Dear High School Community,

As more evidence of us returning to more normality, we ran a single lunch this week. It was good to see students reunited during lunchtime and to see how much they’d all missed Coffee Beanery too! Here are some photos of the week.

COVID-19 Updates

Thankfully we report that there were no cases in the High School this week. However, we remind parents to keep their child at home if they are sick. We have a high vaccination rate in our division but we remain vigilant and determined to sustain a safe learning environment for all our students and staff. Thank you.

We reiterate our plea to parents not to send their children to school if they exhibit symptoms related to COVID-19. Please err on the side of caution and take them to be tested.

Dress Code Update

We are beginning to notice an increase in students not following our school dress code. We pride ourselves on the diversity of our community and have the utmost respect for the culture of our host country. Therefore, in accordance with the existing dress code expectations (see below) starting next week, we will be monitoring all students to ensure that students are following the appropriate dress standards.

Sunday, November 14, Monday, November 15 and Tuesday, November 16, we will be speaking with students who are in violation of the dress code and providing them with a warning. On Wednesday, November 17 and Thursday, November 18, we will send students home who are not following the dress code with the expectation they change into the appropriate attire.

We thank you for your support with this action.

Student Dress Code Expectations from the ASD Student Handbook

Good grooming and proper dress are a matter of mature taste and judgment. ASD students are expected to appear neat and clean. Proper dress is that which meets the following guidelines:

• Students should wear blouses, tops or shirts that cover the entire midriff. All tops must have sleeves and should not be of net material, off the shoulder, or inappropriately revealing. Halter-tops, tube tops and tank tops are all considered to be inappropriate. Skirts, dresses and shorts should be of moderate length.

• Anything worn or brought to campus should have no reference to alcohol, drugs or tobacco, and should not be offensive and should be in good taste.

• Teachers are expected to refuse to admit an inappropriately dressed student to class. The student should be sent to the High School Office. The administration reserves the right to make a final judgment on the acceptability of student attire. Parents will be notified of any dress code violations and the student may be sent home from school.

* All students must follow Article 57 of Qatar’s Constitution regarding appropriate dress.

Parent Advisory Forum

Thanks to everyone who attended. Here’s the link to the Zoom recording.

New Dates: Little Shop of Horrors

THANK YOU for ordering your Little Shop of Horrors tickets. Unfortunately, due to unexpected circumstances, we are required to change the dates of our performance.

If you have been charged for tickets, we will be refunding your current purchase onto your DragonCard. Once refunds have been made, tickets for the new dates will go on sale; using the link below or the QR code. Tickets for the new show dates will go on sale on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, but we are looking forward to welcoming you into the theatre in December!

Click HERE to purchase your ticket on Sun, Nov 14.

EFFECT Club

On Wednesday, November 10, ASD and the EFFECT Club participated in the first ever #CallToEarthDay, an initiative started by CNN in partnership with Rolex to promote sustainable development and raise awareness about the importance of our environment. CNN is inviting everyone to participate in Call to Earth day, by simply “doing something positive to protect the environment” and sharing it with the rest of the world; big or small, creative or simply just impactful, all types of events are welcome.

As a means to celebrate and promote #CallToEarth Day, the EFFECT Club is inviting all members of our community to join in and participate in our #CalltoEarth Day celebrations throughout the year. To support this initiative, EFFECT will continue to bring in well-recognized leaders of sustainable development groups to participate in the ongoing speaker series, host “green” friendly cooking competitions as well as local beach cleanups, collect and dispose of batteries and e-waste, and provide a fun learning activities about sustainable development for the elementary school students.

Furthermore, the EFFECT Club will also be providing students with “How to compost” sessions, which will teach them the basics on how to set up and run a compost system so we can properly turn food waste into usable compost for our campus gardens. We will highlight all the branches of EFFECT and the many accomplishments concerning sustainability at ASD over the next week to celebrate this focus on sustainability.

EFFECT would appreciate hearing from you. What do you do personally to ensure you live as sustainable a life as possible? Consider completing this form and sharing it with EFFECT so we can celebrate our personal accomplishments in sustainability.

National Honor Society Induction Ceremony

Monday offered us the opportunity for a landmark event: the 2021 National Honor Society (NHS) Induction Ceremony. Not only was it a landmark event for the 26 students who were inducted into this prestigious organization, but for ASD as a whole, this was the first in-person ceremony on the ASD campus, inclusive of parent attendance, in nearly two years. We are so proud of these 26 students, who qualified for NHS based on superior academic achievement and were endorsed for induction by the High School faculty. ASD Director Steve Razidlo opened the ceremony, held outside in the Elementary breezeway, which was then led by NHS Co-Presidents, Mridula Sathyanarayanan and Muhammed Khan and concluded by the newly inducted members being presented with the trademark NHS Gold Stole by NHS Vice-President Aditri Patil.

Established in 1921, the National Honor Society is a worldwide student service organization to which students who have met a minimum academic requirement, in ASD’s case a cumulative 3.500 GPA, are invited to apply to. A faculty council selects those to be inducted based on anonymized applications and faculty feedback. At ASD, NHS supports the St. Pius Educational Scholarship Fund, Smile Train and the Machakos Education Centre among other initiatives.

Congratulations to this year’s inductees!

