It is the Book Ordering Season. It is good to go off on leave in July or August knowing that the text and library books you ordered for next academic year are safely in your school or college. If this is going to happen you need to place your orders with MERC now or at least by the end of this month. Books ordered in June or July are seldom here in time for the beginning of the new academic year and even May orders can be risky. This is because of demand for the same books from educational institutions based in the States, the UK and Europe.

If you would like us to send you a quotation please email a list of the books required, their ISBN numbers and the quantities. We will send you a quotation which will include a discount, free delivery within the Gulf on bulk orders and packaging as per your requirements.

One of the advantages of using our services is that we are here in Dubai - but a cheap phone call away. More and more schools and colleges in UAE, Oman and Qatar are using our services and this academic year 95% of their orders were delivered on time. We want to improve on this and have listened to your feedback. This year, to improve our efficiency, we will allocate large bulk orders to individual members of staff. So when you phone or e-mail, indicate the name of the person and he/she will be follow up on orders and keep you informed of their progress. The name of the particular member of staff responsible for your school will be passed on to you when you confirm your order.

Sharjah English School

Established in 1974, Sharjah English School offers an all-round quality education from Foundation 1 (Nursery) to Year 11 for children aged 3 to 16 years. In September 2008 GCE A Level will be introduced to serve the new Sixth Form (ages 16-18). All children seeking entry to the school are subject to an appropriate assessment. The National Curriculum for England forms the backbone of our syllabus. The school is characterised by its professional expertise, employing well qualified and experienced teachers, mainly from Britain.

Sharjah English School is housed in purpose-built premises. The fully air-conditioned spacious classrooms are well equipped with modern furnishings and computers. There are specialist rooms for Science, Design and Technology, Music, Information Technology, Art and Special Needs. The school boasts a Hall with excellent facilities for Physical Education. In addition a developing modern library with a varied selection of fiction and reference books provides a nucleus for studies. Outdoor activities are encouraged with pitches for Football, Netball, Rugby, Rounders, Cricket and Basketball and a 25 meter swimming pool. The school has extensive playing fields where regular fixtures are played against schools in the UAE. Schools from further afield are always welcome.

Regular communication with parents is a feature of the school. This includes parent teacher consultations and reports. In addition there are Arts Evenings, Sports Days, Swimming Galas and Assemblies and more relaxing events such as the School Fayre and the International Picnic. Parents are encouraged to contact the teachers or myself with questions regarding the school’s policy or the progress of their children and are invited to help organise events by being members of the Parents Support Group.

The school is situated on an attractive site adjacent to Sharjah University City. Sharjah English School offers all that you would expect from a quality English school and is a popular school of choice for the residents of Sharjah, Dubai and Ajman. As expatriates, I believe you will find our school offers an education that will match the best you can find in your home country.

There will be an Information Evening for prospective Sixth Formers and their parents on Wednesday 27th February, 7:00 – 8:30pm.

Please visit our website at www.seschool.ae or better still, to experience the true atmosphere of the school, prospective parents, teachers and children are encouraged to visit us during term time and to meet the staff and children.

I look forward to seeing you when you visit us.

Bob Malone
P.O. Box 1600
Sharjah
United Arab Emirates
Tel: (9716) 5589304
Fax: (9716) 5589305
Email: seschool@emirates.net.ae

Over the last five years Ken Jackson has brought out to Magrudy’s ERC a range of experts in various fields of education. The resulting Professional Development courses have been well supported by schools from all over the Emirates. The popularity is such that we have had teachers from Abu Dhabi, Kalba and Ras al Khaimah who have taken the trouble to drive over after work on three consecutive evenings to attend and contribute to these sessions. For this reason we have decided to make Professional Development for teachers the theme of this month’s newsletter. A summary of the titles of future courses for secondary and primary school teachers follows.

Directly you receive the detailed information from Ken don’t forget to complete the forms and book in as soon as possible because our spaces are limited and the courses are popular.

We are really excited to welcome David Vale to Magrudy’s. I am sure many of you will remember him from previous professional development courses. He has recently joined our team as an educational consultant and I hope Primary School teachers will contribute to David Vale’s proposals for a primary teachers’ forum.

George Savage

A PD Message from Ken

This year we have run PD Courses in several area of the school curriculum including

1. TEFOL for children
2. Creative Writing in schools
3. Poetry and Painting
4. Topic work using the Greek Myths
5. Writing for Stage and Screen.

