6: Year5B
Groep 7: Year6B
Groep 8: Year7

The following schedule shows the topics for each year group through the year.

Primary Topic Map – Early Years (Nursery and Reception)

Primary Topic Map – Key Stage 1(Years 1 and 2)

Primary Topic Map – Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6)

The three themes running through the curriculum from Early Years to Year 6 are Helping the Environment, International Mindedness and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering a n d Maths).
As they go through the school,  the students build on knowledge , skills, attitudes and behaviours in these 3 areas of becoming caring, responsible, proactive people who have the skills and motivation to be successful and solve problems to create a brighter future.

Topics in Group 8

• Governance and leadership
• Revolutions in history
• The importance of biodiversity
• Powers of the earth
• Revision of topics in Dutch Primary curriculum

High Performance Learning(HPL) is an acclaimed accredited programme which follows the underlying principle that every single child can achieve success at school and beyond if they are given the right language, tools and support .

The HPL frame work gives exactly that support, so it means that every single student can achieve highly in all different areas of the school curriculum.

NCBIS is a HPL World Class School, meaning we have achieved HPL accreditation. As a school we have invested in the HPL programme and we are already seeing changes in attitudes, self-belief and results from the way we have embedded HPL in the classroom so far.

Charlotte Karara (Primary) and Rebekah Thompson (Secondary) are our HPL leads, they would be happy to answer any questions or queries via email: hpl@ncbis.co.uk
If you want to learn more about High Performance Learning visit: www.highperformancelearning.co.uk

CAS: Creativity, Activity. Service (this is a project for secondary students)

CIS: Council of International Schools

COBIS: Council of British International Schools

ISI: International Schools Inspection

ECA: Extra Curricular Activities (activities offered at the end of the school day for all students)

EYFS: Early Years Foundation Stage

PGL: Peter Gordon Lawrance – Aventure school trip Year 6

KS1:Key Stage 1 (Years 1-2)

KS2:Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6)

PS: Primary School related event

DS: Dutch School Event

WS: Whole School related event

SS: Secondary School related event

Key dates for the school year will be shared with you via the whole school calendar. This is always available from the school website at www.ncbis.co.uk

Key dates are also posted in the Upcoming Events section in the NCBIS Newsletter, in the Dutch/ Primary School weekly bulletin.

Please do note that as Egypt, our host country, is a predominantly Muslim country, many of the public holidays are determined by the phases of the moon.This also means that holidays are subject to change at late notice. If there is possibility of a holiday date changing, this will be identified on the calendar by the use of colour key; red for public holiday, pink for possible holiday, blue for confirmed holiday. NCBIS follows the bank holidays and announces the dates at the same time as HSBC bank .

Our uniform shop is open from Sunday to Wednesday 7:30 am – 3:00 pm and Thursday 7.30 am – 2.30 p.m. It is located to the left of the main reception area.

Dutch School Uniform:

• The daily uniform consists of a light blue polo shirt and navy blue short/skirt/pair of long pants.
• On colder days students wear a navy blue pullover or a grey school jacket.
• Students are expected to wear black shoes (no sandals).

PE Uniform

• House t-shirt
• School PE shorts
• Tracksuit (optional)
• White, grey or black socks
• Trainers
• Swimming costume – one piece for girls, for boys swimming trunks or shorts no longer than knee length and suitable poolside footwear to change into

Hair: Should be kept neat, appropriate for school. Al pupils with long hair (both genders) must have it tied back.
Makeup: No makeup or nail varnish is allowed.
Jewellery: One pair of studs in the lobe of each ear may be worn. No other piercings are permitted. Earrings must be removed before the start of PE lessons.

Please purchase the school uniform from the school uniform shop. Please ensure all items are clearly labelled with your child’s name and class. Permanent pens for labelling are available at the main school reception and the Primary Office.

Please ensure that all items are labelled with your child’s name and class in permanent pen.

• Reusable water bottle
• Hat
• Munch and crunch healthy snack
• Lunch bag or wristband to order a meal (see information below)
• PE/Swimming kit in separate bag on appropriate days
• Pencil case (school provides writing materials, but students can bring their own)

Children have the option to bring their own lunches and snacks from home, or to eat from the school canteen. During the first break, Dutch Stream students eat their snack inside the Dutch classrooms. During Second Break the students eat their lunches outside in our pergola area. There is always a staff member on duty to supervise. Al lunch boxes and water bottles should be clearly labelled with your child’s name and class. If children bring their lunch and snack from home it is vital NOT to bring any nuts, or nut based products as NCBIS is a nut-free school as some children at school have severe allergies to nuts.

