Posted on

International Day Celebrations

On the 27 October (2016), our whole school community came together to celebrate our very first school event, International Day. It was a wonderful celebration and an accumulation of our week’s learning about the many different countries that make up the world in which we live. It was also an opportunity for our pupils to learn about different cultures and develop an appreciation of the multicultural environment we are fortunate to enjoy at The Royal Grammar School, Guildford in Qatar.

The pupils, staff and parents came dressed to school in a variety of national costumes and we enjoyed a colorful ‘around the world’ assembly of dance and song from our Early Years and Stage 1 pupils. Our Year 2 pupils described their home countries and provided us with some interesting information about countries as varied as Egypt, Italy, Australia, Qatar and England.

For lunch we enjoyed a magnificent International Day banquet with food from all over the world which was organised by our parent volunteers. Each food table was decorated with flags and artefacts from the various countries represented.

Our pupils had spent all week learning about their own country and the countries that their friends and teachers come from, as well as the class country that their teacher had chosen to represent this year.

During International Day all of our pupils had the opportunity to explore even more countries as they visited each other’s classrooms to explore Mexico, USA, France and Japan and collect passport stamps in their RGS passports. There was so much energy and enthusiasm in every classroom and a wonderful, broad range of learning opportunities to enjoy from making maracas in Mexico to creating beautiful cherry blossom trees in Japan.

 

 

Posted on

RGSGQ Wins Prestigious Business Award

Within the first term of opening its doors to students, The Royal Grammar School, Guildford in Qatar has been awarded the prestigious title of ‘QBBF  Start Up Business of the year 2016’ by the Qatar British Business Forum (QBBF).

At a recent awards ceremony held at the Oryx Rotana Hotel, Qatar (30 November, 2016), hosted by the QBBF and in front of an audience of 180 of Qatar’s most eminent British business leaders, Paul Bridges, Principal of The Royal Grammar School, Guildford in Qatar, collected the award from His Excellency the British Ambassador to Qatar, Mr Ajay Sharma and QBBF Chairman, Mr Emad Turkman MBE.

Announcing the winner, Matt Kitson, QBBF Committee Member stated that competition for the award had been high amongst a number of sectors, but that The Royal Grammar School, Guildford in Qatar was a worthy winner having created a large and successful British business in Qatar, over a very short period of time. Kitson added that this had only been possible due to the dedication of the team, coupled with strong leadership, which had allowed the project to overcome a number of unprecedented challenges, not least those associated with the current economic climate caused by the fall in oil prices.

Kitson commented that The Royal Grammar School, Guildford had created strong partnership links with Qatar, which was benefitting both the UK and Qatar and was an excellent example of the work the QBBF does, which is to promote business excellence and Qatari partnering in the British community.

On receiving the award, Bridges commented that he was honoured to receive such a prestigious award and to have been welcomed so warmly into the Qatar British business community. “This was the Royal Grammar School in Guildford’s first venture overseas in our 500 years’ history. Our aim has been to raise the profile of the British curriculum here in Qatar and to work with our Qatari partners, Al Qamra Holding, to provide the same high standards of British education in Qatar, that we offer at our very successful RGS, Guildford and Lanesborough schools in Guildford, Surrey. We came to Qatar at the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Hamad Al Qamra and it is his passion, vision and generosity which has made the Royal Grammar School in Guildford possible here in Qatar. I would also personally like to thank the staff of the RGS in Qatar, our success has been largely due to their hard work, determination and talent and over the coming years we hope to provide many thousands of children living in Qatar with a first-class RGS, Guildford education.”