Our future courses will include

From February to March 2008

1. Maths for KS 2 and KS3
2. The Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages for Children

During May 2008

1. Exciting English
2. Addressing History through Art
3. Using Wool to explore Art, Science and History
4. Addressing Science through Art
5. Drama in the Early Years - Pretending and Believing
6. Exploring Dance in KS1 and KS2
7. The University of Gloucestershire’s lectures on Theories of Teaching and Learning
8. Leading and Managing Change

In the Autumn Term

1. Narrative Writing from Nursery to Year 6.
2. Non -fiction Writing from Nursery to Year 6.
3. Motivating Reluctant Readers Yr 1 - yr 5
4. Science in the Primary School

All Schools will be informed of the details of the future courses.

An Invitation to Primary teachers from David Vale

We’d like to float the idea of setting up a primary teachers’ forum - sponsored by Magrudy’s - to complement our existing series of professional seminars - which, as you know, are usually given by outside speakers.

The idea is to share and learn across our region - with teachers of children taking the lead and showing/sharing the fabulous work and projects that are happening in all the schools - with perhaps different schools taking turns to act as ‘host’ - and different teachers acting as ‘lead speaker/mentor’ for each session.

From our side - we’d like to provide logistic support in setting up the forum, providing refreshments - and making a contribution to each lead teacher in appreciation of time spent preparing.

As part of the project - we’d also like to invite local teachers from state Arabic schools, and other private schools to the session (with a number limit) - so that truly there will be a sharing of ideas - to the benefit of all.

Do let me know if you have any comments or suggestions and, more importantly your interest in being a member of this new forum.

Thank you very much for your time

David, Ken and George

david.vale@magrudy.com, ken.jackson@magrudy.com, george.savage@magrudy.com

This is the first MERC monthly newsletter to all schools and colleges throughout the GCC who are using or might like to use our services.

The intention of this letter is to inform you of any special deals, new incentives, professional development courses, PGCE initiatives and recent educational publications which might be of interest to you.

Merc Website

I would like to start by announcing the launch of the MERC website. The purpose of the Website is to keep you informed of all MERC activities and to help you. Tune in now and read all about us.

New Location

The fact that Magrudy’s has the only Educational Resource Centre in the Middle East is a real asset to teachers throughout the Gulf but is there any chance, we have been asked, of MERC having a more easily accessible location?

We are pleased to announce that early in 2008 we will be moving to a new more central and accessible location beside our bookshops in Jumeirah. More news in January’s newsletter.

School of the Month

In this website you will find a School of the Month feature. If you are a MERC Customer and buy your books or educational equipment through Magrudy’s Educational Resource Centre let us know if you would like to be included in our school of the month feature.

This will be organised on a first-come- first-served basis and will be subject to our rules and regulations. Our first featured school is Al Salam Private School

Uniforms

We are pleased to announce that Repton School has joined the list of select schools that have asked MERC to supply them with quality uniforms.

Our uniform department headed up by Sherry Ann has recently moved under the arm
of MERC and our aim is to provide not only quality materials but an even more
efficient and helpful service.

To this end we will be visiting all the schools to which we provide uniforms and encouraging them to give us their feedback on how we can improve our service. We will also be giving them our plans on how we intend to ease the pressure at “Back to School” times. This includes the opening of a second uniform shop in our bookshop in IbnBatuta Mall.

One-Stop-Shop

Magrudy’s are pleased to announce that you can now order all your books, educational equipment, teaching aids and stationery through MERC. For further information please contact us.

Orders

If you have any rush orders of books from the UK you will need to allow about three weeks from the time of confirming your order to the arrival of the books at your location. For the United States, Australia and countries other than UK please allow five weeks. If you want to be certain of having your bulk orders of books and teaching materials in your school by July we need to receive your orders in February/March. June, July and August are the peak ordering months for schools located in the UK and USA to avoid stock shortages and delayed deliveries please order by the end of March at the very latest.

This year more schools, colleges, universities and institutes than ever before made their bulk orders for books through MERC. We are delighted to announce that 95% of our customers received their books in time for the start of the new academic year. We want to achieve 100% so please help us by confirming your orders by the end of March.

Ordering

What happens when you order books from MERC?