Snacks including fruit juices, water and other hot and cold lunches can be purchased in the school canteen during break times. Last year, the school moved to a cashless service involving pre-ordering and pre-paying online. This system uses an electronic digital wristband as a payment method for all canteen purchases.

You can subscribe to the service by paying the EGP 150 through this link
https://bit.ly/31vTIXY to activate your account. Download the app “Spare – Schools Made Smarter” and create a parent account. Follow the instructions on the wristband package to link your child’s digital ID to your account. This short video and attached PDF will help you through the process.

In the Dutch Stream we celebrate the birthdays together with all  our Dutch Stream students. The birthday boy or girl can bring a treat, but this should not contain nuts, as we are a nut-free school. Parents are asked to inform the teacher when they want their child to celebrate their birthday. Parents are welcome to attend the celebration, if they wish.

Parents can collect them from the backfield.
If you are delayed in collecting your child er(n) for any reason, your child will be taken to the Primary Office at 2.40 pm. Please note that the back gate will be closed at 15:00. The main gate is always open.

Group 8 follows the schedule of Secondary School with a different time for breaks than Primary.

If your child is collected by a driver, the driver needs to park at the back gate (gate 2 and come into school. All drivers must have a school issued ID

Children travelling by bus are accompanied to the bus point.

If your child has an ECA, pick up time is at 4:00 pm and you should collect your child from the shaded area on the field. If your child takes the bus they will be taken to their bus monitor by their ECA leader.

Students in group 6 and up, who are not being collected by parents, may make their way independently to their departure point/ECA, providing they can do so reliably and safely.

Please notify your Dutch class teacher if your child is going home with another person than he or she normally is being picked up by (for example because of a play date).

The teacher will then give the student a check out card to be able to leave school with another person than usual.

Main gate (gate 1): This is the car drop of point with a car lane which is controlled by our security staff. Cars must only stop when in the car lane, and must otherwise not block the road. Cars may not wait here with drivers- they must use the back gate (gate 2) for this and come to collect the students as mentioned in the previous page.

The school has its own Transportation Office on site and the day-to-day operation is run by our transportation manager who is supported by a team of three full-time staff to ensure good communication and service to bus users. School bus fees are paid in advance every year.
Students are picked-up and dropped home directly to and from their residential address at scheduled times. Care is taken to ensure buses use the most efficient routes.

Each bus has a bus monitor whose primary duty is to ensure the safety of the children whilst using the bus service: meet children, help store the school bags (for Year 3and below) and ensure the child is properly seated with safety belts on. The bus monitor will stay with the children under all circumstances. In cases of poor behaviour and discipline issues whilst on the bus, parents will be informed and may be asked to come to school to discuss the matter with the Head of Dutch.

If a student’s behaviour is consistently compromising to the safety and comfort of other bus users, access to the bus service may be withdrawn for a specified period. If it is felt that a student’s behaviour continues to endanger the trip or other passengers, a permanent ban may be issued.

At the start of the new academic school year, the Transportation Department will inform parents of the route and pick up times for the students. During the term, the Transportation Department will advise you of any changes by phone. Where the bus is significantly delayed, the Transportation Department will inform the parent and update them of the expected arrival time.

Changes to Pick-up and Drop-off Arrangements
Any changes to your child’s normal end of day arrangements must be communicated
in the following manner:

• You must complete the following Google Form: Transportation Arrangements Form.
• Please do not email or call the school to arrange transport.

On school days our school doctor Dr Noha Diaa and her team are present in the medical
office. If a child becomes ill or is hurt, he or she will be brought to the medical office, who will get in contact with the parents, if needed.

If your child requires medication during the school day, this needs to be communicated with the medical office. The medication has to be stored and taken there.
The email address of the medical office is medical@ncbis.co.uk

To avoid having lost property, we advise that all clothing, lunch boxes and water bottles are clearly labelled with permanent marker.

However if you find that your child has lost a belonging, we advise you to first check the classroom and check with the class teacher.

If you do not find it here, then you can visit the lost property office.
This is located on the left hand side of the main school entrance gates.

We are looking for volunteers to help us to return lost items to our children. If you have
time available towards the end of the school day, please let us know via the Primary Office.
primaryoffice@ncbis.co.uk

All Parents and Visitors are requested to wear school issued ID badges at all times whilst on campus. Visitors should not enter the school during the working day unless they have a prior appointment or are attending a school event.
If you would like to speak to a teacher, please make an appointment through Olga Kes, preferably by email: olga.kes@ncbis.co.uk
We encourage parent support both in academic and non – academic activities in school. If you are interested in volunteering or feel you have an area of skill or expertise that you would like to share with us, please contact Olga Kes.