Grade 10: Sophia Abboud, Prakrithi Jayanth, Zubair Khan, Lisa Mathew, Sophie Kasky, Rasha Sajeer Kalandan, Gauri Sharma

Grade 11: Hajar Ahelbarra, Shahd Issa Aljoudi, Salma Elmosallamy, Waleed Freija, Nabiha Hameed, Adam Khodr, Maria-Eliana Makhlouf, Linnea Nunoo, Rayaan Siddiqui

Grade 12: Jenna Abdel-Rahim, Louisa Asselstine, Aldana Balarezo, Ranad Beitelmal, Munira Elbashir, Noon Elbedawi, Caleb Malek, Claire Ruimi, Aidan Smith, Mihir Thakur

AP Updates

In exciting news, this week we finalized our AP Exam order for our all-time high 294 students taking AP Exams this year. Please bear in mind that the default setting is for all enrolled AP students to sit the exam in May. While HS Seniors may elect to not sit the May 2022 exam, they are reminded that they need to have a conversation with their course teacher and with the AP Coordinator to explain the reasons for and to confirm this intent. Otherwise, students would be expected to sit the exam and all students are now responsible for paying for the cost of the exam paper. The Business Office will be sending out invoices to all parents of AP students once the order is submitted, so we thank all parents in advance for their prompt responses to the Business Office. If you have any questions about our AP Courses or the AP Capstone Diploma program, please contact our AP Coordinator at: joshua.giddens@asd.edu.qa

IBDP Diploma Updates

IB Parent/ Student Support Meetings

This week Mrs. Farmer and I have begun meeting with students to provide additional academic and social emotional support where appropriate. Where this is relevant to specific families, parents have been contacted to provide context as well as support to scaffold learning at home.

IBDP May 2022 Exam Registration

All students taking at least one IBDP course have been registered for the final May 2022 IBDP Exam. Please note that after this past Wednesday, November 10 students will not be able to make any changes to their subjects or levels. If you have any questions or you would like additional information please do not hesitate to contact the IBDP Coordinator, Ms. Katrina Charles at katrina.charles@asd.edu.qa

Teaching & Learning Moment

This past Saturday, our year two IBDP Film students gathered in the HS Film Lab to begin their Textual Analysis External Assessment process. Students watched three full films from which they must now select a five minute extract. Over the next four weeks they will complete a 1750 word analysis based on their selection, connecting to relevant cultural contexts and evaluating the use of film elements. Best of luck to our Film students as they work through their EAs!

Service Updates

In our desire to ensure our parent community has more access to Learning Service information, we have provided access for parents on the “Learning Service” tab on the HS Office Teneen page. The same information is available on the HS Student Teneen Page for students. Supplementary information can also be accessed on our Learning Service Libguide. This page is now updated and live.

We would like to take the opportunity to let you know about a Social Entrepreneurship course that ASD has partnered with Schoolyard Ventures and the University of Pennsylvania. Please see the link for details. There is an information meeting on Zoom next Tuesday for those who have questions or are interested. Please click HERE to join. Students who successfully complete this course will earn a certificate from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. The deadline to commit is December 1.

By now, all Grade 9 and 10 students should have formally joined a service club and have met. If your child has not heard from a club that they have signed up for, please have them email the contacts on the club’s slide on the Virtual Service Job Fair. If they have done this and have not yet heard back, please have them email Mr. Shang (cshang@asd.edu.qa) who will help them get in touch with the teacher sponsor of the group.

Also by this point in time, all Grade 9 and 10 students should have loaded their service commitments into Managebac. Please check with your child. In most cases, students should have done this through their service club at one of the meetings. In case they were not able to, the detailed instructions for this are here. Students should have completed Part A and B ONLY (Part C will be done at the end of the year)

For questions about service or IBDP CAS at ASD, please contact Mr. Shang at cshang@asd.edu.qa.

Counseling

Counselor Coffee

Our next Counselor Coffee will be held on Monday, November 22 from 8:00 am - 9:30 am! This month’s topic will be AP, IB and University Admissions. Come hear the AP and IB Coordinators explain a little about their programs, while ASD Counselors discuss where in the world you can apply with both programs and what universities are looking for! It is important to note, this Counselor Coffee is looking more at the university process with both programs. We will be hosting this in person as well as on Zoom to hopefully allow everyone who is interested to attend. Due to capacity limitations, please sign up here if you are interested in attending, in person will be limited to the first 28 people that sign up. If you are interested in attending via Zoom, you can join via this link.

Overseas School Project

Overseas School Project works in conjunction with the U.S. Department of State's Office of Overseas Schools and the College Board's Overseas Schools Project, an initiative aimed at helping American families (and their international friends) navigate the admission and financial aid process in the United States. We will be hosting virtual sessions with Seth Allen, our representative with the project. Keep an eye out on Sahifa for more information!

Book Study

Are you interested in participating in our first book study? If so, please register your interest by completing the enclosed form. The form will be open for the entirety of next week and more information will be communicated out after that. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Dr. Jones at aaron.jones@asd.edu.qa

University Acceptances

Congratulations!! This week students were accepted to the University of Oregon!

University Visits

We will not have any on-campus visits next week, but please check out our teneen page for virtual university visits and fairs that are happening around the world!

Resources

We encourage students and parents to check out the HS Counseling Teneen page within the Main HS Office as it has lots of resources available for students and parents.

Thank you.

Michael Robert

High School Principal

American School of Doha