Step One: You contact us wishing to make an order.

Step Two: We acknowledge receipt of request and contact the publisher for availability confirmation. We await a reply from the publisher. Please allow three working days.- If you do not give us ISBN Numbers the quote will take longer.

Step Three:
We will then send a quote to those just making enquiries and to non-credit account customers. Order acknowledgement will be sent for direct orders:

We provide you with our terms and conditions and ask you if you wish to confirm the quote as an order. If you are an existing customer you just have to place the order directly with pre-approved discount terms

Step Four: We will supply locally available titles within one week if partial delivery is accepted, the order for the remaining titles will be forwarded to the publishers.

Step Five: MERC reporting to the customer on the order status after ten days from the date of confirmation of the order.

Step Six: We receive the books, check them and deliver them to your door. This is normally within three weeks of ordering from the UK and five from the USA or Australia. Bulk orders are usually sent by sea and take longer unless you request otherwise.

Customer Follow Up
1. Please make sure you receive acknowledgement from our customer service team
2. Confirm the receipt of your faxes with MERC
3. Please check that our documents, which are based on ISBN numbers, match the
titles you require.

Your School Prospectus

If you would like us to display your school prospectus in MERC please send us two copies of your school prospectus.

PGCE

This year the University of Sunderland (UK) Professional Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Course, under the auspices of MERC, has taken off with a flying start. 41 students from UAE, 15 from Kuwait 13 from Qatar and 6 from Bahrain are participating in the Course.

Professional Development Courses

If you don’t already know Mr. Ken Jackson you don’t know what you have missed. An ex-primary school head teacher with contacts with many of the top educationalist in the UK Ken has worked with MERC for the last five years organising courses, seminars lectures and workshops for nursery, foundation primary and secondary schools. Check our website to find out who will be visiting us this academic year.

Visits to Schools to Which We Supplied Books, Uniforms or Educational Materials

Over the next few weeks either George Savage, Unni Krishnan, Sherry Ann Paginag or Michael Salvador will contact your school to follow up on our service and to talk to you about our future plans. If you know of another school who might like to use MERC please let us know.

Our Merc Customers

We appreciate having had the opportunity to work with you. If you wish to discuss any matters concerning our services or make any suggestions for improvements please don’t hesitate to contact us. Indeed if you have ideas for future newsletters don’t hesitate to let us know.

With best wishes on behalf of the MERC team.

George Savage

Al Salam Private School & Nursery

Salam Nursery was established in 1985 and operated out of a small villa near Al Ghurair Centre. By 1988, Al Salam Private School was established with the opening of a KG section. Over the years, the school has expanded and grown. Due to a demand for more space, we are now entering our 5^th year in our purpose built facility.

Al Salam Private School & Nursery is located in Ghusais/Nahda 2, Dubai (directly behind NMC Specialty Hospital).

Al Salam Private School follows the British National Curriculum (IGCSE). Currently having up to Grade 10 and growing one school year each calendar year, the students will take the IGCSE exams in year 11.

The school is comprised of an international body of highly qualified and experienced staff and enjoys a community of students from around the world. The school assigns a high priority to ensuring that the following goals are being implemented throughout the school year.

• Students develop their academic, language and social skills.
• Students develop a universal set of values and ethics which will increase their moral sensitivity and concern for life with special emphasis on the concepts of honesty, equality, understanding, respect and humanity.

We are dedicated to the positive growth of all our students - intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Our basic aim is to aid the child in his mental and physical growth, his independence, extending his linguistic abilities and developing his power of analytical thought.

Arabic is a compulsory subject and is taught either as a first or foreign language. Computer is taught from KG2. French is included in the curriculum from Grade 1 upwards.

Within the normal school day - Sports, Music and Art are included for the students. For the older students, we have clubs for activities such as Chess, Table Tennis, Sewing, Charity, Drama, and Choir.

Al Salam offers extra curricular activities such as Karate, Ballet, Ice-skating, Swimming, Horse riding, Tennis, etc. which take place Saturday mornings.

Feel free to drop by for a visit or contact us with your questions or comments.

Sue Johnston
Head Mistress

Al Salam Private School & Nursery

Email: info@alsalamschool.sch.ae
Website: http://www.alsalamschool.sch.ae

Telephone: 04-267 9594
Fax: 04-267 9593