We are very proud of our academic and pastoral team at NCBIS, who all encourage and expect our students to develop their independent skills year upon year.

At NCBIS, children learn to take responsibility for their own learning and behaviour.

Children are encouraged to pack and unpack their own school bags both at home and school so they are organised for the day ahead

The timetable has been adapted this year to make the most of the optimal learning
time in the morning and shorten the afternoon, which was very long for the primary students.

Below is an example of a timetable for a year group:

The approximate timings for the subjects are:

Maths – 5 hrs
Reading – 15. hrs
Phonics (Group Peuters-1-2 only) – 2 hours
Dutch – 5 hrs
Colloquial Arabic (Groep 5 and up) – 1hour
PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education) – 1hour

Topic (these subjects are blended together into inquiry-based and project-based learning )
Science – 2 hrs
History &Geography – 2hrs.
Art and Design Technology – 1hr
There is often TI involved in topic learning

Specialists

PE – 2hrs
TI – 1 h r
English- 3hrs
Music-1hr

Group 8 specialist lessons with Year 7:

PE-2hrs.
Music – 1.5 hrs
English – 4 hrs
Science – 3.5 hrs

At some stages during a student’s school life, he or she may need additional support. Because of our small class sizes, we can adapt our teaching to the individual needs of the students. In case we need extra expertise, we can call on the NCBIS Inclusive Learning department for assistance.

The Inclusive Learning department works closely with class teachers and parents to ensure a collaborative approach to meeting your child’s needs. Sometimes, it will collectively be decided by parents and school to call on help from experts outside of school. Parents will be asked to pay for these expenses.

To encourage independence in learning, our students do have homework tasks.
These tasks may consist of exercises to practise maths or language skills, working on a project, or doing some research for a topic.

Depending on the year group, students will have to spend approximately half an hour to two hours weekly on their homework. We also strongly advise our students to daily read in their reading book.

We have a nice library on the first floor of the Primary building, with a big Dutch department. Students can borrow books all through the week (not more than 3 books at a time). Once a week they will visit the library with their class. Students can also borrow books from the Primary library and furthermore, Group 8 students can make use of the Secondary library as well.

We welcome parents to help us with the Dutch Stream library. If you are interested in this, please contact Olga Kes.

In groep Peuters, 1and 2, our students have the opportunity to join the Phonics lessons with their peers in Primary. During these lessons, they are introduced in a playful way to literacy and reading in English. At NCBIS, Phonics si taught using the Letters and Sounds Programme. There are 6 Phases (steps) to the system. The first phase focuses on listening skills, rhythm and rhyme, alliteration and oral blending and segmenting.

The remaining 5 Phases focus on learning the sounds and using them to read and write) at their own pace.
The children are grouped for Phonics according to their individual stage of learning. Please ask the class teacher about which group your child is in. Phonics lessons happen four days per week, from 8:05 to 8:30 am.

Please look out for our “Phonics Workshop for Parents” on the school calendar. You can read more about phonics here at:
www.phonicsplay.co.uk

At NCBIS we use class dojo to collect achievement and behaviour points. Achievement points are converted to house points at the end of the week.

When students gain certain numbers of achievement points they receive a certificate that will be given out during Celebration Assemblies.

ClassDojo is a behaviour management tool for the classroom.
Each student has a profile – complete with their own avatar – to which teachers can assign positive (achievement points) and negative points (behaviour points) throughout the lesson

Blue Bands of Brilliance may be issued when celebrating exceptional behaviour,
effort or quality of work. The student’s work is displayed for the whole school to see in the Primary Building and during one of our Assemblies the Blue Bands of Brilliance are given out. It makes the day special for the students who achieve them, motivates students across the year group to do their best as well as giving a clear link throughout the school.

Once a week students come together during the assemblies which are usually held in our auditorium. Dutch Stream students join the British Stream during these assemblies. Primary Assemblies are usually held every week on Thursday morning between 8:40 – 10:10 am. Group 8 students join the Secondary assemblies, which are held on Mondays. Alist of assemblies will be shared with you, and any changes will be communicated with you. A variety of assemblies are held across the year, which may include;

• Whole primary school assemblies
• Celebration Assemblies
• Music/PE/MFL assemblies
• Year group assemblies
• Guest assemblies, e.g. visiting author

If you would like to support our Primary Assemblies, please let our Primary Office staff know; primaryoffice@ncbis.co.uk

House Points are a great way to celebrate success and to promote a team ethos. The NCBIS House system encompasses the whole school community (including parents!). Children are allocated a house upon admission to NCBIS and siblings are placed in the same house. Students value the house system and are eager to earn points for their team. Our houses are: Air (yellow), Earth (green), Fire (red) and Water (blue).

Students can earn House Points daily or in sportive, academic and artistic House Events that happen throughout the academic year.

Each term the House Cup is awarded to the house with the highest cumulative total for that term. The scores are then combined and at the end of the year the house with the most house points will be awarded the Yearly House Cup.

NCBIS boasts some of the best sporting facilities in New Cairo with a stunning grass football field, purpose built and covered multipurpose courts, a fitness suite, a 25m swimming pool and learner pool, and a specific classroom for Sport Science.

All NCBIS pupils are given the opportunity to participate in a wide range of sporting and exercise activities and a range of competitions are available for all abilities. The Physical Education and Extra Curricular sporting provision are closely aligned and pupils are given the opportunity to participate in intra-school, inter-school, regional and international sporting competition. During competitions, our athletes are called the ‘NCBIS Tigers’. NCBIS prides itself on its “Sport for all” ethos and every pupil is offered the chance to experience, enjoy and excel at Sport, whilst given the tools and knowledge to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

NCBIS Director of Sport: Mr Shaun Banham
shaun.banham@ncbis.co.uk

We offer a wide range of extra-curricular activities for students in Years 1(groep 2) and up. These take place after school and are focused on the IB CAS areas; Creativity, Activity and Service as well as competitive and non-competitive sports. We encourage pupils to participate in at least one ECA each week and preferably one from each of the CAS areas.

We encourage parents to lead ECAs. You can let us know fi you would like to contribute to or support the ECA programme.

Please contact our NCBIS ECA Coordinator
Mr Pete
activities@ncbis.co.uk

NCBIS has a thriving music department which is always buzzing with activity. The school believes that with the right encouragement and guidance, the life of a child can be enriched through music.
There are some 160 individual music lessons each week, delivered by an outstanding team of visiting musicians, many of whom have outstanding performing credentials. They provide motivation, direction and nurturing needed to any individual student, be it the beginner or the prodigy. Students are actively encouraged to pursue their interest in music and contribute to the group and solo activities available in our busy department. Our one to one support and instrumental tuition delivered up to Grade8 provided the perfect environment for musicians of all ages to be challenged and to excel.

Music lead contact: rebekah.thompson@ncbis.co.uk

The Dutch/Primary School has its very own student leadership body, which works alongside the Dutch-Primary Leadership Team, in helping to run the school and make improvements to student life.

• The Student Council is made up of 1elected student per class Y6-2 and 2 for the Dutch Stream. Elections take place at the start of term 1and every student in group 3/Year 2 and higher has the opportunity to apply for this role. Elected representatives are chosen by the children.
• Peer Supporters are students from upper school who volunteer to support children at break times in the friendship garden. Library volunteers are students who show an interest in volunteering to read with other students and help in the library.
• In Group 7/Year 6 students can opt to be elected as House Captain. These elections are held at the beginning of each school year.

At NCBIS, we use a well-known and trusted UK program called Purple Mash to deliver our Computing curriculum. Purple Mash includes progressive content for each year group about e-safety enabling the students to develop key skills and knowledge that allow them to be safe online and become good digital citizens.

The school also offers parent workshops on being safe online. You will be notified about the dates and times of these in our school bulletins.

If you require support in a language other than Dutch or English, please let us know by visiting or emailing the Primary Office. primaryoffice@ncbis.co.uk

Our students speak a wide variety of Home Languages. If you would like to offer any Home Languages activities please contact activities@ncbis.co.uk

Academic Involvement:

Parents are invited in to school for end of unit celebrations of learning, where you can see the learning outcomes of the children.

Volunteering Opportunities

Class coordinator; link between academic staff and the parents of children in the class as well as attending school trips, if needed, during the school year.
Parents Group-meetings and activities such as the Christmas Bazaar and International Week.

Parent Workshops

Parent volunteers are welcomed into the library to help with the running of the library or into our Primary kitchen to lead a cooking session with our students.

Activities

• Weekly International Cooking classes are held in school by volunteering parents and open to all parents.
• Weekly Zumba classes in the school gym.
• Weekly community choir during ECA time

The Primary and Secondary School offer frequent parent workshops throughout the year. Dutch Stream parents are of course welcome to attend these workshops.
These include workshops on phonics, homelearning, positive behaviour management at home, as well as many others. Please look out for the list of workshops in our Dutch/Primary School Bulletin